Scope and Content
The collection documents 15 years of research Felipe Hinojosa's conducted within the community of the Latino Mennonites from South Texas, Puerto Rico, Kansas, and Indiana. The oral histories which were conducted between 2003-2009, consists of 22 interviews including Neftali Torres, the pastor who inspired Hinojosa to trace the history of the Latino Mennonite Church. The interviews culminated in his book, Latino Mennonites: Civil Rights, Faith, and Evangelical Culture (2014). These oral histories document the forgotten history of the Mennonites and tell the story of the preachers who turned social justice advocates transforming the Mennonite Church from the grassroots. In his book, Hinojosa traces the Latino presence within the Mennonite Church, from the origins of Mennonite missions in Latino communities to the conflicted relationship between the Mennonite Church, the California farmworker movements, and the rise of Latino evangelical politics in the United States. He also analyzed how the politics of the Chicano, Puerto Rican, and black freedom struggles of the 1960s and 1970s civil rights movements captured the imagination of Mennonite leaders who belonged to a church known more for rural and peaceful agrarian life than for social protest.