Abstract
Rural Midwest communities are important sites of social reproduction. In many communities the experiences of Latinx community members highlight the complexities of rural belonging. I examine how a Virgen de Guadalupe procession promotes ethnoreligious solidarity and challenges imaginations of the rural Midwest. I draw from ethnographic data including semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and direct observations to highlight how the celebration enacts solidarity and challenges stereotypes. I argue that this celebration illustrates the importance of bodily expressions of solidarity in rural spaces for Latinx people and immigrants—people who are integral to the lived reality of the Midwest—but challenges romanticized, idealized, and nostalgic imaginations of rural life.
Resumen
Las comunidades rurales del Medio Oeste de los Estados Unidos son lugares importantes de reproducción social. En muchas comunidades las experiencias de las personas de la comunidad latina realzan las complejidades de la pertenencia en áreas rurales. Examinamos cómo la procesión de la Virgen de Guadalupe promueve la solidaridad etnoreligiosa y cuestiona el imaginario del Medio Oeste rural. Partimos de datos etnográficos que incluyen entrevistas semiestructuradas, observaciones de participantes y observaciones directas para destacar cómo esta celebración propicia la solidaridad y reta los estereotipos. Argumentamos que la celebración ilustra la importancia que tienen las expresiones corporales de solidaridad en los espacios rurales para las personas latinas e inmigrantes —personas que son fundamentales para la realidad vivida en el Medio Oeste— pero también cuestiona el imaginario romantizado, idealizado y nostálgico de la vida rural.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
All names of people and towns are pseudonyms.
In using the terms white and Latinx, I recognize that any naming practice is incomplete and displaces other possibilities. Locals in Leonville often used the terms “Anglo” and “americano/American” to refer to mostly white, English-speaking, US-born community members. I never heard anyone except scholars use the term Latinx. Spanish-speaking people of Latin American origins or heritage often referred to themselves through nationality. English-speakers also commonly used the term Hispanic. Statistically, the most common Latinx national origin/heritage was Mexican, and most people racialized as Latinx were fluent in Spanish. I use Latinx because it includes the diversity of race, national origin, immigrant status, legal status, and language proficiencies that exist in the local community discussed here. Additionally, Latinx highlights intersectionality in its use of “x” to disrupt the gender binary and signal the inclusion of queer and non-binary community members. The choice here to use Latinx and white should not be understood to mean that these are accurate, complete, or definitive terms. For further reading see (Aparicio 2019; Dávila 2008; Flores-Gonzalez 2017; Oboler 2006; Plascencia 2012; Rosa 2019).
Cinco de mayo (Fifth of May) is a commemoration of the 1862 Battle of Puebla against the French and 16 de septiembre (16 September) marks Independence Day in Mexico.
Recognition of indigeneity in both Mexico and the United States is complex, celebrated and romanticized in a distant past and denied in the present. While indigeneity is perhaps not a primary focus of this Guadalupe celebration, it is closely linked here with notions of humility, identity as a laborer, and authenticity.
References
Aparicio, F. 2019. Negotiating Latinidad: Intralatina/o Lives in Chicago. Latinos in Chicago and the Midwest. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Baker, P. 2004. “It Is the Only Way I Can Survive”: Gender Paradox among Recent Immigrants to Iowa. Sociological Perspectives 47 (4): 393–408.
Crane, K., and A. Millard. 2004. “To Be with My People”: Latino Churches in the Rural Midwest. In Apple Pie & Enchiladas: Latino Newcomers in the Rural Midwest, ed. Ann V. Millard and Jorge Chapa, 172–195. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Davalos, K. 2002. “‘The Real Way of Praying”: The Via Crucis, Mexicano Sacred Space, and the Architecture of Domination. In Horizons of the Sacred: Mexican Traditions in U.S. Catholicism, edited by SVD Timothy Matovina and Gary Riebe-Estrella. Cushwa Center Studies of Catholicism in Twentieth-Century America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Dávila, A. 2008. Latino Spin: Public Image and the Whitewashing of Race. New York: New York University Press.
