Tuesday, October 13, 2009
(Click here for Spanish) I think it is important to have a measured, spiritual and well founded perspective on Christopher Columbus. I have read a great deal of disinformation about this Genovese sailor, who has been the object of much attack, at the very mention of his name.
Historically, Columbus has been admired for having demonstrated that it was possible to reach the east by traveling west, and for having discovered a whole continent unknown to the majority of Europeans. His voyage demonstrated, not that the Earth was round, but its approximate size. The persistent myth that Europeans believed that the earth was flat is a literary fantasy of Washington Irving. Europeans knew that the Earth was round since the III Century before Christ, when Erasthotenes affirmed it and his compatriot Ptolomey ventured an approximate measure for its circumference, one too small, which was the basis of Columbus´ calculations. What Columbus added was a determination to fulfill the Great Commission and the faith to obey the urgings of the Holy Spirit, as he himself confessed.
Many today attribute to Columbus all the consequences of the Conquest and the Spanish Colonization. In fact, Columbus denounced the sexual abuse of the Indian women in various letters, and he repeatedly asked for more priests to reform the bad conduct of the Spaniards. It was precisely his effort to impose order in the lawless and rebellious colony of Hispaniola, what motivated the false accusations that landed him in chains in Spain. Not only did Columbus not take advantage of the naked Indian women: he order that a naked girl that was given to him as a “peace offering” by the Indians be dressed up and returned to her parents.
For Christians, the feat of Columbus means an unparalleled step forward in the fulfillment of the Great Commission. He insisted to the Catholic Kings that this was his purpose in his first audience with them in Granada, in his Diary of Navigation of the First Voyage and in his Book of Prophecies. In this last book, the only one left with Columbus’s handwriting, he documents that it was the Holy Spirit who urged him to undertake his famous voyage, so that the Gospel could be preached in the ends of the Earth. In its 84 pages, Columbus backs his argument copying over 80 biblical passages and makes reference to the Holy Scripture 108 times more.
Christopher Columbus was undoubtedly a Christian, as it is evidenced many passages of his writings, and the testimony of the Church of his time. (He died in 1506, eleven years before Luther nailed the 95 Thesis, beginning the Reformation). His best friends were several friars, and he belonged himself to the Tertiary Franciscan Order, whose vestments he wore to his grave.
Columbus was not an exemplary Christian in everything. One of his glaring errors was to live without the benefit of marriage with Doña Beatriz Hernandez, with whom he had a son, Fernando. This conduct stands in contradiction to Columbus practice of living in convents after he widowed, and should be understood against the Spanish custom of only marrying above one´s social station in order to improve one’s status.
Another moral failure of Columbus was to taunt the potential treasure of America as an argument to obtain financing for his last three expeditions. One of the challenges that plagued Columbus was how to finance his Enterprise of the Indies. Thus he chose to appeal to the motives of his financiers. He did not, for instance, hesitate to bring 1,200 Indians to be sold in Europe. All his ambition brought him no gain. Queen Isabella said: “Who is he, to treat my subjects thustly?” and ordered that every last Indian should be returned “exactly to the place from where they were taken.” The Crown never paid him a penny from the portion that was his. As my childhood history book read: “Columbus died poor and forgotten in Valladolid.”
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Tuesday, September 29, 2009
(
Click here for Spanish) These days the American press is full of revolting details about the public exposure of a sordid secret of a family of Rock stars. A daughter confesses in a tell-all biography without compunctions or embarrassment, the incestuous relationship (”between consenting adults”) she maintained for many years with her father, in an atmosphere of fame, money, drugs and moral degradation.
It is a sign of social decadence that the media stumble without regret the conscience and the decency of others to satisfy of appetite for lucre, profiting from the lasciviousness that it has been cultivating in the vulnerable public. We already saw the political use of this subterfuge that appeals to lust under the guise of publishing “news” full of prurient details, when the Republicans in Congress placed the details of the entire investigation of President Clinton’s White House affair on the Internet. While pretending to be the guardians of the civic morality, they tarnished the conscience of generations, placing a stumbling block on the worldwide net, for short-lived political profit.
