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According to the Wall of Women (WOW) committee members, “Fr. Valentine Arteaga, the Superior General from Rome, [a member] of the Theatine Order, and a poet and artist, [publicly] announced at the end of the 5pm mass last Saturday at Guadalupe Church that the wall [hiding La Virgen de Guadalupe] would be coming down.” The decision to tear down the wall that has divided the Chicana/o and Mexicana/o communities is a victory for everyone over a seemingly irresolvable issue. Jim García who requested an audience with the leadership of the parish and diocese regarding this matter stated, “There were no winners or losers. The entire community won on this one.”
Institutionalized religions have conventional ways of indoctrinating members of their flocks. It was no different for me as a young boy at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Wichita, Kansas. I was conditioned to believe in human infallibility, particularly when it came to men of the cloth. We were taught that priests could not falter on moral judgments about issues concerning la iglesia. Their moral invincibility over religious and spiritual matters was uncontestable. This concept strikes at the heart of human perfection, a contestable assertion at best. Many philosophers and poets have tainted human beings as imperfect unable to reach this level of humanity.
I was invited to the first meeting with the leadership at Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Church and The Vicar for Hispanic Ministry which unexpectedly turned into polemics about secular humanism and Catholic moral teaching when the issue of the mural was brought back to life. To the chagrin of many social critics, columnists with integrity walk through a gauntlet of moral imperatives when writing about ethical and moral issues. Grappling with intense moral reflection about the column “The 11th Commandment: Thou shalt not build walls,” I had written in The Weekly Issue/El Semanario was agonizing.
One of the lessons we hope to teach is that the flock should never bow down at the altar of conformity. Critical dialogue should include discussions and debate over how to use sacred space in a church. Christ never succumbed to the power structure when it came to confronting controversial topics. He stood up against all odds and would certainly have revolted if his mother had been disrespected, hidden behind a wall, unnoticed, treated like a second class citizen. After all, she had been one of the spiritual liberators of Indigenous people in Las Américas.
The mural painted by Carlotta Espinoza, whether it correctly depicts La Virgen de Guadalupe when she appeared to Juan Diego doesn’t really matter. The mural symbolizes the acceptance of the oppressed by the oppressor, although reluctantly, at a time when Indigenous populations were viewed subhuman. Her appearance reaffirmed their humanity when there was doubt about whether or not they were worthy of salvation. It metaphorically demonstrated reconciliation between Tonantzin, the Goddess of Fertility and La Virgen de Guadalupe, the mother of Christ. It validated the tremendous power that women of the earth possess. It reminds Chicana/o members of the church whose history was destroyed once before that it should never happen again.
The caterwauling in front of the church and the activist approaches to this issue fell onto deaf ears and culminated into a power struggle often referred to as a Mexican standoff. It was a journalistic essay written by The Weekly Issue/El Semanario’s columnist Magdalena Gallegos with a powerful image entitled, “Would Jesus Hide His Mother?” that struck at the consciousness of the clergy seemingly drowning in the shallow waters of vergüenza. Perhaps, her statement forced men of the cloth to think about their mothers. Magdalena, thanks for being so culturally profound.
We should give thanks to Fr. Valentine Arteaga for entering the fray and exercising moral courage. An olive branch goes out to Fr. Benito caught in the middle of a conflict of loyalties. His willingness to reverse his decision, although guided by the powers above, is a conciliatory offering. It is the first step in a process that could heal the wounded spirits of the brave women who persisted.
The decision to tear down the wall restores faith in human reason and moral reflection. The lesson learned is that anyone with a moral conscience should never automatically bend to the will of those who control the pulpit even it means biting the hand that feeds you. Blind obedience damages the soul of the community. Taking action against a sacred institution or sacred cows requires revolutionary consciousness especially when the interpreters of moral behavior have climbed onto a slippery slope. Perhaps the tough lesson learned will serve as a path towards deeper reconciliation between the Chicana/o and Mexicana/communities. The next step might be critical dialogue.
The time has come to drink from the cool waters of justice as our sisterhood is reconciled with the diocese. The next step is reconciliation as mal puesto is dissolved into polvo fina and the community gets down to the business of taking down not only the wall that temporarily divided a community but the real wall that divides our countries.
Dr. Ramón Del Castillo is an independent journalist.
© 2011 The Weekly Issue/El Semanario
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