"Mayan Muslims, Zapatistas, and the Pizzeria in Chiapas: A Media Analysis of the Sources" with Harold Morales

Spring 2016 Guest Lecture Series

Tuesday, April 5, 2016 3:00 PM EDT
Johnson Center, Room A

Though individual Latinos have been embracing Islam in the U.S. since the 1920's, the first Latino Muslim community did not emerge until fifty years later in the 1970's. Today, several Latino Muslims from the U.S. circulate information on a Muslim community that has emerged in Chiapas, Mexico and some have even visited the community there. Unlike the U.S. case, the Tzotzil Mayan Muslims developed a community almost immediately after their first contact with Muslims. Members from the Murabitun Sufi order in Spain migrated to the area when they learned about the Zapatista rebellion from news media. Though a connection was never made with the Zapatistas, the Muslim group did establish a school, pizzeria, and several other businesses that attracted several families to the emerging community. News reports estimate that there are now 300-500 Muslims in Chiapas. This talk seeks to provide an organized presentation of the media sources on the Mayan Muslims in Chiapas and to critically engage these mediations.

Dr. Harold Morales is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Morgan State University. Dr. Morales earned his B.A. in Philosophy from Cal State Fullerton and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of California Riverside. His research focuses on the intersections between race and religion and between lived and mediated religion. He uses these critical lenses to engage Latino religions in general and Latino Muslim groups in particular. Dr. Morales' groundbreaking research on Latino Muslim communities included more than three years of media analysis and ethnographic research in California, Texas, Georgia, Florida, New York and New Jersey. He has presented his research to national audiences at the American Academy of Religion; in a Religion and American Cultures book chapter titled "Latina/o Muslim Religious Cultures;" in a forthcoming monograph titled Latino Muslim by Design: Race, Religion, Media and the Making of a New American Minority; and in a forthcoming article based on the 2015 Survey of Latino Muslims.

Dr. Morales is now focusing on developing applied approaches to the academic study of religion with projects that focus on public art in Baltimore, art infused learning (e.g. The Baltimore Mural Project at Morgan) and ethnographic community organizing (e.g. student field site research).

Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies, the Latin American Studies Program, and the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies.