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From Pentecoscentrism to Transpentecostalism Pentecostalism and Peruvian and Bolivian Migration to the Tarapacá Region of Chile
Miguel Ángel Mansilla
Instituto de Estudios Internacionales, Universidad Arturo Prat, Iquique, Chile
Marcela Tapia Ladino
Instituto de Estudios Internacionales, Universidad Arturo Prat, Iquique, Chile
Carlos Piñones Rivera
Escuela de Psicología y Filosofía, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile
Abstract
This article proposes an analysis of the relationships between Pentecostalism and crossborder migrations through a constellation of concepts that seek to overcome static and essentialist ideas about Pentecostal identity and the supposed centrality that said identity could have in the consideration of transnational migratory processes (Pentecoscentrism and migracentrism). We analyze the case of migratory processes in the Tarapacá Region of Chile, critically defining three topics of interest: Transpen- tecostalism as a condition of the subject that migrates and moves without the need to negate or erase his or her identities; the transpentecostal identity as the reality of plural identities of said subjects; and the transpentecostal community as a community that incorporates the national within the metanational (citizens of heaven). All of this is considered as a complex, contradictory, and conflictive process in which the variables of ethnicity, gender, religiosity, and work are articulated.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/15700747-bja10020
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Keywords
Pentecostalism – Transpentecostalism – religion – community – identity
1 Introduction
In Chile, research on Pentecostalism and migration stopped with the 1980s, when the classical researchers on Chilean Pentecostalism focused on inter- nal rural-urban migration processes that we could group into three stages: a) researchers who studied rural-urban Mapuche migrants who converted to Pen- tecostalism;1 b) anthropologists who researched the conversion of Mapuches to Pentecostalism in their urban migration;2 and c) the role of Pentecostal- ism and its relationship to Aymara rural-urban migration.3 Not only is there a stalling of research on Pentecostalism and migration, but in addition, this research addressed the relationship of Pentecostalism to migration in a very tangential manner. From this perspective, researchers explored what Pente- costalism offered to migrants (Pentecoscentrism,) but there was no concern for what migrants contributed to Pentecostalism (migracentrism). As a result, the focus was the rupturist identity and negating of other identities of the pen- tecostal convert and not the relationship, overlapping, or layering of identities. Today, in the face of globalization, the focus or emphasis of the research must change and it must be situated in the geographic, social, and cultural context of the migratory phenomenon, which is generally a relational, complex, and multiple phenomenon.
In general, the research that addressed the relationship between migration and Pentecostalism had assimilationism as its epistemic-theoretical base, from
1 Christian Lalive d’Epinay, El refugio de las masas: Estudio sociológico del Protestantismo Chi-
leno(Editorial del Pacifico, 1968); Jean Baptiste August Kessler, A Study of the Older Protestant
Missions and Churches in Perú and Chile: With Special Reference to the Problems of Division,
Nationalism and Native Ministry(Oosterbaan & Le Cointre, 1967); E. Willems, Followers of the
New Faith: Culture Change and the Rise of Protestantism in Brazil and Chile (Vanderbilt Uni-
versity Press, 1967).
2 Rolf Foerster, “Identidad y Pentecostalismo indígena en Chile,” Creces 6, no. 10 (1989); Roelf
Foerster, Introducción a la religiosidad mapuche(Editorial Universitaria, 1993).
3 Sergio González, “El Aymara de la provincia de Iquique-Chile y la educación nacional,”
Cuadernos de educacion intercultural1 (1990); Yeny González, “La familia Aymara: Una estruc-
tura desintegrada y dominada,” Cuaderno de investigación social 3 (1980); E. Pérez, “La socie-
dad Andina: Una sociedad en desintegración,” Cuaderno de investigación social 1 (1975);
P. Tudela, “Cambios Religiosos y revitalización de la comunidad entre los Aymaras de Arica
1960–990,”Nütram33 (1993).
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which communities were conceived of as groups that shared a culture, a his- tory, and a creed. Nonnative individuals who wanted to participate in these communities had to abjure and retract their previous identity. In the most extreme cases, they had to hide their national identity of origin because iden- tity involved the unique and the similar. It was not a matter of hierarchies, priorities, or the overlapping of identities, but determinant choices between Identity A and Identity B. This position was centered on dichotomous visions of modernization (modernity-tradition, rural-urban, past and present, center- periphery, Catholicism-Pentecostalism, and so forth), and, as such, religious groups demanded exclusive loyalties and assumed that converts would take up that single identity, and researchers worked on the basis of that supposi- tion.
Today in Chile, very few research projects address the relationship between Pentecostalism and international migrations. Although migration, and espe- cially migration from neighboring countries, is constantly increasing, there has been no interest on the part of researchers of Pentecostalism in exploring the relationship between Pentecostalism and crossborder migration. Chile has only begun to be seen as a possible host nation for crossborder migration dur- ing the past two decades. However, Bolivians and Peruvians have a long history of crossborder mobility with Chile, especially in the northern part of the coun- try during the saltpeter cycle (1880–1930) and then throughout the twentieth century in farm work with Aymara communities in the valleys of the Arica and Parinacota Region.4 In general, the presence of Bolivian and Peruvian cross- border foreigners of Aymara and Quechua origin is a distinctive characteristic of the northern part of the country with a permanent presence over time that exceeds the national average. However, it is important to note that Bolivian migration to urban spaces is recent because the preferred destinations for Boli- vians during the twentieth century were Argentina and, more recently, Spain and Brazil. However, beginning in the 1990s and especially during this century, Chile has become the preferential destination for regional migration. Factors such as the increased migratory controls after the 9/11 attacks, the European and U.S. economic crisis after 2007, and the perception of Chile as a more pros- perous country are some of the factors that have contributed to the idea that it offers the greatest opportunities in the subregion for migration.
Furthermore, though the number of Chilean researchers who work on mi- gration, crossborder practices, and interborder mobility has increased notably
4 H. González,Características de la inserción de Aymaras chilenos y bolivianos en el área de Arica
(TEA, 1998).
