From the Editor – November 2011

From June 5-8, 2011, at its Annual Colloquium and General Meeting in San José, California, the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States focused on the theme, “Pan de Vida: Eucharistic Liturgy, Piety, and Justice. The Colloquium Announcement explained, it was “time to go to the corazón of our Catholic faith and worship, the Eucharist, and draw from it pan de vida y bebida de salvación not just for us but for our communities. In a relaxed atmosphere of reflection and convivencia we invite[d] Jesus to stay with us and in us as we look[ed] at his Eucharistic presence and challenge in the official liturgy of the Church, our people’s devotion, and the Church’s social doctrine. In the articles we now present in the Journal of Hispanic / Latino Theology, we share with a broader public some of the spirit of that Colloquium. These articles, originally presented at the Colloquium in preliminary form, subsequently revised in the light of discussions around the table, and then peer-reviewed, offer insightful reflections on the convergence and intersections that are named in the Colloquium theme. These essays offer not just liturgical theology considered apart from real worshipping communities, not a consideration of devotional piety alone, but a matter of both considered in richly nuanced terms in the light of the call to justice that is at the very heart of the Gospel.

For twenty three years the ACHTUS Colloquium has been an opportunity for us Catholic Hispanic Theologians to consider how various theological disciplines, popular culture, US Society and religion has influenced Latino/a theology.   This year we went to the corazón of our Catholic faith and worship, the Eucharist and drew from it pan de vida. In a relaxed atmosphere of reflection and convivencia, we have invited Jesus to stay with us and in us as we looked at His Eucharistic presence and challenge in the official liturgy of the Church, in our people’s devotions, in our ecclesiologies and in our Church’s social teaching . These directions are reflected in our colloquium title Pan de Vida: Eucharistic Liturgy, Piety and Justice.

Hombres, Hembras, Hambres:

Narration, Correction, and the Work of Ecclesiology

Natalia M. Imperatori-Lee

Manhattan College, Riverdale NY

Esta isla se vende. Ni siquiera se subasta: se vende al por mayor. No sólo su mano de obra, sino tamben su alma; cada creencia, cada versículo, cada canto de sus religiones, cada pincelada de quienes la dibujaron durante siglos. Y ahí están esos que vienen con toda su cultura a cuestas, pero que siguen sin entender nada….Tal vez de eso se trate: de creerse a toda costa lo que le pongan a uno delante, sin cuestionarse mucho…¿O estaré siendo injusta? Quizás sea muy difícil llegar al fondo de este enredo. Incluso para nosotros. No hay Dios ni cristiano que entienda que carajos pasa aquí. A lo mejor estamos tan aislados que nos hemos convertido en otra especie. Somos bichos raros. Los cubanos somos los marcianos de la Tierra, y sólo un extraterrestre puede entender lo que le pasa a otro.

            - Claudia’s first words in El hombre, la hembra y el hambre.[1]

A New Paradigm for “Just” Liturgies in a Latino/a Context[1]

Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA

Among liturgists and theologians in the United States much discussion concerning liturgy and justice centers on what occurs during the “official” celebration of Eucharist, primarily on Sundays.[2] It asks how Word and Eucharist challenge the faithful to carry out justice in the world. Vatican II’s 1963 Constitution on Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium) regards liturgy as the source and summit from which all flows.[3] Other discussion concerns the potential that “just” liturgies hold for full and active participation by all present (SC 14). [4] Clearly, justice in its fruition, whether inspired by liturgy or enacted in liturgy is still the ongoing “work of the people.”[5]

After the midterm elections of 2010, the burst of activity by the lame-duck 111^th Congress offered some hope that the DREAM Act—the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act—might finally be passed. This legislation would provide a path to U.S. citizenship for irregular immigrant young people who arrived in the United States as minors, provided that they complete at least two years of higher education or of military service. Passed by the House of Representatives on December 8, 2010 (coincidentally or providentially, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, patronal feast of the United States), the DREAM Act did not make it through the Senate, coming up five votes short of the sixty needed to achieve cloture on December 18, 2010. Commenting on the Senate vote, Archbishop José Gómez, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Migration called the vote a “setback, not a defeat,” and insisted that, as we move forward, “More education is needed to ensure that Catholics, as well as all Americans, fully understand the humanitarian consequences of a broken immigration system, especially on families.”[1]

An Alternative Majority Group Response

Reinhardt University, Waleska, GA

The United States of America, Canada, and Australia are at the forefront of countries hosting people from many nations around the globe. They are also known for the comprehensive laws they have created to welcome many immigrants.[1] What we oftentimes neglected is that, behind the elaboration of these laws, there is a history of negative feelings and decisions affecting the influx of immigrants to their shores and their lives therein. 

