Activist Faith

When the military regimes of Latin America gave way to more open politics in the 1980s, much of the scholarship that followed assumed the religiously inspired movements that had resisted them simply faded: activists scattered, exhausted, their hopes for a new kind of citizenship quietly shelved. This study tests that assumption by going back to the activists themselves, asking what remains of their commitment, how they cope in changed circumstances and how they now see the future.

Drawing on detailed fieldwork from two key cases and on social movement theory, the analysis looks closely at what sustains activism once a cycle of protest has peaked, with careful attention throughout to gender and the experiences of women. A thoughtful, grounded study for anyone interested in religion and politics in Latin America, or in what happens to movements after the headlines move on.