How Mujerista Theology Helped Me Find My Place

Early this month I went to Mexico to attend the wedding of my cousin Cynthia. She and I grew up together, we are like sisters, and it was an event that I couldn’t miss! The last time I was in Mexico prior to this, was in December 2012, so as you can imagine I was very excited to not only attend the wedding, see family, but most of all being able to give my mother a hug. Being back in Mexico means going back to my mexicanidad and everything that it entails (loosely translated as the meaning of being Mexican: culture, religion, tradition, history, family, etc.). But once I come back to the U.S., I go back to the ongoing tension about my own identity. So last year when I was working on my thesis for my seminary degree I went through a very personal process of discovery on how I want to be identified on this side of the border. In Mexico, I’m Mexican, but here it’s a different story.

When I first arrived in 1997 I used to say, “I am Mexican”, I was new to this country and that was the experience I had. Then as I was learning about U.S. culture and terminology when it comes to race and ethnicity (in my case being Hispanic and/or Latino), I decided to identify as Hispanic and for a while that was the term I preferred. However, lately, I have been using Latina. As I reflect on this, I can see how my personal preferences changed, first as a new immigrant, then as I was trying to assimilate and using the term used in the Census, which is Hispanic. However, now as I am trying to understand and define my own identity. As someone of the 1.5 generation, I’m coming to the realization that I’m still Mexican with my language, culture, and Roman Catholic influence. But at the same time I am American, not only because I hold a U.S. passport, but also because I have been educated in this country and understand its social and political dynamics. Also I have been influenced by American Protestantism and am a member of the Evangelical Covenant Church so the term Latina embraces all of that.

As I was going through this discovery I encountered Mujerista Theology, which helped me find my place as Latina in U.S. religion and culture. The late theologian Ada María Isasi-Díaz suggested that Mujerista Theology’s goals are to serve as a platform for the voices of Hispanic grassroots women, to develop theological means that take into consideration the religious understandings and practices of Latinas as a source for theology, and to challenge theological interpretations, church teachings, and religious practices that oppress Hispanic women.  Mujerista Theology is a liberative praxis because it allows Latinas to value who they are, what they think, and what they do. It also seeks to impact theologies that have been set as the norm by non-Hispanics to the exclusion of Latinos, particularly Hispanic women. It is also liberative because it enables Latinas to do Mujerista Theology from their location of mestizaje and mulatez.[1] Theirs is a condition of being racially and culturally mixed people, from another culture living in the U.S. Living as a people between two different worlds. Mujerista Theology is one of the ways in which Latinas in ministry have found liberation.

The history of Latinas has been one of struggle ever since colonial times and until the present. In the social arena Latinas and women in general, have been survivors of difficult systems and in the church context it has been no different. For example, protestant Latinas have faced discrimination and marginalization even within their own denominations. Ordination of women was not allowed until recently. It has been difficult for Latinas to find a place for ministry and to be recognized as a vital part of the church. Those women, who have fought to open the doors and developed theologies such as Mujerista Theology and are now role models of determination and faithfulness, deserve our gratitude for giving us that space and place.

                [1] Mulatez refers to the mixture of black and white people. “We proudly use both words (mestizaje and mulatez) to refer both the mixture of cultures as well as mixture of race that we Latinas and Latinos in the USA embody.” In Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century by Ada María Isasi-Díaz.