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Article: The Battle for Latino Souls; Pentecostal churches are using savvy marketing to attract traditionally Catholic Hispanics. A holy struggle in Chicago.
- Article from:
- Newsweek
- Article date:
- March 21, 2005
- Author:
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Byline: Arian Campo-Flores
Five years ago, Esperanza Hincapie had sunk into a pit of despondency. With a daughter in prison for murder, she contemplated swallowing a mouthful of pills to blot out her heartache. Then four Hispanic ladies from Rebano Companerismo Cristiano--a Pentecostal church in the Humboldt Park area of Chicago--came to visit her. They encircled Hincapie--a lifelong Roman Catholic from Colombia--laid hands on her and prayed. "I felt a tremendous chill," she recalls. "I began to cry and cry, and released everything." The following Sunday, one of the women drove her to Rebano, where Hincapie, 52, converted and permanently joined the flock. At her ...