An essential guide to the new face of electoral politics in America, this book provides an examination of the political mobilization of Latinos and Latinas through the churches and the influence of being of the Catholic faith, enabling an understanding of the social and cultural dynamics at play. Blessing La Politica: The Latino Religious Experience and Political Engagement in the United States presents a corrective challenge to the authoritative conclusion by the book Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics that Latinos are less likely to become involved in politics because of the predominant Catholic beliefs of this demographic. Through comprehensive analysis of the political tendencies of Latinos and Latinas of faith, the findings in this work consistently counterpoint those conclusions from a variety of perspectives and methodologies. The research presented in the book comprises surveys that are national in scope-both of elites, and at the mass level-as well as localized in cities. The authors have also collected ethnographies that are localized in U.S. cities and transnational in nature. The result is both a broad view of Latino politics and religion, and detailed information that provides far more context that is possible in national-level quantitative studies.

Migration and Political Behavior is an account of the impact migration has on the political behavior of individual migrants both abroad and in their society of origin. It analyzes how migrants adapt to a political system that may be distinct and which may result in a distinct pattern of political behavior. It further analyzes lingering effects living in a different society may have on a migrant's political behavior on returning to the society of origin. Migration and Political Behavior shows that sojourning alters dramatically the political involvement of a discrete group of migrants, depressing their political participation while abroad. It further shows, however, what little impact such an experience has on migrant political activity on their return home. These findings highlight the greater impact of institutional factors on the political participation of individual political actors relative to their individual attributes. Migration and Political Behavior will be of great interest to students of migration generally as well as social scientists in the fields of political science, sociology and anthropology.