Latin American Languages and Societies Commons^™

La Santa Muerte And The Characteristic Damage Of Canonization, Ellen Webber

Journal of Global Catholicism

Devotion to La Santa Muerte, a Mexican folk saint who personifies Death, has

been condemned by the Catholic Church for its affiliation with Mexican drug

cartels. This article challenges mainstream interpretations of La Santa Muerte

devotion using the theological framework of characteristic damage, as defined

by Lauren Winner and Paul J. Griffiths. This framework understands liturgy

as celebrated by sinners in a damaged world, and therefore necessarily damaged

itself. As much as liturgy and Christian practice form us for good, they also per-

petuate damage. I argue that the sins present in La Santa Muerte veneration are

an expression of …

Editor's Introduction, Brent H. Otto S.J.

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Hindu Poetry And The Project Of An Inter-Spiritual Catholic Theology, Francis X. Clooney

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article engages the work of the Indian south Indian Tamil-language Vaiṣṇava poet saints known as the Alvārs. The article specifically focuses the First HundredHoly Linked verses of Poykai Ālvār to argue for inter-spiritual learning between Catholics and Hindus. The article concludes with personal reflections on this encounter within the context of the global Catholic Church

Identity And Intervention: United States' Foreign Policy Toward The Dominican Republic, Eileen Ledesma

College Honors Program

Constructivist theory provides a framework for understanding United States foreign policy toward the Dominican Republic during the U.S. occupation (1916-1924), the rise and consolidation of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo’s dictatorship, and the regime’s eventual political isolation during the Cold War. This thesis argues that U.S. foreign policy was shaped by identity narratives and political culture, also identified through historically constructed understandings and the repeated performance of legitimacy and order. By situating U.S.-Dominican Republic relations within broader debates in international relations theory, this thesis highlights the explanatory value of constructivism in understanding the evolution and contradictions of U.S. policy in Latin America. …

Changing Mercy In Aotearoa New Zealand, Anna Nicholls Victoria University Of Wellington

Journal of Global Catholicism

This paper examines the evolving expression of Catholicity within the Mercy organization in Aotearoa New Zealand. It explores the impact of Vatican II, demographic shifts, and societal changes. Through interviews with lay leaders in Whānau Mercy Ministries, the religiosity, inclusive approach, and the tension between traditional Catholic identity and pluralism in the organization are explored. A pertinent discussion concerns how the organization uses a more secular portrayal of Catherine McAuley as a unifying figure for the religiously diverse audience. The author argues that while secularization influences the organization, it fosters human flourishing and community engagement, offering opportunities for growth rather …

The Untameability Of The Sacred: Votive Traditions At Notre Dame De Lourdes And El Santuario De Chimayó, Gabrielle Bibeau

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article compares divergent votive practices at Notre Dame de Lourdes in France and El Santuario de Chimayó in New Mexico. Lourdes’ embrace of modern aesthetic values—simplicity, order, and functional clarity—has led to the removal and tight regulation of most ex-votos. By contrast, Chimayó’s roots in Latin American Baroque aesthetics, with its emphasis on abundance, drama, and hybridity, create space for a vibrant proliferation of offerings. Drawing on Jacques Rancière’s theory of aesthetics and politics as the “distribution of the sensible,” the article shows how aesthetic judgments intertwine with clerical power to curate, constrain, and authorize pilgrims’ access to the …

Interviews In Global Catholicism: Dr. Petra Kuivala, Petra Kuivala

Journal of Global Catholicism

Interview with Dr. Petra Kuivala, University of Eastern Finland

Our Lady Of La Vang Journeys With The Nation: Marian Devotion And Pilgrimage In Vietnam, Dung Trang Ph.D., Lhc Khiet Tam

Journal of Global Catholicism

The sanctuary of Our Lady of La Vang (OLLV) reveals the role of popular devotion in Vietnamese Catholicism. It manifests the recent strategy from Vietnamese Church leaders to maintain a public presence with an emphasis on reinforcing a sense of Catholic identity through popular devotion and liturgy. Devotion to OLLV then reflects the interaction of several factors: the promotion of the clergy, political influence, and the collaboration of the Vietnamese Catholic laity. Building on existing scholarship that focuses on the cultural inheritance and collective identity of Vietnamese Catholics around the world, this paper explores the case study of the basilica …

Mítos Boricuas, Ignacio A. Sánchez Ramos

Montserrat Annual Writing Prize

Two original mythical works are followed by author analysis of the creative process and the Puerto Rican cultural references which influenced the writer.

