Much of the work on Latino/a Pentecostalism has emphasized orthodox Trinitarian streams. This work focuses on Apostolic Pentecostals, who are largely non-Trinitarian or have theologically “economic” or proto-modalist Trinitarian stances. Daniel Ramírez, an assistant professor of American Culture and History at the University of Michigan, describes his project as follows: “This book traces the evolution of a major tributary of Mexican/Chicano Pentecostalism, Apostolicism” (8).
Chapter one (“Pentecostal Origins in the Borderlands”) explores the origins of the self-described Apostolic movement within the context of older mainline denominations (e.g., Methodist) and Pentecostal groups. Ramírez shows how the initial major manifestations of Pentecostalism at Azusa Street in Los Angeles were ethnically integrated. However, African Americans and Hispanics soon became increasingly disenfranchised and that helped to develop some of the more heterodox theology we see in Apostolicism.
Chapter two (“Pentecostal Origins in Northern Mexico and Southern Texas”) focuses on the growth of Pentecostalism in southern Texas and northern Mexico in the years 1914 to 1930. Ramírez discusses the effects of the Mexican revolution on the growth of the Apostolic movement, and the pioneering role of some women (e.g., Romana Carbajal de Valenzuela), whose memory and stature were diminished by later male leaders.
During the 1930s, mass deportations from the United States meant that Apostolic Pentecostals, many of whom were American citizens, had to readapt to Mexican culture. Chapter three (“Persecution and Expansion: Repatriado Histories”) focuses mainly on some important figures (e.g., Francisco Avalos, Pedro and Ysidro Pérez, Maclovio Gaxiola), who were repatriated and/or were driving forces in the evolution of Apostolicism in new directions.
Chapter four (“Borderland Solidarity”) discusses the effect of the Bracero Program, initiated in 1942, to alleviate labor shortages caused by American men fighting in World War II. The musical talents of the Alvarado Brothers exemplify how repatriation and xenophobia could present new opportunities for further consolidation of Apostolicism. Congregations could function as nodes to assist a sort of revolving migration between Mexico and the United States.
Some of the fissures that challenged the harmony between the Mexican and Mexican American streams of Apostolic Pentecostalism form a principal theme of Chapter five (“The Texture of Transnational Apostolicism”). The chapter also treats the tensions between Catholics and Pentecostals in Mexico.
According to Ramírez, the concluding “Chapter 6 [‘Can the Pentecostal Subaltern Sing?’] plunges into the musical archive in order to trace the continuities and discontinuities between the missionary repertoire and its robust Pentecostal competitor” (16). Ramírez seeks to rethink and deconstruct the idea that Pentecostals are apolitical. Apostolic Pentecostals can be “both Pentecostal and socially engaged or migratory and politically active” (17).
The chapter challenges the idea of earlier scholars (e.g., Lalive d'Epinay, Leslie Gill), who portrayed Pentecostals as “hopelessly disengaged in their sectarian enclaves from meaningful societal commitment, or, worse, passive dupes available for right-wing manipulation” (201). An appendix is devoted to the discography of the famed Hermanos Alvarado, who pioneered Pentecostal music.
A number of major themes are interwoven throughout the book. One is transnationalism, which locates the evolution of Apostolic Pentecostals as a sort of interaction of people on both sides of the border, especially in the wake of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and in the aftermath of the mass deportations of the 1930s.
Portraying Apostolic Pentecostalism as a subaltern movement is another major theme. Ramírez says that he does not wish to romanticize the subaltern, but he also points out how “subaltern Pentecostal actors widened social and political crevasses in order to make room for new religious options” (10). Pentecostalism also “eschewed Victorian propriety in favor of ecstatic worship, the multiracial embrace of bodies, and female leadership” (10). Music is another constant theme that served as both a theological and motivational vehicle for recruiting new converts and retaining enthusiasm in members.
Ramírez has performed a valuable service by filling in some gaps in the history and sociology of Mexican and Mexican American Pentecostalism. The book, which focuses on the American southwest and northern Mexico, can also be viewed as part of a growing shift away from an older historiography of American Christianity, which privileged the Northeast, and Euroamerican actors.
There are a number of claims in this work that may need to be challenged or explored further. For example, Ramírez says that his book “also posits a view of Latino USA as the northernmost Latin American country” (9). This seems to overlook the small but very vibrant Latino/a communities of Canada. Canada has about a 5–6 percent population described as “Latin American,” according to some estimates. That may be low compared to the United States today, but it would be comparable to the percentages in the United States in some of the earlier periods that Ramírez is studying.
Despite the emphasis on Pentecostalism as a subaltern movement, Pentecostal Christianity may also be viewed as part of a Christian imperialist project that seeks to extend the Christian empire to non-Christians. While this imperialist project may be carried out by the more marginalized sectors of Christianity, these sectors are operating within a larger ideology that still deems Christianity as part of a superior civilization that needs to be extended to those less “civilized,” “lost,” or in need of salvation.
There are some studies omitted from the book that may strengthen some of Ramírez's points. For example, there is no reference to Maria Atkinson, who is often mentioned as the “mother” of the Pentecostal Church of God (headquartered in Cleveland, Tenn.) in Mexico. Her initial elevated status in the church was later diminished when male leaders, some of whom she trained, became more prominent. For more information, see Hector Avalos's article, “Maria Atkinson and the Rise of Pentecostalism in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands” (Journal of Religion and Society 3 [2001]).
Ramírez's research alleviates some crucial lacunae in the academic study of Pentecostalism among U.S. Latinos/as. It is an important study, and one can only hope that the author continues to recover and enrich the history of Latino/a Pentecostals.
