Católicos: Resistance and Affirmation in Chicano Catholic History

Reflections

277 Reflections From Catholic communities as well as Catholic metaphors there is often no escape. —andrew greeley as i noted in the introduction, I grew up as a Chicano Catholic. It was and still is part of my identity. It isn’t all of who I am, but it’s an important part. This book on Chicano Catholic history reflects this aspect of my identity. I don’t have a problem with this. Religion is not something I am ashamed of. Am I a practicing Catholic? I attend Mass. I pray. There is no question that I’m guided by my Catholic socialization and, to borrow from Father Andrew Greeley, my Catholic imagination.1 Catholicism has influenced my values and my politics. But my Catholicism isn’t a generic one. It’s a Chicano Catholicism. For years, as I’ve researched various topics in Chicano history, I’ve been in search of the Chicano side. I’ve found myself in Chicano history. But what was missing was my Catholic side. This book is about my search for the Catholic side of Chicano history. I believe that in Católicos, I’ve finally bridged these two critical parts of my identity. In doing so, I hope I’ve also done the same in a general way. The absence of Catholic and religious history in Chicano history and Chicano studies has represented, as noted earlier, a huge gap. As in my own case, this partly re- 278 católicos veals the ambivalence about religion that other Chicano historians have experienced in their own personal stories. Yet this ambivalence has regrettably shut out a significant part of the Chicano historical narrative. Religion and especially Catholicism permeates the Chicano and other Latino communities, but as historians and scholars we could not or did not want to see this. But this says more about us than about the role of religion in Chicano life. We need now, first, to acknowledge this omission and, second, move to correct it. Chicano history is incomplete without Chicano religious history. But the divide is not just in Chicano history. My mentor, Ramón Ruiz, not a religious man, once told an audience composed mostly of Chicanos that they couldn’t afford to just look at their navels. Ruiz wasn’t averse to being direct and blunt. Yet I agree with him. My work in Chicano history has always attempted to link the Chicano experience with the general contours of U.S. history. I’ve done my part in integrating Chicano history into U.S. history. If U.S. historians of other ethnic backgrounds have not reciprocated that’s been their problem and biases. The same holds for my new explorations in Chicano Catholic history. If there is a wide gulf in Chicano history concerning religion, there is an equally wide one in U.S. Catholic history concerning Chicano/Latino Catholicism. This book hopefully will also begin to reverse this neglect. Just as Chicano history is incomplete without the inclusion of Catholic history , so U.S. Catholic history and Catholic studies are incomplete without the inclusion of Chicano/Latino Catholic history. This does not mean creating a new kind of melting pot in the expectation of producing some generic American Catholic. But it does mean, as Father Virgilio Elizondo has always stressed in his work, the creation of a new mestizaje or synthesis that recognizes and respects differences, but that also produces a new unity strengthened by this diversity.2 I respect, for example, Irish American Catholicism while at the same time being inspired by particular Chicano religious traditions, such as the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Both are equal and valid Catholic expressions. One is not better than the other, although they are different. In respecting and accepting these differences, I can become a better Catholic. The key here is respect. The work we do in history lays the foundation for this respect. In reflecting on the meaning of my book, I believe it provides various insights that can lead to a new analysis of both Chicano history and U.S. Catholic history . There may be other meanings I cannot see because of my closeness to reflections 279 the text, but as best I can interpret my work, let me share the following pensamientos , or thoughts. Influenced by the Chicano movement and its stress on a rediscovery and renaissance of...