Resignifying the South American Matrix and Searching for Authenticity

contribution refers to self-identity. The Christian South American cultural matrix appears as a pivotal and common factor in the millennial migrants’ narratives. This characteristic is the given component of the process of configuration of religious identities and is ubiquitous in all the narratives. It takes the form of expectations, roles, or reminiscences.

120

In general, it is the least individualized aspect of the process since it is the base on which these believers have made their own journeys, and they can easily recognize this fact.

However, there are some aspects of this Christian wrap that are reflexively chosen as a present dimension of their self-identities, especially in terms of the logic of integration.

The first notable aspect is that, beyond their commitment or participation in a religious group, they self-define as Christians. In the cases of those believers who have had more active participation, the inherited matrix together with the individualized decisions form a hard to discriminate continuum. However, those who do not have a religious commitment and self-defines as Christians refer to some aspects that make visible the strength of such a cultural wrap and how they individualize and resignify their own woofs.

Marriage in the church was an example that was repeated twice. When they give their reasons for such a decision, the migrants link the religious ceremony to the

certainties of historical roots that are culturally meaningful for them. One of the interviewed men, who has not participated in church activities for many years and self-defines as “almost agnostic,” said:

We got married in the church two years ago. We decided to do that because it was very significant for both of us, even when we are not practitioners. But our parents got married in the church, our grandparents also. It is part of our family traditions. And, honestly, I think that this is the true marriage. The rest are papers that come and go. But that moment was a serious commitment, a true commitment.²⁹

29 Interview 06.

121

For a South American millennial, who self-defines as “almost agnostic” and “non-practitioner,” religious marriage gives him the certainties that legal marriage does not.

There is some stability in the religious commitment that is not found anywhere else. The interesting factor is that these certainty and stability lead the believer to choose by himself to get married in the church. He chose it and turned this religious ritual into an appropriate and resignified belief. He individualized its meaning and, consequently, selected it to play an important role in his identity configuration.

Another interesting example was given by a woman who used to have a religious commitment in her hometown, and in the present, she self-defines as Christian and religious, but she does not participate in any activity or attend liturgies or services. At the moment of the focus group session, she was thinking that the following year they (she and her husband) need to choose a school for their little daughter, and she told me that they wanted the child to go to a Catholic school. The reasons for such a decision are remarkable.

We want a Catholic school because they will teach her the same values that we received in Colombia. […] If I lived there, I would never send her to a religious school because she would receive these values at home and at any school. But here… I think a Catholic school will help us to educate her in her parents’ culture.³⁰

The main reason for this young migrant’s decision was not a religious motivation, in the sense of spirituality or catechesis; rather, the choice was motivated by the link she does between Christianity and the cultural values of her hometown. She amazingly

expressed how a decision like this would not be thinkable there because what religion can

30 Focus Group 01.

122

offer to her daughter’s education is part of the cultural environment. The mechanism of the individuation of beliefs in the logic of integration could not have been better

described. This freelance believer would consider different strategies in different markets—here/there—according to her reflected intentions.

Subjectivation is the other Dubet’s logic that plays a role regarding self-definition.

When they reflexively configure their own system of beliefs, the search for authenticity leads them to put into perspective the previous and the new religious order. As Scott’s character, they are true to themselves. Thus, the legitimation of beliefs is ensured by the authenticity of their own spiritual approach. As Hervieu-Léger claims, what gives value to the believer's search, not only in his/her own eyes but also in the eyes of those with whom she/he dialogues is his/her sincerity and her/his personal commitment. Thus, “the endeavor to conform to truths formatted by religious authorities has become completely secondary.”³¹

I follow the teachings that I like. There are many beautiful things in the Gospels. But there are many other teachings that I don’t follow because I don’t agree with them and I have to be honest with myself.³²

Concluding, for a young South American millennial who is rerooting in Miami, Christianity is part of the cultural roots that is in the baggage they bring in Miami. When rerooting, the resignification of meaningful beliefs in the logic of integration refers to cultural values, certainties, stabilities that can only be provided by a cultural matrix. In

31 Danièle Hervieu-Léger, “In Search of Certainties: The Paradoxes of Religiosity in Societies of High Modernity,” The Hedgehog Review 8, no. 1-2 (Spring-Summer 2006): 61. Academic OneFile.

32 Interview 07, interview by Ernesto Fiocchetto, December 2019, transcript.

123

this context, the individuation of such beliefs implies the reflexive election of religious practices or institutions that, in another context, perhaps they would not choose. The rule for such a selection is authenticity. Therefore, the freelance believers legitimize their own system of beliefs based on the individuals’ truths, and not on the institutional

orthodoxies.

3.2. Migrating, Circulating, and Searching for Their Own Benefits