Sowing the Sacred

podcastOPTalksBooks
Written By Open Plaza

Dr. João Chaves talks to Dr. Lloyd Barba about his recent book on Mexican Pentecostal farmworkers in California, 1916-1966

 
 

In this episode of OP Talks, Dr. Joao Chaves and Dr. Lloyd Barba discuss his new book  Sowing the Sacred: Mexican Pentecostal Farmworkers in California (Oxford University Press 2022), which recasts the history of religion in the American West during the 20th century through the lens of the Mexican-American farmworker. Dr. Barba uses photographs, documents, and oral histories to chart the development of Pentecostalism among Mexican-American migrant laborers in California's agricultural industry from the 1910s to the 1960s. He explores how La Asamblea Apostólica de la Fe en Cristo Jesús managed to carve out “a robust socio-religious existence” despite the dehumanizing and substandard conditions migrant workers were relinquished to. The book tells an “intimate story of sacred-space making” while exploring the larger picture of U.S. labor and Chicano history.

“This historical telling of this minoritized religious group,” says Barba, “it challenges some of our assumptions about who is included [in] the story of American religion.” Sowing the Sacred challenges “the perspective of everything in U.S. religious history [as starting] from the East…Let’s just center the West in this study. Let’s center a minoritized religious and racial group.”

 

OP WRITES

Sacred Fields, Sacred Nostalgia

Dr. Lloyd D. Barba presents excerpts from his recent book on Mexican Pentecostal farmworkers in California

 

Sowing the Sacred: Mexican Pentecostal Farmworkers in California
by Lloyd Daniel Barba
Oxford University Press, 2022

"A terrific glimpse into previously untold histories, Sowing the Sacred is 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, 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 Ramirez
Associate Professor of American Religions, Claremont Graduate University

DISCOUNT CODE for purchase of PAPERBACK (ships out from mid-July to early August) or HARDCOVER: AAFLYG6

 
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Lloyd Barba

Dr. Lloyd D. Barba is Assistant Professor of Religion and core faculty in Latinx and Latin American Studies at Amherst College. He holds a PhD from University of Michigan, an MA from University of Michigan, and a BA from University of the Pacific. He has published essays on the history of race and religion, Pentecostalism, Catholicism, the Sanctuary Movement, and material religion. Dr. Barba is the author of Sowing the Sacred: Mexican Pentecostal Farmworkers in California, 1916-1966 (Oxford University Press, 2022).

Featured
João Chaves

Dr. João Chaves is Assistant Professor of Evangelism and Mission at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Associate Director for Programming at the Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI). He holds a PhD in Religion from Baylor University, and has presented and published his research broadly, both in English and in Portuguese. Dr. Chaves is the author of four books, including Migrational Religion: Context and Creativity in the Latinx Diaspora (Baylor University Press, 2021) and The Global Mission of the Jim Crow South: Southern Baptist Missions and the Shaping of Latin American Evangelicalism (Mercer University Press, 2022). His forthcoming book, co-written with Mikeal Parsons, is titled Remembering Antônia Teixeira: A Story if Missions, Violence, and Institutional Hypocrisy (Eerdmans, 2023). He has contributed to numerous book reviews, peer-reviewed articles, and chapters in larger works. His ongoing projects include editing “Christianity, Race, and Ethnicity: Latinx Critical Conversations on Identity Construction and Religious Participation” for Perspectives in Religious Studies (Winter 2022) and co-editing, with T. Laine Scales, the forthcoming book Baptists and the Kingdom of God (Baylor University Press, 2023). Dr. Chaves is also co-editor for the Perspectives on Baptist Identity book series, published by Mercer University Press, and works with the Editorial Board for the HTI Series on Religion and Theology En Conjunto, a book series published by Baylor University Press.

 
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