A Quest For Dignity: Colored Women’S Anti-Slavery Resistance In The Eighteenth Century British Jamaica And The Reconceptualization Of Human Rights, Yuwei (Ada) Liu

Of Life and History

The public conception of the Human Rights struggle was a European originated post-WWII campaign, advocated by the white organization through the top-down executing system on the non-European country. Nonetheless, by historicized Human Rights struggle, I found that the concept of rights and the ways to reclaiming them evolved under the effects of time, culture, gender, class, and race. In the eighteenth and the nineteenth century, enslaved and fugitive black women of Jamaica continually asserted their humanities in the face of institutional exploitation through the day to day resistance, black communal and family solidarity, and organized revolts. This argument builds upon …

Catholicism In Context: Religious Practice In Latin America, Gustavo Morello Sj

Journal of Global Catholicism

A critical problem to study Catholicism in the context of Latin American modernity, is that the conceptual tools we use to study religion were designed to understand the transformations that modernity provoked in European religiosity. Studies on the religion of Latin Americans have largely explored the religiosity of the population through surveys that measure attendance, adherence and affiliation. While some anthropologists have explored religious practices among particular groups, we do not know how ordinary, urban Latin Americans practice religion. To fill this gap, a group of researchers from Boston College, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Catholic University of Córdoba, and …

Editor's Introduction, Mathew N. Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Religious Mega-Events And Their Assemblages In Devotional Pilgrimages: The Case Of Círio De Nazaré In Belém, Pará State, Brazil, José Rogério Lopes, André Luiz Da Silva

Journal of Global Catholicism

The article presents a typological categorization of contemporary mega-events and their characteristics, in order to interpret the assemblages mobilized by sectors of the Catholic Church in traditional devotional pilgrimages in the northern region of Brazil. It uses ethnographic accounts of the Círio de Nazaré feast, in Belém, Pará state, Brazil, considered the largest Catholic procession in the West, in order to analyze how the promotion of this event is organized through institutional and market logics that overlap with the religious phenomenon, evincing a contemporary trend. These assemblages open a field of possibilities for institutional religious reproduction and generate concentric flows …

Young Brazilian Catholics Reaffiliating: A Case Study In The City Of Campos, Rj, Brazil, Cecilia L. Mariz, Wânia Amélia Belchior Mesquita, Michelle Piraciaba Araújo

Journal of Global Catholicism

Through a case study in Campos, a northern city of Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, this article analyzes reports from young people who state that they have undergone a process of revival or reactivation of their Catholic faith. They all declared to have participated in the “St Andrew’s School of Evangelization.” They also mentioned having experienced an "encounter with God." Their narratives were similar to conversion accounts reported by practitioners of other religious traditions. The interviewees describe faith as a personal choice, and emphasize the need for religious study and the value of religious knowledge. To what extent these values …

Contemporary Brazilian Catholicism And Healing Practices: Notes On Environmentalism And Medicalization, Juliano F. Almeida

Journal of Global Catholicism

Anthropological studies on Brazilian Catholicism traditionally focused on popular variants of this religious practice and their relationship with the official Catholicism. Encouraged by recent anthropological perspectives, which highlight the relevance of devoting researches not only on the margins, but also on the center of social practices, this paper analyzes contemporary practices of Brazilian Catholic friars and priests on health promotion. The analysis of their publications (books that include practices and tips on health and that became best sellers etc.), as well as interviews, allows us to perceive a process of environmentalization on the contemporary Brazilian Catholicism. This process seems to …

Strong Church, Weak Catholicism: Transformations In Brazilian Catholicism, Carlos Alberto Steil, Rodrigo Toniol

Journal of Global Catholicism

In this paper we explore data on Catholicism from the 2010 census in Brazil, as well as other data from the Center for Religious Statistics and Social Investigation. Using these statistics, we question those arguments that explain the reduction in the number of Catholics in Brazilian society as a problem in the institution’s adaptation in response to the challenges of evangelization, or as a lack of ministerial vocations to meet the religious demands of the people. Pursuing an alternative argument, we consider the weakening of the relationship between the Catholic institution and traditional popular Catholicism to be a fundamental aspect …

Editor's Introduction, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

A Widened Angle Of View: Teaching Theology And Racial Embodiment, Mara Brecht

Journal of Global Catholicism

Today’s undergraduate students are digital natives, shaped by constant access to information and countless experiences of encountering the world through the convenience of a screen. The ostensible comfort students have with difference gives way to a paradox, and one that’s made especially apparent in the theology classroom: Students are comfortable with seeing difference and particularity at a distance, but not adept at locating difference and particularity “at home.” I contend that Catholics & Cultures can help students from the dominant culture—namely, white students who comprise the vast majority of Catholic college students—destabilize their notion of the Catholic tradition as tightly …

Saints, Mediation, And Miracle-Talk: The Señor De Los Milagros In Lima, Peru, Kristin Norget, Margarita Zires Roldán

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

The Promises And Perils Of Radio As A Medium Of Faith In A Q’Eqchi’-Maya Catholic Community, Eric Hoenes Del Pinal

Journal of Global Catholicism

Because their parish is large, dispersed, and overwhelmingly rural, FM radio is one of the few reliable means through which the Q’eqchi’-Maya Catholics of San Felipe in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, can communicate with each other en masse. Yet, because it is a one-way medium, it is also impossible to gauge how its intended audience is responding, or if is even there to receive broadcasted messages. Drawing on ethnographic material collected in 2005 (on the use of radio broadcasting to call together ritual participants) and 2016 (on an ultimately failed attempt to launch a radio station to serve rural parishioners), …

Introduction: Mediating Catholicisms: Studies In Aesthetics, Authority, And Identity, Eric Hoenes Del Pinal, Marc Roscoe Loustau, Kristin Norget

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Overview & Acknowledgements, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Mlk Book Read 2019 (Research Materials), Holy Cross Libraries

Library Resources for Campus Events

A bibliography of resources available through the Holy Cross Libraries which provide additional information related to the MLK Winter Book Read, based on the best-seller “Brother, I'm Dying" by Edwidge Danticat.

