The lights come up in the American Airlines Arena on October 9th, 2009. Situated on the shore of Biscayne Bay in downtown Miami, the arena shares some of Miami’s priciest real estate with a long list of luxury hotels and destination restaurants. The venue opened on December 31, 1999, with a Gloria Estefan-headlined, millennium-celebrating concert.[1] Six years later, the hometown Miami Heat with their superstar players Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade celebrated their first NBA championship in the building. But on this balmy South Florida day, a different kind of cultural production is taking place.
A hush falls over the more than 10,000 attendees as a diminutive woman steps to the podium. Her auburn hair is clipped back into a voluminous ponytail but also extends in bangs over her forehead. She wears red and black high heels and black slacks, but her jacket demands the most attention. Styled like a military officer’s uniform, the crimson red jacket with its brass buttons and black epaulets serves as a visual corollary to Ana Maldonado’s authoritative style of preaching. She paces the platform continuously, leaning forward slightly toward the audience. As she gathers steam in particular moments of exhortation, she crouches down, gripping the microphone tightly in her left hand. Caught up in the passion of the moment, she leaves her translator behind. The typical clarity of her Colombian accent gives way to a more guttural form of speech, as phrase builds upon phrase. Maldonado accents the words with a fierce bobbing of her head and pumping of her flexed right arm.
On this day, she speaks at the Conferencia Apostólica y Profética (Apostolic and Prophetic Conference, or CAP), part of the constellation of ministries that constitutes Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesús (King Jesus International Ministries), the church founded by Maldonado and her husband Guillermo in Miami in 1996. Beginning with a small group meeting in the living room of their house,[2] the Maldonados have grown El Rey Jesús into a megachurch with a weekly attendance of 12,540.[3] Alongside the explosive growth of their congregation, Guillermo and Ana have seen a similar increase in their own respective profiles as Apóstol (Apostle) and Profeta (Prophetess) that has allowed them to draw the luminaries of the Pentecostal world to CAP. Cash Luna, Heidi Baker, Rod Parsley, Renny McLean, Prophetess Cathy Lechner, and Benny Hinn have all headlined the event, making CAP a must-attend event for thousands of pastors and pastoral couples from dozens of countries.
It is in front of this audience that Ana Maldonado paces, declaring that God has given her a specific message for El Rey Jesús and this event. This was not a matter of her intuition or of some vague divine impression. God had spoken to her.[4] He had said, “Pray Isaiah 60…intercede Isaiah 60…pray it for the entire month of December because certainly the word that I have for Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesús is Isaiah 60.”[5] She gestures firmly with her right fist like a judge banging a gavel to symbolize the absolute certitude with which this message was given/received. She then describes her own momentary uncertainty as to God’s intention, only to have the voice of God thunder in, “Levántate porque la gloria de Jehová ha nacido sobre ti!” (Arise because the glory of Jehovah has been born upon you!).[6] Of course, it is Maldonado herself who portrays God in this dramatic re-enactment. Within the American Airlines Arena, she is both the hearer and the deliverer of the message, and in the intensity of her movement and speech she becomes the message itself.
This prophetic word, originally intended as a word of hope for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the reclamation of its identity as a political and spiritual power, was now to be understood, according to Maldonado’s revelation, as a foretelling of the immediate future of El Rey Jesús. She was so sure of God’s intention, she shares with the CAP audience, that she immediately called her network of intercessors within the church and around the world to begin focusing their efforts on praying this promise into being. This is Ana Maldonado as the anointed prophetess, hearing directly from God and singlehandedly mobilizing the men and women under her spiritual authority to help her fulfill a divine mandate that she now embodies.
Then suddenly, her tone changes. The one who channels the divine revelation and commands the multitudes recalls the conversation in which she first shared this prophetic word with her husband and asked to share it at this very conference.
Ana: Yo le dije a mi esposo, yo le dije, “Mi amor, dáme cinco minuticos porque voy a
declarar una palabra para 2009.”
(I said to him, I said, “My love, give me just five little minutes[7] because I am going to
declare a word for 2009.”)
Y él me dijo (And he said to me)
Guillermo: “Mija, perdone, pero no podemos.”
