Mexican American Religions

Spirituality, Activism, and Culture

Autor: Espinosa, Gastón; García, Mario T.; Stevens-Arroyo, Anthony M.; Busto, Rudy V.; Lloyd-Moffett, Stephen R.
Editor: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822340980
eISBN Pdf: 9780822388951
Lloc de publicació: Durham , United States
Any de publicació digital: 2008
Mes: Juliol
Pàgines: 456
DDC: 270.089/6872073
Idioma: Anglés

Descripció

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, activism, and popular culture, it makes the case for the establishment of Mexican American religious studies as a distinct, recognized field of scholarly inquiry. Scholars of religion, Latin American, and Chicano/a studies as well as of sociology, anthropology, and literary and performance studies, address several broad themes. Taking on questions of history and interpretation, they examine the origins of Mexican American religious studies and Mario Barrera’s theory of internal colonialism. In discussions of the utopian community founded by the preacher and activist Reies López Tijerina, César Chávez’s faith-based activism, and the Los Angeles-based Católicos Por La Raza movement of the late 1960s, other contributors focus on mystics and prophets. Still others illuminate popular Catholicism by looking at Our Lady of Guadalupe, home altars, and Los Pastores dramas (nativity plays) as vehicles for personal, social, and political empowerment.

Turning to literature, contributors consider Gloria Anzaldúa’s view of the borderlands as a mystic vision and the ways that Chicana writers invoke religious symbols and rhetoric to articulate a moral vision highlighting social injustice. They investigate the role of healing, looking at it in relation to both the Latino Pentecostal movement and the practice of the curanderismo tradition in East Los Angeles. Delving into to popular culture, they reflect on Luis Valdez’s video drama La Pastorela: “The Shepherds’ Play,” the spirituality of Chicana art, and the religious overtones of the reverence for the slain Tejana music star Selena. This volume signals the vibrancy and diversity of the practices, arts, traditions, and spiritualities that reflect and inform Mexican American religion.

Contributors: Rudy V. Busto, Davíd Carrasco, Socorro Castañeda-Liles, Gastón Espinosa, Richard R. Flores, Mario T. García, María Herrera-Sobek, Luís D. León, Ellen McCracken, Stephen R. Lloyd-Moffett, Laura E. Pérez, Roberto Lint Saragena, Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo, Kay Turner

Contents
Preface
Introduction
I History and Interpretations of Mexican American Religions
- 1. History and Theory in the Study of Mexican American Religions
- 2. Pious Colonialism: Assessing a Church Paradigm for Chicano Identity
II Mexican American Mystics and Prophets
- 3. Sacred Order, Sacred Space: Reies López Tijerina and the Valle de Paz Community
- 4. Holy Activist, Secular Saint: Religion and the Social Activism of César Chávez
- 5. Religion and the Chicano Movement: Católicos Por La Raza
III Mexican American Popular Catholicism
- 6. Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Politics of Cultural Interpretation
- 7. Voces de Fe: Mexican American Altaristas in Texas
- 8. Los Pastores and the Gendered Politics of Location
IV Mexican American Religions and Literature
- 9. The Religious Vision of Gloria Anzaldúa: Borderlands/La Frontera as a Shamanic Space
- 10. Voice and Vision in Chicana Religious Practice: The Literary Re-elaborations of Mary Helen Ponce, Denise Chávez, and Sandra Cisneros
V Mexican American Religions and Healing
- 11. Brown Moses: Francisco Olazábal and Mexican American Pentecostal Healing in the Borderlands
- 12. Borderlands Bodies and Souls: Mexican Religious Healing Practices in East L.A.
VI Mexican American Religions and Pop Culture
- 13. Luis Valdez’s La Pastorela: “The Shepherds’ Play”: Tradition, Hybridity, and Transformation
- 14. Hybrid Spiritualities and Chicana Altar-Based Art: The Work of Amalia Mesa-Bains
- 15. Mexican Madonna: Selena and the Politics of Cultural Redemption
Conclusion: Reflections on Mexican American Religions and Culture
Bibliography
Contributors
Index