Apostles of Change

Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio

Felipe Hinojosa

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781477322000
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Hispanic American Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This "important and well-researched" study of 1960s urban Latino activism and religion is "brimming with the ideas and voices of... Latinx activists" (Llana Barber, author of Latino City ). In the late 1960s, American cities found themselves in steep decline, with poor and working-class families hit the hardest. Many urban religious institutions debated whether to move to the suburbs. Against the backdrop of the Black and Brown Power movements, which challenged economic inequality and white supremacy, young Latino radicals began occupying churches and disrupting services to compel church communities to join their protests against urban renewal, poverty, police brutality, and racism. Apostles of Change tells the story of these occupations and establishes their context within the urban crisis. It underscores the tensions they created and the activists' bold, new vision for the church and the world. Through case studies from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Houston, Felipe Hinojosa reveals how Latino freedom movements crossed the boundaries of faith and politics. He argues that understanding these radical politics is essential to understanding the dynamic changes in Latino religious groups from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.