A Light to Reach for: Religion in the Hispanic Community

In uptown New York around Washington Heights in Harlem, there is a Christian church called the Iglesia Pentecostal Unida LatinoAmericana, Inc. This church is a haven for many of Latino community around Spanish Harlem as the neighborhood is sometimes called. At this neighborhood lives my aunt who also now regularly goes to this particular church. In my lectures of American Religious Text, I have discovered many things of importance regarding religion. I feel as if I have a whole new perspective on God and how religions can affect us all.

Anyways, my aunt is certainly, as far I know, the most religious of my family. She was originally Catholic. She grew up and was raised Catholic as a matter of fact before converting to Christianity. After living through strenuously rough situations in her life, she eventually converted to Catholic and started attending this church. One of the themes in my lectures was pertaining to how individuals may feel a strong need to be sheltered by their belief. Faith is powerful enough to comfort those going through hardships and in my aunt’s case it seemed Catholicism was not strong enough to enlighten her. I was able to see the clear difference in Catholicism and Christianity throughout my lectures. It felt to me like Christian followers who go to a church like this one are bound to find more solace and rejoice in their community. That is a key word in what I find would be a reason for Catholics to want to covert to Christianity- community. This is not to say that Catholics can’t be a community but after reading the works of many writers I now find the Catholic religion to be more monk-like or quieter as opposed to Christianity which I believe in most areas they seem to be much more active and aggressive in their worship. The community of Latinos that come to this church range from Dominican, Columbian, and Mexican just to name a few. My aunt in a sense reminds me of Jarena Lee. She’s almost like a Spanish version to me because when she started going through her depression and problems in the eighties, she went around to many churches and religious communities before finally setting on what she became happy with. This is certainly not the first church she stepped to but it works for now. It is a wonderful place of love and worship for anyone looking for hope or to escape loneliness.

This lamp is an item that was given to my aunt. It's from this church. In ancient times, these lamps were nothing more than a metal base with a light soaked in oil. There were a variety of them, some simple while others more fancy. They were used to light up the house, to read biblical things, and to light the way. According to legend and stories out there you may hear, these lamps were analogies and synonymous with us. In another words, that we are the light in darkness.