ustxtxb_obs_2002_08_30_50_00017-00000_000.pdf

being immigrants from Mexico’s impoverished countryside to thirdgeneration residents of La Capital. Kennedy, who teaches photography at St. Edward’s University, lived in Brownsville for several years, but confesses that the interior of Mexico was a mystery to him until he began photographing in Tulpetlac. His work there is part of an ongoing project documenting the founding of a new mendicant order named after Juan Diego, the Catholic Church’s newest saint. The order, founded by a former St. Edwards professor of religious studies, is based in Colonia Tulpetlac. “These people are the fuel for the machinery that is Mexico City:’ Kennedy says of the families who live there. “You see them streaming in and out of the city every day as they go back and forth to work… Every time I’ve reached a point where I think I’ve ‘got’ the colonia:’ he says, “something will happen that will redefine my definition of neighborhood: Left: Everybody in the colonia works, including the dog on the roof who functions as a “burglar alarm:’ Above: Roberto, a novice, tries on his first robe in preparation for taking vows in the Hermanos de Juan Diego order. 8/30102 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 17