By Rita McInerney

Ignorance of Spanish culture continues to be very much alive in the church and in the U.S., Father Allan Figueroa Deck, SJ, told an attentive audience June 21 as the conference, "Somos Un Pueblo!" (We Are A People) got underway at Emory University.

Sponsored by Aquinas Center of Theology at Emory, the five-day gathering, June 20-24, featured talks and responses by theologians, priests, Religious, and laity engaged in Hispanic ministry. More than 250 people attended the sessions in Cannon Chapel.

Father Deck is author of The Second Wave: Hispanic Ministry and the Evangelization of Cultures, which received first prize in the professional book category in the 1990 Catholic Press Association awards. He is director of Hispanic Ministry Studies at the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, CA.

"We must never delude ourselves about the persistence of discrimination and racism in the highest levels and in the lowest levels of our society, including the church," the theologian said. "I say that not with bitterness. I think it's real and we must not lost sight of this fact."

There has always been a tendency, he added, especially among religious people, the "dysfunctional" tendency, to not be able to face conflict and disagreement, difficulties and hardships. "We see this in so many places in our church and society."

One factor that obscures the contributions of Latinos to church and society, he believes, is the tendency of many Anglo leaders to believe the best thing that could happen is if "they become just like the rest of us."

The historic role churches have taken in Americanizing immigrant people is not totally negative enterprise, he said. But one of its characteristics is a pride, a blindness to the idea "there couldn't be any better place, any better country, any better culture, than the one we've got."

This he called a "myopic view" that contrasts with the need for "global awareness, so much a part of our time."

"We Latinos bring to this country values, and perspective, and needs, and feelings that will be part of the future and vitality of this country" in ways unknown to many Americans.

"We need to articulate these things, lift them up, be proud of them and we need to enter in to serious dialogue with those who, instead of evangelizing us, instead of confronting us with who we are, with the message of the Lord, are confronting us with the message of television, radio, Wall Street, Madison Avenue and all the other forces so influential in our nation."

As he opened his talk, Father Deck mentioned the diversity of the Spanish - speaking people in the U.S. Hispanic is not the preferred term for many among the Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans and growing numbers from Central America included under this one label. In California, the Los Angeles Times, as a matter of policy, he said, uses Latino instead of Hispanic. Latino is also preferred in some universities in that state.

He touched upon how Latino leaders in the U.S. relate to the liberation theology which theologians in South America pioneered.

"We are indebted to theology of liberation," he said while at the same time calling it a "mixed blessing" the awe with which the struggles of its creators has been reflected upon by Hispanics in the U.S.

"We have failed to take their insights, the lessons learned and really confront them with our reality."

Latinos have a profound understanding of God that is not necessarily rooted in theology, he said, but in their faith sustained through great struggle. They find themselves now in a church, once the haven of immigrants and blue-collar workers, that struggled for 100 years to become part of the establishment.

Today it is a church of luxurious rectories, "lovely" seminaries, and well-dressed people, Father Deck pointed out. Yet in the inner city, in the barrios, there remain the "very, very poor."

"We need more ministers who want to be with the poor, to take risks, reach out."

He suggested that the church's way of responding to the Hispanic presence must be looked at carefully.

It has "not opted" to deal with this presence in the same way it dealt with earlier waves of Irish, Germans and Italians. For them it provided a strong institution where the immigrants could relate through the national parish, the "bedrock."

That base now has been denied Latin people because it has been church policy since 1945 to have integrated parishes where everyone could be "mainstreamed into one big happy family. But give us 20, 30, or 40 years," Father Deck urged.

A multi-cultural church will come into existence when "every part of it has minimal level of power, precisely what has been denied Latinos."

"If we continue to be shoved into multi-cultural parishes, if we continue to let that grow, we are doomed," he predicted. "We have to open our eyes to this whole situation."

In the church, he continued "all power and influence is at the parish level" with pastors, not bishops.

"In the lack of committed pastors and parishes we are going to have great difficulty in succeeding. Never mistake what we can achieve in parishes. Until then we won't achieve our goal."

"We are the people who might save the North American Catholic Church from going the way of other elite religions. It was the poor who build it, not the affluent."

He mentioned a sensitive area, the growing numbers of Hispanics turning to other religions.

"Those days are over," he emphasized, when the church can take for granted that all Hispanics are Roman Catholics. They are "identifying more and more with Protestantism, it's now pushing 20 percent." The church must look at this trend to the evangelical and pentecostal churches and ask "What is it that these very committed Christian people do that attracts our people?"

There is a need to study, respect and even, if possible, to dialogue with these religions, he said.

Later in his talk he mentioned this topic again.

"If we can learn one thing from our evangelical and pentecostal brothers and sisters, it is that there is no substitute for a certain spontaneity, a passion for expressing what God has done for you and why you want to be with others." An "experience of faith and not ideology" is behind "what we're about when we reach out to others," he added.

He urged his audience to "respect the power to energize" these denominations have.

