Catholicism’s Role in Mexican Immigrants Journey to the United States

Abstract

The goal of the essay was to understand the hardship an immigrant faces when leaving their country. It is a life-changing decision with many risks involved. Religion was and still is a token of hope for most immigrants. Parents teach their children how to use their religion in times of need. This is why religion is always important for them. At a young age as we saw in Chapter one it is surrounding them. It is no secret that Catholicism plays a major role in Latin American countries. Catholicism is portable as a simple prayer can be taken with them. Churches are not portable but one can still practice Catholicism without a church. An immigrant's journey starts in their homeland as it is there that religion becomes important to them. They carry it no matter where they go as it can even provide an identity to them when society decides to label many of them. When the project started, one of the main concerns I had was will there be enough information to even write about Mexican Immigrants in the United States. Overwhelming, there was an abundance of sources to pick from. The original outlook of this essay was to speak only about Mexican immigrants in the United States. After researching and finding sources I decided to make it a journey using my father’s story in it. Immigrants crossing the border is a common occurrence yet many do not know just how important religion is for many of these immigrants. Many might not know what they carry with them as they cross. Many might not even know just how differently they grow up in these communities that have a higher focus on religion. The main idea was to see how religion flows over space as mentioned at the start. It is clear just how religion is fluid by immigrants. It changes and adapts to still be important in their lives. There are countless examples of religion and immigrants but there are few that see the journey that both takes and how they play off each other. Ultimately that was the goal of this essay. Usually, conclusions wrap everything up together but it is hard to wrap something up that is still fluid today and still occurring. As my father said at the end of his story, “ Solo Dios sabe” Which means only God knows, in this case only God knows how religion will be shaping people’s lives in the United States.