Flores, W. 1997. Citizens vs. Citizenry: Undocumented Immigrants and Latino Cultural Citizenship. In Latino Cultural Citizenship: Claiming Identity, Space, and Rights, ed. William V. Flores and Rina Benmayor, 255–277. Boston: Beacon Press.
Flores, W., and R. Benmayor. 1997. Constructing Cultural Citizenship. In Latino Cultural Citizenship: Claiming Identity, Space, and Rights, ed. William V. Flores and Rina Benmayor, 1–26. Boston: Beacon Press.
Flores-Gonzalez, N. 2017. Citizens but Not Americans: Race and Belonging among Latino Millenials. New York: New York University Press.
García, L., and M. Rúa. 2007. Processing Latinidad: Mapping Latino Urban Landscapes through Chicago Ethnic Festivals. Latino Studies 5: 317–339.
Holmes, S. 2013. Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmwrokers in the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Jefferds, M., and A. Millard. 2004. En Pocas Palabras v. the Virgin of Guadalupe: Admittance in Question. In Apple Pie & Enchiladas: Latino Newcomers in the Rural Midwest, ed. Ann V. Millard and Jorge Chapa. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Kanter, D. 2012. Making Mexican Parishes: Ethnic Succession in Chicago Churches, 1947–1977. U.S. Catholic Historian 30 (1): 35–58.
Matovina, T. 2005. Guadalupe and Her Faithful: Latino Catholics in San Antonio, from Colonial Origins to the Present. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Millard, A., and J. Chapa, eds. 2004. Apple Pie & Enchiladas: Latino Newcomers in the Rural Midwest. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Miraftab, F. 2016. Global Heartland: Displaced Labor, Transnational Lives, and Local Placemaking. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Napolitano, V. 2009. The Virgin of Guadalupe: A Nexus of Affect. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 15: 96–112.
Nelson, L., and N. Hiemstra. 2008. Latino Immigrants and the Renegotiation of Place and Belonging in Small Town America. Social & Cultural Geography 9 (3): 319–342. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649360801990538.
Oboler, S., ed. 2006. Latinos and Citizenship: The Dilemma of Belonging. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Peña, E. 2011. Performing Piety: Making Space Sacred with the Virgin of Guadalupe. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Plascencia, L. 2012. Disenchanting Citizenship: Mexican Migrants and the Boundaries of Belonging. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Rosa, J. 2019. Looking Like a Language, Sounding Like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the Learning of Latinidad. Oxford Studies in the Anthropology of Language. New York: Oxford University Press.
Shankar, S. 2008. Desi Land: Teen Culture, Class, and Success in Silicon Valley. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Taylor, D. 1993. Negotiating Performance. In Latin American Theatre Review, ed. D. Taylor and Juan Villegas, 49–57. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Vega, S. 2012. The Politics of Everyday Life: Mexican Hoosiers and Ethnic Belonging at the Crossroads of America. City & Society 24 (2): 196–217. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-744X.2012.01075.x.
Vega, S. 2015. Latino Heartland: Of Borders and Belonging in the Midwest. New York: New York University Press.
Wright, M. 2010. Femicide, Mother-Activism, and the Geography of Protest in Northern Mexico. In Making a Killing: Femicide, Free Trade, and La Frontera, ed. Alicia Gaspar de Alba and Georgina Guzmán, 211–242. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to all the community members who taught me so much about rural life and community-making. Deepest gratitude also to all the supportive people who helped me shape this piece. Special thanks to the Latino Studies editors and anonymous reviewers for their work, encouragement, and thoughtful comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ortiz, C. Rural belonging and solidarity: A guadalupe celebration. Lat Stud 20, 175–193 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41276-022-00370-7
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41276-022-00370-7