Voices of marginality: exile and return in Second Isaiah 40-55 and the Mexican immigrant experience

Abstract

From a contemporary standpoint, the journey experiences of exile and return in the Hebrew Bible present some interesting connections and parallels with other forms of social movement such as international migration and border-crossings. In terms of my specific positioning as a Hispanic in the U.S. Southwest, this dissertation intends to "read-across" journey experiences of exile and return. In terms of a reading trajectory, I first read the exile and return experiences addressed by Second Isaiah (40-55) across to the contemporary Mexican migratory experience. This reading project is theoretically grounded in a theology of the diaspora, which, according to Fernando F. Segovia, is a theology grounded and forged in the migratory experience of U.S. Hispanics. From this perspective, the Jewish Babylonian exiles and contemporary Mexican migrants are viewed as common human experiences of diaspora. Moreover, these experiences find expression in each of these groups' corresponding cultural literature. Thus, I propose to read-across this spectrum of cultural literature and compare the poetry of Second Isaiah and the Mexican immigrant corridos (ballads). In the end, this dissertation argues that the diasporic categories of exile and return in Second Isaiah can inform our reading of exile and return in the cultural literature of the Mexican immigrant and vice versa. In other words through the corridos about the Mexican immigrant experience, one is able to see that Second Isaiah is also a form of oppositional culture, serving as a sharp critique of the imperial system.