Liquid Faith

Here's the lede to my post on religious hybridity and the immigrant experience. Read it over at Killing the Buddha where it is much prettier.

The men have arrived in the U.S. within the past two years from rural towns in southern Mexico. Following social connections and available work, they settled in a cramped apartment in a region of the country known for its single-family homes and open fields. The disproportionately large size of the sacred space here is a potent metaphor for the central role of religion for these immigrants as they acclimate to a new, often hostile home. Their home altars are also a clear indicator of the gradual transformations immigrants are making in the fabric of religious life across middle America.