ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the work of an influential Anglo leader, Archbishop Robert Lucey of Texas, who worked to make room for Spanish-speaking Catholics in the twentieth century US Church. It examines the struggles and encounters that Mexican American Catholics themselves engaged in to make their voices heard and to gain positions of leadership within the Church. Barrio churches were active places of worship and community togetherness, but ongoing Mexican immigration, poverty, and racial discrimination—both in and out of the Church—continued to stymie Mexican American integration and empowerment in Catholic parishes. Labor shortages caused by World War II led to the creation of a guest-worker program wherein US industries—primarily agribusiness—were authorized to import Mexican workers, known as “braceros,” to work for a time before the laborers were sent back to their home country. Las posadas, in addition to being a holiday celebration, is a meaningful and public expression of Mexican American Catholicism.
