Christianity among Hispanic and Latino Americans
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Latinos and Hispanics are predominantly Christians in the United States. Specifically, they are most often Roman Catholic.
Roman Catholicism
The Spaniards took the Roman Catholic faith to Latin America, and Roman Catholicism continues to be the largest, but not the only, religious denomination amongst most Hispanics.
Among the Hispanic Catholics, most communities celebrate their homeland's patron saint, dedicating a day for this purpose with festivals and religious services. Some Hispanics syncretize Roman Catholicism and African or Native American rituals and beliefs despite the Catholic Church's teachings against such syncretic combinations of Catholicism and paganism.
Such is the case of Santería, popular with Cuban Americans and Puerto Ricans and which combines old African beliefs in the form of Roman Catholic saints and rituals; or Guadalupism (the devotion towards Our Lady of Guadalupe) among Mexican American Roman Catholics. This latter hybridizes Catholic rites for the Virgin Mary with those venerating the Aztec goddess Tonantzin (earth goddess, mother of the gods and protector of humanity) and has all her attributes also endowed to the Lady of Guadalupe, whose Catholic shrine stands on the same sacred Aztec site that had previously been dedicated to Tonatzín, on the hill of Tepeyac in Mexico.
Other Christian denominations
A significant number of Hispanics are also Protestant, and several Protestant denominations (particularly Evangelical ones) have vigorously proselytized in Hispanic communities.
Trends
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See also
- Christianity
- Christianity by country
- Catholic Church by country
- Religion in Latin America
- Religion in Mexico
- Religion in Brazil
- Religion in Cuba
- Religion in Puerto Rico
- Religion in Colombia
- Religion in Venezuela
- Religion in Argentina
