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ABSTRACT
The acceptance and implementation of Roman Catholic teachings on marriage, sexuality, and the family vary both at the individual and at the parish level. While overall, there is a dialectical relationship between gender and religion in the way they inform and mold each other, the majority of research has focused on how religion has shaped gender in communities. We use qualitative data from a Latino immigrant Catholic context in the United States to show the opposite movement: how a Mexican–American gender culture of machismo and marianismo shapes the religious culture in the arenas of marriage and religious authority. The process of incorporating immigrant Mexicans into the dominant culture of the United States takes place in part in these religious centers through the interaction and mixture of Latino gender norms with the therapeutic egalitarianism of the white middle class, through the mediation of priests. Through this, we suggest that there are contexts, times, and places where the gender culture of a community shapes the reception and practice of religion.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Heidemarie Winkel, Elisabeth Arweck, and the anonymous reviewers of the Journal of Contemporary Religion. We would also like to thank Luis Fraga, Tim Matovina, and the participants of the Latino Studies Seminar hosted by the Institute of Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame for their feedback and comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Scholars point out that ethnic stereotyping leads to a monolithic impression of machismo and a negative connotation of these characteristics when applied to Latino men, but to more nuance and a more positive connotation when applied to White or European men (Torres, Solberg, and Carlstrom Citation2002, 164; Nencel Citation1996, 58–60). To avoid essentializing machismo, it is thus important to acknowledge that a variety of traits associated with machismo can lead to gender role conflict and personal stress (Good and Mintz Citation1990). However, often, these traits, which include forcefulness of personality, strength of will, daring, autonomy, being romantic, commitment, responsibility, self-assertiveness, and self-confidence are versatile and can be used to have a positive impact on family relations (Mirandé Citation1997, 67–75).
2. Although the schema of marianismo relies on religious imagery, it is not a religious term used by the church; rather it is a concept developed through the anthropological literature to describe the observed behavior of Latinas in Latino society (Loue and Sajatovic Citation2004, 385–386; Stevens Citation1973, 58–60).
3. Many other gender cultures also dichotomize expectations of men’s and women’s behavior, including American Catholicism. What this article explores are dominant and diffused gender cultures and we choose two very different cultures and investigate their confluence in a particular religious setting.
4. Religious authority can be seen specifically as a form of traditional authority, which rests in the common belief that it is valid (Weber Citation1994, 31). However, the legitimation of this authority, as it manifests in particular relationships between parishioners and priests, is a bond between unequal people (Sennet Citation1993, 10).
5. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act changed the immigration patterns of Mexicans, Central Americans, and South Americans to the United States, decreasing the circular migration common before this date and resulting in the formation of longer-lasting communities (Fry et al. Citation2015, 115).
6. In cases of immigration, interpretation of machismo and marianismo shapes Latinos not only in Catholic settings, as we show here, but also in Protestant communities (Michalka Citation2017, 98–100).
7. Interviewing congregants who had been helped in this way allowed us to collect accounts of family crises that revealed clashes between gender culture and religion and the ways that religion accommodates gender culture. All interviews, conducted between July 2009 and June 2013, took place at a neutral setting, such as a library, or in a setting of the respondents’ choosing, such as a restaurant or their home. They lasted between 45 and 120 minutes, with an average of 75 minutes, and were conducted in the respondents’ preferred language. Interviews in Spanish were first transcribed in Spanish and then translated into English.
8. We interviewed each spouse, Lydia and Eduardo, separately. Their names, like all the names of respondents in this article, are pseudonyms to protect individuals’ identities. Interviews with Lydia and Eduardo and other parishioners were conducted in Spanish and translated into English by the authors. At St. Stanislaus, we interviewed eight women and four men. Interviews with the bilingual priests, Father Tom and Father Michael, were conducted in English.
9. Repeatedly in our interviews, pregnancy was a catalyst for family formation or for increased efforts to improve the family relationship.
10. Although we highlight Eduardo and Lydia’s example, they were by no means the only respondents revealing this pattern. Their experience was a clear example of the processes that appeared at work in the lives of many immigrant Mexicans at St. Stanislaus.
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Karen Hooge Michalka
Karen Hooge Michalka is a PhD graduate from the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. Her areas of study are culture, religion, embodiment, and Latino immigration.
Mary Ellen Konieczny
Mary Ellen Konieczny (1960–2018) was Associate Professor of Sociology and Henkels Family Collegiate Chair in the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. Her research focused on religion, culture, social theory, family, and political sociology.
CORRESPONDENCE: Karen Hooge Michalka, Department of Sociology, 7500 University Drive, University of Mary, Bismarck, ND, 58504, USA