The Evangelical community in Latin America and the Caribbean is a visible, growing and heterogeneous religious expression, with more than 100 years of missionary presence in most Latin American countries. As a collective actor it does not go unnoticed by the media, analysts of social and political reality, and observers of the religious field. Currently – unlike previous years – and against all odds, the Evangelical community is a concrete reality that cannot be made invisible and that is redesigning the Latin American religious field.

Its accelerated numerical growth in the late twentieth and early twentyfirst centuries, particularly in countries where the Evangelical community competes for dominance in the religious field with the Roman Catholic Church (El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras) or in countries where the Evangelical population borders 20% or more of the total population (Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic), carries substantial social and political capital as well as significant electoral potential. The Evangelical community can be regarded as a key and decisive factor in the electoral processes of such countries as Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Costa Rica and Brazil.

This essay will address two specific questions: Who are the Evangelicals? And how is the Evangelical community different from the other religious denominations present on Latin American soil? Specifically, the particularity of the Evangelical identity, its precise theological substrate and its past and present public face will be explained. The description will be panoramic, of course, without losing sight of the significant details that contribute to a better understanding of the Evangelical presence in Latin America.

Collective Identity of Evangelicals

The Evangelical community in all Latin American countries is heterogeneous and diverse, both in its origin and in its theology. As for its liturgy, form of government, insertion in the context of mission, impact on society, social composition and numerical percentage, there is also great variety. In Latin America, the Evangelical community comprises a number of denominations of foreign origin, national churches resulting from internal divisions or spontaneously born as a result of religious revivals, and independent local or regional churches. All these aspects, although they maintain their particular denominational or ecclesial distinctions, share a common theological substratum, a militant missionary and evangelising practice, and a collective inheritance in which several theological tendencies and spiritualities intersect.