Filipinos are now the second largest Asian American immigrant group in
the United States, with a population larger than Japanese Americans and
Korean Americans combined. Surprisingly, there is little published on
Filipino Americans and their religion, or the ways in which their
religious traditions may influence the broader culture in which they are
becoming established.
Filipino American Faith in Action draws on interviews, survey data,
and participant observation to shed light on this large immigrant
community. It explores Filipino American religious institutions as
essential locations for empowerment and civic engagement, illuminating
how Filipino spiritual experiences can offer a lens for viewing this
migrant community's social, political, economic, and cultural
integration into American life. Gonzalez examines Filipino American
church involvement and religious practices in the San Francisco Bay Area
and in the Phillipines, showing how Filipino Americans maintain
community and ethnic and religious networks, contra assimilation theory,
and how they go about sharing their traditions with the larger society.