I am a member of the Puerto Rican American Families research team. I
myself grew up in a Puerto Rican American, or "New Yorican", family. The
assignment is a field study. The study is on an observation of the religious
community. We visited a Roman Catholic church in Buffalo on the west side,
which is a predominantly Hispanic area of the city. I myself am also a Roman
Catholic. This is a slightly erred site, because I believe that most Puerto
Ricans migrated to New York City. However, we were able to make some
interesting observations. The group attended mass at Holy Cross; both an
English and Spanish mass. It seemed that the group accepted our presence
without any apprehension, however, as I stated before, this probably is a result
of I myself being Puerto Rican American. There were some striking differences
between the English mass and the Spanish mass.
The first noticeable difference was in attendance. The Spanish mass had
a considerable higher attendance than did the English mass. Also the appearance
of the manner of dress. The attendees of the Spanish mass were more formally
dressed than those of the English mass. Another major difference was in the
music. The English mass had the "traditional" European "angelica" type singing.
The Spanish mass, however, had more upbeat music, along with the use ...