Religion at the Corner of Bliss and Nirvana

Politics, Identity, and Faith in New Migrant Communities

Autor: Lorentzen, Lois Ann; Gonzalez, Joaquin Jay; Chun, Kevin M.; Do, Hien Duc; Howe, Cymene
Editor: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822345282
eISBN Pdf: 9780822391166
Lugar de publicación: Durham , Estados Unidos
Año de publicación digital: 2009
Mes: Septiembre
Páginas: 400
DDC: 200.86/9120973
Idioma: Ingles

Descripción

Based on ethnographic research by an interdisciplinary team of scholars and activists, Religion at the Corner of Bliss and Nirvana illuminates the role that religion plays in the civic and political experiences of new migrants in the United States. By bringing innovative questions and theoretical frameworks to bear on the experiences of Chinese, Filipino, Mexican, Salvadoran, and Vietnamese migrants, the contributors demonstrate how groups and individuals negotiate multiple religious, cultural, and national identities, and how religious faiths are transformed through migration. Taken together, their essays show that migrants’ religious lives are much more than replications of home in a new land. They reflect a process of adaptation to new physical and cultural environments, and an ongoing synthesis of cultural elements from the migrants’ countries of origin and the United States.

As they conducted research, the contributors not only visited churches and temples but also single-room-occupancy hotels, brothels, tattoo-removal clinics, and the streets of San Francisco, El Salvador, Mexico, and Vietnam. Their essays include an exploration of how faith-based organizations can help LGBT migrants surmount legal and social complexities, an examination of transgendered sex workers’ relationship with the unofficial saint Santisima Muerte, a comparison of how a Presbyterian mission and a Buddhist temple in San Francisco help Chinese immigrants to acculturate, and an analysis of the transformation of baptismal rites performed by Mayan migrants. The voices of gang members, Chinese and Vietnamese Buddhist nuns, members of Pentecostal churches, and many others animate this collection. In the process of giving voice to these communities, the contributors interrogate theories about acculturation, class, political and social capital, gender and sexuality, the sociology of religion, transnationalism, and globalization. The collection includes twenty-one photographs by Jerry Berndt.

Contributors. Luis Enrique Bazan, Kevin M. Chun, Hien Duc Do, Patricia Fortuny Loret de Mola, Joaquin Jay Gonzalez III, Sarah Horton, Cymene Howe, Mimi Khúc, Jonathan H. X. Lee, Lois Ann Lorentzen, Andrea Maison, Dennis Marzan, Rosalina Mira, Claudine del Rosario, Susanna Zaraysky

Contents
Preface: Advancing Theory and Method (Lois Ann Lorentzen, Kevin M. Chun, Joaquin Jay Gonzales III, and Hien Duc Do)
Acknowledgments
Part 1. Gender and Sexualities
- Devotional Crossings: Transgender Sex Workers, Santisima Muerte, and Spiritual Solidarity in Guadalajara and San Francisco (Cymene Howe, Susanna Zaraysky, and Lois Ann Lorentzen)
- Sexual Borderlands: Lesbian and Gay Migration, Human Rights, and the Metropolitan Community Church (Cymene Howe)
- El Milagro Está en Casa: Gender and Private and Public Empowerment in a Migrant Pentecostal Church (Lois Ann Lorentzen with Rosalina Mira)
Part 2. Acculturation
- Religious Organizations in San Francisco Chinatown: Sites of Acculturation for Chinese Immigrant Youth (Kevin M. Chun)
- Immigrant Religious Adaptation: Vietnamese American Buddhists at Chua Viet Nam (Vietnamese Buddhist Temple) (Hien Duc Do and Mimi Khúc)
Part 3. Transnationalism
- Americanizing Philippine Churches and Filipinizing American Congregations (Joaquin Jay Gonzalez III)
- Creating a Transnational Religious Community: The Empress of Heaven and Goddess of the Sea, Tianhou/Mazu, from Beigang to San Francisco (Jonathan H. X. Lee)
- Ahora la Luz: Transnational Gangs, the State, and Religion (Lois Ann Lorentzen with Luis Enrique Bazan)
- Transnational Hetzmek: From Oxkutzcab to San Francisco (Patricia Fortuny Loret de Mola)
- The Latino "Springtime" of the Catholic Church: Lay Religious Networks and Transnationalism from Below (Sarah Horton)
Part 4. Civic and Political Engagement
- We Do Not Bowl Alone: Cultural and Social Capital from Filipino Faiths (Joaquin Jay Gonzales III, Andrea Maison, and Dennis Marzan)
- Counterhegemony Finds Place in a Hegemon: Activism through Filipino American Churches (Joaquin Jay Gonzalez III and Claudine del Rosario)
Appendix A: Research Questions
Appendix B: Family Member Questionnaire of the USF Religion and Immigration Project
References
Contributors
Index