Latino Religious Affiliation and Ethnic Identity

Abstract

Despite the pervasiveness of Catholicism among Latinos, studies reveal an increasing shift toward Protestantism. Examining the relationship between religion and ethnicity, we explore homeland language use as a core ethnic marker using a survey from the Pew Hispanic Center. Results reveal that Catholic Latinos are significantly more likely to use Spanish at home, even after controlling for other key variables. In response, we posit that Latino Catholicism and Protestantism entail significantly different religiosities in both home and host countries that impact Latino ethnic identification and its markers such as language use. Catholicism displays a higher level of inculturation in the sending country and greater overt institutional acceptance of ethnic culture in host countries. Protestantism in Latin America breaks with localized religiosity and traditions, and U.S. Protestant congregations may de‐emphasize ethnic culture in their theologies and worship. Hence, Latino Catholicism acts as a bridge to homelands and reinforces ethnic salience, thereby supporting continued Spanish use at home. In contrast, Protestants embrace a reorienting religiosity that often presides over ethnic identification, decreasing the salience of homeland cultural markers.

Leaving my religion: Understanding the relationship between religious disaffiliation, health, and well-being

“…The strong divide that Evangelical Protestants perceive between themselves and non-Evangelicals reinforces their network religious homophily (Putnam and Campbell, 2010), and suggests that more social ties are severed at disaffiliation (Merino, 2014). The same is true for Catholics, particularly Latinos, whose religious affiliation is more likely to reflect the unity of familial relationships and friendships (Calvillo and Bailey, 2015). Overall, Catholics are more likely than other denominations to indicate the importance of family relationships in continued association with the church (Smith and Sikkink, 2003).…”

Challenging Evolution in Public Schools: Race, Religion, and Attitudes toward Teaching Creationism

“…Latinos' support for teaching creationism in place of evolution may be to due to second-order cultural factors that we are not able to directly examine. For instance, empirical evidence suggests that Latino Catholic identity is closely intertwined with cultural and ethnic identity (Calvillo and Bailey 2015;Warner, Martel, and Dugan 2012). It may be that conservative stances against teaching evolution are salient among Latinos unfamiliar with the teachings of Catholicism.…”

Ethnic identity maintenance within the Latino-American church: a structuration perspective

“…The various ethnicities represented in the Latino church and community add to the unique nature of this context. As an example of structure impacting agency, Calvillo and Bailey (2015) found that "the religious orientations of evangelical and even many mainline Latino Protestant churches may more frequently lead to the shedding of ethnic markers" (p. 75). The Latino church functions as a common space for a wide variety of Spanishspeaking Latinos, and the commonality found between the various ethnicities in this organization allows for the formation of a different kind of cultural identity (García-Treto, 1999).…”

“…Vasquez (1999) describes similarly that at least one Latino Pentecostal church "define[s] their collective identity as membership in a 'multi-national' community of the saved, a community that cuts across narrow notions of national identity" (p. 624). Calvillo and Bailey (2015) also highlight the religious identity that deepens the connections in this pan-Latino context:…”