DigitalCommons@Linfield

Salva la Iglesia: A Congregation's Fight for Community

Jereld R. Nicholson Library

The purpose of this study is to examine community response to crisis and the impact intercultural interactions have on the outcome of ethnic and religious group conflict. This research uses a case study focusing on the San Martín Catholic Mission in Oregon and the ways this particular community responded to the crisis of the Catholic diocese threatening to sell their property in 2010. I gathered data from a year of ethnographic fieldwork, participant observations in the setting, and in-depth interviews with six individuals involved in the church and related community groups. I then analyzed the data using the lens of social capital theory to examine the resource networks built through this event and their effect on the communities. Themes such as changing roles of immigrants and minorities in the United States, changing gender roles in community activism, and changing levels of activism after community crises are resolved emerged from this analysis, which indicate the importance of social factors in affecting community response to crisis. The findings of this case study have implications for how communities may need to adapt to the changing demographic of the United States as the Latino population increases, and it provides insight into patterns of interaction that may be seen between ethnic and religious communities in the future.