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over the past decade, they have paid less attention to the religious aspect of migration, in contrast to such countries as Argentina or Brazil. It is important to consider the fact that the evangelical phenomenon, which includes Pente- costals and Protestants, has shown notable growth in Peru and Bolivia over the past twenty years. For example, these groups represented 5.2 percent of the Peruvian population in 1981 and increased to 12.5 percent by 2007. In Bolivia, the 2001 census5 showed that 19 percent of the population self-identified as evangelical. While evangelical religion in Chile has stopped growing, there is a strong evangelical presence among indigenous individuals, with 21.8 percent of Aymara and 16.3 percent of Quechua identifying as evangelicals in the 2002 census.6 These numbers are much higher than the national average of 15.7 percent, and the evangelical religion has grown notably in the macro-Andean region of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and northern Chile.
From the theoretical perspective and based on analyses of crossborder mobility by nationals and indigenous communities, the contributions of trans- nationalism, especially in the more recent discussions, are useful for under- standing that which occurs in the area under study. Transnationalism takes up connections and practices that maintain people on the borders. Within this theoretical position, religious transnationalism has been approached based on the concept of delocalization, transterritorialization of beliefs, rituals, and reli- gious objects between national borders, and their flows between continents.7 In this context of border space and mobility, we would like to addressTranspen- tecostalism as a redefinition of the subject that migrates and moves, no longer as a process of negation and erasure of identities, but instead as the redefinition and resignification of it both consciously and unconsciously. We will call this transpentecostal identityin order to refer to a reality of multiple identities. This resignification of the national is no longer a process of denial and shame, but an incorporation of the national within the metanational (citizens of heaven)
5 The 2001 Census is used because there was no question on religious affiliation in the 2011
census in Bolivia.
6 The 2002 Census is used because the 2012 Census was voided due to methodological incon-
sistencies.
7 Rennee de La Torre, “De la globalización a la transrelocalización de lo religioso,”Debates do
NER 2, no. 16 (2009); J. Flávio Ferreira, “Transnacionalización y (re) apropiación en las reli-
giones afro-brasileñas: Una reconstrucción de la historia de vida de un pai-de-santo,”Maguaré
25, no. 2 (2011); Ari Pedro Oro, Carlos Alberto Stael, and João Rickli,Transnacionalização reli-
giosa: Fluxos e redes (Editora Terceiro Nome, 2019); R.A. Pereira, “Una transnacionalización
religiosa ignorada: El estudio de las religiones japonesas en Brasil,” in Ciencias sociales y reli-
gión en América Latina: Perspectivas en debate, ed. María J. Carozzi and César Ceriani (Buenos
Aires: Biblos, 2007).
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as well as identification as a citizen of a country that the migrant is called to reevaluate, which we will call the transpentecostal community. All of this is considered to be a complex, contradictory, and conflictive process because it is combined with other variables such as indigenous and gender variables as well as those linked to work and ecclesiastical spaces.
2 Methodological Context of the Research
Our research involved forty-six interviews, carried out with the informed con- sent of the respondents. In the first place, we had five international interviews with leaders of The Church of the Assemblies of God: one in Lima (Peru), one inTacna (Peru), two in Santa Cruz (Bolivia), and one in La Paz (Bolivia).We also talked to other church leaders in each one of these cities and attended services in four temples in Lima, four in La Paz, four in Santa Cruz, and two in Tacna.
In Iquique, we conducted twenty-two interviews, including a spin-off dis- cussion group formed by six participants. We also attended two weddings of migrants: one, a Peruvian-Quechua couple and the other, a Bolivian-Aymara couple. We also did fifteen days’ voluntary work repairing dwellings with Peru- vian and Bolivian migrants in January 2016. In addition, from July to October 2016, we conducted two field observations of different young women cults and regular Sunday religious persuasions. To take a decision about which temples to include in the survey, there were prefield observations in other temples in Iquique between March and April. These included the Evangelical Pentecostal Church (IEP), Pentecostal Methodist Church of Chile (MPCH), Pentecostal Church of Chile (IPCH), Adventist Church of Chile, and Methodist Church of Chile. Out of the twenty-two interviews carried out, twelve involved female respondents and ten, male respondents. As for nationality, ten of the respon- dents were Peruvian, ten were Bolivian, and two of the church pastors were Chilean. Among the Bolivian interviewees, there were eight Aymaras and two Quechuas; six of them were adults and four were young adults (aged 18 to 29); eight were female and two were men. In turn, the Peruvian respondents were five males and five females, three of whom were youngsters and seven were adults.
In Arica we conducted thirteen interviews, focusing on two evangelical churches that have a high concentration of migrants: The Church of The Assemblies of God and the Evangelical Pentecostal Church. We also included Evangelical Methodist, Adventist, and Nazarene congregations. Similarly, at the end of July 2016, we carried out observations of meetings-seminars of Aymara women from Bolivia (La Paz, Oruro, and Cochabamba). We interviewed ten
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table 1
Interviews by gender
Member of native ethnic group
Nationality / type of actor
Chilean Peruvian Bolivian
Male Female Male Female Male Female
Aymara
Religious leader 1
Church Member 6 2 8
Quechua
Religious leader 2 5 Church Member 7 2 2
Does not belong to a native ethnic group
Religious leader 1 5 Church Member 5
Source: Author’s compilation
table 2
Other techniques used
Other techniques
Iquique Arica Perú Bolivia
Participant observation
3 months and 8 different settings
Aymara women seminars
6 cults 6 cults
Conversations
6 leaders 6 leaders
Discussion groups
1
Source: Author’s compilation
migrants and three pastors who were the leaders of churches whose services were attended by migrants. The group of ten migrants consisted of eight Peru- vians and two Bolivians. Of the ten, eight were Aymara, and two Quechua; sic women and four men; three young adults and seven adults. This can be seen more clearly in the following summary of the qualitative techniques used (Table 1 and Table 2).
