is for all to enter and is where it says he is buried; both chapels are regularly visited and prayed at by people who have problems crossing the border into the United States or who are involved in the trafficking of people in the borderland. Devotees have also claimed that he has interceded for them in other areas, such as health and family problems. Other shrines to Juan Soldado can be found elsewhere throughout the region, while votive candles, ex voto cards and other religious items devoted to him are sold throughout northwestern Mexico and the areas of California and Arizona where immigrants passing through the region have established communities. Similar cults have arisen around the gravesites of other victims of injustice who met a violent death and who are believed to have the power to intercede on behalf of those who pray for them. Juan Soldado's cult reflects, in some ways, the unsettled community that Tijuana was and is. The Catholic Church had no well-established local saints in the Tijuana region and was itself compromised in the eyes of many by its association with the powerful interests against whom the Mexican Revolution had been fought. Juan Soldado, a humble, nearly anonymous emigrant from the countryside who was allegedly wrongly accused by the authorities, was a fitting symbol of the upheavals that the people of that era and region confronted. In popular culture Juan Soldado, ayúdame a cruzar ("Soldier John, help me across") – supplication voiced by illegal migrants at the tomb of Juan Soldado, prior to attempting a border crossing. Story of Juan Soldado, can be seen in , a segment in the Mexican horror movie anthology, México Bárbaro 2. Further reading Griffith, James S., Folk Saints of the Borderlands. Tucson, Arizona: Rio Nuevo Publishing 2003 . Vanderwood, Paul J., Juan Soldado: Rapist, Murderer, Martyr, Saint. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press 2004 . External links Residents along U.S.-Mexican border find strength in local folk saints Art installation centered on Juan Soldado Website devoted to folk saints of Mexico and Central America IMDB listing for 1938 movie entitled Juan Soldado 1938 deaths Culture in Tijuana History of Tijuana Folk saints Mexican saints Mexican soldiers 1918 births