Visiting the Virgin (In-Person and Online): Networked Devotion in Modern Mexico

In Mexico, Catholic devotional traditions have recently colonized social media. Facebook prayer groups dedicated to Our Lady of Juquila feature a constant growing set of requests for intercession, heartrending claims of personal desperation, and proclamations of unflagging devotion. (But they also list strict guidelines: direct requests for money and sales pitches of any kind are prohibited. Violators are immediately blocked.) On Instagram, entrepreneurs respond to Covid restrictions by serving as proxies for those who could no longer visit in person. They order custom floral arrangements post photographs of offerings and messages displayed in front of the basilica. In a similar vein, YouTube features touching ranchera ex-votos sung by the alleged recipients of Juquila’s miraculous assistance. In addition, large pilgrimage groups post long, carefully crafted videos of their annual sojourns to the Virgen’s “home.” They also organize, recruit, and communicate with each other on Facebook.

This paper analyzes the advent of ubiquitous social media use in Mexico among Catholics, in particular those engaged in Marian devotion and pilgrimage centered on Our Lady of Juquila. Will this shift transform religious practice? Can it undermine clerical authority? Will it foment greater piety? How does online religious devotion relate to other uses of social media? What is clear is that this phenomenon is creating a vast new archive of material produced and shared by common devotees. Never have scholars enjoyed access to such rich and varied evidence of inspiration, motivation, collaboration, opinion, tradition, and innovation as this unplanned, unorganized, and ever-accumulating trove of devotional expression evolves. Anchored in a close reading of select online postings, and the use of digital data mining tools, I sketch the nature and emerging contours of Mexico’s new realm of networked devotion.