Description
The concept of indigeneity is problematic when appropriated to any group, tending to imply the spurious notion of a static racial, ethnic, and/or cultural essentialism. This is perhaps no more apparent than with regard to the Latino(a) Evangelical church in the United States. The Latino(a) experience and identity is characterized by a deep sense of hybridity, which is only exaggerated in the context of the Latino(a) Evangelical community.

There are a number of fundamental ways in which the experience and identity of the Latino(a) community might be described as hybrid in nature. First, it is important to remember that Latinos(as) are not first and foremost immigrants to the US but are actually more 'indigenous' than White Americans. Mexicans were "initially enclosed within America's expanding boarders" (Takaki, 11). This fact, however, is rarely acknowledged in the discourse surrounding immigration (for more on immigration, see Resistance). Consequently, to be Latino(a) is to experience both a sense of belonging and rejection. Second, since the inception of Spanish hegemony in Latin America, the Latino(a) community has been characterized by a nepantla culture. Nepantla, an Aztec word meaning 'in the middle,' was used by Aztecs themselves to describe the blend of European and indigenous culture (Elizondo 25). Latinos(as) in the US remain a nepantla community to this day, living "in the midst of mestizajes [cultural, ethnic, or racial mixes]" (Martinez 59). Their experience is bilingual and, even within the Latino(a) community, it is multicultural, forming an identity that is inherently "polycentric and fluid" (Martinez 19).

Within the Latino(a) Evangelical community the degree of hybridity is even greater. As stated above, the indigenous concept of 'evangelico' is much broader than the understanding of the term 'evangelical' in the United States. Consequently, although Latinos(as) are part of American Evangelical churches, most do not identify fully with them. This reality is manifested in a number of interesting ways. For example, although some studies have shown that 37% of Latino(a) Evangelicals identify with the Republican Party, making them twice as likely to be Republican as Latino(a) Catholics (Pew Forum), they are still significantly less likely vote Republican than their white Evangelical counterparts. George Bush received 79% of the White Evangelical in 2004 (Pew Forum). Studies have revealed that while Latino(a) Evangelicals share the moral and ethical conservatism of the wider Evangelical community, they tend to be more politically and economically liberal (Elizondo 11-12). They share much in common with White Evangelicals but are less ideologically driven (Elizondo, 21), making them both at home and out of place in large segments of Evangelical America.

Stories
Pastor Carlos Acosta, Associate Pastor of the Hollywood Spanish Seventh-day Adventist Church, describes his experience of growing up in the United States. Born in the U.S. to mother from El Salvador and a father from Mexico, he explains, "Mexicans consider me to be Salvadoran, people from El Salvador consider me to be Mexican, and many in the United States don't accept me as fully American...I always say that I'm a citizen of four countries: the U.S., Mexico, El Salvador, and heaven. And heaven is the only place where I'm fully accepted!"

Dreams
It is perhaps best to understand the hybridity of the Latinos(as) not as a static or merely symbiotic state but as a volatile nexus of conflicting forces. Gloria Anzaludua describes the experience of "la mestiza" as "the coming together of two self-consistent but habitually incompatible frames of reference to cause un choque, a cultural collision (Ashcroft 209).” Second-generation Latinos(as) and younger Latinos(as) are perhaps most susceptible to this sense of internal conflict. In spite of its inherent challenges, however, a "polycentric" identity can also be a rich resource. Latino(a) Evangelicals, through interaction with other Evangelicals and society-at-large could help the Evangelical Church question and deconstruct essentialist notions of race (Ashcroft 159-160, also see Race). Additionally, they might encourage the Evangelical community and broader American society to question the assumed liberal-conservative binarism in American culture (Elizondo 12, also see Binarisms). We hope that the Latino(a) Evangelical community, as it comes to terms with its owns hybridity, will help engender in both American society and the Evangelical Church an understanding of the fact that we are really all polycentric in our identities. And precisely because of our complexity and diversity, we share a commonality that should deepen our communal ties with one another.


References