Paul Malandra on Religiosity and Cultural Phenomena in Latin America

Take a tour of any city in Latin America, and on it you will find a prominent cathedral. Travel off the traditional tourist trail and you will stumble upon a religious festival, a makeshift shrine or simply a small crucifix hanging in a bedroom. To many, these may seem like signs of dogmatism or overt religiosity. Indeed, the stereotypical perception of religion in Latin America is that it is doctrinal, fervent, and above all, Catholic. However, through my experiences in Chile and Ecuador, I have seen that in reality they are just different ways of expressing the same religion as a cultural phenomenon that exists in the United States. In my experience, a prominent difference between the public religion experience in Latin America and the United States is one of symbolism, and misunderstanding results for a failure to comprehend the symbols of one another.

Religion in Latin America is a cultural beacon no different in theory than the religion as a culture phenomenon that exists in the United States. For example, in the United States, it is not uncommon for non-practicing Catholics to identify their neighborhoods by parish communities that they do not regularly attend. In this way, what a foreigner perceives as fervent religion is not so. Does the town come to the festival honoring the Virgin Mary because of deeply held religious beliefs or because it is a social and cultural tradition? Is the difference black and white or shades of gray? In both cases, religion serves as a community force resulting from historical or cultural processes that have been captured by or have co-opted an institutional force, in this case Roman Catholicism.

Nevertheless, upon my return to the United States, I have been asked many times if my host family attended Church, if I had to go to with them, and how their religious beliefs colored my experience. It seems that a consistent fear, or at least concern, among new host students is that their family life in Latin America will force them into uncomfortable religious situations as their more liberal or agnostic views clash with the more conservative faiths of their host families. Indeed, the stereotype of a traditional dogmatic Catholicism in Latin America exists in spite of the enormous influence of the decidedly un-traditional liberation theology in the region. The idea that the Catholic Church exerts undo influence over public policy is also rebutted by recent policies, as Argentina approved same-sex marriage over strong objections of the institutional Church.

Thus, religious misunderstanding between the United States and Latin America seems to truly derive not from qualitative or dogmatic differences but from those that are perceived – the symbols of each region’s religious traditions – and is much more a cultural phenomenon than a religious one. The implications of this were particularly helpful to me in my cultural immersion process. For example, once I started to perceive the religious differences I saw as those of symbolism, I was able to view public and private religious art not as an imposition of religion on society but as a manifestation of the culture in which I was immersed.