Embracing Latina Spirituality

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"The richness of Latina spirituality can be a source for all Catholic women to find the celebration amidst the struggle and the sacred in the everyday."

Latinas treat the sacred in ways that are similar to the ways we treat those we encounter every day: They converse with statues of saints and Mary, leave them flowers and light candles to persuade them to gain favor for us, and become angry when prayers are not answered. These everyday aspects of Latina spirituality reflect a strong sense of family and community that we can embrace as a refreshing spiritual alternative to the individualism that permeates our society.

Entering into the world of Latina spirituality offers new ways to understand self and community and to approach prayer, diversity and the struggle against oppression. Latina spirituality provides us an entry point into true unity.

Michelle A. Gonzalez, Ph.D., is assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Miami. She received her doctorate in systematic and philosophical theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She spent two years working with a Mayan community in San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala. Her research and teaching interests include Latino/a, Latin American and feminist theologies, as well as interdisciplinary work in Afro-Cuban studies. She wrote Sor Juana: Beauty and Justice in the Americas and Afro-Cuban Theology: Religion, Race, Culture and Identity.