(My daughter,[8] pardon, but we can’t.)[9]
The video recording perfectly captures this moment of collision between prophetic prerogative and wifely submission. The woman whose throaty utterances have brought the crowd to its feet goes to her husband asking for only five “little minutes” as if even this small request is likely to be interpreted as an imposition. She holds her forefinger and thumb close together for added emphasis. The same hand that pounded as an authoritative fist only moments before now embodies a habituated deference to another hierarchy. Even a profeta knows her limitations.
Guillermo’s short response reinforces his authority and offers a subtle reminder, by referring to her as “mija,” of the connection between Ana Maldonado’s dual roles of anointed Prophetess and submissive wife. Ana portrays her prophetic ministry as one of divine unction, but it cannot be easily separated from her marriage to Guillermo, which both legitimates and limits it. In Latino Pentecostals in America: Faith and Politics in Action, Gastón Espinosa describes this phenomenon as “a kind of paradoxical domesticity” in which Latina ministers “are exhorted to be both End-Times prophetesses and evangelists in the public sphere and devoted mothers and good wives in the private sphere.”[10] In a broader sense, Ana Maldonado navigates a familiar landscape for women in contemporary American religion in which ministerial and marital vocation often remain intertwined, but she is not merely the byproduct of a particular religious era or ethnic and religious movement. Within a world of “paradoxical domesticity,” Ana Maldonado preserves and creates space for herself and other women through her example, rhetoric, and supernatural imagination.
Holding the Line
The paradoxical domesticity posited by Espinosa arises from the clash between traditional patriarchy and the liberative tendencies of Pentecostalism for women. Although Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesús officially advertises itself as a nondenominational church, it clearly possesses a Pentecostal orientation in the apostolic and prophetic strain. Guillermo’s education includes a Master’s degree in Practical Theology from Oral Roberts University, and the website for El Rey Jesús touts the church’s belief in “the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues” as well as “the power of the Kingdom to heal the sick, cast out demons and perform miracles, marvels, signs, and wonders.[11]
In addition to these beliefs, the Maldonados are heirs to the Pentecostal understanding of a moment of “calling” as the primary distinction between clergy and laity.[12] This calling is typically communicated (by men or women) to the community in the form of first person “call-to-preach narratives” which are accepted as “sacred stories” given the centrality of testimony in Pentecostalism.[13] Also necessary is the demonstration by both women and men of having received the baptism of the spirit, which often manifests itself in glossolalia, or speaking in tongues.[14] The primacy of the experience and testimony of the individual along with the belief among Pentecostals that they were (and are) living in the last days in which sons and daughters will prophesy[15] led them to accept the ministry of women much earlier than older Protestant denominations.
These liberative tendencies led to what Charles Barfoot and Gerald Sheppard refer to as the period of “Prophetic Pentecostalism” from 1901-1920 during which opportunities flourished for women to preach and lead congregations.[16] The ministries of such prominent figures as Maria Woodworth-Etter and Aimee Semple McPherson overlapped during this time period. Both originally engaged in ministry as part of a husband and wife team, but gradually staked their own individual claims to preacherly authority “by employing revivalist methods infused with popular notions of womanhood, and combined with Pentecostal biblical and theological tropes and sensibilities.”[17] What Maria Woodworth-Etter and Aimee Semple McPherson did on regional and national stages, many other female ministers replicated less visibly.
But this golden era did not last long for most white Pentecostal women. Barfoot and Sheppard build upon Max Weber’s theory that non-privileged classes (which typically offer greater opportunities for women in religious leadership) begin “reacting against pneumatic manifestations of charisma by women as they become more regimented and routinized.”[18] They find this process of routinization taking place in Pentecostal movements, especially the Assemblies of God, from the 1920s onward. Barfoot and Sheppard conclude that the percentage of ordained female clergy in Pentecostal bodies decreases “annually as these movements lose their prophetic emphasis.”[19] They theorize that in the future “shared spousal ministry may offer the closest approximation to equal status for most women.”[20]
Espinosa claims that the doors have not closed for Latina Pentecostal ministers to nearly the same degree that they have for their white counterparts. Focusing again on the Assemblies of God, he writes that there has been “no great reversal in the accumulation of power or the right to ordination for women in the Latino AG […] as there was for Euro-American AG women.”[21] Perhaps this is due to the fact that while white Pentecostals as a whole have climbed the socio-economic ladder, the Latino Pentecostal community has lagged behind due to structural inequalities and the recent reality of immigration for many of its members. According to Weber’s theory, they have not yet become so regimented or routinized as to squeeze women out of the pulpit.
