Description
Book SynopsisSowing the Sacred traces the development of Mexican-American Pentecostalism among farmworkers from the 1910s to the 1960s, drawing on oral histories, photographs taken by farmworkers, and material from new archival collections to tell an intimate story of sacred-space making in a context of labor exploitation.
Trade ReviewA terrific glimpse into previously untold histories, Sowing the Sacred is a beautiful, moving, and an important work of scholarship on the material and spiritual lives of ethnic Mexican farmworkers and church leaders in California. Please read this book. * Jacqueline M. Hidalgo, Professor of Latina/o/x Studies and Religion, Williams College *
With a beautiful mix of photographs, oral histories, and archival research, Barba gracefully uncovers the tragic and resilient worlds of Mexican Pentecostal farmworkers as they labored in the fields, created sacred spaces, and lived dignified lives in the American West. Sowing the Sacred more than fills a significant gap in the literature on Latina/o religion and labor, it changes the field entirely. Simply put, this book is groundbreaking. * Felipe Hinojosa, author of Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio *
Sowing the Sacred impressively reframes the history of proletarian religion in California's harsh agribusiness. Lloyd Barba deftly demonstrates how subaltern Pentecostal farmworkers sacralized the very soil and water of their labor and fired the imaginations of key Chicano/a Movement leaders. * Daniel Ramírez, Associate Professor of American Religions, Claremont Graduate University *
Sowing the Sacred successfully places the sacred stories and laboring bodies of Apostólicos front and center, offering the reader not just a window into the past, but entirely new sets of lenses through which to examine, uncover, and admire the fruit of a completely different kind of "labor" that left a permanent mark on U.S. and Mexican history. * Gaby Viesca, George Fox University *
Sowing the Sacred: Mexican Pentecostal Farmworkers in California by Lloyd Daniel Barba is a beautifully told and rigorously researched history of a subaltern religious denomination in California's agricultural farmlands. * David Flores, Department of Ethnic Studies, Sacramento State University, Sacramento, CA, USA *
Sowing the Sacred is more than a history of Mexican Pentecostal farmworkers in California. It is an excavation, unearthing a religious tradition that's been buried beneath social prejudice and scholarly neglect. * Christian Century *
An important contribution Sowing the Sacred gives us is the way it adds to the historical texture of the United States' design of labor laws and practices regarding farmworkers and capitalistic production of the fields. * Yara González-Justiniano, Divinity School Vanderbilt University *
Sowing the Sacred successfully places the sacred stories and laboring bodies of Apostólicos front and center, offering the reader not just a window into the past, but entirely new sets of lenses through which to examine, uncover, and admire the fruit of a completely different kind of "labor" that left a permanent mark on U.S. and Mexican history. * Gaby Viesca, The Perspectivas *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction: The Sacralized Profane Chapter 1: Sacred Routes: Mapping the Church Chapter 2: Sacred Waters: Baptizing the Church Chapter 3: Sacred Fields: Building the Church Chapter 4: Sacred Talents: Maturing the Church Chapter 5: Sacred Nostalgia: Remembering the Church Conclusion: The Sacred Beyond the Profane Bibliography
