HTI Open Plaza

Dr. João Chaves talks to sociologist Dr. Jonathan Calvillo about his research and about life in Santa Ana, a hub of Latinx activity in one of the most conservative counties of California—a city once dubbed by the media as the hardest place to live in the U.S. Dr. Calvillo’s most recent book, The Saints of Santa Ana: Faith and Ethnicity in a Mexican Majority City (Oxford University Press, 2020), explores the role of faith in shaping the experiences and identities of Catholic and Evangelical Mexican immigrants within multigenerational Latinx neighborhoods. “To tell the story of Santa Ana,” Dr. Calvillo insists, “you must not discount the religious communities that are for and by Latinos.”

Rev. Dr. Tito Madrazo sees ethnography as a way of "bearing witness, of bearing testimony." In this episode of OP Talks, Dr. João Chaves talks to Rev. Dr. Madrazo about his new book Predicadores: Hispanic Preaching and Immigrant Identity (Baylor University Press, 2021) and about his work, which was deeply influenced by his own personal story. Born in Venezuela and now an ordained Baptist pastor, Rev. Dr. Madrazo embarked on four years of ethnographic research with first-generation Hispanic Protestant preachers and their congregations, journeying together as collaborators in his research project. In the sermons and stories of his collaborators, he discovered that pastors "proclaimed God as they had come to know God through their migration experiences,” each experience unique. Rev. Dr. Madrazo discusses his approach to research, and why he includes his collaborators in the process of telling their stories—a reminder of the homiletical importance of understanding and proclaiming the gospel from within particular cultures.

Stewardship of God's creation (“creation care”) is key to the ministries of both Rev. Dr. Loida Martell, a veterinarian by training, and of board-certified chaplain Alexandra Zareth. In this episode of OP Talks, the scholars discuss the year of the pandemic, and how it has exposed a new social reality that continues to reverberate not only socioeconomically and politically but also in our religious and educational institutions. The pandemic, Rev. Dr. Martell laments, has proven to be an unmitigated disaster and the most politicalized health crisis since HIV/AIDS. If the reasons for emergent viral diseases (and not simply SARS-CoV-2, a.k.a. COVID-19) are ecological, evolutionary, social, and economic in nature, and if North Atlantic nations have contributed to such diseases as they have contributed to global warming, why has this current pandemic been so racialized? To be more precise: Why has the general public—and sociopolitical leaders, in particular—seen it fit to fan the racist, anti-Asian rhetoric that has been fashionable and acceptable in the United States since the 1800s?

Dr. Felipe Hinojosa grew up in Brownsville, on the Texas-Mexico border. Steeped in the work of Iglesia Menonita del Cordero, where his father was pastor, he saw early on “the need to dream collectively, as a community." In this episode, Jorge Juan Rodríguez V talks to Dr. Hinojosa about his newest book, 'Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio' (University of Texas Press, 2021). During the American urban crisis of the late 1960s, religious institutions were undergoing fundamental change against the backdrop of the Black and Brown Power movements, which challenged economic inequality and white supremacy. Apostles of Change maps the Latino freedom movements in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Houston. Dr. Hinojosa argues that understanding the history of these radical politics is essential to understanding the dynamic changes in Latino religious groups from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.

Dr. João Chaves and Rev. Dr. Tony Lin discuss his book Prosperity Gospel Latinos and Their American Dream (The University of North Carolina Press, 2020). In this ethnography, Rev. Dr. Lin explores the reasons why Latin American immigrants across the United States are increasingly drawn to Prosperity Gospel Pentecostalism, a strand of Protestantism gaining popularity around the world. He contends that Latinos embrace Prosperity Gospel, which teaches that believers may achieve both divine salvation and worldly success, because it helps them account for the contradictions of their lives as immigrants: belonging in this country yet remaining perpetual outsiders.

Dr. Jacqueline Hidalgo speaks with Dr. Néstor Medina about the questions that shaped her first book, Revelation in Aztlán: Scriptures, Utopias, and the Chicano Movement (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), and how she came to bridge the study of scriptures, the Book of Revelation, and the Chicano Movement. Dr. Hidalgo describes how the history of Chicana/o/x textual traditions tells us a lot about how scriptures can and have functioned for communities that have been displaced or dominated. According to Jason Steidle of Reading Religion, Dr. Hidalgo’s book “opens new [opportunities] to reflect on and respond to our crisis today.”

Dr. Erica Ramírez and Dr. Jonathan Calvillo revisit the Latinx voter outcomes they projected in a recent HTI podcast episode about the 2020 presidential election. With the national media attention focused on this diverse voting bloc—the so-called “sleeping giant"—the two sociologists examine some of the narratives spun by the news cycle. Looking at the complexity of what it means to be a U.S. Latino, including demographic breakdowns by state and religion, Dr. Ramírez and Dr. Calvillo delve into the factors that may help to explain why a third of Latina/os have consistently voted Republican since the Richard Nixon administration. “Everyone seems to agree that Latinos are not a monolith—that tends to be one of the big stories,” Dr. Calvillo notes. “Don’t get me wrong I’m glad that story is out. I’m glad that story is being promoted, but a part of me is concerned if that’s the biggest takeaway.” He hopes that we continue to ask deeper questions about the Latino vote.

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The Evangelical Latinx Voter and the Complexity of Collective Identity

On June 3, 2020—after the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd—the Black presidents and deans of schools and departments of theology and religion released a statement, ”Black Presidents and Deans Say: No More Stolen Black Lives!”, with a list of concrete demands.

That month, school leaders of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) responded with statements of solidarity:

June 9, 2020: The Latin@ Presidents and Deans of Seminaries of the ATS post a video expressing solidarity “and what Martin Luther King Jr. called infinite hope.” This was followed by the June 17th ATS webinar “Black Lives Matter: Where Do We Go From Here.”

June 18, 2020: Asian and Asian-descent presidents and deans of the ATS issue a statement of solidarity [PDF] with the Black and Latin@ presidents and deans.

June 22, 2020: White Deans & Presidents of ATS Member Schools and Affiliates respond with a Letter of Solidarity and Accountability [PDF].

June 29, 2020: During their Biennial Open Forum for CEOs and CAOs, Presidents of ATS schools begin to answer one of the demands of the June 3, 2020 statement in a Black Lives Matter discussion [video].

Two prominent Latino theological school leaders involved in the June 9 statement are Dr. Frank Yamada, who currently serves as the 6th executive director of the ATS, and Dr. Luis Rivera, who has contributed to the work of ATS Chief Academic Officers Society and the ATS Committee on Race and Ethnicity. In this podcast episode, Dr. Yamada and Dr. Rivera discuss the declarations, unprecedented in the world of theological education.

Sociologists Dr. Erica Ramírez and Dr. Jonathan Calvillo discuss the Latinx vote—the so-called "sleeping giant"—that seems to resurface every election cycle. Latinos are often touted as a coveted swing vote that can collectively pivot elections. What these pronouncements often fail to recognize is that Latinos are not an easy voting group to pin down, considering the diversity of the Latinx "community." A third of Latina/os have consistently voted Republican since the Richard Nixon administration. At the same time, in this election cycle, Latinx donors overwhelmingly spent their dollars on progressive Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders. Though Latinx voters are not a single-issue constituency, both sociologists agree that treatment of immigrants is a matter of justice. According to Dr. Ramírez, the plight of undocumented laborers is part of a trajectory in which all of us, "as a labor force, have lost a lot of protections in the United States.”