Negotiating Belonging: Race, Class, and Religion in the Brazilian Quest for “Becoming American”

This study examines how members of a majority second-generation Brazilian church in South Florida perceive their English-speaking, “American” congregation compared to the Portuguese-speaking Brazilian congregation from which they originated. Data for this research are drawn from in-depth, open-ended...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociology of religion
Main Author: Serrão, Rodrigo (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Oxford Univ. Press 2022
In: Sociology of religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B USA / Brazilians / Pentecostal churches / Church congregation / Ethnic identity / Assimilation (Sociology) / Stereotyping
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
CB Christian life; spirituality
KBQ North America
KBR Latin America
KDG Free church
RB Church office; congregation
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Description
Summary:This study examines how members of a majority second-generation Brazilian church in South Florida perceive their English-speaking, “American” congregation compared to the Portuguese-speaking Brazilian congregation from which they originated. Data for this research are drawn from in-depth, open-ended interviews with 32 members from different ethnoracial backgrounds, participant observation, and content analysis of the congregations’ social media. Findings show that the discourse of church differences portrays the two congregations in racialized and classist ways. Combining boundary-making and identity work theories, I argue that the perceptions espoused by members of the American congregation come from a place of pressure to assimilate to U.S. White middle-class culture, consequently reinforcing and legitimizing stereotypes in an effort to distance themselves from Brazilian immigrants.
ISSN:1759-8818
Contains:Enthalten in: Sociology of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/socrel/srac002