God is judging us in America, showing us each day more irrefutably the evil that hides in our hearts. Lord, bring us soon to the end of this reproach, so that before you pour your wrath you can inundate us with your mercy, allowing your children and those who will be yours to groan in repentance…!
Such thoughts impacted me especially this week, because I heard the dramatic story of two girls in Central America, leading me to contrast the direction of our two cultures. One, founded on a Protestant, Covenantal theology, is abandoning its foundations, and collapsing into decadence. The other, the culture of my ancestors, built upon a theology that barely knows the Covenant, moves slowly towards its transformation into a Covenant Culture, thanks to the Divine mercy that is teachings us a fresh reading of the Word of God, the Book of the Covenant.
I heard the details about the two girls, barely adolescents at 13, who are, for their own protection, housed in a home for adolescent mothers that their government sponsors. The father of one of the babies is the mother’s father, and the father of the other is an uncle.
Unfortunately, such stories occur everywhere, as thousands of children and adolescent girls in the Americas are used by their fathers, relatives, neighbors or whoever may want to make use of them. Frequently these aberrant abuses are excused by alcohol, ignorance or crowding in tiny homes. Unfortunately, the majority of cases are still treated as “family secrets”, sometimes for life, hidden behind a series of “veils”, by threats, guilt feelings, negligence, shame, accusations and deception. They are incompletely revealed through stories whispered by children, as women gossip, crimes of passion or hasty deathbed confessions.
In a culture without Covenant the woman is little more than coveted prey. “Machista” cultures see her as an object for the sexual pleasure of the man, depersonalized and dehumanized. That is why some Moslem cultures cover their women’s faces with veils, or their bodies from head to toe with “burkas”. If they show their body even a little, they are accused of provoking the male incontinence, and some families recur to “honor killings” to restore the family honor.
Unprotected by the male, who should be her covering, in the culture without Covenant the woman is assaulted, violated and abused by anyone with the opportunity. And girls, being weaker, less experienced and dependant of their elders, exposed to their negligence or abuse, are the most frequent victims of these attacks of male lust, particularly at the hand of those who through family ties or proximity have a greater chance to accost them alone. And some mothers don’t believe them, hide it or blame them.
Even the church could be complicit of these aberrations. I know of a case in which a girl confessed to a priest the sexual harassment of her brother-in-law, and was advised to tolerate it quietly, so as to “not ruin the marriage of her sister.”
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
(Click here for Spanish) My friend Pedro Moreno, founder of the Father Daughter Alliance (FADA, www.fada.org ) recently established his organization in India, whose population (1.1 billion) is rapidly catching up to China’s (1.2 billion) as the world most populous country. Yet, when it comes to children under 15 India is already ahead of China, boasting the largest population of children of any nation in history: approximately 312 million children. Unlike China, which through its “one child policy” has achieved a reversal of its population growth through the wholesale abortion of girls, in India roughly half of all the children are female. The problem in India is that parents keep their girls home from school from a very early age. Pedro reports the following conversation he had with a group of fathers from the slums of New Delhi:
“Would it be OK with you if we bring your daughter to school before your son, due to our limited resources?” They thought of it for a moment, and then they said “OK, that would be fine.” Then I decided to really push the envelope and see what their view of girls is, so I said: “Now, if your girl is at school, and you have a baby at home, and the baby gets dirty, would you ask your son to clean the baby?” My translator was hesitant to translate this question, but at my prodding he did. The answer came back: “Well, boys like to play, girls are better at changing diapers”.
He could have gotten that same answer from Peshawar to Patagonia, from Pyongyang to Port au Prince. Throughout the underdeveloped world, the condition of females, young and old, is much worse than that of males of comparable age, because of the virtually universal bias in favor of males. This age-old condition is well documented in history, with very few cultures escaping the pattern.
