What Magdelana means.

What Magdalena means
“Even though the song “Magdalena" is about the penance of walking a long road, it's pounding drums, hopeful sounds and distant echoes tell of the joy in seeing a long journey come to an end and the hope that the prayers you've carried on that journey are answered. Come, walk, "be delivered from the depths of darkness and be born again by candlelight."

There's something about the song and I cannot keep from crying. A happy song is not supposed to do this.

Documenting the little-known annual journey from Nogales, Mexico (or Arizona for some) to Magdalena, Sonora, Mexico, Flowers must have made this journey himself. The spirit of his voice carries the pain of a thousand tears and the character of blood-stained, muddy feet. If there are any illegal immigrants involved, it's those who cross from America back to Mexico. As one who made the journey recalls: "All of us walked with a promise or to ask a miracle to be granted once the walk was complete and a kiss planted on the head of the statue of San Francisco in the church at Magdalena."
Is Brandon Flowers' "Magdalena" encouraging the deaths of Immigrants, giving them false hope as they cross through the desert or drive over the boarder? In a way, I hope "Magdalena" does. I hope that in every mile of that march, pilgrims are bathed anew and as the sun rips their skin and the road tears their feat, that the old man they leave behind will never be picked up again. I hope it encourages us all to drop our old man even if we are thousands of miles away, and that "we'll dance and the band will play" and that we'll "be delivered from the depths of darkness" as we "runneth over the ancient clay" and know that we are clean.
As much as it is about taking the harsh Nogales to Magdalena journey, it's just as much about crossing the border between earth and Heaven. I hope we all make the journey, even if we must become a "two-time beggar" to get there.