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3 Geographic Context of the Research
The economy of the region of Tarapacá is sustained by the exploitation of natu- ral resources (mining and fishing), the duty-free zone, known as ZOFRI, which is a major driver of the area’s commercial activity, and tourism. In this con- text, “the activities of ZOFRI have played a central role in linking the region with Bolivia, as this country is the main destination of the imports entering ZOFRI.”8 This is one of the regions of Chile that presents the best economic performance9and, until 2007, when theXVRegion of Arica and Parinacota was created, it was the main port of entry for foreigners via land. According to the 2002 census, the Tarapacá Region had the greatest amount of immigration at the national level. Immigrants represented 6.66 percent of the population. For- eign Nationals and Migration Department (DEM) data show that in 2014 this number had increased to 7.4 percent. The foreign nationals are mainly from Peru and Bolivia, which represent 42.3 percent and 34.1 percent of the foreign population in the area, respectively. Some of them build lives in the area while others come to work for short periods, frequently returning to their countries as necessary and as opportunities appear.10ZOFRIhas driven active movement of Bolivian entrepreneurs who frequently cross the border to buy goods. This has allowed for the “emergence of the Bolivian neighborhood in Iquique, which has become a support platform for visiting traders and provides services such as accommodation, food, buses. and taxis.”11 As such, the region is a migratory destination and also a site of circulation of foreigners, especially across bor- ders, because they take advantage of the proximity and shared borders to work and sell their wares.12
8
9
10
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“[L]a actividad de la ZOFRI ha sido central para vincular a la región con Bolivia, puesto que el principal destino de las importaciones que entran a laZOFRIse dirigen a ese país.” M. Tapia, “Frontera, movilidad y circulación reciente de Peruanos y Bolivianos en el norte de Chile,”Estudios atacameños. Arqueología y antropología surandinas50 (2015): 208. PNUD, Las trayectorias del desarrollo humano en las comunas de Chile (1994–2003)(PNUD, 2006).
M. Tapia, “Extranjeros fronterizos en las regiones extremas de Chile: Entre migración y circulación. 1990–2014,” in Migración y trabajo. Estudio y propuestas para la inclusión sociolaboral de migrantes en Arica, ed. N. Rojas and J.T. Vicuña (Santiago: Ciudadano Global/OIM, 2014).
“… surgimiento del barrio boliviano de Iquique, que se ha constituido en plataforma de apoyo para quienes vienen a comerciar, con la instalación de servicios de alojamiento, comida, buses y taxis.” Tapia, “Frontera, movilidad y circulación reciente de Peruanos y Bolivianos en el norte de Chile,” 208.
America Economía, “Conozca las características de la migración de bolivianos a Chile,”
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Migration and border circulation present specific characteristics due to the strong presence of Aymara individuals. The 2002 censuses for Arica and Pari- nacota and Tarapacá show that these areas are home to 84 percent of Chile’s Aymara population. According to the same census, 7 percent of the coun- try’s total indigenous population is Aymara, which corresponds to 48,501 peo- ple. Regarding religion, participation in evangelical religion is greater among indigenous people than among nonindigenous people, especially women,13 as 21.8 percent of Aymaras self-identify as Evangelicals nationally. In the 2013 CASENsurvey, the Aymara population in Chile is estimated to be to be 7.7 per- cent of the country’s total indigenous population.14This shows notable growth in self-identification and a feeling of belonging among the Aymara people com- pared to previous census exercises.
4 Transpentecostalism
Transpentecostalism suggests that the migrant subject is someone active, reflexive, and resistant. It is a subject connected to a series of small commu- nities and networks that bring together several religious communities at the local and translocal levels. At the same time, it elaborates various communities within each church. On the other hand, individuals no longer deny or renounce their other meaningful identities, but live with a set of identities, drawing on them consciously or unconsciously based on the relationships that they estab- lish.
Peruvian and Bolivian immigrants join pentecostal churches as active sub- jects that consider religious communities to be part of transnational communi- ties. Although religious groups are not necessarily transnational communities, they can be considered part of the transnational communities, understanding the latter as those that have “an important territorial reference.”15 Transna- tional communities form an important part of the globalization of contempo- rary society.16This transnational community experience occurs in two senses.
13 14
15
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08/09/2013: http://americaeconomia.com/politica‑sociedad/sociedad/conozca‑las ‑caracteristicas‑de‑la‑migracion‑de‑bolivianos‑chile.
INE, Estadísticas sociales de los pueblos indígenas en Chile Censo 2002(INE, 2002), 59. http://observatorio.ministeriodesarrollosocial.gob.cl/documentos/Casen2013_Pueblos_I ndigenas_13mar15_publicacion.pdf.
“… una importante referencia territorial.” L. Velasco, “Identidad y territorio: Una reflexión en torno a las comunidades transnacionales entre México y Estados Unidos,”Religión y sociedad9, no. 15 (1998): 112.
Alejandro Canales and Christian Zlolniski, “Comunidades transnacionales y migración
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First, in Chilean religious communities, immigrants have an active role in the existing networks through family members, friendships, or membership in a religious group in their region of origin. As such, their interest is not as much in belonging to this or that pentecostal church but in participating in migrant communities within the churches. These same networks are used to seek work and to find a partner or space to rent. Peruvian migrants are most likely to join pentecostal churches as intermediate-level leaders. They do so by leading groups for men, young people, and women or as Sunday School teachers, or by taking on an ecclesiastical responsibility as a deacon or elder of a church.
However, the most meaningful contribution is through the cell churches in which Peruvians take on leadership positions. These churches generally are transformed into ethnic churches, that is, cell churches are also used by Peru- vian migrants as opportunities for coming together and meeting up. Worship meetings end with small dinners that provide an excuse to converse and spend time together. New people are also invited to take part in these encounters. Some pastors even say that migrants should not meet together but should also include Chileans in their meetings. Chileans also are encouraged to invite migrants (Peruvians, Bolivians, Colombians, Cubans, and so forth) to their fam- ily gatherings. This suggests that the drama of the foreigner is what demands integration when they feel that their identity is threatened.17 According to the pastors, this is the way to avoid sectarianism within the churches themselves, that is, to avoid closed communities within the communities, something that believers do not obey.
Pentecostal migrants continue to be participants in their religious commu- nities of origin in which they elaborate a “duty to be part of the community” (of the city of origin) that they compare to “being in community” (destination city) and a conflict begins between nostalgia for one’s religious community of origin and hope among the destination community. In the beginning, they con- tinue to participate in the communities of origin, for example, with the sending of “tithes as a remittance” in the case of pentecostal migrants, but only for a little while. The believers who were already Pentecostals when they decided to migrate to Chile continue to be linked to their religious communities of origin through Facebook or the church website. Nostalgia for one’s city of ori- gin increases when one feels nostalgia for the religious community of origin
17
en la era de la globalización,” in La migración internacional y el desarrollo en las Améri- cas (2000); Peggy Levitt, “Rezar por encima de las fronteras: Cómo los inmigrantes están cambiando el panorama religioso,”Migración y desarrollo 8 (2007); Velasco, “Identidad y territorio.”
