Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Contexts for Spirituality 1
Spirituality in the United States 1
Spirituality on the Margins 7
Personal Voice and Place 13
Plan of the Book 15
1 Santo and Spirituality 19
What Is Santo? 19
Santo in Southwestern Piety and Art 24
Other Forms of Santos 27
More to the Story 34
2 Santo: Beyond the Usual Expectations 35
Expectation and Actuality 35
Latino/a Muslims 36
Latino/a Buddhists 40
Alternative Christians 43
"A Different Kind of Hug" 46
Toward Definitions of Santo 51
3 Latino/a Peoples and the "Holy" 57
What's in a Name? 57
Transnational and Historical Perspectives 58
The Power of Naming 67
The Social Construction of Race 72
Latinidad, Multiple Consciousness, and Spirituality 74
4 Rituals in the Passages of Life 79
Marking Community through Ritual 79
Stages of Spiritual Development 81
Familia and Life Passages 83
Birth of a Child 84
Quinceañera as Rite of Passage 86
Marriage and Partnership 87
Passages of Death 91
Days of the Dead 95
Conclusion 97
5 Rhetoric and Traditions 99
Lo Cotidiano and Sacred Rhetoric 99
The Sacred Rhetoric of Prayer in Song 101
Rhetoric from the Margins 103
Everyday Sayings 107
Stories as Narrative Spirituality 109
Sacred Rhetoric, Material Culture, and Latino/a Spirituality 112
Rhetoric and Religiosity 114
6 Sacred Places and Spaces 115
What Is a Sacred Space? 115
Fixed Spaces 119
Home Altars 124
Sacred Spaces on the Road 126
Places for Mourning 130
Summary 131
7 Exploring Spanglish Spirituality 133
Living in Spanglish 133
Spanglish as Cultural Mixing 138
Recognizing Spanglish Spirituality 141
Challenges and Promises of Spanglish Spirituality 143
Appendix 149
Notes 151
Select Bibliography 181
Index 187
