Milagros Peña

Latina religious practice : Analyzing cultural dimensions in measures of religiosity

This article explores aspects of Latina culture and how it shapes dimensions of Latina religiosity. This issue is important, because as the authors argue more often Latinas are discussed as victims of their societies and less often as agents of social change. Latinas play central roles in their communities, particularly in the religious cultural sphere where their influence has shaped religious practice and beliefs. We argue that analyzing cultural beliefs and practices are necessary elements of understanding religiosity that have implications for measuring religiosity.

Devising a study on religion and the latina experience

The author looks at Latina women in the United States and their contributions to the mosaic of religious social patterns. The underlying assumption here is that Latinas/os, like other ethnic groups, have made their mark shaping religious practices. The article builds on notions that gender, ethnic, and race foci in our research expand our knowledge of the nuances in the mosaic of religious practice. The sociology of religion would be left behind if it did not challenge the restrictive ways the field has looked at religious practice and expression. What methodological approaches and what questions we ask are important to enriching research on religion in the United States and elsewhere. Here the author suggests that both questionnaire and focus group interviewing are particularly useful in studying a multiethnic and multilingual community, because the two-pronged approach brings out the complexity of religious beliefs and practice.