Sites Unseen

Abstract

This chapter argues that Catholics and evangelicals ultimately contribute to distinct constructions of ethnic space and of ethnic identity, in as much as ethnic space serves as a mechanism for ethnic identity construction. For Catholics, religion shapes the boundaries of ethnicity as a retrospective, locally anchored, communally embodied identity. For evangelicals, religion shapes the boundaries of ethnicity as a future looking, regionally dispersed, voluntarily selected identity. Catholicism, the author argues, tends to contribute to a more robust sense of ethnic continuity, while evangelicalism tends to contribute to a more robust sense of religious salience. The author argues that intergenerational transmission is a matter that both traditions continue to contend with as it has significant bearing on their ethnic futures. The chapter closes by reflecting on the adaptive ethnoreligious identities being forged by later generation Latinxs in light of the materials made available by earlier generations.