Teresa Urrea: A Religious Biography

Sometimes called the Mexican Joan of Arc, Teresa Urrea was a renowned folk saint and religious healer in northern Mexico and the US borderlands in the 1890s. Though she was never canonized, many believed that she possessed miraculous powers—and thousands of pilgrims sought out her cures and divine intervention. Her nickname, “Santa de Cabora,” became a rallying cry in pre-revolutionary uprisings, prompting the Mexican government to arrest and deport her. She later supported Sonoran immigrant labor activism in California before dying of tuberculosis at the age of thirty-three. Despite her saintly reputation, Urrea’s life is rarely considered in the context of her religious beliefs and practices. Ryan T. Ramsey invites us to reflect on her politics in relation to her spirituality, foregrounding what Urrea herself took most seriously in life. Through news clippings, oral histories, novels, and folklore, Ramsey examines Urrea’s life and spiritual praxis from all angles, placing her story in its wider context of Mexican Indigenous Christianity, popular mestizo Catholicism, Spiritism and other metaphysical religions, and Indigenous resistance movements. Ultimately, Ramsey shows how Urrea practiced a Christianity that crossed Indigenous borders, united groups, and opposed forces of coloniality. This fascinating volume will appeal to scholars and general readers interested in Chicanx and Latinx history, Indigenous studies, and world Christianity and is especially well suited for upper-level undergraduate courses in these subject areas.