The Resurrection Project of Mexican Catholic Chicago: Spiritual Activism and Liberating Praxis

Drawing on historical archives, oral history interviews and ethnographic material, this essay explores the history of Chicago’s “The Resurrection Project”/El Proyecto Resurrección, a community development organization that builds healthy communities through housing and critical consciousness. The mission of the organization emerges from the lived realities of Mexican Catholic Chicago, formulated in large part by the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, as well as a history of exclusion, displacement and marginalization in the Windy City. It argues that the spiritual activism and liberating praxis articulated between 1990 and 2005—namely housing and the formation of a critical consciousness—profoundly links experience, culture and faith. This integration of lived realities, culture and faith suggests an expansive view of popular religion.