Sowing the Sacred traces the development of Pentecostalism among Mexican-American migrant laborers in California's agricultural industry from the 1910s to the 1960s. At the time, Pentecostalism was often seen as a distasteful new sect rife with cultish and fanatical tendencies; U.S. growers thought of Mexicans as no more than a mere workforce not fit for citizenship; and industrial agriculture was celebrated for feeding American families while its exploitation of workers went largely ignored. Farmworkers were made out to be culturally vacuous and lacking creative genius, simple laborers caught in a vertiginous cycle of migrant work.
This book argues that farmworkers from La Asamblea Apost lica de la Fe en Cristo Jes s carved out a robust socio-religious existence despite these conditions, and in doing so produced a vast record of cultural vibrancy. Examining racialized portrayals of Mexican workers and their religious lives through images created by farmworkers themselves, Sowing the Sacred draws on oral histories, photographs, and materials from new archival collections to tell an intimate story of sacred-space making. In showing how these workers mapped out churches, performed outdoor baptisms in grower-controlled waterways, and built and maintained houses of worship in the fields, this book considers the role that historical memory plays in telling these stories.
Industry Reviews
A terrific glimpse into previously untold histories, Sowing the Sacred is a beautiful, moving, and an important work of scholarship on the material and spiritual lives of ethnic Mexican farmworkers and church leaders in California. Please read this book. * Jacqueline M. Hidalgo, Professor of Latina/o/x Studies and Religion, Williams College *
With a beautiful mix of photographs, oral histories, and archival research, Barba gracefully uncovers the tragic and resilient worlds of Mexican Pentecostal farmworkers as they labored in the fields, created sacred spaces, and lived dignified lives in the American West. Sowing the Sacred more than fills a significant gap in the literature on Latina/o religion and labor, it changes the field entirely. Simply put, this book is groundbreaking. * Felipe Hinojosa, author of Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio *
Sowing the Sacred impressively reframes the history of proletarian religion in California's harsh agribusiness. Lloyd Barba deftly demonstrates how subaltern Pentecostal farmworkers sacralized the very soil and water of their labor and fired the imaginations of key Chicano/a Movement leaders. * Daniel Ramirez, Associate Professor of American Religions, Claremont Graduate University *
Sowing the Sacred successfully places the sacred stories and laboring bodies of Apostolicos front and center, offering the reader not just a window into the past, but entirely new sets of lenses through which to examine, uncover, and admire the fruit of a completely different kind of "labor" that left a permanent mark on U.S. and Mexican history. * Gaby Viesca, George Fox University *
Sowing the Sacred: Mexican Pentecostal Farmworkers in California by Lloyd Daniel Barba is a beautifully told and rigorously researched history of a subaltern religious denomination in California's agricultural farmlands. * David Flores, Department of Ethnic Studies, Sacramento State University, Sacramento, CA, USA *
Sowing the Sacred is more than a history of Mexican Pentecostal farmworkers in California. It is an excavation, unearthing a religious tradition that's been buried beneath social prejudice and scholarly neglect. * Christian Century *
An important contribution Sowing the Sacred gives us is the way it adds to the historical texture of the United States' design of labor laws and practices regarding farmworkers and capitalistic production of the fields. * Yara Gonzalez-Justiniano, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture. *
Sowing the Sacred successfully places the sacred stories and laboring bodies of Apostolicos front and center, offering the reader not just a window into the past, but entirely new sets of lenses through which to examine, uncover, and admire the fruit of a completely different kind of "labor" that left a permanent mark on U.S. and Mexican history. * Gaby Viesca, The Perspectivas *
Barba's prose is lovely. The book is not beach reading, but for a volume that seamlessly blends so many distinct disciplines-religion, ethnicity, immigration, agriculture, and economic history-it is remarkably fluid. * Grant Wacker, The Christian Century *
Sowing the Sacred is written in a captivating yet easy flowing tone. The particular threads that Barba weaves into the book develop organically, as the story unfolds. The book would be of interest to scholars and students of North American religions, Latine and Latin American religions, and migration and religion. * Jonathan E. Calvillo, Material Religion *
