(RNS) — According to Pew Research Center, Hispanic Americans have grown as a share of the U.S. Latter-day Saint population. In 2007, when Pew fielded its first Religious Landscape Study, about 1 in every 14 U.S. Mormons identified as Hispanic or Latina/o. In the most recent 2023 – 24 data, that was closer to 1 in 8, or 12%, of the U.S. LDS population.

But who are Latina/o Mormons in the U.S., and how do they practice and feel about their faith?

Researcher Sujey Vega, a professor at Arizona State University, has probed that question for nearly 20 years now. She’s the author of the new book “Mormon Barrio: Latino Belonging in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (NYU Press), based on interviews with 48 people in Arizona, Indiana and Utah. Most were converts to Mormonism, primarily from Catholicism, and Vega wanted to know why they joined their new faith.

“The immediate answer was not because they believe in the church’s message that families are forever. That’s definitely a benefit, but that wasn’t necessarily the reason,” Vega said in a Zoom interview with RNS. “It was more of an individual coming to terms with their faith. They appreciated the chance to read the Book of Mormon and understand the Bible and just come to terms with what they actually believe in a way that maybe was never the case for them in Catholicism.”

Latina/o Mormons felt empowered not just by the church’s emphasis on reading Scriptures but also by the volunteer mentality of the church’s administration, in which rank-and-file members often have a lot of responsibility.

“If you’re a male, to be the bishop in your ward is a leadership opportunity that many individuals would never have unless they wanted to commit to be a priest in the Catholic church,” she said.

Women, too, exercised leadership, even though they couldn’t be ordained into the church’s all-male priesthood. The women were leaders within the Relief Society, the church’s organization for adult women, “and they did have a say” in how congregations were run. “Women were vocal and asking questions. Sure, they didn’t have the power that men had in the church, but they also didn’t shy away from having their voice heard.”

Vega said this is an interesting dynamic, where the patriarchal structure of the LDS Church meets the mostly matriarchal-in-practice structure of many Latina/o families.

“In the book I wanted to recognize the ways that women bring the family into religion — they are the ones convincing their husbands and sons, their daughters or cousins or nephews. That was a constant. I’d ask people, ‘How did you get into the faith?’ And it was, ‘My grandma, my mom, my tía brought us in.’ One of them said, ‘Wherever my mom or grandma goes, we all go.’”

This was a familiar experience for Vega. “I was not surprised. Being a Latina myself, being Mexican American, I know the power of both my grandmother and my mother. And even though my mother was definitely in a very patriarchal relationship where my dad worked and she did not, I knew there was a lot more power in that space. Too many times, Latina women get labeled as passive or as followers.”

Vega said Spanish-speaking barrios (Mormon wards, or congregations) and ramas (branches, or smaller congregations) are tight-knit communities. As a researcher and self-described “recovering Catholic,” she was impressed by the loving, personal relationships she observed among Latina/o Mormons when she was researching her book “Latino Heartland” 20 years ago. Until 2006, she didn’t even know that Latina/o Mormons existed, let alone in Indiana where she was then living.

She also found, when she moved to Arizona in 2011, that there was a steely side to the Latina/o LDS community.

“In 2010, there was Senate Bill 1070 in Arizona, legislation that was very anti-immigrant. This was the classic ‘show me your papers bill,’ and I was myself personally racially profiled.

“I saw a moment of tension erupt between Latino LDS members and English-dominant white members in Arizona,” she said. Latina/o members “know their gospel backward and forward, and they can sometimes see contradictions in ways that maybe traditional white LDS members do not.”

Some white Latter-day Saints focused on obeying the Arizona law, a law that had been introduced and championed by a white Mormon legislator, Russell Pearce.

But many Latina/o members considered the law unjust and worked to repeal it.

“Many themselves are either immigrants or have immigrant family members or have people that want to come over. They see that there’s a distinction between just and unjust laws. Martin Luther King talked about this, how when there were unjust laws, he had a commitment to bring attention to them and not follow them. He was talking about Jim Crow, but similar conversations have happened amongst Latinos across the nation,” Vega said.

While the Supreme Court eventually overturned most of the provisions of Arizona’s 2010 “show me your papers” bill, the question of immigration policy continues to divide U.S. Latter-day Saints.

“The increase in detention centers has really hurt a lot of Latino members who just could not understand why their sisters and brothers in faith were supporting a man that was vocal about everything against the faith,” Vega said. In the second Trump administration, “you can see a lot more visual impact on Latino and immigrant families. They’re living their faith in the gospel. They’re at church to gain a deeper understanding of what they believe. Seeing their fellow members support MAGA is really disheartening.”

Vega said this is part of the reason why, even after Latina/o Latter-day Saints learn English, many still prefer a Spanish-speaking ward. Most Latina/os (not all, Vega is careful to say) did not vote for Trump, which means they’re less likely to encounter MAGA messaging in a Spanish-speaking ward.

“At least there, you feel a little bit safer. We’re not talking about safety in terms of being free from immigration raids. We’re just talking about: Do you feel accepted by the people in your ward? In an English-speaking ward, given the numbers of Mormons that voted for Trump, you have to wonder whether everyone is going to turn against you if they had the chance,” she said.

Vega noted that although most of her book’s interviewees were converts to the LDS Church, some Latina/os in the U.S. are third- or fourth-generation Mormons. They’re proud of that heritage, especially in Arizona, where in 1945 the LDS temple in Mesa was the very first to offer Spanish-language endowment ceremonies for members. Actually, that was the first temple in the world to use any language other than English, a testament to the strong Latina/o LDS community in the Mesa area.

For those who are recent converts, many said the church has added to their happiness, but not that the church created that happiness out of whole cloth.

“I don’t want to perpetuate this idea that they were wretched before and now they’re only saved because of the church,” Vega said. “The church has many good influences, but people also said, ‘No, our families were already this way.’”

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