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| 11th Commandment: Thou shalt not build walls |
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When priests and presidents build walls, the consent of those most affected is usually abdicated. Walls separate people and send messages that communication has stopped. This is very evident with former President Bush’s passage of The Secure Fence Act of 2006 wherein a Great Wall over 700 miles long is being built between the United States of América and Los Estados Unidos de Mejico. It has also become evident in a small church located in North Denver.
I opened up the conversation with asking her how she felt when a wall was built in front of the mural of Our Lady of Guadalupe that she had been commissioned to paint almost 3 decades ago. She asked me, “How would you like it if someone disrespected one of your poems?”
The person engaged in this conversation was Carlota Espinoza, a local and nationally known artist who has spent a major part of her life painting cultural images of struggle and liberation in the community. Somehow, papal officials feel she has crossed the line of demarcation that separates what it means to be a good Mexican Catholic. Historically, the flock has left the interpretation of theological matters in the hands of los padrecitos.
What happens when el padrecito is not aware of the history of a church that has struggled for social justice and believes that the mission of the church is both social and spiritual? A Church where many Chicano families baptized their children under the mesmerizing mural of La Virgen de Guadalupe?
The massacre of the artists is not a new social phenomenon. Famed Diego Rivera’s mural in New York City was censored because he depicted “the modern worker confronted by a symbolic junction of industry, capitalism, socialism and science.” Included in the mural was V.I. Lenin, an avowed communist. The Rockefeller family would have nothing to do with communistic or artistic sympathizers. The masterpiece was covered for one year and eventually chiseled away.
The contradiction here is that Espinoza’s mural is about a holy woman, the mother of Christ. La Virgen appeared to Juan Diego, a poor Indio whose culture had been destroyed by Conquistadores during a bloody Conquest. According to Dr. Alfredo Mirande, La Virgen’s appearance to Juan Diego, speaking to him in Nahuatl, reaffirmed his humanity. After all, there were many who believed Indios were in a transitory state of evolution and might not be human beings; therefore, lacking souls and unworthy of salvation.
In a recent dialogue with the patriarchs of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, my friend and I were referred to as “English Speakers” by the parish priest. To his dismay, we informed him that we were Chicanos. In some sense, his perception of who we are is consistent with the conflict between the Chicano and the Mexicano that has become a white elephant in the middle of la sala.
What began as a chit chat regarding the sequestering of a community mural was transformed into a polemic between men of the cloth and secular humanism. We were treated as educated carpetbaggers in the eyes of the theologians. We were also given a catechism lesson about how faith trumps culture.
The pendulum has swung back ad extremum as the tension between faith and reason steps to the forefront again. When secular humanism and theology meet; the bible trumps the textbook.
I asked if the church was going to revert back to masses in Latin. If faith trumps culture and language is undoubtedly a part of culture, why not take us back to the language that Christ spoke? What about working in communion with the flock, an idea decided upon in Vatican II? What can we expect next, witch hunts in search of curanderas/os practicing indigenous medicine?
An interpretation of Vatican II in a book “Renewing the Earth: Catholic Documents on Peace, Justice and Liberation” edited by David J. O’Brien and Thomas A. Shannon states, “in every group or nation, there is an ever-increasing number of men and women who are conscious that they themselves are the artisans and the authors of the culture of their community.” Artisans often combine the secular and religious in a dialectical approach in comprehending a modern world.
The authors also state that, “Because culture flows immediately from man’s spiritual and social nature, culture has constant need of a just freedom if it is to develop. It also needs the legitimate possibility of exercising its independence according to its own principles. Rightly; therefore, it demands respect and enjoys a certain inviolability at least as long as the rights of the individual and of the community, whether particular or universal, are preserved within the context of the common good.”
Essentially, creators of art are placing themselves at the service of others so that beauty can be manifested and knowledge can be used to understand the guiding contradictions of life and society. If we are called upon to create harmony among nations and people, how can we do so without respecting other’s cultural creations? The destruction of ancestral wisdom in any form seems to be inhumane. However, as we were informed in the meeting, “the mural was not destroyed…It was treated with as much respect as possible.” It was hidden behind a wall.
We have asked for a community dialogue regarding this issue. Get involved. It is not a sin.
Dr. Ramón Del Castillo is an Independent Journalist.
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