Popular Religion among Latinos/as

Abstract

This chapter adopts a place-based analysis of Latina and Latino popular Catholicism, which recognizes and affirms the significance of a community-generated and self-defined expression of the sacred. A place-based analysis appreciates the intimacy of the sacred in the lives of people and how it serves as a powerful source for responding to external forces that would seek to minimize or erase the significance of Latina and Latino popular Catholicism as an expression of resistance. This chapter emphasizes contested “spatial struggles” over systems of meaning and orientation with an eye toward incorporating new perspectives on gender, race, and ethnicity when seeking to explain the significance of Latina and Latino popular Catholicism. This chapter posits that popular religion is simultaneously about manifestations of resistance and affirmation of Latina and Latino sacred traditions and practices.