I recall a casual conversation with a street vendor in El Salvador, in which she reported sadly, in front of her little daughter, about 4 years old, the misfortune of having had a girl, instead of a boy. When I asked her why this was sad, she explained, with gestures and a tone which left no room to doubt, that having a boy, with all the advantages that connotes, would have been much preferable.
Historically, Christianity, especially in its Reformed version, has steadily tended to improve, though not yet remedy, the cultural imbalance in favor of men. Remember that in the U.S. women obtained the right to vote in 1920, and in Switzerland in 1950! And the feminist movement has certainly achieved great gain, if at the cost of putting the family structure at risk. In the U.S. the level of education of women has surpassed that of men, an enrollment in colleges heavily favors females today.
But, in the developing world women lag far behind in education when compared to their male counterparts. They stay home to help with the domestic chores, or their younger siblings. Education, especially beyond the third or fourth grade, is seen as unnecessary, a superfluous luxury which subsistence economies can hardly afford. The anticipated life path of women in the vast majority of poor countries and communities does not require much education of them: they will marry, bear children, keep house and serve their husbands.
Even in our own Hispanic culture, girls are brought up to work, while boys play. There is a heavy inequality in the way we treat them in childhood, which sows seeds that will bear fruit all of their lives. The Gospel is, slowly but surely, lifting our men and women out of serfdom and into the wonderful freedom of the children of God. But when it comes to the cultural bias that heavily favors men, in the Spanish-speaking world the Gospel has barely began to have its effect.
Girls are not “better at changing diapers” than boys. It is time we recognized our sinful pattern of laziness and male privilege, and took our place as men, like Jesus, by becoming servants of all.
Please send us your comments to blog@joselgonzalez.com and please read my other articles on our Hispanic culture at www.semilla.org. See you next week…
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
(Click here for Spanish translation) I like to tell my friends amusingly that "English is the language of the Earth, but Spanish is the language of Heaven" being that Spanish is practically the language of the city of Los Angeles; and thus if you don’t learn Spanish now, you will have to learn it in purgatory before entering Heaven.
As someone who has gone through the process more than once, I know that learning a foreign language as an adult can be a real purgatory. Notwithstanding, English language proficiency as a tool for learning, working and intercultural approach has an importance today that is hard to exaggerate, because today English is the “lingua franca” of the world.
Yet for millions of people, whose lives would be much richer, happier and more convenient, if they succeeded in conquering this language, face internal and external barriers that make it difficult or impossible to speak in English. In writing this bilingual blog I have tried to facilitate this transition for our readers, with whom I’ll share some reflections today on learning English.
Languages give form to and reflect the soul of their people groups. Cultural differences between Hispanics and English speakers are clearly manifested in our respective languages, not only in grammar and vocabulary, but in style as well.
Spanish is the more flowery language of the two, where beauty is manifested in the wealth of vocabulary and in onomatopoeia, its turning style and sounds, and we prefer meaning to be allusive and figurative. English, on the other hand, finds elegance in simplicity, in the use of words that make logic transparent and unadorned, in the use of direct phrases that leave no doubt as to the author’s meaning.
Learning English is not merely a task of translating meaning from our language, but rather a transition into the mindset and the soul of a very different people group. Hispanics have to learn not only to communicate information, but to do so in a way that allows others capture what we mean. We often have to redo our own thinking, to make it clearer, more logical and conclusive, and then translate that revised version into English. I have been blessed to learn in my own home, from my wife, who is an English literature teacher, as she tells her Hispanic students: “I want you to learn not only to write but to think!"
Besides the fact that adults do not memorize as easily as children, as Hispanics we have not developed the mental “muscles” needed to speak English well. Each language develops a muscular system suitable for the playing of sounds and to develop these in foreigners requires time, discipline, and a good ear or a patient tutor which not everyone has.
In closing, I’ll share a personal theory of how political obstacles may hinder the learning of English, which I have witnessed in many others several times, and includes my own experience. The foreign reader will have no difficulty in recognizing that there is a strong “anti-Yankee” current in the Spanish speaking world. It stems from a combination of nationalistic pride, resentment of what’s been labeled as "imperialism" and a willingness to criticize the strongest in defense of the weakest (to this day I'm surprised at the innocence of some of my North American friends who still don’t understand how this came about and why it lingers.)
