Of virgins curanderas and wrestler saints : un doing religion in contemporary Mexican American literature Introduction 2. Spiritual borderlands or a border of spirituality 2.1. Border and inter American studies 2.2. The spiritual borderlands 2.2.1 A brief history of the spiritual borderlands 2.2.2 Creating a literary Aztlán 2.3. Doing religion 3. Spirituality and gender 3.1. Ana Castillos feminist vision in The guardians 3.2. Of weeping women and curanderas: Graciela Limóns The river flows North 3.3. Of wrestlers and saints: María Amparo Escandóns Esperanzas box of saints 4. Spirituality across generations 4.1. An American saint: Luis Alberto Urreas The hummingbirds daughter 4.2. Of gothic tales and spiritual ancestry: Carmen Tafollas Tía 5. Post spirituality 5.1. Richard Rodriguezs Darling: a post spiritual autobiography 5.2. A cosmos of its own: Salvadola Scencias The people of paper Conclusion Virgins home altars curanderas and saints Mexican American literature is replete with religious symbols. This study investigates the literary engagement with religious and spiritual practices in contemporary Mexican American narrative texts. It raises the question to what extent religion underlies other discourses on race gender and class