This does not mean, however, that Latina Pentecostal ministers have not encountered their own stresses. Compared to the rapid flourishing and subsequent perishing of opportunities for Euro-American AG women, Espinosa characterizes the journey of Latina Pentecostals as a long “uphill struggle against gender discrimination and the right to full ordination.”[22] The opportunities/expectations of paradoxical domesticity have been in effect for them from the very beginning of the Pentecostal Movement during the Azusa Street revivals. The first Latina Pentecostal preacher to be mentioned in media coverage of Azusa Street was simply referred to as the wife of a “Spanish preacher” who preached the gospel with him.[23] Neither was mentioned by name, but the implication was that Rosa López (the minister to whom the article made reference) gained entry into the preaching sphere through her marriage to her husband Abundio who could legitimately bear the title of preacher. Indeed, many of the earliest Latina Pentecostal preachers within the Latino Asambleas de Dios tradition were married to men who were also ordained. Single women often encountered more difficulty in receiving official denominational recognition of their calling. As the economic and political clout of the Latino population in the United States continues to expand and Latino Pentecostal churches grow in size and prestige, the pressure of routinization faced by Latina clergy only increases. In a recent study[24] of Latina Pentecostal ministers in Newark, NJ, Otto Maduro found that a majority of them began their ministries in a supportive role alongside their husbands before gaining legitimacy as pastoras in their own right.
In this world, Ana Maldonado plays an important role by holding the line for current and future Latina clergy. She accomplishes this both through her example and her rhetoric. Unlike the wives[25] of many Latino Pentecostal megachurch pastors, Ana Maldonado’s ministry is not specifically limited to women. When she has a prophetic word to share as she did at CAP in 2009, it is not just about women’s roles, but for the church and even the Apostolic and Prophetic movement as a whole. And it is Maldonado herself who shares this word to an audience of both men and women, defying those who adhere to Paul’s advice to Timothy that a woman should neither teach nor have authority over a man.[26] In her leadership at El Rey Jesús and in her writing, Ana Maldonado ministers to both men and women primarily in the areas of prayer and spiritual warfare.
In the introduction to De la Oración a la Guerra (From Prayer to War), Maldonado explores her own ability/authority to minister through the writing of a book:
Many times I doubted before beginning to write this book—because my husband is an excellent teacher; I admire him very much! He is a good father, husband, pastor; and I used to think… ‘Why should I write if my husband already writes?’ But what really led me to do it was the desire to identify myself with many women and men who I know that, when they read it, will be touched and confronted to leave their complaint and fulfill the call of God on their lives.[27]
Although this apologia contains more than a little rhetorical genuflection toward her husband, Ana Maldonado also claims an authority to write for a mixed audience, not because she is Guillermo’s wife, but because she is certain that her work will be used by God to complete his will in the lives of both men and women. I am not suggesting that Ana Maldonado’s deference is purely performative in this instance, but in this introduction she is also very clear that she is contributing something new and valuable that her husband (excellent teacher though he may be) either has not done or cannot do.
In the dedication of Manual de Vida para Intercesores (Life Manual for Intercessors), Ana Maldonado is even more explicit about the divine authorization of her work:
During these ten years of ministry, I have had a teacher, especially in the area of intercession and prayer. He has been the one who each morning has awakened me at dawn and has given me the physical, emotional, and mental strength to raise myself up; just as he has given me the battle strategies to fight with boldness and authority. I dedicate this life manual to my teacher and prayer partner, to the precious Holy Spirit, God the Father and God the Son, who daily clothe me with their power and anointing.[28]
Maldonado begins this dedication as if she intends to thank another human being who served in the role of mentor. As the language indicates someone who was with her every morning, the reader might even anticipate that she is about to thank Guillermo. Then in a stunning rhetorical turn, Maldonado instead points to an intimate relationship with the entire Trinity, which has fulfilled not only the mentoring role of teacher, but even the more coequal role of prayer partner. Here, it is not just Ana Maldonado’s work that will be blessed by God’s providence or be useful by its own merit. Ana Maldonado herself is blessed, clothed daily with the full power and anointing of the Trinity with whom she is intimately acquainted.
