The Road Down Acculturation

The new culture and religion that my mother had come into definitely played into the culture shock that she experienced in her earlier years of living in the United States. But as she continued her life in the States, she began to live her life the way other immigrants have and by the creeds and codes of other Latino Catholics. The willingness to pursue her American Dream in the United States, allowed the acculturation of my mother's beliefs and practices to prove as an example for the interplay between immigration and Roman Catholicism and how Latinos and Latinas have come to dominate the Roman Catholic religion through their population.

Roman Catholicism dates back to when the first Catholics set foot in the United States back when Christopher Columbus brought the first Jewish “New Christians” to the Caribbean and sailed under the flag of Catholic Spain. [1] The first waves of immigrants, the Spanish, French and English, had established the religious institution. “For the Catholic immigrants, space and time were equally consecrated;” [2] Catholicism emphasized the importance of the sacraments and penance. As time went on and other immigrants started pouring into the United States, there were revolutionary movements going on within the religion that began to change how Roman Catholicism worked. Then in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, the Latino immigrants were influenced by the European-American spiritism and Afro-Caribbean religions, while the Mexican-American people were pulled more toward curanderismo, “the combination of Catholicism, spiritism, and herbalism in the healing work.” [3]

My mother has taken part in most, if not all, practices of Catholicism. Traditionally, she was baptized as a newborn, celebrates Christmas, and participates in Ash Wednesday. But most importantly, the sacraments are a major part of her life which is also true for the rest of the Roman Catholic community. The centrality of the sacraments had always been an established part of the Roman Catholic culture, however when it comes to the curanderismo of the Mexican-Americans, my mother has also taken part in that as well. My mother believes that herbs will fix physical illnesses and that mental illnesses are just an out of balance state of mind. In an article by Renaldo Maduro titled “Curanderismo and Latino Views of Disease and Curing” he claims that “Curanderismo is based on a set of values, underlying beliefs and premises – that is a relatively fixed but implicit, often unconscious, notions of disease causation and cure.” [4] Though my mom does not explicitly describe her curanderismo tendencies, she takes part in it every time she uses herbs to cure her sickness and every time she discredits the existence of mental illnesses. This illustrates the postpluralism that has occurred within the United States and because of the Hispanic community.

The Virgin of Guadalupe had become another important religious figure among Catholics, some would call her a “goddess.” [5] Jane Caputi reflects that “her significance to Mexicans, Mexican Americans and others; the subversive powers of her iconography, particularly her special relationships with the indigenous, with women, and with the poor; her sexuality; her relationship to divine and folk figures from other traditions; and her mystery,” but this Goddess can also be found in many other cultures. [6 When my mom goes to church, she tells us to pray not only to God but also to La Virgen because she has become a prominent figure within the Hispanic community. A postpluralistic aspect of the culture that began to flourish during the years of immigrant reform, the Virgin of Guadalupe can be introduced as another historical trend that has made its way to my mother's life.

My mother's religious history reflects the general outline of Roman Catholicism in the United States when we focus in on the Mexican-American population. However, looking at the bigger picture of Catholicism we can also see that postpluralism has transformed the religion by adding curanderismo and the Virgin of Guadalupe. The combination of religions that have been made in the past has made the religion that my mother follows, be how it is today.

1Catherine Albanese, ed., America: Religions and Religion (Wadsworth: Cengage Learning, 2013).

2Albanese, 64.

3Albanese, 75.

4Renaldo Maduro, “Curanderismo and Latino Views of Disease and Curing,” National Center for Biotechnology Information, Internet, available from

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1011018/?page=2, accessed 24 August 2013.

5Jane Caputi, “Goddess of the Americas/La Diosa de las Americas: Writings on the Virgin of Guadalupe,” Atla Religion Database, Internet, available from http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:2048/ehost/detail?sid=73750868-827f-41cd-ab20-29762117c4bf%40sessionmgr12&vid=10&hid=25&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=reh&AN=ATLA0000326468, accessed on 24 August 2013.

6Caputi, “ Goddess of the Americas/La Diosa de las Americas: Writings on the Virgin of Guadalupe.”

Blog 1

 My mom, Rocio Herrera, is Roman Catholic but it was not until she moved to the United States that she empowered life by her religion. In Mexico, my mom lived with my grandmother who had only carried on traditional practices of Catholicism; this meaning that my mom had been baptized and went to Sunday school for her confirmation, but her practice of the religion did not go any further than that. It was because there was not much religious following done by her own mother that my mom felt there was no need to pursue it either. It was when she decided to move to the United States that she decided to strengthen her religiosity.

In present, my mom believes religion is a part of who she is. For my mom, religion is the belief in the mutual love that exists between her and the divine higher power; “your life is in the hands of God.” When further questioned about what it means for her religion to be passed down to her children, my mom answered that it is important for faith to be displaced on to future generations because it should be a part of one's identity. This blurs the line between identification and religion and questions the directionality between whether religion builds a person or the person builds upon religion and perceives life through their religiosity. Though the Native American religion is far different than those of the Roman Catholics', there is a recurrent theme of whether there really is a difference with ordinary religion and extraordinary religion because one always seems to be leading the other.

Nowadays, my mom attends church and prays regularly. Her portrayal of religion goes beyond the superficiality of being baptized and attending Sunday school. Yearly, she, family and the rest of the Roman Catholic community come together in church to celebrate Ash Wednesday. She describes that as the day when all Roman Catholics have a priest draw a cross on their foreheads. From that day until Easter, each person is supposed to fast. When I asked further questions about what Ash Wednesday means to her, she became embarrassed and admitted that she did not know what Ash Wednesday is in terms of how it is related to God. However, she told me that it was more of a traditional thing above it all. It is a day when the Catholic community comes together for the purpose of honoring what is right among those who are active participants of Catholicism. Then when I asked her about why she prays she said, “it gives me spiritual tranquility and makes me feel like a better person.” In the Roman Catholic perspective, religion has become a unifying experience communally and spiritually lifting individually.

The turning point in my mom's life for her to become more religious was when she decided to come to the United States. Living in Mexico my mom was too busy working and helping her mom out. It became a daily routine that began at such a young age for my mother but when she came to United States to pursue her “American Dream” she accepted religion into her life in order to feel more secure about herself; She was able to secure her identity, culture and community (creed, codes and cultuses). My mom's beliefs and practices have changed over time because it took one life-changing event to give her a push to become the proud Roman Catholic she is today. The “American Dream”allowed her to establish her religious theology and flourish it as she continues to live and work in the states.