I. Chambers, Migración, cultura, identidad (Buenos Aires: Amorrortu, 1994), 50.
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because it is impossible to refrain from making comparisons. Migrants always find that “Chilean churches are colder” compared to the “warmer churches” of theircitiesof origin.Thisexplainsthe“dualparticipation”thatisoftenobserved during the first few months. They participate physically in the churches in their destination cities and “they participate virtually” in their cities of origin. However, virtual participation decreases as their commitment to and participa- tion in the local church increases. Evidence of this new type of Pentecostalism (Transpentecostalism) may only manifest in spaces (regions, cities, neighbor- hoods) with high levels of migrants.
The transnational community defines and builds a sense of belonging and dependence with communities of origin.18 What happens with immigrants who do not yet belong to a pentecostal church when they migrate? Some are indigenous (Quechua or Aymara) and, as such, belong to and/or participate in their communities of origin. In that sense, “the transnational community rede- fines a sense of belonging insofar as it allows for a disruption of the meaning of physical and adjacent presences for imagined and symbolic presences.”19As such, belonging to another community or several communities simultaneously in their places of origin allows them to be present through technology, mainly the Internet. They follow the music, radio stations, and TV stations that they used to follow in their hometowns. As such, there is a certain ubiquity; they are here and there at the same time. Transpentecostalism is thus part of the broader phenomenon, like transnationalism.
What happens with indigenous migrants? When they are in Chile, it is hard for them to self-identify as indigenous even if they are asked, though they will self-identify if one insists, but nationality subsumes ethnicity. Similarly, reli- gion may absorb nationality at times. In pentecostal churches, brotherhood is always highlighted before any other definition or self-definition based on eth- nicity or social standing. It is said that “We are citizens of heaven, not earth” and pastors self-identify as “ambassadors of heaven” and all as foreign nation- als on this earth. The great majority of the Peruvian and Bolivian pentecostal immigrants asked felt proud to be Peruvian or Bolivian and, when they were in contexts in which they felt that they could confide in others, also stated that they also felt good to be indigenous.
18
19
Canales and Zlolniski, “Comunidades transnacionales”; Yerko Castro Neira, “Teoría trans- nacional: Revisitando la comunidad de los antropólogos,” Política y cultura 23 (Spring 2005); Velasco, “Identidad y territorio.”
“[L]a comunidad transnacional redefine un sentido de pertenencia, en la medida que per- mite trastocar el sentido de las presencias físicas y contiguas, por presencias imaginadas y simbólicas.” Canales and Zlolniski, “Comunidades transnacionales,” 634.
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Another question worth asking here is, why don’t Peruvian and Bolivian indigenous immigrants in Chile build ethnic churches as they do in Argentina, Brazil, or Spain? Why did Chilean evangelical migrants, particularly Pente- costals, do so in Argentina? Several authors reflect on the importance of the religious dimension for migrants even though they may be discriminated against or stigmatized for two reasons. For Chilean migrants in Argentina, an ethnic church with Chilean pastors “became a refuge and a reservation for Chilean identity, especially through ranchera-chilota music.”20Something sim- ilar is observed with the migration of Chilean Pentecostals to Neuquén.21How- ever, in our region of study (Tarapacá, specifically the city of Iquique) one does not see specifically Peruvian and/or Bolivian pentecostal churches. This may be because they do not feel stigmatized or excluded in pentecostal churches and thus do not feel the need to create ethnic pentecostal and/or evangelical churches. This occurs with churches of former inmates as well.
Immigrants manifest the capacity of influence in the decision-making prog- ress in regard to diverse aspects of the destination communities, and this is more likely to occur among Peruvian Pentecostals because they bring with them an experience of “capacidades de los sujetos para mantener los vínculos con sus comunidades de origen.”22 Today, “the physical absence is compen- sated for by an imaginary presence that becomes real and tangible through the information and energy that flows through the networks built by migrants.”23 However, it is also important to keep in mind that “not all immigrants are transnational, as there are those who, based on their immigration status, do not establish or maintain any social, religious, or economic ties with their places of origin,” but others can “be transnational without ever having migrated.”24
20
21
22 23
24
“… vino a ser un refugio y una reserva de la chilenidad sobre todo a través de la música ranchera-chilota.” Brigida Baeza, “El caso de migrantes chilenos evangélicos y la expan- sión del Pentecostalismo en Comodoro Rivadavia (Argentina),”Revista cultura y religión 6, no. 1 (2012). Translator’s note: Ranchera-chilota is a fusion of traditional Mexican music and traditional music from the Chilean island of Chiloé.
Graciela Hernández, “Conversiones religiosas e historia oral. Pentecostales y Mormones en contextos migratorios en Bahía Blanca y área de influencia,”Revista cultura y religión5 (2011).
Castro, “Teoría transnacional,” 184.
“[L]a ausencia física, es contrarrestada por la presencia imaginada, que se vuelve real y concreta por medio de la información y poder que fluye a través de las redes construidas por los migrantes.” Canales and Zlolniski, “Comunidades transnacionales,” 634. “[N]o todos los inmigrantes son transnacionales, pues hay quienes a partir de su situación migratoria no establecen o no mantienen vínculos sociales, religiosos ni económicos con sus lugares de origen,” but others can “ser transnacional sin haber migrado jamás.” Castro, “Teoría transnacional,” 185.