Just as love and friendship can provide a great motivation for learning a foreign language quickly and correctly, political resentment and animosity may delay or even prevent someone from “bowing” their will and mother tongue, to learn the language of another whom they may not love. I've witnessed more than one case of someone admit that their political beliefs prevented them from embracing the language and soul of another; and that when they "forgave" their political opponents that brought about a remarkable breakthrough in their learning process.
All this points to that learning a foreign language requires, in the best of cases, a good dose of love for the other people group.
Please send your comments to blog@joselgonzalez.com and please read more of our articles on Hispanic culture at www.semilla.org. See you next week…
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
(Click here for Spanish) Yesterday I had the chance to share on pastoral counseling and afterwards I was approached by a young woman who timidly asked me to give her a few minutes in private. Sensing an urgent need, I agreed and we stepped away to talk privately, though still in a public setting, and prayed for the Lord to give us wisdom.
She is a young woman married to a minister of the Gospel, who accidentally discovered two years ago that her husband is involved in pornography. She confronted him, but he keeps falling into sin and refuses to confess to anyone, insisting that he can overcome this on his own. Recently she even found pornographic images on the computer at church! and films that he’s purchased. She has tried to help him by working near him so that he feels being observed, but he insists on using the lap-top alone. Then she told him that he cannot continue to preach while in this habitual sin, to which he retorted that placing a "block" on his computer was enough; but she fears that without having confessed his sins to anyone, he would continue on his sinful ways while being accountable to no one.
It is hard to describe how a woman feels when she discovers her husband has a secret and sordid life and has cheated on her for years. She feels betrayed, used, ashamed and even disgusted at his touch. Their marital bed has been sullied, and she loses respect for him, questions his authority and thus struggles to accept it. This wife does not want to leave her husband and fears that by denying his embrace she will further push him down the path of his destructive habit. But as a Christian, she also knows that he cannot continue to minister the Word of God while living a lie and placing other believers under the influence of his lie. She asked him to leave the ministry and seek help but he refused. What should a woman do in this case? she asked me.
I told her there are three dimensions to her case with different priorities: first, the spiritual life of her husband is in danger; secondly, the sheep under his care and thirdly, his own marriage is in grave danger. Her husband is offending God, deceiving his flock, and breaking their marriage covenant because looking at a woman lustfully is adultery- even virtual images of a woman. If he could see the situation in this way, it would help him not to act on the natural impulse of self-protection, but rather to see this as an instrument of God and a healing agent for man, for the Kingdom and for his own marriage.
It is very difficult for a woman, but when life is endangered it is necessary for her to take authority over her fallen husband. Her husband has a form of cancer that needs to be treated radically for their own good, and as no effort is spared in the case of a physical illness, the same should apply to this spiritual case. A wolf (i.e. the adversary) has gotten into the flock which requires the authorities to be alerted, and the only hope for their marriage is to appeal to the mercy of God to heal him completely. She is not obliged to give her body to her unfaithful husband, but out of love, she is to give him every opportunity to be healed and restored. Ideally, he would recognize his sin and confess them to their authorities and receive their necessary discipline, monitoring and restoration as a man, as a husband and possibly even as a minister.
There is no guarantee that he will allow himself to be healed and the process will surely bring with it stress and discomfort, but it is worth fighting for the man she loves. If her husband confesses, she is to treat him as a sick man in need of support, and she is to accompany him all the way along the road to healing. But if he does not confess, then she has no choice but to report him to the authorities and treat him like a criminal who falls into the hands of the law, and then faithfully await while he “serves his sentence.”
I ask the reader to pray for this wife facing such a hard (and sadly common) situation.
