The Evangelical Latinx Voter and the Complexity of Collective Identity

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Written By Open Plaza

Dr. Jonathan Calvillo and Dr. Erica Ramírez unmask the ‘sleeping giant’

 

Sociologists Dr. Erica Ramírez and Dr. Jonathan Calvillo discuss the Latinx vote—the so-called "sleeping giant"—that seems to resurface every election cycle. Latinos are often touted as a coveted swing vote that can collectively pivot elections. What these pronouncements often fail to recognize is that Latinos are not an easy voting group to pin down, considering the diversity of the Latinx "community." A third of Latina/os have consistently voted Republican since the Richard Nixon administration. At the same time, in this election cycle, Latinx donors overwhelmingly spent their dollars on progressive Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders. Though Latinx voters are not a single-issue constituency, both sociologists agree that treatment of immigrants is a matter of justice. According to Dr. Ramírez, the plight of undocumented laborers is part of a trajectory in which all of us, "as a labor force, have lost a lot of protections in the United States.”

Featured
Jonathan Calvillo

Dr. Jonathan Calvillo is Assistant Professor of Sociology of Religion at Boston University School of Theology. His teaching and research center on the sociological study of religion, race and ethnicity, and immigration. His scholarship examines how religious affiliation influences ethnic identity construction among Latinxs. His new book, The Saints of Santa Ana, from Oxford University Press, examines how practices of lived religion shape ethnic identity among Catholic and evangelical Mexican immigrants. Through his ethnographic research at numerous churches, Dr. Calvillo has contributed to the Latino Protestant Congregations project, which spotlights themes of worship practices, ethnic identity, and community engagement in Latinx churches. Additionally, he has conducted neighborhood-based research within urban, Latinx communities, examining how lived religion shapes collective identities. Alongside his qualitative research, he is currently conducting archival research on Latinx congregations and religious movements. Finally, Dr. Calvillo is conducting an oral history project on hip hop, ethnoracial identities, and spirituality among Latinxs. Born and raised in Southern California, Dr. Calvillo is a second-generation Mexican American. He resides with his partner Nani and their three children in the city of Boston, MA.

Contributors
Erica Ramírez

Dr. Erica M. Ramírez is Director of Applied Research at Auburn Seminary. A fifth-generation Texan, with deep roots in San Antonio, she was previously the Richard B. Parker Assistant Professor of Wesleyan Thought and Heritage at Portland Seminary in Portland, Oregon. Ramirez holds a PhD in Sociology of Religion at Drew University, where she studied under the late Otto Maduro, a leading sociologist of his generation. Her dissertation revisited the Azusa Street mission revival through the frame of the maternal divine, working with themes of revolution, disruption, and the carnivalesque. With broad interests in religion, contemporary politics, and culture, Dr. Ramirez is particularly interested in “how radical religious traditions present as a challenge to and resource against social oppression.” Bridging popular and scholarly audiences, she co-wrote an article on Pentecostals and Donald Trump for The Washington Post and has contributed scholarly articles to Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion, Canadian Journal of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity, and Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. She has presented academic papers to the Society for Pentecostal Studies, Association for the Sociology of Religion, and the Red de Investigadores de Fenómenos Religiosos Annual Meeting. Dr. Ramirez is a Hispanic Theological Initiative scholar and a fellow of both the Forum for Theological Exploration and the Louisville Institute. She has three children with her husband, Chris: Judah, Julia, and Camilla.

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