404 Milagros Pe ̃na
institutions they engage in their daily lives. Challenging the notion of Latina passivity,
D ́ıaz-Stevens (1993b) describes a “matriarchal core” in Latino/a Catholicism, in which
Latinas play important roles as community leaders in performing popular Catholic rit-
uals. Elderly Latinas have taken on some of the roles of Catholic clergy, calling people
to prayer, presiding over Christian gatherings on special occasions such asFiestas de
Santos, Aniversarios de Difuntos, Velorios, Novenas, Oraciones de Buen Morir, etc. (ibid. 65).
D ́ıaz-Stevens argues that: “Upon a closer examination of how power unfolds, it be-
comes clear that women exercise a productive function in religion – one that subverts
and transforms social values” in these community roles (1993b: 61). The roles Latinas
play in performing popular Catholic rituals have had an effect in transforming attitudes
regarding Latina leadership within the Latina/o community. D ́ıaz-Stevens (1994: 243)
found that two thirds of young Latinos/as (ranging in age from fifteen to twenty-five
years) in New York City said that the person they most respected in the community
apart from their parents, was an elderly woman in the community known for her piety
and her role as the leader of nonecclesiastical religious communal rituals and prayer.
It is not just elderly Latinas, however, who exercise influence within Latina/o com-
munities. Recent studies show patterns of organized community activism led by women
in Latino/a communities that cut across age and immigrant generations. As Mary
Pardo’s work suggests, “ethnic and gender-based traditions” are being “refashioned
into strategies for resistance” (1998: 232). Much of this activism can be traced to the
Chicana/o and Puerto Rican civil rights demands that began in the 1960s. Paralleling
the African-American communities’ demands for social justice, Latinos and Latinas
took to the streets and challenged the quality of their children’s education, work con-
ditions, housing segregation, voting discrimination, and the overall marginalization
of Latinos/as within U.S. society. In fact, according to Alma M. Garcia (1989, 1997),
the Chicano Movement (“El Movimiento”), offered a context in which Chicanas could
critique their traditional gender roles within the romanticized Chicano family. Lati-
nas saw themselves fighting for women’s rights while at the same time fighting to end
racist oppression against the Latino/a communities. Through that experience, Latinas
began to realize that they would have to make their own particular demands within
and outside the Latino/a community. This realization led Latinas to form their own
protest communities, including their current alliances with and participation in faith-
based organizations. This politicization is different to the more subtle forms of cultural
resistance evident in the roles Latinas play in Catholic popular rituals. As Gamson has
observed, “We know from many studies of social movements how important social
networks are for recruiting people and drawing them into political action with their
friends. People sometimes act first and only through participating develop the political
consciousness that supports the action” (1995: 89).
As noted, during the Chicano movement, Latinas were moved to community ac-
tivism to protest particular discriminatory acts against them in schools, housing, and
public places where they were denied entry. In turn, because Latinas were denied lead-
ership positions within their own social movement organizations, women’s marginal-
ization within the Chicano and Puerto Rican movements of the 1960s and 1970s also
forced them to confront the sexism within their own ethnic communities. Conse-
quently, Chicanas and other Latinas have formed their own women’s organizations to
protest both racism and sexism. Crisis events bring Latinas to social movement organi-
zations and it is there that individual level resistance is nurtured into broader collective