Intersectional hermanas: LDS Latinas navigate faith, leadership and sisterhood

Abstract

Latinas in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) engage their faith and lived realities through a complicated intersection of religion, race, gender, ethnicity, immigration status, aging, and class. Utilizing oral history, ethnographic interviews, and participant observation, the following analysis explores how LDS Latinas reflected on their experiences in faith, gained leadership skills, and benefited from a gendered ethno-religious social network. These narratives explore secular skills and emotional bonds (hermandad) through an intersectional framework. Additionally, this piece brings attention to the aging process for LDS Latinas and how female church-based networks improved their quality of life. This piece speaks to the resiliency of LDS Latinas, marginalized by multiple intersections of power within their church and society, as they seek solace, deep friendship, and strength, and gain tremendous skills in their network of hermandad (sisterhood).