Collection Summary
Felipe Hinojosa collection of interviews
with Latino Mennonites 2003-2009
2003-2009
AFC 2016/042
Hinojosa, Felipe, 1977-
44 items.
2 linear feet.
44 sound cassettes : analog.
English
Spanish
Collection material in English and Spanish.
Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of
Congress
Washington, D.C.
Collection of field recordings of
approximately 85 hours of oral history interviews with about 20 Latino Mennonites in
South Texas, Puerto Rico, Kansas, and Indiana. Topics of the interviews include
religious and ethnic community formation; the politics of cultural, religious, and
ethnic identity; civil rights and social justice; and interactions between
evangelical and mainstream religious groups.
Provenance
Felipe Hinojosa; Donation; 2016.
Processing History
The Felipe Hinojosa collection of interviews with Latino Mennonites was processed by
Marcia K. Segal in 2016.
Copyright Status
Duplication of collection materials may be governed by copyright and other
restrictions.
Access and Restrictions
The Felipe Hinojosa collection of interviews with Latino Mennonites is open to
research. To request materials, please contact the Folklife Reading Room at [https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact]
Certain restrictions to use or copying of materials may apply.
Preferred Citation
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information:
[item, date, container number], Felipe Hinojosa collection of interviews with Latino
Mennonites (AFC 2016/042), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library
of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Bibliography
Published in: Hinojosa, Felipe. Latino Mennonites: Civil Rights, Faith, and Evangelical Culture (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014)
Biographical Note
Dr. Felipe Hinojosa is an Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University.
His interests include Latina/o and Mexican American studies, American religion,
social movements, gender, and comparative race and ethnicity. His publications
include, [
Latino Mennonites: Civil Rights, Faith, and Evangelical
Culture (2014)] and
Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight
to Save the Barrio (2021).
Hinojosa was born in the border town of Brownsville, Texas. He grew up as a Mennonite
in the church his parents founded in South Texas. Throughout his upbringing as a
Mexican American evangélico, Hinojosa was faced with questions not only about his
own religion but also about broader issues of Latino evangelicalism, identity, and
civil rights politics. In the late 1990s, Hinojosa met Neftali Torres, a Puerto
Rican Mennonite pastor, at a gathering of Mexican Mennonite pastors. At the
gathering, Torres discussed the Minority Ministries Council (MMC), a small
multi-ethnic group of Latino and African American Mennonites, who operated in the
Mennonite Church from 1968 to 1973. Hinojosa became interested in the
narrative of black and brown Mennonites who worked to open the doors of the church
to minorities. For the next 15 years, Hinojosa began to reconstruct the history
through a series of oral histories in South Texas, Puerto Rico, Kansas, and Indiana, and Chicago.
Hinojosa received his PhD in history from the University of Houston in 2009, MA in
history from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (2004), and a BA in English
from Fresno Pacific University (1999). In 2015 he won the Américo Paredes Book
Award by the Center for Mexican American Studies at South Texas College.
Scope and Content
The collection documents 15 years of research Felipe Hinojosa's conducted within the
community of the Latino Mennonites from South Texas, Puerto Rico, Kansas, and
Indiana. The oral histories which were conducted between 2003-2009, consists of 22
interviews including Neftali Torres, the pastor who inspired Hinojosa to trace the
history of the Latino Mennonite Church. The interviews culminated in his book, [
Latino Mennonites: Civil Rights, Faith, and Evangelical
Culture (2014)]. These oral histories document the forgotten
history of the Mennonites and tell the story of the preachers who turned social
justice advocates transforming the Mennonite Church from the grassroots. In his
book, Hinojosa traces the Latino presence within the Mennonite Church, from the
origins of Mennonite missions in Latino communities to the conflicted relationship
between the Mennonite Church, the California farmworker movements, and the rise of
Latino evangelical politics in the United States. He also analyzed how the politics
of the Chicano, Puerto Rican, and black freedom struggles of the 1960s and 1970s
civil rights movements captured the imagination of Mennonite leaders who belonged to
a church known more for rural and peaceful agrarian life than for social
protest.
Arrangement
The Felipe Hinojosa collection of interviews with Latino Mennonites has one series:
1. Interviews with Latino Mennonites, circa 2003-2009.
The interviews are arranged alphabetically by the interviewee’s last name.
Selected Search Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
People
Hinojosa, Felipe, 1977-
Subjects
Hispanic American Mennonites--Civil rights--Religious aspects.
