Today the movement Ball and Luce founded now numbers 290,000 Latinos and 1,700 churches. Like a wax museum, the history of Latino Pentecostalism is full of dynamic characters like Chonita Morgan Howard who preached the Pentecostal message on horseback in northern Mexico and Arizona. Domingo Cruz, a fiery, illiterate one-legged was legendary for his persuasive preaching among the migrant farm labor camps of northern California. Still others like Robert Fierro, a.k.a. Although often only averaging 60 to 100 members, these Pentecostal templos and iglesias are attracting 30,000 to 40,000 Latinos annually from Roman Catholicism.
Many Pentecostals attend church every night for a two-hour service.
The hymns well up with rhythmic clapping, generally accompanied by a guitar, drums, tambourines, and bass fiddle, piano or small combo. The Pentecostal movement, along with a host of other religions, is shattering the stereotype that to be Latino is to be Roman Catholic. His work has appeared in Christianity Today, Harper's, The Chicago Tribune, Salon, and other periodicals. Spring 1998, Vol. Relive the most exciting and pivotal times in the life of the Church with Christian History magazine.