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It is also important to keep in mind that the crossing of local and national borders “is derived from a resignification of the original territory and an increasingly complex and multiple socio-territorial identity.”25 Peruvian and Bolivian migration to theTarapacá Region and to the greater northern region of Chile in general is a multidimensional process because it has been an ongoing crossborder flow, but in a historically and culturally Aymara region (culturally crossborder). Furthermore, it belonged to Peru until 1879. To this one must add belief and belonging to a Protestant and/or pentecostal organization, particu- larly after the 1980s and the 1990s when the evangelical world began to develop in Peru and Bolivia. Though they identify with or are identified with a coun- try, either Peru or Bolivia, there are other identifications such as ethnic and/or religious belonging that favors or impedes their relative integration into the destination city as a secular or religious worker with the understanding that “pentecostal followers proselytize in all groups, regardless of race or ethnic- ity.”26 Among transnational networks, it is not only people who migrate, but also ethnic or religious communities,27and families, with each member having a life experience (hard, painful, difficult) of migration as a woman, man, young woman or young man or boy or girl. As such, as in other places, within “the Boli- vian community of evangelical Christians, the proselytizing task is combined and confused with measures of support in the social realm along with other aspects more linked to the emotional and sentimental realm.”28
Transpentecostalism is affected by the process of deinstitutionalization and thus an individualization of belief and religious belonging and, as Grace Davie notes, one can believe without belonging and believe without participating.29 Migrants would seem “to live between worlds, between a lost past and an unin- tegrated present,”30 but also with the hope of a better tomorrow. Despite the discrimination, hope is a tool of resistance and social mobility based on sym-
25
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27
28
29 30
“… deriva de una resignificación del territorio original y una identidad socioterritorial cada vez más compleja y múltiple.” Velasco, “Identidad y territorio,” 122.
“… los pentecostales realizan proselitismo en todos los grupos, independientemente de raza o etnicidad.” Levitt, “Rezar por encima de las fronteras,” 68.
Rafael Briones Gómez et al., “Reseña etnográfica sobre la comunidad cristiana evangél- ica de Bolivianos en Purchil (Granada),” Gazeta de antropología 22, no. 33 (2006); Levitt, “Rezar por encima de las fronteras.”
“… la comunidad boliviana de cristianos evangélicos, la tarea proselitista se combina y confunde, con medidas asistenciales en el campo de lo social hasta otros aspectos más vinculados al terreno de lo emocional y lo afectivo.” Briones Gómez et al., “Reseña etno- gráfica,” 9.
Grace Davie,Sociología de la religión(Akal, 2011).
“… vivir entre mundos, entre el pasado perdido y un presente no integrado …” Chambers, Migración, cultura, identidad, 50.
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bolic resources. As such, religious identities and communities become flexible, porous, and diffuse but also involve mutual cooperation. It is no longer only the institution that contributes to an exposed individual (concept of refuge). Instead, the migrant is an active subject. It is no longer a vigilant Pentecostal- ism like the one described by d’Epinay,31but one in which the individual gives over his or her soul to Pentecostalism but retains control over his or her con- science. It is also not a question of absolute freedom of choice. Even though someone could say something that was inconceivable a decade ago, such as “I am pentecostal in my own way,” they obviously choose what to believe and what not to believe. But that choice is conditioned by their process of socializa- tion and the social context of coexistence. In other words, the other extreme is to be avoided, that of the dissolution of the social, communal, or institutional.
As such, in Transpentecostalism, one can believe without belonging, belong choosing what to believe (identity level). Similarly, from the community level, one can participate (in communities) without belonging (to the church) or belong (to the church) without participating (in ecclesial communities). Finally, one can participate and belong, as in the case of the migrants who serve in the intermediate leadership of local churches.
5 The Transpentecostal Identity
The research on Pentecostalism was mainly focused on identity and the indi- vidual,32 but from an individualist and isolationist perspective. Today it is understood that identity is a historical and relational construction33that inter- sects with diversity, complexity, and dynamism.34 As such, it is not a question of one identity but multiple identities. In other words, in the case of Transpen-
31 32
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d’Epinay, El refugio de las masas.
d’Epinay, El refugio de las masas; Manuel Ossa, Lo ajeno y lo propio: Identidad pente- costal y trabajo(Ediciones Rehue, 1991); Manuel Ossa, “La identidad pentecostal,”Persona y sociedad 10, no. 1 (1996); H. Tennekes, El movimiento pentecostal en la sociedad chilena (Ciren y Universidad Libre de Ámsterdam, 1984).
Chambers, Migración, cultura, identidad; Jonathan Friedman, Identidad cultura y pro- ceso global (Amorrortu, 2001); Stuart Hall, “Introducción: ¿Quién necesita ‘Identidad’?,” in S. Hall and P. Gay, comps.,Cuestiones de identidad cultural (Amorrortu Editores España SL, 2003).
Mónica Lizbeth Chávez González, “La familia, las relaciones afectivas y la identidad étnica entre indígenas migrantes urbanos en San Luis Potosí,”Relaciones. Estudios de historia y sociedad 34, no. 134 (2013); Everardo Garduño, “Antropología de la frontera, la migración y los procesos transnacionales,”Frontera Norte15, no. 30 (2003); Levitt, “Rezar por encima de las fronteras.”
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tecostalism, it is a set of identities that may be Aymara, Quechua, Andean, Bolivian, Peruvian, or Pentecostal. It could be all of those at the same time or may involve selecting one of them or parts of them based on the context. In addition, the social identities of mothers, young people, adults, senior citizens, or children also blend, and identities become more flexible, diffuse, permeable, and dynamic. As a result, Transpentecostalism accepts flexibility, dynamism, and even the instrumentalization of identity because today it is not possible to control or govern believers as it was during Pentecoscentrism, which was all or nothing. Today there is a negotiation of identities or alternating that has to do with the relationships that are established between them and the conditions of reproduction of that identity35 and these are added to social identities. There is a benefit for Transpentecostalism of allowing Peruvian, Bolivian, Aymara, and Quechua elements of identities because that attracts new migrants to reli- gious groups, recruits leaders who serve at the intermediate level, and allows for social contemporaneity with ethnic revalorization.
The classic concept of the immigrant expects him or her “to leave the moth- erland for adoption,”36 where the migratory phase was conceived of as a stage of social, ethnic, geographic, or religious conversion (deruralization, deindi- genization, de-Catholicization). Similarly, from the Pentecoscentrism of the convert, such a person not only had to leave the old religion for a new one but also had to publicly manifest their rejection of and even disdain toward old identities and communities. In other words, the Catholic Peruvian migrant who arrived in Chile and converted to Pentecostalism would have to initiate a tacit process of leaving behind Peru and explicitly leaving behind the Catholic faith along with a process of integrating into Chile and Pentecostalism. It is obviously an illusion to conceive of this as a complete process. These processes brought about dramatic experiences, leading to “ubi bene, ubi patria” (the good is where the country is). By contrast, today the immigrant is a citizen of diverse worlds with flexible borders and deterritorialized spaces.37 This implies a rel- ative space-time simultaneity or juxtaposition in which the believer draws on different religious contents, including non-entecostal ones, to sustain, renew,
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Sergio Caggiano, “Del Altiplano al Río de la Plata: La migración Aymara desde La Paz a Buenos Aires,” in Alicia Torres, comp., Migración y niñez indígena en América Latina (FLACSO-UNICEF, 2010); Alicia Torres, Migración y niñez indígena en América Latina (Quito:FLACSO/UNICEF, 2010).
