The recent, growing literature on Pentecostalism - as well as an ongoing research on Hispanic churches in which I am involved in Newark, the largest city in New Jersey - suggest, among other things, that many Latin American immigrants (and other groups equally negatively privileged) seem to find in Pentecostalism a set of extremely useful socio-religious "toolkit" to creatively face and overcome the hurdles inherent in the migrant experience, especially in the case of isolated individuals and small groups moving into milieus where they find themselves in a particularly challenging or disadvantageous situation, be it economic, cultural, linguistic, legal and/or educational. In this brief essay, I will attempt to contextualize and describe some of the dynamics unchained through such encounters between Latin American immigrants and Pentecostal churches, especially as they occur in Newark (NJ), but which seem to recur in similar ways in different places, repeatedly contributing both to expand the probabilities of creative survival for Latin American immigrants under duress.
immigrants; Latin America; Newark - United States of America; Pentecostalism