Sergio M. González – författare

From church basements to city streets, this is the definitive account of one of America's most enduring movements for justice and what it can teach us.As masked government agents roam the streets of American cities, tossing people into unmarked vans for the crime of speaking Spanish, the U.S. government's war on undocumented immigrants has never been waged more fiercely. But regular people are fighting back, and when they do, they often invoke the notion of "sanctuary." While Donald Trump issues executive orders from the White House, promising to leave no stone unturned and threatening to storm church doors in search of "illegal invaders," sanctuary activists cry that their directive to welcome the stranger comes from a higher power. At the same time, Trump, his "border czar" Tom Homan, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and chief strategist White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller all invoke "sanctuary" almost daily to decry a "migrant invasion" of the nation.This showdown is not new. In Sanctuary in America, Lloyd D. Barba and Sergio M. González--co-hosts of the Sanctuary podcast--tell the story of how sanctuary activists have, for nearly half a century, organized one of the most robust civil disobedience movements in American history. Rigorous yet readable, this book provides a sweeping historical account of a movement that emerged in the 1980s and how the past can help us better understand the New Sanctuary Movement of the twenty-first century. Replete with human interest stories, Sanctuary in America draws upon extensive archival data from across the country to tell the full story of one of the most successful resistance movements of the last fifty years. A compelling story of migrant journeys, religious activism, and political showdowns, this book speaks to those attempting to navigate the trying and tumultuous present.

Hospitality practices grounded in religious belief have long exercised a profound influence on Wisconsin’s Latino communities. Sergio M. GonzÁlez examines the power relations at work behind the types of hospitality--welcoming and otherwise--practiced on newcomers in both Milwaukee and rural areas of the Badger State. GonzÁlez’s analysis addresses central issues like the foundational role played by religion and sacred spaces in shaping experiences and facilitating collaboration among disparate Latino groups and across ethnic lines; the connections between sacred spaces and the moral justification for social justice movements; and the ways sacred spaces evolved into places for mitigating prejudice and social alienation, providing sanctuary from nativism and repression, and fostering local and transnational community building. Perceptive and original, Strangers No Longer reframes the history of Latinos in Wisconsin by revealing religion’s central role in the settlement experience of immigrants, migrants, and refugees.

Hospitality practices grounded in religious belief have long exercised a profound influence on Wisconsin’s Latino communities. Sergio M. GonzÁlez examines the power relations at work behind the types of hospitality--welcoming and otherwise--practiced on newcomers in both Milwaukee and rural areas of the Badger State. GonzÁlez’s analysis addresses central issues like the foundational role played by religion and sacred spaces in shaping experiences and facilitating collaboration among disparate Latino groups and across ethnic lines; the connections between sacred spaces and the moral justification for social justice movements; and the ways sacred spaces evolved into places for mitigating prejudice and social alienation, providing sanctuary from nativism and repression, and fostering local and transnational community building. Perceptive and original, Strangers No Longer reframes the history of Latinos in Wisconsin by revealing religion’s central role in the settlement experience of immigrants, migrants, and refugees.

Illuminates how religion has shaped Latino politics and community buildingToo often religious politics are considered peripheral to social movements, not central to them. Faith and Power: Latino Religious Politics Since 1945 seeks to correct this misinterpretation, focusing on the post–World War II era. It shows that the religious politics of this period were central to secular community-building and resistance efforts. The volume traces the interplay between Latino religions and a variety of pivotal movements, from the farm worker movement to the sanctuary movement, offering breadth and nuance to this history. This illuminates how broader currents involving immigration, refugee policies, de-industrialization, the rise of the religious left and right, and the Chicana/o, immigrant, and Puerto Rican civil rights movements helped to give rise to political engagement among Latino religious actors. By addressing both the influence of these larger trends on religious movements and how the religious movements in turn helped to shape larger political currents, the volume offers a compelling look at the twentieth-century struggle for justice.

Illuminates how religion has shaped Latino politics and community buildingToo often religious politics are considered peripheral to social movements, not central to them. Faith and Power: Latino Religious Politics Since 1945 seeks to correct this misinterpretation, focusing on the post–World War II era. It shows that the religious politics of this period were central to secular community-building and resistance efforts. The volume traces the interplay between Latino religions and a variety of pivotal movements, from the farm worker movement to the sanctuary movement, offering breadth and nuance to this history. This illuminates how broader currents involving immigration, refugee policies, de-industrialization, the rise of the religious left and right, and the Chicana/o, immigrant, and Puerto Rican civil rights movements helped to give rise to political engagement among Latino religious actors. By addressing both the influence of these larger trends on religious movements and how the religious movements in turn helped to shape larger political currents, the volume offers a compelling look at the twentieth-century struggle for justice.

Traces America's sanctuary movement across five decadesSanctuary has become one of the most powerful social and religious movements to push back against state power over the past 50 years, reemerging today at the center of national debates over immigration, religion, and political dissent. Following the election of Donald Trump, religious congregations, college campuses, and municipalities across the nation invoked sanctuary as a way to aid undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation and as a public act of resistance to harsh enforcement policies.Sacred Refuge situates this ongoing struggle with its deeper historical context, situating it, for example, as emerging from movements to shield those seeking to avoid the Vietnam War, and examining how the earlier sanctuary movement of the 1980s, when congregations sheltered Central American asylum seekers fleeing US-backed civil wars, has informed today's new movement. It also looks at how the particular religious framing of the sanctuary movement distinguishes it from other social movements, as well as highlighting a tendency toward "white saviorism" among churches aiming to help immigrants targeted for deportation. Bringing together leading scholars in religion and immigration studies, the volume provides a far-reaching historical treatment of the U.S. sanctuary movement, uncovering new stories of congregational defiance, activist networks, and animating moral visions. Together, the contributions trace the movement's complex origins, the struggles that shaped it, and its reverberations in contemporary campaigns. Timely and accessible, Sacred Refuge offers critical insights for scholars, activists, faith leaders, and readers seeking to understand how sanctuary became - and remains - a sacred refuge in America's contested political landscape.