Doorstep Mission Field: Latin Americans in the United States

A Spanish-speaking mission field has been brought to our doorstep by the economic pressures of our generation. Although statistics are shaky and definitions uncertain, it seems safe to say that Spanish is now our country’s second language, and about five million Stateside residents, both foreign and domestic, can be claimed for the Latin American community. Of these, 2,316,671 were born in Latin America. Also resident in the United States are some 849,000 Puerto Rican-born citizens. And to the above must be added their American-born, Spanish-speaking children, plus 300,000 to 400,000 migratory workers, transients, “braceros,” and “wetbacks.”

Although they are to be found in every state of the nation, Latin Americans have arrived primarily across the Mexican border and through Miami and New York. In these areas they are concentrated. They range from the doctors and lawyers in exile from Castro’s Cuba to the Mexican laborers who “commute” into the United States each day to go to work.

These millions, more often than not, have come to our shores wide open to spiritual help and evangelism, having left behind their nominal religious traditions. They are ready—if not eager—for spiritual orientation “a la americana.” According to one poll, cited by John H. Burma of Duke University, about half the Puerto Ricans in New York said that they rarely, if ever, attended church any more. There is an undisputed tendency to allow the old religion to fall into disuse along with the old culture. Thus, while there are less than a dozen Roman Catholic churches ministering to the Spanish-speaking in New York (and more frequented by Spaniards than by Latin Americans!), there are an estimated 427 Protestant churches with Spanish-language services. Stateside Latin Americans definitely constitute a legitimate and fruitful mission field for the evangelical church in this land.

Miami, Florida

During the time that Fidel Castro has been in power in Cuba, up through January, approximately, of 1963, the United States has opened its doors to 205,000 Cuban exiles (15,000 of whom are parentless children). About 125,000 have settled in the greater Miami area and together with other Latin Americans make up a Miami Spanish-speaking colony of 250,000. One out of every four Miami residents is a Latin American. In one downtown store a proprietor with a sense of humor displayed a sign: “English Spoken Here”!

Roman Catholics have established a strong refugee-processing center, and some eight churches have substantial Spanish-speaking parishes in adjunct. There are eighteen Protestant refugee centers, all related to Church World Service. It is estimated that between thirty-five and forty churches minister to Latin Americans, many of them with Cuban-refugee associate pastors. Refugees are reported to be very open to the Gospel, and the percentage of evangelicals among the Cubans in Florida is much higher than that in Cuba itself. This same picture is reflected on a smaller scale in Tampa and in Key West.

Southwestern States

Although difficult to pinpoint statistically, the Latin American community in the Southwest is large and significant. About 40 per cent of the residents of New Mexico reportedly are Spanish-speaking. According to the 1960 census there were 1,735,992 Mexican-born residents in the United States. Most of these, plus their American-born children, live in the Southwest—half of them in Texas. To them must be added the other Latin Americans to be found in large numbers, particularly in California. The Spanish-speaking migrant labor force once ran over 400,000 per year, but last year’s “braceros” averaged nearer 87,000. Mechanization of cotton harvesting plus minimum-wage laws will undoubtedly continue to reduce imported farm labor.

Many denominations are carrying on extensive work both in established localities and among migrant workers. As might be expected, Southern Baptists are particularly active. But workers and facilities are everywhere most inadequate in number for the evangelistic opportunity. One writer on the subject, Jack E. Taylor, laments particularly the lack of attention given to the “braceros,” who have left their families in Mexico and have been proven not only to be wide open to the Gospel but also to be excellent missionaries to their own people when they return to their fatherland. In his book, God’s Messengers to Mexico’s Masses (Institute of Church Growth, Eugene, Oregon, 1962), Taylor analyzes the needs and distribution of the Mexican workers and suggests ways of capitalizing on the evangelistic opportunity.

New York City

One out of every six people in Manhattan is a Latin American, and as of 1960 there were 700,000 (about 8.4 per cent of the total population) resident in the five boroughs of New York. By 1970 it is estimated that the Puerto Rican population of New York will have risen to 13.5 per cent, and to 22 per cent in Manhattan.

The Protestant Council of New York reports that 427 churches carry on a ministry in Spanish. Many of these are “store-front” groups, but over 300 are stable churches. More than half of them (240) are of Pentecostal persuasion, and the Pentecostal communicant membership (18,482) is nearly 60 per cent of the total Protestant membership (32,159). The Protestant community is estimated at just under 100,000, comprising 13.6 per cent of New York’s Latin American population.

Although statistics have been cited for only three areas, there are colonies of Latin Americans in practically every state of the union. Their social needs are legion. The National Child Labor Committee has recommended “the establishment of day-care facilities for the children of working migrant mothers to keep the younger children out of the fields and to free the older school-age children from babysitting to attend school more regularly.” The unemployed need vocational training. City slums and migrant camps offer inadequate housing. The health problems of these new Americans clamor for attention.

But most of all, Latin American refugees and immigrants need a chance to know the transforming power of the Gospel. They have been found more open to it here than in their native countries, and they constitute an exciting challenge to the evangelical Christians of the United States.

W.D.R

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