Hector Avalos (ed.): Introduction to the U.S. Latina and Latino Religious Experience

Abstract

The editor of this work is concious of opening up a new field of study with this collection of twelve articles by various authors. For this rather special reason it is defined in the title as an "introduction", but the reality is that it is an extremely interesting multi-authored survey with two points of entry. First there are contributions focused on particular ethnic groups: Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, Salvadoran and Guatemalan. In a second group come essays on the "U.S. Latina and Latino" religious experience as related to specific themes: art, film, health care, literature, music and politics. A final theme, "women", is only explored in the "Latina" variant, as if men and women can be treated in isolation when the gender question is raised. It is quite impossible to review the individual essays here, but the overall concept is imaginative and the editor has done extremely well to bring the contributions together from various quarters. In both groups of essays there is a wonderful liveliness, produced by the excitement of opening up this field over a broad range, and inspired by the vitality of the currently observable religious phenomena themselves.