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Sowing the Sacred traces the development of Pentecostalism among Mexican-American migrant laborers in California's agricultural industry from the 1910s to the 1960s. At the time, Pentecostalism was often seen as a distasteful new sect rife with cultish and fanatical tendencies; U.S. growers thought of Mexicans as no more than a mere workforce not fit for citizenship; and industrial agriculture was celebrated for feeding American families while its exploitation of workers went largely ignored. Farmworkers were made out to be culturally vacuous and lacking creative genius, simple laborers caught in a vertiginous cycle of migrant work. This book argues that farmworkers from La Asamblea ApostÃ3lica de la Fe en Cristo Jesðs carved out a robust socio-religious existence despite these conditions, and in doing so produced a vast record of cultural vibrancy. Examining racialized portrayals of Mexican workers and their religious lives through images created by farmworkers themselves, Sowing the Sacred draws on oral histories, photographs, and materials from new archival collections to tell an intimate story of sacred-space making. In showing how these workers mapped out churches, performed outdoor baptisms in grower-controlled waterways, and built and maintained houses of worship in the fields, this book considers the role that historical memory plays in telling these stories.
List of contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The Sacralized Profane
- Chapter 1: Sacred Routes: Mapping the Church
- Chapter 2: Sacred Waters: Baptizing the Church
- Chapter 3: Sacred Fields: Building the Church
- Chapter 4: Sacred Talents: Maturing the Church
- Chapter 5: Sacred Nostalgia: Remembering the Church
- Conclusion: The Sacred Beyond the Profane
- Bibliography
About the author
Lloyd Daniel Barba is Assistant Professor of Religion and core faculty in Latinx and Latin American Studies at Amherst College. He has published essays on the history of race and religion, Pentecostalism, Catholicism, the Sanctuary Movement, and material religion.
Summary
Sowing the Sacred traces the development of Mexican-American Pentecostalism among farmworkers from the 1910s to the 1960s, drawing on oral histories, photographs taken by farmworkers, and material from new archival collections to tell an intimate story of sacred-space making in a context of labor exploitation.
Additional text
Lloyd Daniel Barba's Sowing the Sacred is a rich historical analysis that can be approached from multiple different historical contexts. As a work of religious history, for instance, Barba illuminates much about Mexican Pentecostalism in the mid-twentieth century. Historians interested in Mexican immigration and farm labor--perhaps more numerous in the profession than scholars of Pentecostalism--will also find much to admire in Barba's fine book.
