Critical Ethnography as a Basis for Queer Theoethical Analysis: A Study of Active Resistance for a Queer Latine Migrant Christian Ministry

In this project, I conduct a critical ethnography of Nuestra Cuir Chingoña, a Queer Latine Migrant Christian ministry, to explore how active resistance – as a Queer theoethic – critiques economic, social, and political hegemonies in churches. I engage Calvillo’s (2022) and Sostaita’s (2024) treatment of sanctuary as an alignment of Nuestra Cuir Chingoña’s approach to active resistance – parentesco (“kinship”) – which affirms relationality through alternative kinship networks that challenge eschatological essentialisms upheld by soteriological violence. Furthermore, by theorizing active resistance as a Queer theoethic, I engage Miranda’s (2022) and Geerling and Lundberg’s (2020) research on critical ethnography as a deconstruction of “value-free” knowledge production to counter eschatological essentialisms and soteriological violence that inhibit Queer livability, particularly for Queer Latine Migrant Christians and similarly oppressed groups. In this way, I attempt to contribute to scholarly-activist discourse of reimagining eschatological and soteriological interventions that assert Queer livability in churches.