Hispanics in the U.S.A.

This is the first of a series of essays designed to help us explore what it means to do theology from the standpoint of Hispanics (or Latinos/as) living in the Diaspora of the U.S.A.  There are certain issues that come along with dealing with Hispanic-Americans. We will explore some of these issues.  A discussion of these issues entails the following:

1.  Who are Hispanic-Americans?  Himilce Novas says "Over the centuries many people from Spanish-speaking Latin America have either made their way to the United States to forge a brand-new life or found themselves citizens due to shifting U.S. borders and imperialistic pursuits.  For the sake of clarity, Spanish-speaking Latin America is comprised of Cuba, Puerto Rico (which is a U.S. commonwealth, not a sovereign nation), the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.  All U.S. citizens and residents of the United States who originated from these nations, or from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or whose ancestors did, are known as Hispanics. The U.S. Census Bureau also includes Spanish-speaking Americans, i.e Americans whose forebears came directly from Spain among Hispanics, but many scholars limit the definition only to include those of Spanish-speaking Latin American origin (Himilce Novas, Everything You Need to Know About Latinos.  New York: Penguin Group, 2008, p. 3).

2.  Why are people of Latin American origin present in the U.S.A.?  There are no easy answers to that question as there are a variety of factors that contribute to that reality.  Among the factors are the following:

a. Land-grabbing.  There was land-grabbing by the Spaniards in the 15th century, and then by the U.S.A. in the nineteenth century.  Much of what now constitutes the southwestern part of the U.S.A. at one time belonged to Mexico.  As Novas informs us, "The history of Mexico and that of the United States are so inextricably linked that these nations have been compared to Siamese twins who, before enduring a radical and painful separation, shared the same heart.  Mexican-Americans are not an ethnic minority who merely crossed the U.S.-Mexico borders and then by slow assimilation, become incorporated into the great American mosaic.  They have ancestral roots in part of the territory within the boundaries of what now constitutes the United States, that is, the areas that formerly belonged to Mexico.  As the saying goes among Tejanos, i.e. Texans of Mexican origin, 'we never crossed a border: the border crossed us." (Novas, p. 49).  We can also add to this history, the neo-colonization of the three nations of the Caribbean, i.e. Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, two of which were taken over by the U.S.A. in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War of 1898.

b. U.S.A. imperialism-When James Monroe was elected President of the U.S.A. in 1817, U.S. industry prospered, and the concept of Manifest Destiny reared its head beyond the nation's borders.  On December 2, 1823, he delivered a message to Congress, in which he declared that the United States would not tolerate European intervention and expansion in the Americas.  The issuance of this declaration, which became known as the Monroe Doctrine, was motivated by the concern that certain European nations wee planning to use military force to restore to Spain the colonies that recently gained their independence.  There was also concern that England was flexing too much muscle in the hemisphere, having seized territory by nibbling off Belize and the Mesquito Coast of Nicaragua, and that France, under Napoleon the III, had designs on Mexico and intended to turn it into a client state.  The Monroe Doctrine sent a clear message to the empires of Europe to cease and desist (Novas, p. 138).

However, the Monroe Doctrine did not contain any language about the United States doing the same thing, i.e. refraining from interfering in colonies and nations in the Americas that were not its own.  In fact, the Monroe Doctrine clearly implied that the United States had designated itself "protector" of the Americas.  Thus, while it appeared, at first glance, to be a straightforward exercise in isolationism and good-neighbor policy toward the fledgling new republics to the south, such as Mexico, the Monroe Doctrine actually paved the way for the free ride U.S. imperialism was to take throughout the Western Hemisphere for many decades to come.  Puerto Rico was one of those stops along the way (Novas, pp. 138-139).

c. Economics- U.S.A. imperialism, together with land-grabbing, contributed to the present day economic problems of Latin America.  Many, if not most of those problems were generated by the foreign economic policies of the U.S.A.  Those policies wreaked havoc in the Latin American countries, widening the chasm between rich and poor, creating dire misery and poverty for the masses of these countries.  These conditions, in turn, generated massive immigration to the north (U.S.A.).  I refer the reader to the book "Open Veins in Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of the Continent," by Eduardo Galeano, for further and more extensive research on these matters.

How then, is theology in the Diaspora supposed to be done and carried out?  The three above-mentioned factors, in turn, generated certain living conditions for those Hispanics who migrated to the U.S.A. The socio-economic and political conditions of Hispanics in the U.S.A., and the theology emerging from those conditions will be addressed in the subsequent essays.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Rev. Dr. Juan A. Carmona