Hispanic American Mennonites--History--20th century.
Hispanic American Mennonites--Indiana.
Hispanic American Mennonites--Interviews.
Hispanic American Mennonites--Kansas.
Hispanic American Mennonites--Puerto Rico.
Hispanic American Mennonites--Texas.
Hispanic Americans--Civil rights.
Hispanic Americans--Social conditions.
Race relations--Religious aspects--Mennonites.
Places
Middle West, event place.
Puerto Rico, event place.
Texas, event place.
Form/Genre
Field recordings.
Interviews.
Oral histories.
Sound recordings.
Container List
Series 1: Interviews with Latino Mennonites, circa
2003-2009
AFC 2016/042: SR01 - SR02
Ted Chapa, tapes 1-2, January 22,
2007
January 22, 2007
2 sound cassettes, 90 min.
AFC 2016/042: SR03 - SR05
Paul Conrad and Ann Conrad,
tapes 1-3, April 21,
2007
April 21, 2007
3 sound cassettes, 90 min.
New Carlisle, Ohio. Possibly recorded on another date.
AFC 2016/042: SR06 - SR10
Lupe DeLeón, tapes
1-2
5 sound cassettes, 90 min.
AFC 2016/042: SR11 - SR12
Seferina DeLeón, tapes 1-2,
April 21,
2007
April 21, 2007
2 sound cassettes, 90 min.
Goshen, Indiana
AFC 2016/042: SR13
Ruperto "Tito" Guedea, May 3,
2007
May 3, 2007
1 sound cassette, 90 min.
AFC 2016/042: SR14
Samuel Hernandez
1 sound cassette, 60 min.
Goshen, Indiana
AFC 2016/042: SR15
Jose Enrique
Jimenez
1 sound cassette, 90 min.
AFC 2016/042: SR16
Hector Lugo
1 sound cassette, 90 min.
Puerto Rico
AFC 2016/042: SR17
Rolando Mireles, September
16-17, 2003
September 16-17, 2003
1 sound cassette, 90 min.
AFC 2016/042: SR18
Rolando Mireles, February 10,
2004
February 10, 2004
1 sound cassette, 90 min.
AFC 2016/042: SR19 - SR20
Jesus "Chuy" Navarro, tapes
1-2, January 21,
2007
January 21, 2007
2 sound cassettes, 90 min.
Robstown, Texas
AFC 2016/042: SR21
Enrique Ortiz
1 sound cassette, 90 min.
AFC 2016/042: SR22 - SR23
Jose Ortiz, tapes
1-2
1 sound cassette, 60 min.; 1 sound cassette,
90 min.
AFC 2016/042: SR24 - SR25
Ricardo Peña, tapes 1-2,
July 15,
2003
July 15, 2003
2 sound cassettes, 90 min.
AFC 2016/042: SR26
Ricardo Peña, August 14,
2003
August 14, 2003
1 sound cassette, 90 min.
AFC 2016/042: SR27
Ricardo Peña; Yolanda
Villareal, January 8,
2004
January 8, 2004
1 sound cassette, 90 min.
AFC 2016/042: SR28
Yolanda Villareal, January 8,
2004
January 8, 2004
1 sound cassette, 90 min.
AFC 2016/042: SR29 - SR32
John Powell, tapes 1-4,
April 26,
2007
April 26, 2007
4 sound cassettes, 90 min.
AFC 2016/042: SR33 - SR34
Alfredo Tagle, tapes 1-2,
September 4,
2003
September 4, 2003
2 sound cassettes, 90 min.
AFC 2016/042: SR35
Gracie Torres, June 20,
2007
June 20, 2007
1 sound cassette, 90 min.
Lourdes Café, Puerto Rico.
AFC 2016/042: SR36 - SR39
Neftali Torres, tapes 1-4,
undated
undated
4 sound cassettes, 90 min.
AFC 2016/042: SR40 - SR41
Rosario Vallejo and Perfecta
DeLeón, tapes 1-2, December 28, 2006
December 28, 2006
2 sound cassettes, 60 min.
Rosario's home in Mathis, Texas.
AFC 2016/042: SR42
Rosario Vallejo,
February
February
1 sound cassette, 90 min.
Rosario's home in Mathis, Texas. Possibly recorded in 2007.
AFC 2016/042: SR43 - SR44
John Ventura, tapes 1-2,
September 14,
2009
September 14, 2009
2 sound cassettes, 90 min.