Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio by Felipe Hinojosa

Abstract

Reviewed by: Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio by Felipe Hinojosa Gene T. Morales Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio. By Felipe Hinojosa. Historia USA. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2021. Pp. xviii, 219. $29.95, ISBN 978-1-4773-2198-0.) In his newest book, Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio, Felipe Hinojosa takes us on a journey through the civil rights movement, religious activism, and the changing U.S. urban landscape. Over the course of four chapters, readers encounter Hinojosa's titular "apostles" as he examines four major American cities: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Houston. These cities had one thing in common: Latina/o communities that organized in the barrios and utilized religious institutions as springboards to protest community displacement, police brutality, and racism and to challenge spiritual theology. Using government documents, newspapers, oral histories, and religious archives, Hinojosa [End Page 807] shows how parallel events in post–World War II society, such as the civil rights movement, the onset of white flight, and urban renewal, led activists to occupy churches and religious buildings. Hinojosa provides an in-depth understanding of how faith-based politics and social movements—rooted in religious institutions and neighborhoods across the nation—became central to civil rights activism, self-determination, and neighborhood empowerment. He argues that not all cities and civil rights groups were the same, since demographics, religious affiliation, and location impacted each organization. Each chapter provides a vivid portrayal of scenes from the front lines of activism. Chapter 1 examines Chicago's Young Lords Organization (YLO) and the multiracial coalition of support it built to occupy McCormick Theological Seminary, which occupiers renamed the Manuel Ramos Memorial Building in honor of a neighborhood comrade shot and killed by Chicago police. Chapter 2 examines Los Angeles, where Chicana/o activists organized a group called Católicos Por La Raza and disrupted a Christmas Eve mass in 1969. Similar to YLO, the Católicos' coalition prompted the Catholic Church to recognize the needs of an impoverished Mexican American community that had witnessed religious school closures, reinvestments in other communities, and the unequal distribution of funds to projects like the newly built, multimillion-dollar St. Basil's Catholic Church. In chapter 3, Hinojosa examines East Harlem's Young Lords Organization, which endured Robert Moses's urban renewal assault on the inner city. YLO's movement in New York City was ignited by the police killing of Reinaldo Rodriguez in East Harlem and the transfer of ideas from the Chicago-based Young Lords. Its occupation of the First Spanish United Methodist Church, also known as the People's Church, allowed the Latina/o community to reclaim the space and advocate for their issues. Finally, chapter 4 examines the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO), the largest Chicano civil rights group in Texas. With support from the local community, MAYO's Houston chapter occupied Christ Presbyterian Church (now known as Juan Marcos Presbyterian Church). The organization created community food programs, but the young activists were soon forced out of the church, a setback that ultimately furthered their activism against the Presbyterian Church in Houston. Apostles of Change is a welcome addition to the fields of civil rights history, religious history, and urban history. Hinojosa shares a timely examination of how Latina/o communities were not a monolith and refused to accept ideas of urban blight in their communities by choosing to fight, occupy, and change the urban and religious landscapes of their barrios. Hinojosa's excellent study leaves the reader wanting to know more about how these occupations affected other cities in their regions. Indeed, he has set a foundation for future scholars to build on with this wealth of knowledge of occupations, movements, and activism. [End Page 808] Gene T. Morales Texas A&M University–San Antonio Copyright © 2022 The Southern Historical Association