The Americas: Central and South America

AFRO-CUBAN THEOLOGY: RELIGION, RACE, CULTURE, AND THEOLOGY. By Michelle A. Gonzalez. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006. Pp. 208. $29.95. Gonzalez gives us a comprehensive and fresh interpretation of the interdisciplinary character of Christian theology in this wonderful and well-written monograph on AfroCuban theology. Undergirded by a strong feminist and theological outlook, Gonzalez reminds the reader that Latino/a theology is a task that requires particularity, and in her case, her object of study and theological reflection is the search for Cuban and Cuban-American identity. Critically using historical, literary, anthropological, religious, and popular Cuban and Cuban-American resources, Gonzalez navigates, with grace and fluidity, the complex network of encounters and interactions that construct Cuban and Cuban-American identity and rightly identifies the contribution of theological studies to this task. Gonzalez bluntly claims and argues for a racial African/Black core in Cuban and Cuban-American identity. She also locates her Afro-Cuban theological particularity in tension and dialogue with both Mexican-American and African-American theological endeavors. She reminds the reader that Latina/o theology is not monolithic. Gonzalez focuses on the religious interactions between Afro-Cuban popular religion and Roman Catholic popular devotion to raise important interdisciplinary questions and claim that race is a theological category for Cuban and CubanAmerican identity. As Afro-Cuban religions continue to claim their own space as a religion, it remains a critical question when the theological conversation shifts from culture and religion to comparative religion and interreligious studies. The book reaches a broad audience. Scholars in the field of Latin American, Latino/a, and Caribbean studies will certainly benefit from it. Both graduate and undergraduate students can engage with it at different levels. Carlos F. Cardoza-Orlandi Columbia Theological Seminary