Abstract

SUAREZ, Hugo José. The geography of religious practice in a working-class neighborhood in Mexico City. Soc. relig. [online]. 2017, vol.27, n.47, pp.12-32. ISSN 1853-7081.

This paper, analyzes the geography of religious practice in a working-class neighborhood in Mexico City. It aims to answer the research question: what is the relationship between believers and space in a neighborhood characterized by religious dynamism, dominance of popular religiosity and intense urbanization. Dozens of interviews and a robust process of field work over four years, provide data to explain five forms of religious territorialization: the embedded official Catholicism, Protestant and Pentecostal temples, expressions of popular religiosity, and appropriation of territory and sacred intimate places. This study concludes that in this neighborhood, a process of re-signification of spaces can be observed through a new sacred geometry that implies the direct participation of believers communities, who invent territories and religious forms that respond to their needs of faith. This paper is also part of the development of an interactive CD.

Keywords : Popular Religiosity; Territory and Religion; Mexico City.