Latino-Latter-Day Saints Relationships And Identity In The State Of Utah

This research deals with latinos and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and their every-day encounters of who they are.With this we are able to see the way latino identities interact with others such as religion,their ethnicity,nationality,and in some cases their citizenship.This study deals with not only members of the Latter-Day Saint community in the area of Orem,Utah,but also with the different interactions between an attorney who is also a latino,an LDS and an American citizen.I try my best to describe the interactions this attorney has with his employees,with his clients and even within his own family and seeing why who he believes he is [his identity] shapes all these relationships.My fieldwork lasted for three months in the city of Orem,however having lived in the United States in the Utah-Idaho area and Texas for the total of seven years I was able to notice patterns and fill in my understanding of relationships and policies during the time I was conducting my fieldwork.This study links important anthropological works which,I agree with based on what I saw during my fieldwork and even on what I was able to experience myself.It explains the complicated relationship with the self-identification-just like Alex case-and of those who other see them as.It explains the reason why religion is so crucial for those who identify as LDS and the way it works to create a chain of relationships on different levels and the division there within this religion between some ethnicities.I will also show how some lines of their identity are blurred,and how they are able to move from one to another.This research does its best to explain the way Latinos are within the LDS church and within their outside lives of their religion and why they prefer assisting to Latin Wards as to just the majority assigned ward.