Sanctuary People: Faith Based Organizing in Latina/o Communities

Sanctuary People

By Gina M. Pérez. Explores ways faith communities offer protection and services for Latina/o communities. Specifically explores sanctuary practices in Ohio but applies them in broader local and national efforts to provide refuge and care in the face of the challenges facing Latina/o communities in a moment of increased surveillance, migrant detention, displacement, and economic and social marginalization. Argues for a larger idea of sanctuary that includes the precarious conditions of Latinas/os beyond migration status. Based on four years of ethnographic research and interviews at the local, state, and national levels, offers an exploration of the ways in which faith communities are creating new activist strategies and enacting new forms of solidarity, working within the sometimes conflicting ideological space between religion and activism to answer the call of justice and live their faith. Read more.