Turning to literature, contributors consider Gloria Anzaldúa's view of the borderlands as a mystic vision and the ways that Chicana writers invoke religious symbols and rhetoric to articulate a moral vision highlighting social injustice. They investigate the role of healing, looking at it in relation to both the Latino Pentecostal movement and the practice of the curanderismo tradition in East Los Angeles. Delving into to popular culture, they reflect on Luis Valdez's video drama La Pastorela: "The Shepherds' Play," the spirituality of Chicana art, and the religious overtones of the reverence for the slain Tejana music star Selena. This volume signals the vibrancy and diversity of the practices, arts, traditions, and spiritualities that reflect and inform Mexican American religion.
Contributors: Rudy V. Busto, Davíd Carrasco, Socorro Castañeda-Liles, Gastón Espinosa, Richard R. Flores, Mario T. García, María Herrera-Sobek, Luís D. León, Ellen McCracken, Stephen R. Lloyd-Moffett, Laura E. Pérez, Roberto Lint Saragena, Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo, Kay Turner "The conversation about Latinos and religion will never be the same thanks to this splendid, visionary book. It captures who we are as a people--diverse, yet on a shared spiritual quest that will have huge ramifications for Latinos and beyond."--Demetria Martinez, author of "Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana" and the novel "Mother Tongue"