(Narrative by Cate Stewart, Holy Cross ´24)

The diversity of religious beliefs and practices among the Latino community of Worcester is representative of national and global trends over the past century. While Roman Catholicism is still the dominant faith, Protestant evangelical religions have made increasing inroads, as have other Christian and non-Christian inspired faith traditions (Adventist, Buddhist, Episcopal, Methodist, Non-denominational, Unitarian, among others). Within Catholicism, as is true historically, there are also many diverse movements, ranging from the more conservative and hierarchical, such as Opus Dei, to left-leaning theologies of liberation. The traditional religious practices of Mexican-American Catholics, for instance, differ in their mode of expression from those of Irish-American Catholics, or from the manner in which the faith is embodied in other Latin American countries. Additional forms of religious diversity include African-inspired Spiritist traditions such as Santería, with roots in the Greater Caribbean, as well as indigenous-inspired varieties of Spiritism in many parts of the Americas. Whatever the faith tradition, notions of lo sagrado (the sacred) are central to the lived experience of the Latino community and to Latino family life, as exemplified in this section of the Somos Worcester exhibit.