[M]any migrants are making fewer passages back and forth between the United States and Mexico. When they do undertake the…journey, some count on divine protection, stopping at churches, makeshift altars and the tombs of saints on the way. The Roman Catholic Church offers a half-dozen patron saints for travelers, but many Mexican migrants turn to someone not recognized by the church: "Juan Soldado," or Soldier John.
Soldado was a soldier who was falsely accused of the rape and murder of a girl and executed by a Mexican firing squad in February 1938. He is worshipped as a man wronged by those in power….