Mestizaje and Hibridez: Latin@ Identity in Pneumatological Perspective

In this ground-breaking work, Daniel Alvarez draws upon his significant pastoral experience and his academic training to develop a Pentecostal theology of immigration. Seeking to place the concepts of mestizaje (‘intermixture’) and hibridez (‘racial and cultural intermixture’) into conversation in order to construct a pneumatological approach to the issue of immigration; specifically, undocumented immigration. Through dialogue with mestizaje the author seeks to come to terms with undocumented immigration and to propose a genesis of a theology of undocumented immigration. By bringing hibridez into the conversation Alvarez provides ways of speaking about undocumented immigration that point to the reasons and causes for undocumented immigration in the first place, nuancing this condition and examining the work of the Spirit of God in the midst of these people. Mirroring the tension between the immanent God and the transcendent God in Pentecostal praxis, the author highlights the tension between identitad (‘identity’) and otredad (‘otherness’) in order to identify the constant back-and-forth process that shapes these people through hibridez. Dispelling stereotypical ways of speaking about Latinos in the U.S., Alvarez demonstrates the necessity of taking each nationality and people group into consideration, as he models in interviews with Honduran Pentecostals. This analysis that focuses on the perspective of pneumatic peoples enriches considerably the broader theological conversations about immigration.