Ana Maldonado devotes considerable time to empowering female pastors (whether solo pastors or co-pastors with their husbands) for their ministry by reminding them of their own connection to power and anointing. She calls these women Déboras in the spirit of the Old Testament prophetess and judge and has written a book for them called Déboras Al Frente de la Batalla (Deborahs on the Battlefront). This work offers a full-throated defense of the equal value of women in the kingdom of God:
Woman was created by God, in his image and likeness; therefore man cannot consider her to be an inferior being; since God made all things good and greatly, the order in which he created them has nothing to do with their calling, purpose, or importance, because before creating the man, he created the animals and this does not make the animals superior to man.[29]
Building on this fundamental conception of equality, Ana Maldonado presents the case for women in ministry and closes the book with testimonies of women who are serving the church faithfully.
The aim of Déboras al Frente de la Batalla is clearly to empower women who still face the stifling forces of routinization and what Maldonado refers to as “errant machismo.”[30] Espinosa found this machismo to be a constraining factor for some Latina Asambleas de Dios co-pastors whose husbands were jealous of their superior preaching abilities.[31] Hopefully, these women will be able to convert their husbands in the way that Guillermo Maldonado himself has been converted. In the foreword to this same work, Guillermo writes of the change that took place in his life and led him from his previous chauvinism to the belief that women could live out a calling as apostles, prophetesses, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. He describes this move toward spiritual gender egalitarianism as a divine transformation:
For some time, because of the teaching I received, I thought that women should not do anything in ministry, that their work was simply to remain seated, but thanks be to God my mind was opened, God spoke to me and now I understand that the woman is powerful and is being raised up to advance the kingdom.[32]
Guillermo Maldonado points to a direct revelation from God for his change of mind, but it seems likely that his wife Ana was also an embodied part of this revelation through her example, teaching, and writing among Latino Pentecostals today.
Domesticity in Context
Ana Maldonado is a beneficiary of and a spokesperson for the liberative impulses within Pentecostalism for female clergy, but she also advocates domesticity in her speaking and teaching ministry. In her lists of what a woman can and should be,[33] she typically begins with “wife” and “mother” and always foregrounds respect and submission to one’s husband as a primary calling. Based on an exegesis of Proverbs 31, Ana Maldonado describes woman as the helpmate of man, and further explains that she is: “the complement, not the one who does everything and directs or chokes her husband with jealousy and manipulation, but rather the one who protects through intercession and repairs the breach for this man and his ministry.”[34] This complementarian stance is more than simply acceptance of patriarchy or performative ploy. Just as Ana Maldonado empowers female ministers based on her understanding of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, she also encourages domesticity as part of her community’s conception of “covering.” In this regard, domesticity is not paradoxical at all but analogous to the overall structure of many churches within Latino Pentecostalism.
In the introduction to Déboras al Frente de la Batalla, Maldonado describes the importance of Deborah’s husband Lappidoth to Deborah’s ministry as prophetess and judge. Lappidoth is only mentioned once in all of scripture, in Judges 4:4, and then only in passing,[35] but from this brief appearance Ana Maldonado explains that “Lappidoth represents Deborah’s covering, the Bible mentions him, thus demonstrating that she was not a chicken without a head.”[36]
Fully understanding the implications of covering for the husband-wife relationship requires a more thorough investigation of the critical role that covering plays in the quasi-denominational structure of El Rey Jesús and its many partnering congregations. El Rey Jesús defines cobertura, or covering, on their website:
A spiritual covering is a spiritual father who becomes a fountain in which we find nourishment, wisdom, protection and counsel. It is a father who invests all of his available resources in a son or in a church, so that it might reach its purpose or destiny.[37]
In the loosely connected world of nondenominational Pentecostalism, covering is a spiritual feudal system that provides a mechanism for apprenticeship, endorsement, and accountability. Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesús counts 205 churches in 36 different countries under the covering of Guillermo Maldonado and his Red Apostólica Vino Nuevo (New Wine Apostolic Network).[38] The process of being accepted under Guillermo’s apostolic covering is a lengthy one and involves the scrutiny of various documents (photos, marriage certificates, letters of reference).[39] The applicant church must be of sufficient size, and its pastor must have a compelling testimony, a willingness to adopt Guillermo’s vision, and no outstanding obligations to any other covering network.
To directly challenge the validity of a husband’s covering for his wife would be to undermine the framework that governs the relationships between churches and pastors as well. While adherence to traditional patriarchy may also play a role in her rhetoric, this understanding of ecclesial context better informs Ana Maldonado’s support of domesticity and submission as the proper female posture within the larger hierarchy of covering.