Please send us your comments to blog@joselgonzalez.com and please read my other articles on our Hispanic culture at www.semilla.org. See you next week…
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
(Click here for Spanish) I talked yesterday with an international leader of a great denomination, who told me that as he has studied the theology of immigration he discovered that throughout history God has used migratory movements to spread His Gospel in the earth. His opinion is that the Church must minister to all, in fulfillment of its own call, regardless of legal or immigration status.
The Apostle Paul teaches that, as a result of our faith in Christ, we Christians have dual citizenship. We belong to two kingdoms simultaneously: the Kingdom of Heaven and the earthly kingdom (or nation) to which each of us belongs. There is no doubt about which of these two kingdoms is more important: the spiritual, eternal and infinite or the material kingdom, which is temporary and limited.
However, we must be careful not to fall into the error of despising the earthly, because in fact we were created to live in this world, albeit temporarily, and our responsibility, as long as we live in it, is to fulfill the purposes of God, here and now. God loves His natural creation, despite its being ephemeral, and has given it a purpose: to serve us to fulfill our eternal mission. It may be secondary, but it is important; the natural is an instrument, not an enemy of the eternal.
Because of the Fall, the two kingdoms are often in conflict. The demands of the one frequently contradict – or seem to contradict – those of the other. Because of that, the theological interpretation of my friend – that the Church must minister to all without inquiring about their legal status – arouses strong controversy, even among Christians. Many, especially now when several immigration reform proposals are being bandied about in the United States, are offended by the human wave of undocumented immigrants that has entered the country in the last ten years. As a consequence, their civic-political instincts tend to polarize them towards those biblical mandates of obedience to laws. Others, whose feelings of compassion cause them to focus on the enormous difficulties and risks that the undocumented and their families face, are prone to emphasize the biblical mandates of hospitality towards foreigners and solidarity with their plight.
Lack of space prevents me from making a thorough analysis of the situation, which has many aspects and nuances. However, we can see that a part of the problem, at least from the perspective of my friend, is this conflict that sometimes occurs between the two kingdoms. As citizens of our nation, we Christians want to respect and abide by the law. However, as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, we recognize the priority duty of loving our neighbor and expressing solidarity with his needs.
In honor of the truth, we Christians must recognize, as we approach this issue, the complicity of the whole political, economic and legal system of our nation, having allowed millions of human beings to enter and take up residence in our country with impunity. Those responsible, both government officials and citizens, did it for their own convenience, whether political or economic, due to a family obligation or as a protest against laws that they considered unjust or impractical. We have massively disregarded the law ourselves, as a people. But, be it for whatever cause, the fact remains that the authorities and the people of the United States have allowed a massive number of undocumented to enter, to work and to establish roots here.
On the other hand, we Christians must also realize that those who brandish political arguments are appealing to our patriotic or to our empathetic sentiments, evoking either logic or religion, often for their own interests, partisan, economic or affective (family ties, class solidarity, etc.). Therefore, their arguments must be weighed carefully, lest we allow ourselves to be swept away and to become instruments of others, whose true motives are not known to us
Yes, the kingdoms are often in conflict. But, it is the privilege of Christians to find in God’s Wisdom the motives, the tone, the arguments and the sensible proposals to help to reconcile relations and to find solutions capable of receiving broad support among our citizenry. This is part of our mission as reconcilers, peace-makers and sowers of justice.
I invite you to share your comments with me at blog@joselgonzalez.com and to read many more of my articles on our Hispanic culture at www.semilla.org. We’ll talk more next week…
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
(Click here for Spanish) The immigration crisis in the United States pits the immediate interests of our citizenry against the fundamental values of our nation. For example, figuring out how to protect our citizens from the Entry of destructive elements through an enormous and practically open border, we run the risk of losing our internal liberty and becoming like a police state. Determining how many and what type of immigrants we will receive hereafter, confronts us with a decision about what kind of nation we are and we want to be. And deciding what to do with the undocumented immigrants that are already in the country, forces us to admit our complicity, political, economic and social, with their presence here.
