Crossing the Water and Keeping the Faith: Haitian Religion in Miami

Abstract

Based on meticulous ethnographic research, Crossing the Water and Keeping the Faith: Haitian Religion in Miami depicts Haitian religious life in Miami and South Florida, home to one of the largest and most diverse Haitian communities in the United States. Given the primordial role that religion has always occupied in Haitians' lives since colonial times to the present day, Rey and Stepick endeavor to provide an in-depth study of the religious faith of the Haitian diaspora in their city of resettlement. They document how their faith contributes to easing the aches and pains associated with relocation and the building of new lives in the host society. Viewed in this perspective, they contend that Haitian immigrant religious beliefs are transnational. Rey and Stepick approach Haitian immigrant religion “holistically,” well aware that collective Haitian faith is composed of three major components, referred to as “a religious triangle of forces,” which includes Catholicism, Protestantism, and Vodou. The authors describe how these three religious components converge into what they call “a unifying religious collusio” (a term they borrowed from Bourdieu), intended to give a sense of “worthiness” to Haitian immigrants (5). Whatever their primary religious affiliations, they turn to their faith in search of “salvation goods” that will bring to them luck, health, prosperity, and success. The key features of the Haitian religious collusio include “service to invisible spirits,” the search of cure from illnesses and protection from evil forces, and “pneumacentric spiritual embodiment.” They argue that, because the Haitian religious triangle of forces unites people across denominational differences and social classes, the concept of “religious collusion” very appropriately permits “people on opposing teams to play on the same playing field” (8). The metaphor is well chosen, as the authors document throughout the various chapters that the line of demarcation between the three major Haitian religions and various social classes is not as rigid as one would think. Indeed, adherents oftentimes participate in each other's major celebrations, such as the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Patron Saint of Haiti) at Notre Dame d'Haïti Catholic Church, located in an “impoverished inner-city neighborhood” in the heart of Little Haiti. Catholic Haitians living in middle-class neighborhoods attend this particular celebration, as do the Vodouisants who equate Our Lady of the Perpetual Help to their own “lwa” Èzili. They all flock to Notre Dame d'Haïti Catholic Church to find healing, magic, miracles, luck, salvation, and spiritual fulfillment (85). To further prove their claim that Haitian religious collusio allows different participants “to play on the same playing field,” Rey and Stepick discuss the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement. This acts as a unifying agent among Haitians of all social classes and shares some similarities with Haitian Vodou in the sense that both religious manifestations call upon “supernatural beings” to perform healing acts for their believers.