Introducing Our Presenters

"Complicating Nora: Reclaiming Milieux de Mémoire in Transnational Latino Pentecostalism"

Bianca Zúñiga examines how memory and identity are preserved and recreated within transnational Latino Pentecostalism. Focusing on family Bibles, “Celebrations of Life,” and glossolalia, she explores how Pentecostal practices function as living environments of memory. Her contribution highlights how communities preserve their stories and identity beyond dominant historical institutions, demonstrating how memory is lived through families, rituals, bodies, worship, and community.

"El futuro narrativo y experiencial de la hermenéutica pentecostal: Reflexiones desde la República Dominicana"

Alexander Lopez Diaz explores how narrative and religious experience shape Pentecostal identity and biblical interpretation in the Caribbean, with particular attention to the Dominican Republic. Drawing on the work of Kenneth J. Archer, Craig S. Keener, and Miguel Álvarez, he considers how testimonies, worship, biblical narratives, and lived religious experience shape the way Pentecostals read Scripture. His paper asks how narrative and experience can contribute to the future of Pentecostal hermeneutics in the Caribbean.

"De Zacarías a Pentecostés: mediación, multilingüismo y la inteligibilidad de la revelación divina: Entendre Pentecôte en français"

Joël Guzman-Quispe's paper compares how divine revelation is mediated and made understandable in Zechariah (through an interpreting angel) versus Acts 2 (Pentecost), where linguistic diversity remains but becomes intelligible. It focuses on the verb “to hear” in Acts 2. It connects this to modern Pentecostal views on language plurality, including French–Creole dynamics in Caribbean churches, emphasising oral reception of the message “in one’s own tongue.”

"Dicen Que No Soy: El Pentecostalismo Afro-Boricua de Travy Joe"

Emanuel Padilla examines how the song of Travy Joe challenged the respectability/essentialism that polices the intersection between sacred and profane, the meaning of Puertorriqueñidad, and the possibility of Blackness as a source of “Disalienation.” Through a close reading of this song in relation to Puerto Rican cultural history, this paper presents a case study for Black Pentecostalism as expressed in Christian rap en español and reggaeton.