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COPYRIGHT 2006 The Institute Inc.
Prologue
The Rev. John Allen, pastor of Elim Lutheran Church (E.L.C.A.) in Marshalltown, Iowa, and his family were enjoying a Chinese dinner in Wong's Restaurant a few weeks before Christmas. Their after-dinner conversation engaged a couple of young Latino men who were bussing tables. Until this moment Allen had not really had a chance to speak with some of the Latino newcomers who had been arriving in Marshalltown during the past year. An inquisitive Allen discovered that none of the men had plans to celebrate Christmas in church. The Latinos explained that they wished to attend mass, but wanted to participate in a Spanish mass. All worship services in local churches were in English. In response to their dilemma, Allen invited them and any other Latinos to a Spanish mass at Elim on Christmas Day afternoon.
On Christmas Day, 1990, Rev. John Allen, assisted by a translator, celebrated a Spanish Christmas liturgy for 15 Latinos, and began an 18-month Hispanic ministry in Marshalltown. The Latino congregation grew to more than 250 registered families. A choir was formed. Baptisms and First Communions were performed. Padre Juan, as John Allen was affectionately called, and the mostly Mexican immigrants worked together to create a dynamic Latino congregation. Many Elim parishioners were supportive and appreciative of the new ministry.
However, the Elim Hispanic ministry also had its challenges. A few vocal individuals were not supportive of Allen's ministry to the Mexicans. Catholics worshipping in a Lutheran church raised concerns among Anglo-Lutherans and Catholics alike. And the expanding Latino congregation expressed to the Elim Church Council their desire that a Spanish-speaking priest be hired by the local Catholic Church.
In July 1992, the Archdiocese of Dubuque appointed Father Paul Ouderkirk as the Hispanic Minister of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Marshalltown. This was the first Hispanic ministry appointment in the Archdiocese. That summer John Allen accepted a call to a church in Wisconsin and was to leave town in early August. The two clergy overlapped a month in Marshalltown. Father Paul attended the Spanish masses held at Elim, and the priests worked together to plan Padre Juan's final Spanish worship service. On a Sunday afternoon in late July, Rev. John Allen began his last Spanish mass at Elim. Immediately following the benediction, Padre Juan and Father Paul, dressed in full vestments, the entire Latino congregation, the choir and guitar players, and the statue of the Virgen de Guadalupe processed from Elim down the sidewalks of Marshalltown to St. Mary's Catholic Church. In the basement of St. Mary's Rev. John Allen passed his Hispanic ministry to Father Paul and bade goodbye to his Latino friends.
Introduction
Like many new immigrant destination communities throughout rural America, Marshalltown, Iowa, has changed dramatically since 1989 as more than 6,000 Latino immigrants have moved to this rural Midwestern town to seek their vision of the American dream. Mexican storefronts, boisterous quinceanera celebrations, bilingual educational programs, and pastel painted homes are examples of how the social, cultural and physical landscapes have changed. However, rapid ethnic diversification is not an easy process. At times it can be quite divisive and painful for all involved. Newcomers, long time residents, community organizations, and local leadership all are challenged to find ways to communicate, understand, and work together. In the social milieu of the rural Midwest, Latino integration into local communities is particularly challenging. Language and cultural barriers are evident. Discrimination by Anglo residents, often based on stereotypes and false information, exists. The "transient" character of a primarily Mexican work force, tied to high labor turnover rates and undocumented status, compounds the problem of intergroup relations. Research on the influx of Latinos into America's heartland in the early 1990s emphasizes the "peripheralization" of immigrants in local communities due to economic, social, and political marginalization of Latinos by Anglo residents and state organizations (Cantu 1995; Naples 1994).
Now after more than a decade of Latino settlement, recent anthropological studies of new immigrant destination communities in the United States recognize not only the continuing challenges and difficulties that influence intergroup relations, but also the "good practices" that have emerged as old time residents and newcomers learn to work together (Zuniga and Hernandez-Leon 2005). Marshalltown, Iowa, is recognized as one of the unusually successful U.S. towns in its accommodation of recent Latino immigrants (Conte 2002; Frese 2002; Grey and Baker 2002; Griffith 2002, 2004; Grey and Woodrick 2002, 2005). (1) In fact, "most citizens of Marshalltown have come to accept Latino immigrants as a permanent part of their land-scape" (Griffith 2004:4).
The recent analyses of Marshalltown mask the rather humble beginning of the Hispanic ministry at Elim Lutheran Church under the guidance of Rev. John Allen by highlighting programs and activities that developed after Allen's ministry. Reference to Allen's ministry is either neglected or anecdotal. (2) However, what is acknowledged is the significant contribution that churches and church leaders have made in the integration of newcomers and established residents in Marshalltown. St. Mary's Catholic Church and the First Baptist Church (American Baptist Church, U.S.A.), along with other faith-based organizations and programs including the Salvation Army, the Food Box, the House of Compassion [homeless shelter], and Lutheran Social Services of Iowa, are recognized as playing a vital role in welcoming newcomers to Marshalltown (Grey et al. 2001). Griffith (2002, 2004) identifies St. Mary's and the First Baptist Church, along with their Hispanic ministry staffs, as two key organizations that make the integration of Latinos into Marshalltown work. Latinos themselves identify the church as the principal local institution in assisting them adapt to Marshalltown (Griffith 2004:55).
A question remains, though, about how the initial efforts of John Allen's Hispanic ministry influenced not only later Hispanic ministry activities, but also the broader community initiatives connected to Marshalltown's success in accommodating Latino newcomers. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the ministry of John Allen in relation to the role of church and other faith-based organizations in effecting community formation and transformation in the context of rapid ethnic diversification. The term community will be used in two ways. The first definition is in reference to a Latino community identity that forms after the first Latinos arrived in Marshalltown. The other concept of community refers to Marshalltown as a community in transformation in which established residents and newcomers increasingly interact and work toward similar goals. (3)
Research Methods
Stimulated by the call for ethnographic inquiry about recent immigrant congregations (Warner 1996), the author initiated a research project in the summer of 1997 to investigate the role of religion in the creation of community identity among Latino immigrants in Iowa. This ongoing ethnographic investigation focuses on Catholic Hispanic Ministries in the Archdiocese of Dubuque and the Diocese of Sioux City in Iowa. Four local Hispanic ministry programs have been the primary foci of research. One of these is St. Mary's Catholic Church in Marshalltown. Research data from Marshalltown is based upon open-ended interviews with ministry personnel from Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Baptist churches (N=8), structured and open-ended interviews with Latino immigrants (Marshalltown, N=20), and participant observation of Catholic religious activities (masses, prayer groups, processions, and reflection groups) and broader community activities (e.g., Marshalltown Diversity Committee, Fourth of July celebrations). Interviews were tape recorded and later transcribed. Interviews with Latino immigrants were conducted in Spanish. Rev. John Allen was interviewed at his home in Wisconsin in 1999. The following year, six Anglo community members who knew and/or worked with Allen were interviewed. Field notes that record participant observation activities and casual conversations with immigrants and Anglos, and newspaper articles from the MARSHALLTOWN TIMES-REPUBLICAN and the DES MOINES REGISTRAR, are indexed and filed as research data.
In addition to the traditional ethnographic methodology outlined above, research data about new immigrants in Marshalltown and other towns in Iowa comes out of the author's work with the New Iowans Program at the University of Northern Iowa. From 2001 to...
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