The public debate on the matter, sometimes bitter, exposes the moral wear and tear of our nation. Faced with the danger of terrorism, freedom “just doesn´t seem to be all that it cracked up to be.” Confronted with a human wave that has come here without permission, the Price of being the kind of nation we want to be may have become too expensive, overflowing the patience of the people and the viability of our social safety net. The “invasion” of people whose appearance, conduct and culture inspires the mistrust of many of us, combined with their offense of having violated our civic space, awakens latent racist feelings which are easily manipulated to feed political ambitions.
Ad to this the collective guild that we all share for permitting and postponing facing this massive irrgularity. The political system, as well as the economic and the social sytems have contributed significantly to the phenomenon of a human mass of undocumented immigrants, making us all both accomplices and judges of the situation.
The number of the undocumented now in the country is consistently estimated around 12 million. This amounts to 4% of the nation´s population, that is, one of every 25 people does not have the necessary papers to live and work here. But such a huge mass of people would never have been able to establish themselves, find work, housing and minimal services, without the active or tacit complicity of that segment of the population which employs them, sell them services and lives alongside them.
However, when we try to decide what to do with all this population that lives in a legal penumbra, the majority of Americans and legal residents ignore our own responsibility, personal or collective, for having contributed or created the problem in the first place.
A law that almost everyone ignores is a bad law: it does not serve the social purposes that all laws must serve. The immigration laws of the United States have not been implemented because they don’t serve well the national interest. That is why there has not been the political will or the social consensus needed to apply them consistently. For decades government policies have been ambivalent regarding the immigrants and this has created the conditions so that a great mass of them have entered or stayed without the proper papers.
To be “a nation of immigrants” is an important part of the national myth of the United States. I say “myth” not because it is false, but because it embodies certain values with which the national conscience resonates profoundly.
We believe that we are a noble, generous and solidarious nation, which receives with open arms the poor, the humble, the helpless.
We believe that we are a country that holds that liberty is an unalienable right, in which all men equally possess an august dignity.
And we are convinced that we are a land of opportunities, which offers those who are willing to work for them, the infinite possibilities of the “American dream.”
To be “a nation of immigrants” reinforces that national myth that anyone can become part of America, and enjoy our liberty and prosperity if they adapt, integrate and unite with us in our national experiment. But, to maintain the “American dream” requires a civic virtue of sobriety, integrity and self-control that we Americans and legal immigrants today have sold for a plate of lentils. Thus, the cost of remaining free might exceed our capacity to administer our freedom.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
(Click here for Spanish) This week, the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Her ascension to the highest court of the nation guarantees her a place in history: she is the first Hispanic (and also Hispanic woman) to attain this office, the highest civic honor of any Hispanic in the history of this nation to date.
This is a source of honor and pride for us, the Hispanics in the USA. The fact that the daughter of a Puerto Rican immigrant has scaled the top of the government structure of the country is a cause for high celebration.
Another hero in this story is her mother Doña Celina Báez de Sotomayor, who widowed with young children, worked hard to give them the best education. The achievement of her eldest daughter will encourage all the mothers who are laying their life to bring up children alone. It will also encourage all immigrants, for whom Sotomayor demonstrates that the “American dream” that anything is possible for those who work diligently and smartly, is not dead.
The Honorable Judge comes from a humble home. She was born to a father of little education who did not speak English until his death, when she was nine. Her family lived in poor, crime-ridden neighborhoods all her childhood. Sonia Sotomayor thus joins her colleague, the Honorable Clarence Thomas, another catholic of minority and humble origins who is an Associate Judge since 1991.
Despite our pride and the praise that the new Judge deserves, her ascension to the Supreme Court awakens contradictory sentiments. It reminds me of the day in which the first Black President was elected in this country. The overwhelming majority, if not all the people, felt justifiably proud of electing someone of a race that was so discriminated historically. Even those of us who did not agree with his politics celebrated the achievement. I felt the deep satisfaction of my African American brothers and sisters; it was impossible not to celebrate with them the common victory.