Mapa Dibujado Por Un Espía: Crónica Autobiográfica Y Poética De La Memoria, Isabel Alvarez-Borland

Spanish Department Faculty Scholarship

Mapa dibujado por un espía, a memoir by Guillermo Cabrera Infante ( published in 2013 by his widow Miriam Cabrera Infante), describes the experience of not being able to leave Cuba during four months, period in which the author had returned to his country in order to attend the funeral of his mother, Zoila Infante in 1965. My reading examines this memoir in its autobiographical dimension and seeks to illuminate the presence in this work of several voices that appear in tension with one another. My study focuses on these voices as it pays attention in particular to the …

Ironie Et Autoréflexivité Dans Un Dimanche Au Cachot De Patrick Chamoiseau, Olga Hel-Bongo

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Social pressures in Patrick Chamoiseau’s novel, Un dimanche au cachot, can be read not only in the theme of slavery, but also as a discourse on the narrative text itself, in which the essay plays an important role, and in the author’s denial of his art and status. Chamoiseau’s intention of subversion is omnipresent through parody or renunciation of all forms of excess. The offensive concerns, on the one hand, the memory of slavery as a social and historical institution transmitting values of order, hierarchy and traumatism in the minds. It concerns the whole narrative act and the relation between …

Alfred Alexandre : Écrivain « Post-Créol(Ist)E » ?, Françoise Simasotchi-Bronès

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Alfred Alexandre’s novels Bord de canal (2004) and Les villes assassines (2011) are set in the poorest urban slums of Fort-de-France. In both novels, the marginal characters exemplify the paradoxes of a Martinican society shifwrecked under the flow of rampant globalization. Alexandre’s portrayal of a decadent urban humanity stands far from the Creole community codes as imagined by the novelists who have preceded him, and signifies his intention to break away from their recurring themes. My purpose, here, is to assess what is truly innovative in this newly labelled “post-Creole” writing. It seems that investing those markedly social and scriptural …

Exilios Secretos Y Sujetos Invisibles: Guillermo Cabrera Infante Y Antonio José Ponte, Isabel Alvarez-Borland

Spanish Department Faculty Scholarship

Mapa dibujado por un espía (2013), memoria póstuma de Guillermo Cabrera Infante, publicada por su viuda Miriam Cabrera Infante, describe la experiencia de no poder salir de Cuba durante cuatro meses, época en la que nuestro autor había regresado a su país para asistir a los funerales de su madre, Zoila Infante en 1965. También en La fiesta vigilada (2007), colección de ensayos y memorias de exilio de Antonio José Ponte, podemos apreciar un horror similar al sufrido por Cabrera Infante. Aquí Ponte elabora un discurso que exibe una sensibilidad exílica que lo identifica con la historia inmediata a su …

L’Envol (En)Chanteur Du Colibri Ou La Poétique Environnementale Du Vivant Dans Les Neuf Consciences Du Malfini De Patrick Chamoiseau, Gwenola Caradec

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article considers Patrick Chamoiseau’s recent work, which has focused increasingly on ecological themes, expressed particularly in one of his latest novels, Les neuf consciences du Malfini (2009). Strongly influenced by his “Master” Édouard Glissant and the latter’s concept of the “Tout-M-Monde” (“Whole-World”), C hamoiseau offers a paradigm shift for the very notion of Nature, revealed to be inseparable from a certain Poetics of Life.

Patrick Chamoiseau Et La Poétique Du «Nomadismecirculaire», Samia Kassab-Charfi

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

By advocating a fluid and metamorphic type of creolity, Patrick Chamoiseau has managed to distance himself from any claim to a particular identity. His latest poetics refute more than ever the elegy of origin and the celebration of race. In Glissant’s footsteps, he experiments with the notion of “circular nomadism”, which becomes a major rite of initiation for many of his characters. That same notion, at the heart of the amorous gravitation by which he unveils the treasures of his sentimenthèque, finally leads to an ethic of transformation, a kind of “eco-philosophy” where every exodus becomes an exordium, a new …

Archéologie Du Cachot, Lydie Moudileno

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This essay examines the relationship between writing, memory and prison, as it is deployed in Patrick Chamoiseau’s tenth novel Un dimanche au cachot (2007). In this text, the inscription of the writer within the space of a small prison located on a Martinican plantation, serves Chamoiseau’s larger project to survey the Caribbean territory in order to unveil memorial traces. As it exhumes the ruins of an old disciplinary prison cell, this archeological move triggers a series of crucial transformations: in Un dimanche au cachot, prison writing reclaims a new glissantian “Lieu”, while making room for a therapeutic way of dealing …