"Knight without Armor: Carlos E. Castaneda" is the definitive biography of one of the most honored yet unknown historians of the twentieth century. No other historian of Hispanic descent has matched Castaneda's success, with twelve books and nearly eighty articles published in three decades. He was also one of the most distinguished, having earned prestigious accolades such knighthood in the Vatican's Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and in Spain's Order of Isabel la Catolica as praise for his contributions to the study of Catholicism and the history of the Spanish borderlands in North America. Castaneda personified the ideal of knighthood as he overcame the limitations of financial burdens and ethnic discrimination. Rising out of humble origins in south Texas, he fought to improve school conditions in the barrios of San Antonio, and later served on Franklin D. Roosevelt's Committee on Fair Employment Practices during World War II. In 1939, he realized his dream of becoming a professor and historian. While teaching at the University of Texas, Castaneda specialized in Latin American history and focused on the history of Catholicism as the subject closest to his heart. His eight-volume work "Our Catholic Heritage in ""Texas"," 1519-1950" has been called the best work ever written on the Spanish colonial era in Texas. Until his death in 1958, Carlos Castaneda worked to educate others on the history of Hispanic Americans and their culture, and courageously sought equality for his people. Author Felix D. Almaraz, Jr. has compiled numerous writings, interviews and photographs from private collections as well as state and national archives in order to present a worthy tribute of a historian whose praise is long overdue.

Traces the development of Catholic cultures in the South, the Midwest, the West, and the Northeast, and their contribution to larger patterns of Catholicism in the United States Most histories of American Catholicism take a national focus, leading to a homogenization of American Catholicism that misses much of the local complexity that has marked how Catholicism developed differently in different parts of the country. Such histories often treat northeastern Catholicism, such as the Irish Catholicism of Boston, as if it reflects the full history and experience of Catholicism across the United States. The Making of American Catholicism argues that regional and transnational relationships have been central to the development of American Catholicism. The American Catholic experience has diverged significantly among regions; if we do not examine how it has taken shape in local cultures, we miss a lot. Exploring the history of Catholic cultures in New Orleans, Iowa, Wisconsin, Los Angeles, and New York City, the volume assesses the role of region in American Catholic history, carefully exploring the development of American Catholic cultures across the continental United States. Drawing on extensive archival research, The Making of American Catholicism argues that American Catholicism developed as transnational Catholics creatively adapted their devotional and ideological practices in particular American regional contexts. They emphasized notions of republicanism, individualistic capitalism, race, ethnicity, and gender, resulting in a unique form of Catholicism that dominates the United States today. The book offers close attention to race and racism in American Catholicism, including the historical experiences of African American and Latinx Catholics as well as Catholics of European descent.

This book uses political, religious, and cultural history to examine catechesis. Sister de Luna establishes that religiosidad popular, the core theme for Hispanic theology, is Christian and Catholic and traces its elements in Church catechisms of the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries. She goes on to examine the relationship between theology of beauty, catechesis, and spirituality establishing that the three disciplines were integral to faith formation in the early church, but were separated through the centuries. An in-depth analysis of six selected catechisms reveals that popular religion as a combination of faith and culture was evident at the beginning of Hispanic Catholicism in the sixteenth century. The investigation notes the gradual elimination and eventual replacement of the cultural aspects in the catechetical texts in the nineteenth century. The author concludes that the reunification of the cultural spiritual symbols with the presentation of doctrine could revitalize catechesis and bring Christian evangelization to a renewed effectiveness.

One of the first buildings in Central Ohio in the 1790s was a tavern and 200 years later--Columbus as a "foodie" town shows renewed interest in discovering its historic "liquid assets." Once historic taverns in frontier Columbus featured live bears chained to giant wheels, pumping water for travelers in need of a shower and giving new meaning to the term "watering hole." Existing historic taverns in Columbus span from 1830s through the 1930s and still have little-known histories, stories, scandals, as well as, architectural fabric to explore. One is built on a still active graveyard; another is in the building of a former Pentecostal church. Several remain from the Irish and German migrations and survived Prohibition; one was the quintessential gentlemen's bar still with pool room that connected by underground tunnel to the Ohio Statehouse in a time of temperance. Another was both a tavern and a bordello for Union and Confederate officers (though on different nights). Set in the social and political historic context of a changing city, the taverns offer a chance to explore the city's history through its watering holes.

When the early Spanish and Mexican colonists came to settle Texas, they brought with them a rich culture, the diversity of which is nowhere more evident than in the folk art and folk craft. This first book-length publication to focus on Texas-Mexican material culture shows the richness of Tejano folk arts and crafts traditions.