Latino Churches: Faith, Family, and Ethnicity in the Second Generation (New Americans)

Crane's work shows how a significant number of Latino youth born in the rural Midwest have stayed involved in church out of ethnic and family solidarity. Although these youths do not show the same zeal and enthusiasm for certain traditions held dear by their parents, they have kept the church as a vital social space for expressing their own spirituality and ethnic identity. Latino churches, in turn, are effective in shaping the lives of youth because they function both as supporters and extensions of the family. The family-congregation nexus combines to enable a more selective form of acculturation that maintains a high-level of family cohesion and linguistic-cultural continuity. Crane's study shows that religion continues to increase the diversity of society rather than facilitate the "incorporation" of ethnic groups into a cultural "mainstream."