Shared Spousal Ministry
Barfoot and Sheppard point to “shared spousal ministry” as a kind of lamentable consolation prize for Pentecostal women who are being denied equal status as ministers, but within this somewhat maligned category, Ana Maldonado is nonetheless blazing a different trail from many of her contemporaries. Consider for example, the case of Mariam Delgado, wife of Alberto Delgado, who is listed as the co-pastor of the Miami Pentecostal megachurch Alpha & Omega. The main campuses of Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesús and Alpha & Omega are less than twelve miles apart. Alpha & Omega has an average attendance of 2100,[40] but Alberto and Mariam extend their influence regionally and internationally through the broadcasts of their television and radio program Todo es Posible.
On Alpha & Omega’s website, the page dedicated to the “co-pastors” focuses almost entirely on Alberto’s testimony, education, and achievements. Pastora Mariam Delgado receives only the briefest mention as co-host of Todo es Posible. The final sentence of the page clearly delineates the relative importance of each of the Delgados to Alpha & Omega: “More than 26 years have passed and God has grown his [Alberto’s] work alongside his wife Mariam, his two children Veronica and Alberto, Jr., and his three grandchildren.”[41] The work is Alberto’s, and Mariam, at least grammatically, has played no more significant a role in its growth than their children and grandchildren. The page also has a link to Mariam’s own page with multiple photos of her in pastel sweater sets. When pictured with Alberto, she typically stands behind one of his shoulders. Mariam does not preach in front of men and women but devotes her time primarily to women’s and children’s ministries at Alpha & Omega. She has written two devotional books for women that are advertised on her own page. One of them, Mantente en Línea (Keep Yourself in Shape), features a silhouette of a woman’s body with a measuring tape drawn around the waist. Although the primary purpose of the book is to help readers become “One-of-a-Kind Women”[42] spiritually, there is a not-so-subtle message that this is to be at least partially achieved through conformity to certain standards of physical beauty. Mariam Delgado continues this theme in her segments of Todo es Posible in which she often features cooking segments to help female viewers lose weight or fashion segments that highlight current trends.
Just down Florida Highway 874, Ana Maldonado is carrying out a very different kind of shared spousal ministry. The webpage dedicated to the co-pastors of Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesús gives equal space to both Guillermo and Ana. Academic credentials and ministerial achievements appear in equal measure under both their names.[43] Although Ana occasionally appears with Guillermo in their telecasts, she is just as likely to speak or preach by herself to audiences of men and women. Most of her writing targets a mixed audience and deals with themes of spiritual warfare and prayer that are at the very heart of the supernatural orientation of El Rey Jesús. Clearly, not all shared spousal ministries are created equal.
Natural and Supernatural Courses of Action
Ana Maldonado’s shared spousal ministry offers a fascinating scenario in which to see the practical outworking of her complementarianism. On one hand, the fact that Guillermo Maldonado often writes the forewords for her books raises questions about the balance of power in their marriage and ministry. Certainly, there have been no instances of Ana writing the foreword for any of Guillermo’s books. Then there is also the way in which Ana felt as though she could only ask her husband for five “little minutes” on the big stage at CAP 2009. In that narrative, Ana shares that Guillermo originally denied her those minutes. It appears as if the story is over, but Ana Maldonado does not appear defeated. With a wry smile, she tells the audience that she and her intercessors continued praying nonetheless. Within a few months of telling her husband that God’s prophetic message for El Rey Jesús was Isaiah 60, Guillermo began preaching that message from the pulpit. Whether or not he gave credit to Ana for the original reception and dissemination of that divinely given word, Ana claims the prophetic mantle for herself. Her presence at CAP bears witness to the fact that her husband’s word is not final. God’s word is final, and in the context of their shared spousal ministry, she is just as likely to hear the divine word as he is.
But this equal access to revelation does not permit Ana to challenge her husband’s authority directly and in worldly terms. She does not go to a board of directors or to the other conference participants to stage a coup. Instead, she challenges him on a spiritual plane. According to Ana Maldonado, her prayer warriors directly influenced the supernatural activity that changed the direction of Guillermo’s preaching. Maldonado characterizes this approach as that of a Débora as opposed to a Jezebel. Building a typology upon the reviled and manipulative queen of Old Testament narratives, Ana Maldonado describes Jezebels as women, and more specifically co-pastors, who have personal agendas, who want to direct and control the church, and who pursue competition and rivalry.[44] According to Maldonado, all women have to resist the spirit of Jezebel within themselves, but they also need to fight for what they believe God has given them.
