Frau Dr. Clara Buitrago Valencia

My first book "Missionaries: Migrants or Expatriates? Guatemalan Pentecostal Leaders in Los Angeles" inquiries into the religious praxis of Pentecostal missionaries, who come from the South and evangelize in the North, following the case of Guatemalan independent Pentecostal leaders working in Los Angeles. The research focused on the study of their Pentecostal beliefs and practices and the relationship between their religious praxis and the social context in Los Angeles. When one speaks of missionaries coming from countries like the United States, they are designated as “expatriates.” But what about Pentecostal believers who come from countries like Guatemala, with any institutional support? Are they expatriates or simple immigrants? To answer this question, after a detailed description of the social, economic and cultural dynamics faced by Guatemalans in Los Angeles and the reconstruction of the religious field of Los Angeles, biographical narratives of Guatemalan independent Pentecostal leaders are analyzed using the Habitus Analysis approach.

List of publications

Book:
- (2021): Missionaries: Migrants or Expatriates? Guatemalan Pentecostal Leaders in Los Angeles. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier (WVT)

Editorial boards:

- (2016): „Geopolitical Imaginaries in the Americas” (with Mirko Petersen, Paul- Matthias Tyrell and Dorothea Wehrmann), Forum for InterAmerican Research, Vol. 9, Nr. 1.

Journal articles:

- (2016): „Introduction. Geopolitical Imaginaries in the Americas” (mit Mirko Petersen, Paul-Matthias Tyrell und Dorothea Wehrmann), in: Forum for InterAmerican Research, Vol. 9, Nr.1, S.4-18.

- (2014): Neue Strategien für die öffentliche Sicherheitsarbeit in Lateinamerika. „Community-Policing” als Organisationsmythos, in: Polizei and Wissenschaft Online Vol.1/2014 S.14-25