Black Puerto Rican Identity and Religious Experience

Loíza is a Puerto Rican town known for best representing the African traditions. Its mostly black population is affected by profound racial discrimination and poverty. Many Loíza residents strongly identify themselves in religious terms, strategically managing their identities through a spiritual prism that effectively helps them cope with and transform their difficult reality.

Based on twelve months of fieldwork, this study shows how believers experience their religion in its various dimensions. Arguing that understanding and respecting the power of religion in this community is essential to addressing and remedying its social problems, Hernández Hiraldo contests the characterization of Puerto Rico as a culturally homogenous country with a monolithic church.

Samiri Hernández Hiraldo teaches anthropology and religion at Florida A&M University. She has conducted research and has published academic work in these areas. Currently, she researches the activism of Afro-Puerto Rican women connected to spirituality. She is the author of six poetry collections, and her poems have appeared in national and international anthologies and literary journals. Lately, she has also delved into literary anthropology, especially ethnographic poetry, linking it to fieldwork, research, teaching, and the dissemination of anthropological knowledge.