Ritual, Stories, and the Poetics of a Journey Home Among Latino Catholics

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThis essay centers on a storyteller's performance of ritual in stories to draw associations between the life of the Biblical Mary with her son Jesus and the subjectivities and dispositions of people living in impoverished conditions. The storyteller explores these subjectivities and dispositions, characterizing the exploration as a journey. She also defines an ethical position where the self meets othernessFboth sacred and culturalFto engender positive human relations. The essay combines the storyteller's performance with the author's to reproduce the effects, advance the ethics, mitigate the politics of representation, and provide an understanding of the journey's endFa place called home. k e y w o r d s :