Date of Award
1-1-2009
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Organizational Unit
Joint Ph.D. Program in Study of Religion
First Advisor
Luis D. Leon, Ph.D.
Second Advisor
Bernadette Calafell
Third Advisor
Albert Hernandez
Keywords
Agency, Borderlands, Chicanas, Missionaries, Protestantism, Religious poetics
Abstract
This study places the stories of Mexican American Methodist women in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands within the context of the organizational history of the United Methodist Women of the Rio Grande Conference of the United Methodist Church: Mujeres Metodistas Unidas, or the MMU. It focuses on the experiences and memories of women who came into contact with the ideals imported by Anglo Methodist missionaries to the U.S. southwest immediately following the conquest of the northern half of Mexico in 1848.
In order to understand the experiences of Mexican American women in relation to the history of Methodism in the southwest, this study explores the most salient and relevant themes found in Methodist missionary activity beginning in 1869 and continuing through 2008. The origins of the Methodist missionary work with Mexican women lie in the Women's Foreign Mission Society founded in 1869 by a group of Anglo women in Boston, Mass.
By placing the missionary documents into conversation with Mexican women's voices, memories and experiences, this study shows the ways in which Mexican American women adapted to, resisted and reshaped Methodism to suit their educational, social and religious needs.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Rights Holder
Adriana Pilar Nieto
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
File Format
application/pdf
Language
en
File Size
142 p.
Recommended Citation
Nieto, Adriana Pilar, "From 'Black-Eyed Girls' to the MMU (Mujeres Methotistas Unidas): Race, Religion and Gender in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands" (2009). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 477.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/477
Copyright date
2009
Discipline
Religious history, Hispanic American studies, Women's studies