Hispanic Ministry in Waterloo Iowa: Establishing a Community Identity

I have been investigating how the Hispanic ministry in Waterloo, Iowa helps create community identity and solidarity among the recent Hispanic immigrant population. Methods that I used included participant observation and ethnographic interviewing. I attended weekly Spanish masses and prayer group meetings at St. Joseph\u27s Catholic church in Waterloo. I interviewed Hispanic immigrants who were a part of the St. Joseph\u27s Hispanic community, as well as religious persons from the Waterloo area. These experiences were recorded as field notes, and interviews were tape-recorded and have been transcribed. I have found that the Hispanic ministry in Waterloo is very important in establishing community identity and solidarity among the recent immigrants. The church and the sister who runs the ministry are the central core of much of the Hispanic community, providing many social services in addition to the religious ones. The Spanish mass serves as a common ground for the Hispanics and facilitates a social unity, along with the religious unity that is a part of the masses. The prayer group serves many purposes including: social, economical, parental, emotional, and spiritual support, religious education, a venue for child discipline, and shared information about living in the United States that can only be acquired by experience , personal or shared. These elements contribute to promote community identity and solidarity among this population