In this article, I would like to talk about reading the Bible from the perspective of the group which has just about become the largest ethnic minority group in the U.S.A. That group is known as the Latino or Hispanic American community.
We Hispanics have a peculiar way of reading the Scriptures, which is in many ways different from that of the Euro-American community. We do not claim that ours is the "universally correct" way of reading and interpreting the Bible, because as I've mentioned in previous articles, there is no "neutral" or "universally correct" way of approaching the Scriptures. Neither will we claim that our biblical hermeneutic (interpretation) is "universally valid." We will, however, state it as our hermeneutic, derived from our history and life situations and that it gives us an insight which is relevant and viable for our spiritual journey and practice of the Christian faith.
Fernando Segovia, who has served as Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University reminds us that all readings of the Bible are "contextual," i.e. readings from a particular social location, and that no reading can claim or pretend to be acultural or ahistorical. Segovia correctly points out that at the very least, ethnic background, and sociopolitical status have an affect on the reading and interpretation of the Bible. In that respect, then, a Hispanic reading of the Bible goes over and beyond the implicit theoretical orientation of historical criticism, the dominant approach to biblical interpretation in the 1970's. This approach addresses the issues of authorship, date, audience, reason for writing, writing styles, sources of information, and possible revision or editing of the books of the Bible. While a Hispanic reading of the Bible does not discount this approach, its peculiarity lies in the way we read the Bible, i.e. in the light of our history as an oppressed and marginalized community in the U.S.A.
There are certain things which I will point to as our frame of reference for reading and understanding the Scriptures. They are the following:
1. The colonization and usurpation of the lands of our indigenous ancestors in the Americas (Central and South America in particular) in the sixteenth century.
2. The genocide of our indigenous ancestors in the Americas and the Caribbean.
3. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade which resulted in people from the African continent being brought to the Western Hemisphere to replace the indigenous people who died and were decimated as a result of hard labor imposed by the Spaniards and the attendant illnesses that accompanied that hard labor.
4. The neo-colonization of Hispanic America by the U.S.A. at the end of the nineteenth century. This neo-colonization in particular affected the Caribbean islands of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, and has continued in direct and indirect ways to the present moment.
5. The issues of immigration and deportation of the so-called "illegal" aliens of Mexican and Central American descent. A more appropriate word for this group would be "undocumented." as no one is "illegal" in the sight of God, and furthermore, the migrants who come here from that part of the Americas, are actually migrating to another part of the land which was historically theirs prior to colonization and neo-colonization by Spain and the U.S.A.
6. The second-class citizenship and treatment that Hispanic Americans are subjected to in the U.S.A relative to employment, education, housing, and political representation. While there have been vast improvements in these areas, Hispanics are still at the lower rung of the economic ladder in the U.S.A.
7. Hispanics constitute at least one third of the population which is confined to the penal institutions in the U.S.A. This is not due by any stretch of the imagination to our being naturally more criminally inclined than the Caucasian community, but rather because "law enforcement" focuses more on crime and illegal activity in the Hispanic community than it does in the dominant community. By the very nature of being Hispanic. our people come under suspicion and ethnic profiling by "law enforcement."
All in all, the Hispanic reading of the Bible is more in the light of the historical patterns of socio-economic alienation and marginalization, institutional and systemic racism, and other forms of social dehumanization and oppression. The dominant culture (Caucasian) would prefer that we use the Bible to shed light on our situation. But our community does just the opposite, i.e. use our history and existential reality to shed light on the Bible. The first approach enables the dominant community to remain in power and continue subjecting us to lower-class treatment. The second approach, especially in the light of the liberation of the Hebrews found in the book of Exodus, informs us that God is like theologian James Cone said, "a God of the oppressed." Reading the Bible in the light of our oppression enables us to discover the message of hope, liberation, justice, and equality, and en fin, to reverse the historical use of the Bible as a tool of oppression and subjugation, and to see the Bible as a tool and mechanism of liberation.
I invite you, the reader, to share your thoughts with us on this approach to Bible reading and interpretation in the Hispanic community. Tell us if you think that this approach is valid or invalid, and also tell us the reason for whatever position you take. We look forward to hearing from you.
Grace and peace,
Dr. Juan A. Ayala-Carmona
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