“[Have no] contact anywhere with an illegal alien!…And that starts in the restaurants….[You] don’t know if they wipe their behinds with their hands!” So warned nationally syndicated conservative talk show host Michael Savage in his efforts to stymie the spring 2009 outbreak of the H1N1 virus (commonly referred to as “swine flu”), an outbreak that began in Mexico.[1] The ill logic of Savage’s comments—what makes “illegal” im/migrants more likely to have unclean hands than “legal” im/migrants?—makes no attempt to disguise the fact that such rhetoric and fear mongering betray pre-existing prejudices resurfacing by way of the H1N1 virus outbreak, as did anti-Jewish sentiment during the time of the Black Death in Europe and the 1892 cholera pandemic in the United States.[2] Any push for immigration reform is sure to spur more xenophobia from pundits and others like Savage who assert that non-white immigrants, especially those who cross the U.S.-Mexico border or who have ties to Islam, taint the U.S. with disease, violence, and an inferior culture.[3] It is in the face of such anti-immigrant rhetoric that Latino/a theologians have articulated and continue to articulate a stance for justice and solidarity with im/migrants marginalized by the society they have entered. This solidarity has found and must continue to find concrete expression in public advocacy and political action.[4]

From the Editor – September 2010

Many Latina/o theologians have insisted that lived daily experience — lo cotidiano — in all its complexity is among the key sources for theological reflection. From machismo to telenovelas, from social networking to art along the border between the U.S. and Mexico, different dimensions of lived daily experience have found a place in the studies that have appeared in this journal. Vincent Olea’s article, “‘Out of Cariño:’ Toward a Theology of Fighting Observed in

U.S. Hispanic Youth in East Los Angeles,” opens a door into an especially challenging aspect of the lived daily experience of young people in Boyle Heights, California. Olea has worked passionately for nearly twenty years as a director of youth ministry serving young people in Catholic parishes in San Diego and Los Angeles, most recently accompanying inner-city Hispanic youth at Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights, Ca. Continuing his development of a narrative approach to inner-city youth ministry, Vince is currently laying the groundwork for a non-profit organization in Los Angeles called The Center for Story and the Arts.

The Pneumatological Dimension of Orlando Espín’s Theological Work and Its Implications for Engagement with Pentecostal Communities

Néstor Medina

Introduction

I find Orlando Espín’s cultural theology immensely provocative. More specifically, I find him most engaging when considering the elements that popular Catholicism and Pentecostalism share. In my view, they are closer than either side would care to admit.

I seek to explore this point here by way of a cultural pneumatology. I will argue that it is precisely in the intersection of culture and the Spirit that Espín’s proposal offers a rich platform of conversation between Catholicism and Pentecostalism. I will examine this in the following three sections: First, I briefly outline Espín’s cultural proposal; second, I highlight some of the pneumatological cultural implications from his work; and third, I propose a Pentecostal pneumatological approach as a way of complementing Espín’s embryonic pneumatology.

“Out of Cariño:” Toward a Theology of Fighting Observed in

U.S. Hispanic Youth in East Los Angeles 

Vincent Olea

Barry University, Miami Shores, FL 

In the opening scene of the movie Crash, Officer Graham (Don Cheadle) turns to his partner after crashing into another car and says, “It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.” In these six sentences Graham dares to view the violent act of a car crash as an intended means to fulfilling a basic human need, one that is not being met under the current social norms of interaction. As absurd as it sounds, especially for those who have been devastated by a car crash, Graham looks directly at the act itself and uncovers the need to experience beauty, in the midst of blood, broken glass and bent metal. In the same way and with the same sense of absurdity, I seek to identify an experience of beauty, in the midst of flailing fists, grinding teeth, torn clothes, blood and bruises, especially as it relates to U.S. Hispanic youth in East Los Angeles. In proposing a theological dimension to fighting, I will develop a view of physical aggressive interaction that reveals a pained yet relational social location, and the need to physically express both.