“… dejar a la madre patria por la adopción …” Enrique Dickmann,Población e inmigración (Editorial Losada, s.a., 1946), 74.
De La Torre, “De la globalización a la transrelocalización de lo religioso”; Garduño, “Antro- pología de la frontera, la migración y los procesos transnacionales”; Levitt, “Rezar por encima de las fronteras”; Oro, Stael, and Rickli,Transnacionalização religiosa.
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or reform his or her faith and beliefs and may even move from a pentecostal church to a Protestant one. In some cases, the believer will attend both types of churches because of connections to other migrants from his or her city of origin.
Transpentecostalism brings about a selection of contents between the pre- vious religion and the current one, blending a significant component for the convert. Today there is no requirement of pure conversion, a sort of public testimony of the blackness of all that has gone before and the absolute lumi- nousness of the present and golden future based on the sole fact of being pentecostal. On the contrary, the contextual identifications of the migrant are addressed: becoming Chilean with the Chilean, Peruvian with the Peruvian, Bolivian with the Bolivian, and so forth. It is also an instrumentalization of identities. On other occasions, there is self-Chileanization of migrants or a Peruvianization of the pentecostal community to which the migrant belongs and in which he or she participates, influencing local religious practices. In other words, more than an issue of identities in the traditional sense of the term, it is a matter of contextual identifications. Though the migrant continues to be conceived of as a problematic individual, there is a problem that emerges in the interplay of identities. These are understood as “points of meeting, of joining together between, on the one hand, the discourses and practices that attempt to ‘challenge us,’ to speak to us or put us in our place as social subjects of particular discourses and, on the other, the processes that produce subjectiv- ities that construct us as subjects who are susceptible to ‘stating ourselves.’”38
Today, in the face of a globalized society characterized by flexibility of faith and beliefs, the crisis of absolutes and emphasis on diversity, pluralism, and tolerance, Pentecostals are precisely the agents who are encouraging followers to integrate into society and search for social acceptance so that the religious discourse can be accepted. In this context, the concepts of believer, family, eth- nicity, and nationality are redefined and a new hierarchy is formed. Blood rela- tives, traditions, the past, and memory recover their currency and importance. Transpentecostalism does not need to require absolute identities, singular loy- alties, or the illusion of the social, cultural, and existential emptying of the individual (as is the case of Pentecoscentrism). Instead, there is an effort to consider individuals with plural identities. If a transpentecostal group makes
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“… puntos de encuentros, de sutura entre, por un lado, los discursos y prácticas que inten- tan ‘interpelarnos,’ hablarnos o ponernos en nuestro lugar como sujetos sociales de discur- sos particulares y, por otro, los procesos que producen subjetividades, que nos construyen como sujetos susceptibles de ‘decirse.’” Hall, “Introducción: ¿Quién Necesita ‘Identidad’?,” 20.
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this demand, the religious subject simply migrates to another group. In general, “many people do not identify with a single congregation. They feel comfortable praying in any nearby church or place of worship. Their faith does not depend on participating regularly with the same group of people.”39
Migratory processes and their effects are not homogeneous or unequivocal. Every migratory flow is distinctive, the ethnic resignification of migrants differs between people who migrate individually and those who do so as families.40 It is in the bosom of the family that “they recreate the supports of ethnicity; the materialization of the conflicts of intercultural socialization; the genera- tional differences between parents and children; and the parents’ aspirations regarding the future they wish for their children.”41The family constitutes a fun- damental community in the destination society that, combined with religious or work communities that are generally transversed, are important as a space of maintenance, redefinition, or strengthening of ethnic and religious identities. The family is very important when the members are “located outside of their communities; the individuals draw on the family organization and dynamics to bring order to their lives,”42whether the family is in the place of origin or the destination.
But there is also a difference in terms of gender because migration does not mean the same thing for men as it does for women.43Another important aspect emerges in the case of indigenous women migrants who continue to play a key role in the recreation of ethnic culture in extraterritorial spaces.44 It may be that “immigration influences the gradual transformation in the way in which
39
40
41
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44
“[M]uchas personas no se identifican con una sola congregación. Están cómodos orando en cualquier iglesia o templo de la cercanía. Su fe no depende de participar con regulari- dad con el mismo grupo de gente.” Levitt, “Rezar por encima de las fronteras.” Chávez González, “La familia, las relaciones afectivas y la identidad étnica”; Elizabeth Maier, “Tránsitos territoriales e identidad de las mujeres indígenas migrantes,”Papeles de población12, no. 47 (2006).
“… recrean los soportes de la etnicidad; materialización de los conflictos de la socializa- ción intercultural; diferencias generacionales entre padres e hijos; y el deseo los padres sobre el futuro que desean para sus hijos.” Chávez González, “La familia, las relaciones afectivas y la identidad étnica,” 151.
“… ubicados fuera de sus comunidades, los individuos echan mano de la organización y dinámica familiar para dar orden a sus vidas …” Chávez González, “La familia, las rela- ciones afectivas y la identidad étnica,” 135.
L.Pacheco,LasmujeresesperadelamigraciónindígenaenNayarit(UniversidadAutónoma de Nyarit, 2013).
González, “El Aymara de la provincia de Iquique-Chile y la educación nacional”; Maier, “Tránsitos territoriales e identidad de las mujeres indígenas migrantes.”
