Abstract
American missionaries in Puerto Rico were critical in the Americanization of the island, which in turn furthered the influence of the American empire. However, beyond American missionaries, native Puerto Ricans also retained some agency to adapt and spread Protestantism. Most of the current scholarship on American missionaries in Puerto Rico, and missionaries in general, ignores the agency of native Puerto Ricans. This is because it focuses solely on the United States and its citizens or does not recognize the role that indigenous or converted people play in religious communities and how this can provide people with agency. By including multiple perspectives from missionaries and Puerto Ricans alike, this project aims to widen and complicate the understanding of religion and missionary work in Puerto Rico. To do this, my project draws on the existing work of historians and my analysis of letters, records, and the personal papers of missionaries and their intended converts to build a small digital archive illuminating the complexity of United States missionary work in Puerto Rico and its effects on the American empire. In essence, the ultimate goal of this project is to widen the understanding of the historical entanglement of religion and statecraft (and beyond that, the creation of empire) and of the multiplicity of perspectives and outcomes that are involved in missionary work.
Cruz, Joel Morales. “Puerto Rico.” In The Histories of the Latin American Church: A Handbook, 513–34. 1517 Media, 2014. . https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt9m0t2k.29.