Latina Empowerment and Border Realities 401
a patron saint of Cuba. La Hermita is a place of devotion to the Cuban patron saint,
an icon in Miami that was taken from Cuba as a symbolic representation of the Cuban
dream of return to Cuba. La Hermita is the first place newly arrived Cubans go as an
act of thanksgiving for their safe arrival to the United States. It is also a place where
Cubans go and express Cubanidad (Cubanness) that for many is central to the Cuban–
U.S. experience because dreams deferred become the Cuban-American reality (Garcia
1996). Similarly, La Virgen de Guadalupe is for Mexican Americans both a religious
icon and a symbol of a community’s struggle, whether embraced in the United Farm
Workers’ struggle or as a presence in Mexican and Mexican American homes.
In the Latino/a Protestant communities, Latino/a ethnic identity is asserted in the
congregational life of the communities. It is also evident within burgeoning organi-
zations in the United States, including Alianza de Ministerios Evangelicos Nacionales
(A.M.E.N.), the Hispanic-American Institute, the Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI),
Theologies in the Americas. These organizations and the growing number of theological
writings read by both Catholic and Protestant Latinos/as have become the cornerstone
of what has been called the Latino resurgence of the 1960s and 1970s in U.S. religion
(D ́ıaz-Stevens and Stevens Arroyo 1998). In fact, “Latino Protestants pushed for much
the same goals during the resurgence as their Catholic counterparts” (ibid. 169). These
goals were cast, as D ́ıaz-Stevens and Stevens Arroyo document, in a historical moment
in which religious leaders “announced a mission of restoring and redeveloping Latino
religion because it was distinct and nonassimilable to the Euro-American experience”
(ibid. 122).
But what is often mentioned as an aside and not told as a central history to the
ethnic communities’ experiences are the key roles women played in their communities’
activism. It is often women scholars who uncover that history. Marina Herrera (1994:
187–8), for example, confirms that “Hispanic women religious were the pioneers in
waking up the people of God to all that was happening in the Church” from the
beginning of the Latina/o U.S. religious experience. The discussion that follows is part
of a growing women’s studies literature that seeks to answer questions on the roles
Latinas played and continue to play in advancing Latina/o interests, in this case with the
support of faith-based organizations. To develop a better understanding of Latinas’ roles
within their communities and the challenges they pursue within their communities’
struggles, I take into account Latino/a culture and the role expectations Latinas have
to challenge as women.
CHALLENGING MYTHS: FOUNDATIONS FOR LATINA EMPOWERMENT
Within the Latino community, Latinas are celebrated for their place in the family or
home and affirmed for being the mainstays of cultural transmission through their roles
as homemakers and in raising children and caring for their families (Segura 1991;
Zavella 1987). Such views carry subtle and not so subtle suggestions that their iden-
tities and strengths mostly lie in their family responsibilities. Yet Latinas are agents of
social change, particularly when they engage in community work. This chapter presents
a more accurate picture of the Latina sphere of social influence that encompasses both
private and public domains and is expressed in social and community settings as well
as in the family and personal life. It argues that in both private and public spheres,
religion plays an important role as a place to which Latinas appeal for empowerment.