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indigenous women perceive themselves,”45but their socializing role in the cul- ture continues to be important.46 There is a restructuring in migration when there are children involved. It is not the same when the children remain in the place of origin with grandparents or other family members as it is when they migrate with their mother or father. Migrating with children becomes a significant and distinctive element.47 In this sense, migration with children or without them also conditions the place to which they migrate. It is also differ- entforyoungpeopleandadults.Youngpeopleareaffectedby“expectationsand the transgression of traditional gender compliance, in the case of women.”48
Similarly, one must also consider the fact that migration also varies by type of ethnicity, as the negotiation and reconstruction of Aymara identity in migra- tion takes place in a complex context: “an appropriate representation of a life that leads to the present, that is to say, a life story shaped in the act of self-definition.”49 In the case of Bolivia, there is a growing indigenous self- recognition, mainly Aymara, but “at the place of destination, Aymara immi- grants encounter a homogenizing view of the receiving society.”50 In the Tara- pacá Region and northern Chile, they are more “Bolivian” than indigenous with the pejorative weight that that implies. Migrants seem to “live between worlds, between a lost past and an unintegrated present.”51 In the case of Peru, the indigenous migrant already has an experience of stigma and discrimination that originates in the cities of his or her own country: “the Andean immi- grant (Aymara or Quechua) preserves the phonetic influence of the indigenous language, generating contempt and marginalization.”52 In this sense, some
45
46 47
48
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“… inmigración incida en la transformación paulatina de la manera en que las mujeres indígenas se perciben a sí mismas.” Maier, “Tránsitos territoriales e identidad de las mujeres indígenas migrantes,” 222.
González, “El Aymara de la provincia de Iquique-Chile y la educación nacional.” Caggiano, “Del Altiplano al Río de la Plata”; Maier, “Tránsitos territoriales e identidad de las mujeres indígenas migrantes.”
“… expectativas y transgresión de los acatamientos tradicionales de género, para el caso de las mujeres …” “Tránsitos territoriales e identidad de las mujeres indígenas migrantes,” 218.
“Una representación apropiada de una vida que conduce hasta el presente, esto es, una historia de vida modelada en el acto de la autodefinición.” Friedman, Identidad cultura y proceso global, 184.
“[E]n el lugar de destino los inmigrantes aymaras se encuentran con una mirada homo- geneizadora de la sociedad receptora,” Caggiano, “Del Altiplano al Río de la Plata,” 122. “… vivir entre mundos, entre el pasado perdido y un presente no integrado.” Chambers, Migración, cultura, identidad, 50.
“[E]l inmigrante andino (Aymara o Quechua) conserva la influencia fonética de la lengua indígena, generando desprecio y marginalización.” P. Barrera, “Pluralismo religioso e sec-
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Peruvian and Bolivian immigrants who are of indigenous origin (Quechua or Aymara) with discrete identities, that is to say, “these are people who speak or act with discretion or restraint, who are concerned about not disturbing others, maintain secrecy, do not want to attract much attention, and tend to favor iso- lation and mystery”53in order to avoid or decrease discrimination and stigma. The discrete identity comes to be a tool for evading or resisting discrimina- tion.
6 The Transpentecostal Community
Transpentecostalism can be defined as a religion composed of diverse com- munities. At first glance, this can be observed based on the classifications that churches make, divided by gender, generation, ethnicity, or disability. For example, they hold activities, celebrations, or meetings for women, children, adolescents, and seniors. We also find religious meetings for specific ethnic communities such as Koreans, for example, in the city of Iquique or Indian citi- zens who worship together and then take part in pentecostal churches and hold their own services in English in houses. Though we have not yet found this, in other cities, “the signboard in front of the town’s Protestant church includes a sentence in Korean or Chinese, so as to attract newcomers to the ethnic con- gregations that pray there.”54There are also activities, festivities, and religious meetings for disabled people, especially in sign language (in services for the deaf), and these also include Peruvians, not only disabled people, but Peruvian followers who serve as sign language interpreters. There are also other informal community gatherings such as birthdays, baby showers, and house-warming parties held independently in which Peruvian and Bolivian immigrants come together.
Similarly, work itself represents a community space because jobs are found through family and religious networks. As such, they work together, live to-
53
54
ularização: Pentecostais na periferia da cidade de São Bernardo do Campo no Brasil,” Estudos da religião Sao Paulo23, no. 37 (2009): 122.
“[S]e trata de personas que hablan o actúan con tacto o moderación, que preocupan por no molestar a los demás, guardan secreto, no atraen demasiado y tienen a favorecer el aislamiento y el misterio.” M. Pecheny, “Identidades discretas,” in Identidades, sujetos y subjetividades: Narrativas de la diferencia, ed. L. Arfuch (Prometeo, 2002), 131. “[E]l letrero en la iglesia protestante de la localidad que incluya, una línea en coreano o en chino para atraer a los recién llegados a las congregaciones étnicas que oran en ese lugar.” Levitt, “Rezar por encima de las fronteras,” 68.
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gether, attend the same church, and (those who are parents) send their children to the same school. Most of the jobs held by Peruvian and Bolivian immigrants in the city of Iquique are in the fields of construction, domestic work, cleaning services, or outdoor market work. Although festive gatherings or workspaces seem to be harmonious and integrating, they also are conflictive and exclu- sive. As such, in the concept of community from the transnational perspective, “conflict is key in the construction of the community, in this case, the transna- tional community.”55We have observed that there is self-assessment and deval- orization at the same time based on ethnicity. For example, Peruvians consider themselves to be superior to Bolivians and see themselves as more intelligent or sought-after workers. They also believe that their country’s construction resourcesarebetter.PeruviansbelievethattheyaresuperiortoChileans,partic- ularly regarding cuisine. As such, Peruvians participate in food-oriented tasks at church, especially when there are festive activities or construction and/or repair tasks. On the other hand, Bolivians are proud of their ethnic heritage (Quechua or Aymara) and say that they are not ashamed of their origins. They evenspeakQuechuaorAymara.TheycriticizePeruviansandChileansforbeing ashamed of and abandoning or wanting to forget about their indigenous ori- gins.
Many of the Peruvians interviewed use long weekends to go toTacna (a Peru- vian city) to eat as a family, but they cannot bring food products across the border except for condiments because they are confiscated. Despite this, they bring clothing to sell, tools for work (because they believe that they are better or less expensive even though they are the same Chinese-made brands).They also bring evangelical products or symbols. This includes products such as biblical symbols for celebrating birthdays or marriages with biblical references. This is interesting because Peruvians are not the only ones who engage in this behav- ior. Chilean Pentecostals also travel to Tacna to purchase products with biblical symbols in order to celebrate birthdays or weddings.