This fight includes taking every natural opportunity they have been given and claiming new territory on the supernatural battlefront that Ana Maldonado describes. The opportunity ultimately given to Maldonado at CAP 2009 was a short morning slot, but throughout her address she pushes back at her boundaries. As she begins to talk about what it means to declare, she apologizes for not having the time to explain more about the spiritual significance of declarations. She pauses, puts her hand on her hip and says, “But we don’t have the time.”[45] She doesn’t name Guillermo as the one responsible for her lack of time, but the audience perceives that the Profeta is being restrained nonetheless and begins to boo. Maldonado pauses and then says, “My God…” with an air of resignation.[46] Not only is the audience missing out, but her lack of time is impinging on the fulfillment of the very will of God. After another dramatic pause, she asks the audience not to misunderstand her—it wasn’t “that the pastor told her no, just that there wasn’t enough time.”[47] As she restates this reason, she raises her right palm and leans her head to one side, re-enacting Guillermo’s attempt to deflect criticism. The effect is to gently mock Guillermo and the institutionalization that has confined her prophetic word to this morning prayer session.
Then, Maldonado begins to reframe the importance of this morning slot. The morning is the time when women should get up “while their husbands are still sleeping,” go to be part of the intercession ministry, and, through prayer, “discover the strategies of hell” so that they can derail them.[48] This encouragement blends the natural and supernatural aspects of Ana Maldonado’s push against hierarchy. Women are not to be slowed down by husbands who don’t want them to get up too early. Maldonado says that those husbands will answer some day in a judgment scene that she envisions as having to watch a DVD of their lives in the presence of God.[49] At this point, the cheers in the audience come largely from women. Women, according to Maldonado, also must understand that the morning is the best time to catch the Devil off guard and let him know that he has no authority over their husbands, their families, or their ministries.
Ultimately, this is a woman’s primary place in Maldonado’s teaching—on the front lines of a supernatural conflict with the devil for the sake not only of her family but for the kingdom of God itself. If men are to be the spiritual leaders who hear from God on matters of direction,[50] then women are to be leaders on a new battlefront, protecting the family and the church from supernatural evil. This is not an ancillary ministry within the orbit of Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesús. Due to the way in which they foreground the supernatural, spiritual warfare becomes the primary ministry, the way of bringing healing, power, and blessing into the lives of the faithful while thwarting the schemes of the devil. Although Ana Maldonado offers training in intercession and spiritual warfare to men and women alike, she claims the greater status in this arena for women.
Conclusion
Upon closer inspection, the life and ministry of Ana Maldonado presents a certain conundrum. Which lens offers the clearest view of her place in the landscape of contemporary American religion? Into which category does she most clearly fit? She is not merely the submissive wife of a conservative megachurch pastor, nor does she overshadow her husband through her own particular ministry. She submits to her husband’s covering in an ecclesial environment bound together by networks of covering, but she also pushes back against his authority using the natural and spiritual means at her disposal. Ana Maldonado offers a compelling portrait of the kind of Pentecostal Latinas described by Espinosa who “have generally stayed the course and continue to quietly and skillfully negotiate their own space” while dealing with “gender bias and discrimination and an uphill calling.”[51]
Paradoxical domesticity as a descriptor is generally true of her context in which ministerial and marital vocation intersect, but it implies a static condition which denies the dynamic reality of Ana Maldonado. Watching Ana Maldonado and reading her words, one understands quickly that she is not merely a cultural byproduct—she is a force shaping the culture around her. As Profeta and wife, mentor and mother, messenger and message, Ana Maldonado is battling against the natural and supernatural world for her place, and the place of other Déboras in the kingdom. Of course, Maldonado is only one of the pioneering Déboras currently at work within the Latino Pentecostal world, albeit one with a considerably visible platform. Whether she is fully aware of it or not, she is part of a long line of women who have wrestled with religious hierarchy and even with their own husbands for their place as preachers, leaders, and prophetic voices. Due to the segmented reality of Latino Pentecostalism, these struggles are recapitulated within large denominations, local concilios, and rapidly-expanding apostolic networks. But with each new Débora, the possibilities for Latina ministers seem to grow. The five minuticos that Ana Maldonado asked for at CAP will gradually expand into greater space for Latina profetas and pastoras to exercise their gifts.