-
Introduction: Fleshing the Spirit, Spiriting the Flesh - Irene Lara and Elisa Facio
- University of Arizona Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
3 Introduction Fleshing the Spirit, Spiriting the Flesh Irene Lara and Elisa Facio This anthology foregrounds scholarly, activist, and creative reflections on spirit, spirituality, and “spiritual activism” (Anzaldúa 2002a) from the perspectives of Chicana, Latina, and Indigenous women.1 We, the coeditors Elisa Facio and Irene Lara, have been studying Chicana, Latina, and Indigenous women’s spiritualities and, just as significantly, living our own spiritualities since the 1990s. Through our distinct yet interweaving paths as spiritually identified Chicana scholar-activists from working-class backgrounds, we are committed to decolonizing the academy that largely devalues or misunderstands spirituality, both as a serious academic topic and as an integral aspect of being alive.2 We have encountered many others who are also committed to a life of inquiry , teaching, writing, cultural activism, or social justice that values a spiritual perspective and praxis grounded in the decolonial histories, politics, and dynamic cultures of our Indigenous and mestiza/o ancestors and in solidarity with Indigenous people and people of color, across constructed “races” and “nations.” Built on the supposition that spirituality often plays a decolonizing role in creating meaning, inspiring action, and supporting healing and justice in our communities, this anthology contributes to an emerging body of knowledge focused on voicing and understanding spirituality through an intersectional, interdisciplinary, and nonsectarian lens. Although they are widely perceived to be a religious or spiritual group, until recently there have been few works that address the gendered, sexualized, classed, and racialized spiritualities of Chicanas, Latinas, and Indigenous women, particularly through their own voices. As discussed in theology and 4 · Irene Lara and Elisa Facio religious studies, being spiritual certainly can go hand in hand with being religious (González 2009, Dreyer and Burrows 2005a). However, being “religious ” connotes participating in a religious institutional structure and following specific religious tenets and canonical practices, even if in popular or hybrid cultural forms (Rodríguez 1994; Irwin 2000; Aquino, Machado, and Rodríguez 2002; Matovina and Riebe-Estrada 2002; León 2003; Espinosa and García 2008). Acknowledging the historical and ongoing role that some religious beliefs have played in empire building and (neo)colonial struggles for dominance over land and resources—as well as in justifying ideological and material control over the bodymindspirits of people, especially girls and women, the impoverished, and the sexually, nationally, ethnically, and racially “othered”—we join others in focusing on the ways “spirituality promotes liberation ” (Comas-Díaz 2008, 13) and socially equitable well-being for all. With the specter of the living legacy of patriarchal and (neo)colonial control over the spirits and bodies of women of color as a backdrop, Ana Castillo asserts that recuperating, refashioning, and combining spiritual and healing knowledge(s) and practices in the process of proclaiming one’s spirituality is a liberatory, empowering act: “We will determine for ourselves what makes us feel whole, what brings us tranquility, strength, courage to face the countless— not for one moment imagined—obstacles in the path on our journey toward being fulfilled human beings” (1994, 147). Indeed, for most of the contributors in this volume, forging a personal and communal spirituality is distinct from engaging in an official religion. In this sense, spirituality is a conscious, self-reflective way of life and a way of relating to others, to ourselves, and to “s/Spirit” (L. Pérez 1998 and this volume) in a manner that honors all of life as an interconnected web.3 Lara Medina defines spirituality similarly, as “the multiple ways in which persons maintain and nurture balanced relationships with themselves, others , the world, and their creator or creation” (2006, 257). As C. Alejandra Elenes asserts in her essay in this volume, “Spirituality, then, means more than one’s relation with a God or a Creator because it is tied with struggles for social justice and gender equality. Spirituality is a way of understanding someone’s (or a community’s) position in the world by trying to make sense of unfair economic conditions and gender inequality, and to do something about it.” As such, one’s spirituality includes what we think and do in regards to knowing ourselves to be “related to all that lives,” as Inés Hernández-Avila elaborates in her work (2002, 532). Indeed, for many women who identify as Chicanas, Latinas, and/or Indigenous , the claiming of their spirituality goes hand in hand with a deep sense of respect for and accountability to their communities, including a specific land base or specific traditions...