Transnational meanings of La Virgen de Guadalupe: Religiosity, space and culture at Plaza Mexico

Abstract

In this paper, we examine Plaza Mexico in Lynwood, California, a magnet for Latino communities from throughout the greater Los Angeles region, to show immigrants' use of space to produce transnational communities as coherent. One of the key ways that immigrant identity is formed in this space is through cultural religiosity. Despite the fact that Plaza Mexico is a shopping mall, the place gathers participation from Mexican immigrants and Latinos of other national origins at key times of religious expression during the year. Following what Holloway calls ‘enchanted space’, we analyse the Day of the Dead celebration (2 November) and the Virgen de Guadalupe celebration (during and after 12 December) to discuss the transformation of the mall into a multidimensional place that encompasses secular, religious, cultural and political expressions. We show how Plaza Mexico provides a rich location from which to understand transnational cultural connections and familial transmissions of culture between different generations of immigrants which we term ‘affective connectivity’.

Keywords:

• transnationalism
• Plaza Mexico
• cultural religiosity
• Los Angeles Latinos
• Virgen de Guadalupe
• Day of the Dead
• space
• ethnic identity

Notes

1. [email protected]

2. In fact, in highly religious immigrant communities like those of Latino/a population, congregations and congregational spaces, whether it is conventional Catholic churches, storefront spaces or Evangelical spaces converted from movie theatres have conventionally formed the backbone of a community (Espinosa, Elizondo, and Mirando 2005; Miller, Jon, and Dyrness 2001, 2002).

3. Here and subsequently, all names of informants have been given pseudonyms, except for the Plaza managers who were too easily identifiable because of their position, to ensure the privacy of responses. In the case of the Plaza managers, we obtained permission to cite their responses.

4. Macarena Gómez-Barris, Field notes, 12 December 2007.

5. Jarocho is a kind of regional Mexican music and dance. In recent years, there has been a revival of this type of music and dance on both sides of the US/Mexico border, including these bi-national festivals where bands from both countries get together for an intensive cultural exchange.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Clara Irazábal

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