Month: August 2020

This week we dug deeper in the definitions of Latinas / Latinos and Religion that we began drafting last week. On Monday, in the Pew Research Center report we read about Latinx shifting religious identities from a Catholic block to Protestant religions, especially Evangelical and Pentecostal, as well as lapsed professions of religion. This image, our icon for this week, which represents seven orishas from Afrocuban iconography, speaks volumes about that.

We then discussed Pineda’s take on Feminist Foremothers, and discussed the importance of learning about for the first time, or remembering differently, women who have been either manipulated or forgotten by historical accounts of latinidad. On Wednesday, we learned or reviewed with Michelle González a handful of critical concepts developed to understand the humanity of Latinas (what a concept, we are people!) and religion: the covery / discovery of the Americas; colonialism and coloniality; the importance of history (with Pineda); how Latinas occupy different subject position and identities; nepantla or the third space, and others.

Tell us which one (or ones) of these premises, arguments, or concepts have helped you initiate a path to study Latinas and Religion this semester. This is not intended for you to have to commit ONLY to that premise, argument, or concept, but to touch base with your own memory and see what is sticking for now. You can change this later.

Please, post your blog entry by Sunday at 8pm at the latest.

On Wednesday this week, our first day of classes, we each said a few words about who we are and why we came to this class, and where we are. We are all in the midst of this pandemic, but we are coming together to learn and to prevail. At least, that is my hope.

We also began teasing out various concepts, definitions, and assumptions about Latinas and about Religion. I mark those with capital letters so we recognize them as signs we are going to keep defining, resisting, debating, and learning with.

I invite you to post your reflection on that exchange, whether it is your own thoughts on defining Latinas and/or Religion, or telling us a bit more about why you came to take this class, what you hope or expect to learn with the group between now and December, or how you think that this class may help you strengthen (maybe also purify?) your toolbox for life.

Try to post your reflection by Saturday at 5pm. If you cannot by then, please try to do so some time next week. We are going to be posting weekly, and this notebook will be one of my guides to see and appreciate your learning growth this semester.

Welcome to the Fall 2020 seminar “Latinas and Religion.  Purity, Strength, and the Body.”  We begin with this image of a Cuban devotee of the Virgen de Regla, which in the Lucumí tradition is also Yemayá, the goddess of water.  We shall return to them and other women of latinidad and religion throughout the semester.

This is the space where we are going to post weekly reflections on our readings and class discussions.

Every week I’ll send a prompter on Wednesday afternoon to ask you to think about our week’s think and dialogue work.

We all can read everyone else’s post, and we can comment on each one’s reflections.  This is not required, but in reading the comments and commenting on each other’s writings, we can create a tighter thinking community.

I very much look forward to our doing so in the next three months.  Welcome.