Nuestro Llanto: Que(e)rying Latinx Pentecostalisms, an Exploratory Conversation

This panel proposes an inqueery into the sacred and profane spaces trans-formed by queer Latinx/e Pentecostals through an exploration of the history of queer presence in the Apostolic Assembly of the Faith in Christ Jesus (La Asamblea Apostolica), the largest predominantly Mexican/Mexican-American Pentecostal denomination in the U.S. In line with the theme of this year’s Annual Meeting, La Labor de Nuestras Manos, this panel will show that for over 100 years Spirit-filled queer Apostolic-Pentecostals have worked en la lucha, performing the daily, corporeal work of the church, as Ada María Isasi-Díaz writes, lo cotidiano. At the same time, the panel will show how queer Latinx Apostolic-Pentecostals have simultaneously ruptured conceptual space, contributing to Pentecostalism’s social, historical, and theological development, pushing social norms and countering heteronormativity through the very presence of their queerly embodied genders and sexuality—and in more recent decades, through their activism.