By contrast, Bolivian migrants do not engage in this type of travel, but they do travel to their cities of origin every three or six months. They often quit their jobs in order to spend two or three months in their home cities with their fam- ilies, especially the women who have children. They then return to Chile to spend a similar period of time working. This means that they leave their jobs to visit their families. These are women who leave their children in the care of relatives in Bolivia. Except in cases of young couples, they infrequently decide
55
“[E]l conflicto es clave en la construcción de la comunidad, en este caso, de la comunidad transnacional.” Castro, “Teoría transnacional,” 187.
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to stay in Chile to live there. Chileans occasionally show some “nationalism” or, rather, show the influence of their schooling, when they mention battles and combat from the Pacific War. Pentecostals see this as a victory and it makes them feel superior.
One can appreciate differences between the migration processes of Peru- vians, on the one hand, and Bolivians, on the other. The former can be read in terms of traditional migration, that is, they come to stay in the city of Iquique. Bolivians, particularly Bolivian women, engage more in crossborder mobility than in migration. They come to work for several months and then return. One can therefore generally describe them as less community-oriented than Peru- vian women because they prefer to work as live-in domestic workers to save money on rent. Similarly, they only attend church on Sundays and do not gen- erally take part in their congregations’ meetings for women. However, they do participate in their churches regularly when they return to their city of origin. Another characteristic of these women is that they are frequently indigenous women, either Aymara or Quechua, and, as such, crossborder or geographic mobility is used by them as a strategy to satisfy productive and reproductive needs that have a correlate in cultural memory, but this is clearly a new kind. Some of these women refer to painful violent pasts in which they have been ver- bally and physically mistreated by parents, classmates, neighbors, boyfriends, or husbands.56
Peruvians are more likely than Bolivian migrants to try to ensure that their children integrate into Chilean society through school. Peruvian parents take steps to ensure that their children, both those born in Peru and those born in Chile, are excellent students. They are even willing to engage in a reval- orization of the Naval Battle of Iquique, which is so noteworthy for the pro- cess of Chileanization and the nationalism highlighted during the dictatorship (1973–1990), a period during which Peruvian and Bolivian migrants were con- stantlyperceivedastheenemy,andevenasspies.Furthermore,Peruviansmake an ongoing effort to encourage Chileanist feeling, particularly through soccer, dressing their children in Chilean national team jerseys, even when the team plays against Peru’s national team. This is observed frequently among Peruvian Pentecostals but not among their Bolivian counterparts.
However, everything changes when most of the participants in an event are Peruvian or Bolivian. They speak about their childhoods. Their eyes shine, the
56
These painful experiences of migrant women, especially Aymara women, are discussed in the text by Vicenta Mamani Bernabé, Mujer Aymara migrante. Hermana: ponte derecha y anda(Cochabamba, Verbo Divino, 2007).
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words flow, and the images become diaphanous when they describe a magical and marvelous world of their home country and life with their parents, grand- parents,andcousins.Theyevenmanagetorefrainfromworryingaboutpoverty. It is notable that the migrant constantly lives with the nostalgia and melan- choly of the place of origin and hope in the host country. This hope is centered on a better future for their children. That place of the past, which is interpreted as the best of places, is passed on to the children, who also value those places even if they have not traveled to or explored them. Obviously, some part of their home, either the dining room or the bedrooms, contains photographs, draw- ings, or souvenirs from the place of origin.
7 Conclusions
Transpentecostalism is a religious phenomenon that goes beyond crossborder Pentecostalism. It contains it but also transcends it: on the one hand, it implies a crossborder mobility, and on the other hand, it is an intrapentecostal and transpentecostal mobility in the sense that the migrant is not characterized by religious inactivity but, rather, by their mobility. It is an itinerant attendance that implies going to different (pentecostal and/or Protestant) churches, and over a period of two to five years it can lead to changing congregations several times. In that mobility, and given religious globalization, they receive different influences of religious contents from cyberpreachers, radio preachers, and tel- evangelists, mainly neo-pentecostal preachers.
We found that in Transpentecostalism, migrants make three fundamental contributions to pentecostal communities: the economic and labor contribu- tion, institutional commitment, and intermediate leadership. First, based on our observations and the information highlighted by pastors, Peruvian and Bolivian migrants, mainly those of Aymara and Quechua indigenous origin, are generous in their offerings and make their resources (vehicles and homes) available to their churches. Second, they show and maintain greater commit- ment to the church with regard to work. As migrants are generally perceived as harder working, pastors and their followers feel that committed migrants are more hard-working than nationals. They are resources for congregation building, as they are more willing to preach in public or on the radio and to attract new converts to the churches. Third, they are a source of intermedi- ate leadership because they mainly participate as leaders of home churches or cell churches, Sunday schools and schools for young people, women, and adults. Pentecostal churches are always growing in terms of both building new churches and fixing and expanding existing ones, and migrants are the most
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committed to these activities. Pentecostalism is no longer a refuge for the migrant, but a space in which he or she can develop and make social, cultural, and symbolic investments.
Transpentecostalism is characterized by the plural identity of its followers. The homogenizing emphasis on clothing is gradually decreasing, allowing Boli- vian Aymara women to use their traditional garments without being consid- ered worldly for doing so. There is a blending in religious contents of pente- costal beliefs. This has always been the case, but it is now openly taken up as a virtue. Some pentecostal churches observe and recognize the Independence Days of Peruvians and Bolivians, and they also respect and value the national identities of believers and highlight metanational identity (citizens of heaven). Some pentecostal churches even set aside the Chilean Independence holiday for a plurinational celebration. Transpentecostalism is a community of com- munities in which believers can participate without belonging to the church. They also belong to a community network that can be disseminated in vari- ous churches. As such, they participate in several churches at the same time, attending services at one in the morning and another in the afternoon, taking part in certain activities in another, or constantly circulating through churches.
Acknowledgments
This paper is the result of the Fondecyt Initiation project 11140698 by Dr. Miguel Ángel Mansilla and Fondecyt Postdoctoral 3180173 by Dr. Carlos Piñones Rivera. The authors thank Fondecyt-ANIDfor funding the research.
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