"A well-rounded and perceptive analysis of why Puerto Ricans have converted en masse to Protestantism, especially Pentecostalism, as well as how the Catholic hierarchy has grappled with greater religious heterogeneity."--Journal of Latin American Studies "This book presages the new scholarship on religion so badly needed in Puerto Rican studies. ...[E]legantly weaves history, politics, and ecclesiastical endeavors into a narrative that is preeminently about faith."--Centro Journal "Records religious diversity and complexity in a town that is usually observed through racial lenses that render it homogeneous and fixed in the past. ...[C]ontributes to the understanding of the deep interrelation between religion, spirituality, identity, and race in contemporary Puerto Rico and part of its Diaspora."--Journal of the American Academy of Religion Loíza is a Puerto Rican town known for best representing the African traditions. Its mostly black population is affected by profound racial discrimination and poverty. Many Loíza residents strongly identify themselves in religious terms, strategically managing their identities through a spiritual prism that effectively helps them cope with and transform their difficult reality. Based on twelve months of fieldwork, this study shows how believers experience their religion in its various dimensions. Arguing that understanding and respecting the power of religion in this community is essential to addressing and remedying its social problems, Hernández Hiraldo contests the characterization of Puerto Rico as a culturally homogenous country with a monolithic church.

The geopolitical influence of the United States informs the processes of racialization in Puerto Rico, including the construction of black places. In Scripts of Blackness, Isar P. Godreau explores how Puerto Rican national discourses about race--created to overcome U.S. colonial power--simultaneously privilege whiteness, typecast blackness, and silence charges of racism. Based on an ethnographic study of the barrio of San Antón in the city of Ponce, Scripts of Blackness examines institutional and local representations of blackness as developing from a power-laden process that is inherently selective and political, not neutral or natural. Godreau traces the presumed benevolence or triviality of slavery in Puerto Rico, the favoring of a Spanish colonial whiteness (under a hispanophile discourse), and the insistence on a harmonious race mixture as discourses that thrive on a presumed contrast with the United States that also characterize Puerto Rico as morally superior. In so doing, she outlines the debates, social hierarchies, and colonial discourses that inform the racialization of San Antón and its residents as black. Mining ethnographic materials and anthropological and historical research, Scripts of Blackness provides powerful insights into the critical political, economic, and historical context behind the strategic deployment of blackness, whiteness, and racial mixture.

This exciting addition to the Culture and Customs of Latin America and the Caribbean series provides readers with an all-encompassing look at contemporary life in Puerto Rico. Having always been under the watchful eyes of other colonies and countries, Puerto Rico's own customs and traditions have managed to flourish throughout the ages, culturally uniting what is a politically divided island. In addition to gaining an understanding of Puerto Rico's political relationship with the continental United States, students can explore extensive narrative chapters that cover contemporary religion, cuisine, sports, media, cinema, literature, performing arts, and visual arts. An essential for high school and public library shelves, Culture and Customs of Puerto Rico is the perfect research resource for students and general readers. This exciting addition to the Culture and Customs of Latin America and the Caribbean series provides readers with an exhaustive look at contemporary life in Puerto Rico. Having always been under the watchful eyes of other colonies and countries, Puerto Rico's own customs and traditions have managed to flourish throughout the ages, culturally uniting what is a politically divided island. In addition to gaining an understanding of Puerto Rico's political relationship with the continental United States, students can explore the small island nation's history with Spain during the colonial era. This fascinating volume provides illustrative narrative chapters on religious practices in Puerto Rico, as well as religious and secular festivals. Social customs, such as sports, cuisine, gender issues, family values, and nightlife, are discussed in depth. Extensive coverage on the media, performing arts, cinema, visual arts, and literature provides students with a solid foundation in Puerto Rican past and contemporary culture. An essential for high school and public library shelves, Culture and Customs of Puerto Rico is the perfect research resource for students and general readers.

Religion is fundamental to contemporary Puerto Rican society. From the cosmology of the Indigenous Taíno, to the wide range of Judeo-Christian churches and sects, to the practitioners of spiritism, Afro-Caribbean religions, and witchcraft, religious practice in its many forms permeates the lives of most Puerto Ricans. Communities of the Soul illuminates the landscape and history of religion in Puerto Rico from the beliefs and practices of the Taíno to the religious diversity of the present day. Throughout its history, religion in Puerto Rico has braided institutional forms and popular practices, yet has always been a community-based process – made by the people. When the island was under Spanish colonial rule, the formal but weak presence of Catholicism meant that Puerto Ricans cultivated their religious experiences within families and local communities as much as within the structures of the church. These communal practices continued as Puerto Ricans joined Protestant denominations – particularly evangelical Pentecostalism – after the American conquest of the island in 1898. In the second half of the twentieth century, religious diversity increased with the formation of Jewish and Muslim communities, as well as numerous local evangelical congregations. Even as Puerto Rican society becomes more cosmopolitan and diverse, popular devotions and ritualistic practices remain an important part of everyday life. The first synthesis of the religious history of the island, Communities of the Soul is an innovative exploration of religion in Puerto Rico and the beliefs, practices, and diversity of its past and present.

"This handbook is organized by various themes with the study of U.S. Latina/x/o Christianities. Keeping in mind that the Oxford Handbooks are geared toward graduate students and professors, the organization and layout of this handbook provides a thorough examination of interlocking themes within the academic study of Latina/x/o Christian histories, sociologies, and anthropologies. These essays, taken individually and collectively, pay attention to both the diachronic (over time, historical) as well as the synchronic (contemporary). Moreover, the essays cover the major U.S. Latina/x/o ethnic groups as well as major Christian denominations and movements. Finally, essays in the handbook attend to important intersectional realities that include empire, migration, diaspora, hybridities, borderlands, and gender"--

This collection looks at Caribbean religious history from the late 18th century to the present including obeah, vodou, santeria, candomble, and brujeria. The contributors examine how these religions have been affected by many forces including colonialism, law, race, gender, class, state power, media represenation, and the academy.

A Qualitative Study of Black Atheists: "Don’t Tell Me You’re One of Those" is an interdisciplinary examination of a group that is rarely the study of inquiry, Black Atheists. Using in-depth, qualitative interviews, Daniel Swann builds a foundation for understanding Black Atheist identities, how Black Atheists conceive of themselves, how they perceive, internalize, and manage stigma, how they view in-group belonging, and how they understand their experiences as Atheists to be racialized. The author argues these unique circumstances have produced a distinctive identity at this particular intersection of race and religion.