Mexican American religions : spirituality, activism, and culture / edited by Gastón Espinosa and Mario T. García.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Espinosa, Gastón.

García, Mario T.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mexican Americans--Religion.

Mexican Americans.

Physical Description:

x, 443 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2008.

Summary:

This collection presents a rich, multidisciplinary inquiry into the role of religion in the Mexican American community. Breaking new ground by analyzing the influence of religion on Mexican American literature, art, plays, activism, healing, and popular culture, it makes the case for the establishment of Mexican American religious studies as a distinct, recognized field of scholarly inquiry.

The volume addresses several broad themes, including the history and interpretation of Mexican American religions, as well as Mexican American mystics and prophets, and popular Catholicism. Contributors discuss topics including the origins of Mexican American religious studies, Mario Barrera's theory of internal colonialism, Cesar Chavez's faith-based activism, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and home altars. Whether considering how Chicana writers and artists such as Gloria Anzaldua, Sandra Cisneros, Amalia Mesa-Bains, and Luis Valdez invoke religious symbols, rhetoric, and satire to articulate a moral vision highlighting social injustice, the role of healing in the Latino Pentecostal movement, or the religious overtones of the reverence for the slain Tejana music star Selena, the contributors signal the vibrancy and diversity of the practices, arts, traditions, and spiritualities that reflect and inform Mexican American religion.

Contents:

History and interpretations of Mexican American religions

History and theory in the study of Mexican American religions / Gastón Espinosa

Pious colonialism : assessing a church paradigm for Chicano identity / Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo

Mexican American mystics and prophets

Sacred order, sacred space : Reies López Tijerina and the Valle de Paz community / Rudy V. Busto

Holy activist, secular saint : religion and the social activism of César Chávez / Stephen R. Lloyd-Moffett

Religion and the Chicano movement : Católicos por la raza / Mario T. García

Mexican American popular Catholicism

Our Lady of Guadalupe and the politics of cultural interpretation / Socorro Castañeda-Liles

Voces de Fe : Mexican American altaristas in Texas / Kay Turner

Los pastores and the gendered politics of location / Richard R. Flores

Mexican American religions and literature

The religious vision of Gloria Anzaldúa : Borderlands/La frontera as a shamanic space / Davíd Carrasco and Roberto Lint Sagarena

Voice and vision in Chicana religious practice : the literary re-elaborations of Mary Helen Ponce, Denise Chávez, and Sandra Cisneros / Ellen McCracken

Mexican American religions and healing

Brown Moses : Francisco Olazábal and Mexican American Pentecostal healing in the Borderlands / Gastón Espinosa

Borderlands bodies and souls : Mexican religious healing practices in East L.A. / Luis D. León

Mexican American religions and pop culture

Luis Valdez's La pastorela: "the shepherds' play" : tradition, hybridity, and transformation / María Herrera-Sobek

Hybrid spiritualities and Chicana altar-based art : the work of Amalia Mesa-Bains / Laura E. Pérez

Mexican Madonna : Selena and the politics of cultural redemption / Gastón Espinosa

Conclusion: Reflections on Mexican American religions and culture.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [387]-428) and index.

ISBN:

9780822340980

0822340984

9780822341192

0822341190

OCLC:

177059794