This course will focus on the increasing impact that Hispanic/Latino cultures and spiritually are having on US society. In the 2010 census, Hispanics now constitute 38% of the Texas population. In contrast to the typical rendering of the United States and the spread of European-American culture as an east to west wave from the 1600s to the present, this course will suggest the implications of the simultaneous spread of Latin American culture in its diverse forms, as a south to north wave from 1942 to the present. In particular, we will focus on the roots on the Latino spiritual imagination both in Latin American theology and popular religion and explore how this understanding of God, the person in community, and the world is renewing the communitarian dimension of both US politics and US Catholicism. In addition to considering the growing impact of Hispanic/Latino cultures on US politics and public policy, the course will explore the challenges of bridging multiple cultures in parishes and transforming educational practices to manifest this ethos of "crossing borders."
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