He also spoke of the invisibility, the silence and the marginality of Spanish culture and the fact that the U.S. still has not overcome the profound prejudice and ignorance of "things Hispanic in the Anglo-American world."

The legend prevalent since the English settlers conquered the North American wilderness, that anything Spanish was backward, superstitious, and not of great value continues to be "very much alive in the U.S., in popular American culture and also in academia," the theologian said.

Maria Pilar Aquina, director of the Hispanic pastoral ministry program at Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles, made a plea for the inclusion of women in the "theological enterprise of the Catholic Christian community in her talk, "Hispanic Women and Religion," on June 23.

While the "representatives of religious power believe that they know God's will as regards man and, especially, women today women no longer expect others to guide and define their experience of life and faith.

"They want to do this in their own words," and yet traditional theology offers few opportunities for women to participate.

There is, however, in the U.S., Latin America and Europe, she said, a wide spectrum of theological reflection being done by fine women scholars within the framework of liberation theology.

Christian women, she continued, are convinced that "faith has something to say about our situation." Male reflection is "more partial" and doesn't consider what women think or wish while women theologians think in new realities concerning both male and female.

Latino women, "silenced for centuries," excluded from theological knowledge, are seeking new paths of cooperation, solidarity and life, she said. "We are passing from the certain to the uncertain and from the uncertain to the possible."

The perspective for women theologians, she continued, "begins with out experience of faith lived on the other side of power and authority. The cry of women erupts from within the cry of the poor and oppressed, in the midst of exploitation and misery."

Women articulate theology through everyday life. They need to think always of husband, children, cries of the sick, church. Her knowledge has to do with creating, carrying, giving connections. "In this daily life, we experience God," she said.

The theology of Hispanic women, she believes, is "inspired by the vision of the new world desired by God for the whole humanity" and through the commitment to justice "seeks and foreshadows the fullness of life sought by God for the whole creation."

In his keynote address June 20, Mayor Xavier Suarez said many of the stereotypes surrounding Hispanics do not apply in his city, Miami.

Having almost one million Hispanics, "gives all kinds of advantages. Discrimination is not so much a problem when you have a majority."

The well-being and importance of the family is paramount in Latin culture, he pointed out. In his own family of Cuban exiles, parents and 14 children, he grew up knowing "There was never a situation where you didn't have a place."

About 40 teens and young adults from Atlanta parishes gave a dramatic performance June 21 in Cannon chapel. From their own lives, in their own words, they described what it is like being young, Catholics and Hispanic in the U.S. today.

This presentation was directed by Father Brian Pierce, OP, whose ministry is with these youth. Terry Johnson and Leilanie Padillo were co-directors.

In skits they spoke of their own experiences. Teenagers dramatized how second generation Hispanics are caught between their need to socialize with their classmates and their parent' determination that they maintain their Hispanic identity.

Young adults enacted the plight of young Hispanics who come to the U.S. for their education and who find themselves tempted to remain and reap some of the material advantages here rather than return to their struggling countries where their skills are so desperately needed.

Another segment portrayed young Chicano laborers, often victimized by their employers, and living under the constant fear of being deported for lack of the green card. The actors dramatized the support they extend each other and their devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe who took on their color and culture in her appearances to Blessed Juan Diego.

Performers represented Immaculate Heart of Mary, Holy Cross, Christ the King, Sacred Heart, St. Philip Benizi and the Hispanic Catholic communities at Grant Park and Chamblee. The over-25 performers were from "Seguimos en Cristo."

Six from the cast will join Father Pierce on a mission to Mexico from June 29 to July 15. They will work in a small village in the state of Tabasco. It is sponsored by the Southeast Pastoral Institute in Miami. An offering taken after the performance will help with the cost of the trip for the local party.

Dr. Roberto Goizueta, vice president of the Aquinas Center and president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians in the U.S., was conference convener. He expressed satisfaction that the session was "really the first of its kind in that it brought together Hispanics from every walk of life. We hope and do think that this has energized Hispanics from all over the country to have more such gatherings," Dr. Goizueta said.

The conference opened June 20 at the Atlanta College of Art with the keynote address by Mayer Suarez followed by a reception. An exhibit by contemporary Hispanic artists was on display in the college gallery.

Father Edward Salazar, DJ, vicar for Hispanics in the archdiocese, in welcoming participants reminded them that Hispanic Catholics first arrived on the Georgia coast in the 1540s, long before the English established settlements in the 1730s.

The Spanish language and witness to the faith are no strangers to this land, he said. He mentioned that Hispanics are believed to make up nearly half of the Catholics in the archdiocese, although many are "invisible."

"We are not a faceless, nameless people. We are a prophetic people, gathered today to reflect on our role in the Catholic church in the U.S.," he said.

Dr. Anne Russell Mayeaux, president of the Aquinas Center of Theology, and Dr. James T. Laney, president of Emory, welcomed the participants before the lectures began June 21 in Cannon Chapel.