Similarly, when a person of Hispanic descent ascends for the first time to the Supreme Court, all of us who remember the long march it took and the many who prepared the way, rejoice. Her achievement enriches us all. She is a legitimate source of pride for all women, for every Hispanic, for all who share humble origins and for everyone who loves equality of opportunity.
But, this does not erase my concern that in the Supreme Court of the land, there sits a person who does not believe in a universal law, but sees it from a political and ethnic perspective. Judge Sotomayor said in a conference in England in 1996 that the law is a dynamic system that evolves like society: “The law that lawyers practice and judges declare is not a law with a capital “L” as many would like to think that exists.”
She comes from a background of activism in pro of minority civil rights. In Princeton Sotomayor co-founded “Acción Puertorriqueña”, the first Puerto Rican student organization of that University (event I followed through my friend and protégée, Josie Torres). And upon graduation she cited in the yearbook a Socialist thinker, Norman Thomas: “I don´t champion lost causes, but causes yet to win.” As a law student she joined an association of Black, Hispanic and Asian students and adopted a “Third World” rhetoric in some of her writings. And for twelve years she was a member of the Board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, a sometimes radical civil rights agency.
You see, Sonia María Sotomayor belongs to the generation of Puerto Ricans (or “Newyoricans”, as she herself has put it), that forged, a decade after their Black brothers, the struggle for the vindications of the civil rights of their people. And, as she reaches the first judicial office of her nation, she follows in the steps of that other standard-bearer of his race, President Barak Obama.
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
(Click here for Spanish) Over the years I have struggled with both a cultural and a personal tendency to arrive late.
Every culture has a different idea of time, which is rooted in their worldview. Most of us who grew up in a traditional Hispanic culture look at time as something to be spent in relationships, experiences and adventures, things that have a value in themselves, regardless of whether anything concrete is accomplished during that time. That is why we are always available to celebrate… whatever it may be. In contrast, our Anglo American host culture sees time as something golden, to be invested in achieving a purpose, getting things done as quickly as possible in order to “save time.”
Beneath these very different ideas of time are two widely different worldviews, or assumptions about the nature and purpose of reality. The traditional Hispanic worldview (rapidly changing under the inexorable weight of secularization on the one hand and revival on the other) is highly “religious”, but it produces in most people an impersonal connection with God mediated through rituals and rote prayers. The emotional aspect of our religious relationship is often reserved for an imagined Mother, so most members of our historic church, have a “nominal” (in name only) religiosity. A living, effectual faith inspires and empowers the believer to grow in his relationship with God, and to embrace His Law as his rule of faith and life.
I believe that Spanish Catholicism, in almost eight centuries of subjugation by, and alternating accommodation and Reconquista with the Moors, acquired some of the fatalistic worldview of Islam. “Lo que será, será” seems to aptly describe our Hispanic attitude towards life.
Without the Bible and the Covenant God offers in it, Fate, not God, seem to govern the future. Not knowing God, one is left to guess His will, which is why, I believe, many of our Spanish idioms express our uncertainty of the future. Statements such as “Si Dios quiere”, “Dios mediante”, “primero Dios”, (all meaning roughly God willing,” or “if God wills”) typically accompany many affirmations about our plans, hopes and desires. We express our hopes and longings by saying “Dios quiera”, would to God, or would that it would please God. “Ojalá”, which means the same thing, comes from “Oj Alá”, if Alah wills).
Someone has observed that our language is made for uncertainty. While in English the near universal mode is the “indicative”, used to affirm things, in Spanish we use much more the subjunctive, which expresses uncertainty, what “might be”, “could be”, even “should be,” and the conditional modes. Our traditional politeness requires indirectness and multiple denials before finally accepting food. Protestations to the contrary, haggling over price is often expected.
Without the Father and His Covenant, we are not sons, but servants. Fear will color our reality. Unable to affirm much with certainty, we won’t trust promises, beginning with our own. Ignoring that God has given us dominion over the earth, we won’t see “time” as a gift to be used to bring Him fruit, but as the inexorable passing of our life. The universe will not be ruled by His Law, but by unknown Fate. Punctuality and the keeping of promises may seem like a dispensable value, almost impossible to achieve in such uncertain world.
