Abstract:
This thesis is the result of historical and ethnographic research into the Southern Arizona Sanctuary movement of the 1980s, and its re-emergence in the same region at the turn of the 21st-century. It argues that, despite significant shifts in religio-political context, faith lies at the heart of Sanctuary activism and is the primary reason for its successes in both movements. Sanctuary’s faith-based motivations, strategies, and perseverance under severe government repression are analyzed with a continuous foregrounding of the interfaith, progressive, and transnational dynamics that play a key role throughout the movements’ activism. It takes from socio-political historical research conducted at the University of Arizona Special Collections Archives and Library, as well as anthropological participant-observer field work with numerous Southern Arizona Sanctuary organizations and individuals during a three week research trip in April of 2019.
