A Clash of Culture, Faith

Avelar told her mother, then Selwyn. They gave support. But it would take her two months to work up the courage to tell her father.

When she finally did, she said he replied: " 'You're a grown woman. I believe I've raised you well.' "

Then, he said: " 'Before your grandmother died she left us specific instructions to never abandon or change our religion.' "

His attempt didn't work.

'I Love Islam'

Avelar stopped eating pupusas revueltas, tamales de cerdo and any other Salvadoran dishes with pork. In her house, she stopped eating any meat that wasn't halal , or permissible under Islamic dietary laws.

Alcohol was out, as were tank tops. On Christmas Eve, she drove her family to midnight Mass and dropped them outside the church.

Avelar's beliefs are shaped neither by politics nor injustice toward Muslims, she said. In her mind, she's still a hyphenated immigrant -- only with one more hyphen.

"I love my country. I love living here. I love being Latina," she said. "But more than anything else, I love Islam."

Avelar's family held out hope that her conversion would be just a phase. That changed the day she came home with a Muslim man. He was also Latino. They had met two weeks earlier. They wanted to get married.

Her father angrily said no and blamed Islam. " 'They want to marry you off to a man you don't even know,' " she remembered him saying. Then, he took away her Islamic books and said: It's either Islam or the family.

Avelar replied: "Don't ever ask me to choose between you and my religion because I won't choose you."

"That was the day he realized how serious I was," she said.