Latino Men, Machismo, and Christianity

Abstract

This chapter argues that the construction of machismo is central to Latina/o/x collective and public identities. Latino men, despite their countries of origin, religion, or race, are subjected to personal and media valuations of their masculinities using the characteristic negative stereotypes of machismo. These assessments not only hurt Latino men but at once impugn Latina women as enablers of what have been called the “machista vices.” This chapter proposes that machismo is not a discourse that exists in isolation or secularization, but instead it is a central component to a distinctly Christian, colonial mythology that justified colonialism and continues to support the criminalization and incarceration of Latino men in particular, and regenerates the public mythologies that pathologize indigenous and Latinx communities more generally.