To compound things, my struggle with punctuality was both cultural and personal. Adding to my heritage I lived for decades lawlessly, in open rebellion against all authority, unwilling to be ruled by king or clock. Alternatively I ignored or forgot my promises and arrived late to almost everything. Almost unconsciously, I would find something to distract me before an important appointment, tempting Fate by delaying and even starting a new project at the last possible minute. I saw all obedience, to the Law, to my promises or to the clock as and intolerable infringement on my “freedom.”
As a Christian, God has delivered me of my rebellion and He now helps me to obey His commands. But I still battle my old, culturally based idea of time, and the tardiness that from time to time it still produces in my life.
THE END
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
(Click here for Spanish) My friend, a high level executive in a multinational corporation called me excitedly the other day: “Next Monday I will be going to Mexico for the first time. My company is sending me to meet some suppliers. What do you suggest? What should I expect?” I had to stop and think for a minute: my friend is a biochemical engineer, also a ceramic artist. He is an American southerner, with all that that implies. He travels frequently for his job, but only to Europe and Asia, but has never been to a Hispanic country.
I decided to open his eyes little by little so as to not to scare him. Practically all Americans have seen from childhood stereotypes of Mexicans in the movies: a short Indian dressed in white, with a poncho, sombrero and a Pancho Villa-style mustache. He is usually a drunkard, a bandit or a Don Juan, a “Latin lover.” Few have ever met a Mexican like a pure scientist knew, who was a mathematician that Princeton University employed just for prestige, to publish from there his mathematical formulas, understandable only to about fifty other mathematicians worldwide.
I told my friend: “When you get to Mexico City make sure they take you downtown. You will see a skyscraper built as an inverted pyramid, larger at the top and sitting on a small base.” “Really?” he exclaimed, just as I expected. “Mexicans are a very creative and ingenious people,” I said. And I continued: “Remember that when Hernán Cortez arrived there he ran into the Eight Marvel of the World: a city larger than any in Europe at that time, built entirely upon a lake. “A lake?!” he said, almost shocked. “Yes,” I continued. “A good deal of the Valley of México used be a lake, in the middle of which the Aztecs built their capital city.
“And remember,” I added, “When your airplane touches down on Mexico City, you will be landing on the second largest city in the world, after Culcutta.” By now my friends’ surprise would have been comical if it were not that I was carefully educating him, and a teacher always respects the students the Lord sends him. The sad thing about my friend, is that he is an educated man of noble character, who holds an enviable position, but lacked the knowledge necessary to appreciate a great nation such as Mexico. His education and his social environment, culture and media had not equipped to be a respectful neighbor, not even of the country next door. But, can I blame him if the only Mexicans that he has ever met in his region were those who mow lawns, build or repair houses, humble workers with little education? They are only partial ambassadors of a great nation.
I remember another friend, pastor of an influential church in Dallas, who went with me to minister to several dozen businessmen in Monterrey, Mexico. The Holy Spirit convicted this brother to tears, as he confessed his prejudices. ”When I was introduced to Dr. so and so,” he said referring to a Theologian who graduated from one of the best seminaries in the U.S., “I was surprised and said to myself: ‘Look! ... An educated Mexican!’ And when I saw that all of you had cell phones I thought: Rich Mexicans!”
How sad it is to be so ignorant, yet so powerful! And how noble it is of our Hispanic people who, knowing that many perceive us so poorly, we treat them nevertheless with love, gratitude and patience, educating them about things which their own background has not given them the opportunity to know. Millions of Hispanics who immigrated to this land show an attitude reminiscent of a poem of my childhood:
A careless foot stepped on a flower.
And she, devoid of rancor and of revenge,
Responded by giving it her fragrance.
Hispanic brothers, let us forgive, educate and bless those of our neighbors who do not love us and even fear us because they do not yet know us. And let us tell them some of the best that the Lord has given to us.
Till next Wednesday!