Latinos and organized religion have had a long, complicated history. Starting from our native religions and how they clashed and struggled to survive in the face of European conquest to the current growth of Latinos moving from Catholicism to Protestant evangelism, a new book, The Politics of Latino Faith : Religion, Identity, and Urban Communities by Catherine E. Wilson, looks at three faith based organizations in major urban areas and how they meld religious belief with service within the community.

This book is especially timely given the high profile of the Latino community as a key voting bloc in the upcoming presidential election in the United States.

This ethnography specifically concentrates on the South Bronx, Philadelphia, and Chicago, and how three very different faith based organizations provides a systematic look at the spiritual, social, and cultural influence Latino faith-based organizations have provided in American life. Wilson offers keen insight into how pivotal religious identity is in understanding Latino social and political involvement in the United States. She also shows the importance of understanding the theological underpinnings at work in these organizations in order to predict their political influences.

The book was really interesting to me for a number of reasons, while not an easy read (it is not light beach reading), I appreciated being able to compare and contrast the different approaches taken by faith based organizations ranging from the activist approach to a more capitalist model. I also appreciated the linking to current faith based movements to Latin American liberation theology and various interpretations of liberation theology.

However there were some things that concerned me. I felt like there wasn’t enough voice given to the actual community members who participate through these faith based organizations. The focus was on the leaders within the organization. Additionally, I had to question the diminished role non-faith based organizations were given in the book specifically in the chapter on the Latino Pastoral Action Center in New York and their role in working with street organizations and against police brutality since I was actively involved with organizing around these issues in NYC. And while it makes sense to look at Christian faith based organizations since the overwhelming majority of Latinos are Christians, it would have been interesting to hear from Latinos of other faiths.

You can purchase The Politics of Latino Faith at Amazon.