Guarded by Two Jaguars

“Hoenes del Pinal provides an insightful and most interesting study of religious tension, change, and negotiation among contemporary Maya Catholics in Guatemala. It is an important analysis of how official theology and pastoral plans are always interpreted and enacted in local contexts and a reminder that Catholicism in Latin America remains a highly diverse and ever-developing phenomenon.”—Jakob Egeris Thorsen, author of Charismatic Practice and Catholic Parish Life: The Incipient Pentecostalization of the Church in Guatemala and Latin America

“This perceptive and complex work interweaves ethnographic writing with an analysis of language and religion. With Hoenes del Pinal, you will wonder what it means to be Catholic and Indigenous in Guatemala and find that the answer lies in the details of embodied practice and discursive interaction. Written with empathy and intelligence, this book illuminates the particular situation it examines as well as larger questions of how people relate to each other and create meaning in their lives.”—Anna M. Babel, author of Between the Andes and the Amazon: Language and Social Meaning in Bolivia

“This is a beautifully written and closely argued ethnography. Each chapter is framed with an engaging ethnographic vignette which helps the reader contextualize the material and analysis which follows, and the text is peppered with astute and often amusing observations that will resonate with researchers who work in comparable contexts.”—C. James MacKenzie, The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology

“Overall, this text delivers on all the hallmarks of quality ethnographic research. The data gathered by Hoenes del Pinal are rich, and his descriptions of religiosity in the San Filipe parish are deep. In a story about voices, Hoenes del Pinal is thoughtful in how he uses his own, explaining his personal connection to this field and capitalizing on his experiences and sensations as valuable data.”—Derek Lehman, Contemporary Sociology

“I can highly recommend this book to a whole range of readers—from the elite of the institutional Roman Catholic Church, who can learn from it how lay actors of the church enact and interpret their faith (and the tensions between different lay movements), to religious studies departments, to religious anthropologists and sociologists, and to anybody who is interested in Christian beliefs and practices.”—Andrea Althoff, The International Journal of Latin American Religions

"The book is well-written and easy to read. Hoenes del Pinal successfully mobilizes his ethnographic data to illustrate his claims, particularly in his embodied descriptions of religious practice and carrying the santo. Avoiding reifying Mayaness, the author shows how people are engaged in the work of doing-being Catholic, and that doing-being Catholic is part of how people are doing-being Q’eqchi’-Maya.”—Catherine R. Rhodes, Journal of Anthropological Research