Mount Cristo Rey is a sacred site for the thousands of pilgrims that ascend its peak annually. The mountain straddles the U.S. Mexico border and overlooks the El Paso, TX and Ciudad Juarez metroplex. . Each spring and fall thousands of people ascend the peak to pray at the base of a 29 foot-tall limestone crucifix while Border Patrol agents secure the international boundary. Prior to 9/11 pilgrims were able to ascend the mountain from both the U.S. and Mexico.
The mountain is situated among a dense cluster of residential neighborhoods and industrial facilities. While on the summit one can see: Colonia de Anapra, the poorest neighborhood in Juarez (and one of the poorest in Mexico); Sunland Park which is home to the Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino; the mothballed ASARCO copper smelter; a cement plant; residential neighborhoods; an electrical generating plant; a mall; and a city dump. Consequently, a complex set of political, economic and environmental issues are currently unfolding around the mountain. A Measure of Faith and A Line in the Sand casts Mount Cristo Rey as a central character and poetic vehicle in order to address complexities of the U.S./Mexico borderlands.