As in the case of the Puerto Rican and Cuban Diasporas, we again deal with a very complex situation. The presence of Dominicans in the U.S.A. is due primarily to two factors. The first factor is economic, military, and political support given to the dictatorships in the Dominican Republic by the government of the U.S.A. The second factor is the economic conditions generated by the foreign policies of the U.S.A., as we have seen in Cuba, and will be seen in other areas of Latin America.
Electoral democracy and representative government have been the exception rather than the rule in the Dominican Republic for most of its history. From the 1810's to the 1930's, the country had more than 120 rulers, ranging from Spanish and French officials to Haitian presidents. As political scientists have often pointed out, political instability was the norm in the Dominican Republic until the 1960's. Much like impoverished Nicaraguans, the Dominican people have been poorly served by their political leaders for much of their history. After subjugation to Haiti (1822), then independence (1844), then resubjugation by Spain (1861), the Dominican Republic finally achieved its lasting independence in 1865. The caudillo Buenaventura Baez held a fraudulent plebiscite (16,000 in favor, 11 against), and then signed a treaty to annex the country to the U.S.A., but the annexation treaty died in the U.S. Senate after a contentious debate. In the 1880's and 1890's, General Ulises Heureaux dominated the nation. Hereaux and his successor, General Ramon Caceres (1911), both died at the hands of assassins (Marshall C. Eakin, the History of Latin America: Collision of Cultures. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007, p. 368).
The U.SA. (under President Theodore Roosevelt) intervened in 1905 to establish a receivership that guaranteed the repayment of foreign creditors through control of the customs houses in the ports (invoking the so-called Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine). When civil war broke out in 1916, the U.S.A. sent troops and occupied the country again until 1924, US interests were both economic and strategic. As war raged in Europe in 1916, the U.S.A sought to blunt the German presence in the key shipping lanes of the Caribbean. As in Cuba and Haiti, the U.S.A. military built roads, schools, communication systems, and gradually trained and equipped a police force. Like Fulgencio Batista in Cuba, and Anastacio Somoza in Nicaragua, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina (1891-1961) established a long-lasting personalistic dictatorship by assuming control of the "non-partisan" security forces created by the U.S Marines. The racially-mixed Trujillo trumpeted "Hispanism" and the "white" Spanish heritage of the country while putting in place a brutal and repressive regime with secret police, torture, assassinations, and massacres. In October of 1937, Trujillo ordered the execution of some 25,0003 Haitians living in the Dominican Republic (Trujillo's maternal grandmother was Haitian). Much like the Somozas in Nicaragua, the Trujillo family assessed a phenomenal fortune (estimated at $800 million) by turning the country into their own personal business fiefdom (Ibid, pps. 368-369).
During the 1950's, Trujillo closely aligned himself with the anti-Communist foreign policy of the United States. Despite his close relationship with the U.S.A., and the use of expensive lobbyists in Washington, President John Kennedy personally ordered the Central Intelligence Agency to assist in the assassination of Trujillo in 1961 to make way for moderate reformers rather than revolutionaries, or so he thought. Between 1961 and 1965, however, reform failed. In September 1963, the Dominican military deposed Juan Bosch who had been elected president in December 1962. As the country floundered in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson, fearing a leftist uprising, sent in the U.S.A. Marines and the 82nd Airborne to take control of the country. Within two weeks, more than 20,000 troops had landed. Although this invasion (along with many other US military interventions in the region) has been condemned over the last 60 years, the Dominican Republic is the rare case of electoral reform and stability emerging out of U.S. military intervention (Ibid, p. 369).
From 1966 to 1978, one of Trujillo's old associates, Joaquin Balaguer (1906-2000) was elected president for three consecutive terms (1966, 1970, 1974). Balaguer's Reformist Party lost the 1978 and 1982 elections to the Dominican Revolutionary Party, but both of these administrations were plagued by corruption scandals. Amazingly, the 78-year old Balaguer won the 1986 election, and was elected again in 1990 and 1994. He was forced from power in 1996 (at the age of ninety and completely blind), although he ran again for the presidency in 2000, gathering a quarter of the vote. Despite the dominance of Balaguer, and frequent complaints of irregularities, Dominicans have now voted in ten consecutive presidential elections, and have alternated power among competing political parties. Whatever the flaws of Dominican democracy, the country has evolved into an open, competitive, electoral democracy, and the process began more than a decade earlier than in the majority of Latin America in the 1980's (Ibid).
Before 1960, few Dominicans made their way to the U.S.A: Trujillo's ironfisted regime maintained strict control over visas and travel abroad. After Trujillo's assassination in 1961, and fueled by the 1965 civil war, Dominican immigration rose to significant birth levels and then remained steady through the 1970's. Then in the 1980's, when economic depression plagued the Dominican Republic, immigration soared. In that decade alone, 250,000 Dominicans entered the U.S.A. legally, constituting the second-largest national group of immigrants from the Western Hemisphere, with Mexicans being the largest. The 1990's and the early years of the new century also saw an unprecedented number of Dominicans immigrating to the U.S.A., due to enduring social injustice, and a continued lack of economic opportunity in the Dominican Republic (Himilce Novas, Everything You Need to Know About Latino History. New York: Penguin Group, 2007, p. 232).
In addition to Dominicans who enter the country through legal channels and secure U.S.A citizenship, there is also a sizable undocumented Dominican population in America. No reliable data on this population's size has been published, but many researchers assert that as many as three hundred thousand undocumented Dominicans have settled in the U.S.A. One way that Dominicans enter the U.S.A illegally is by paying small fortune, often an entire year's wages to smugglers to transport them across shark-infested Mona Passage, the eighty-mile stretch of turbulent sea separating the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. This perilous journey, undertaken in small, rickety boats, or on rafts , costs thousands their lives every year. If they make it across the Mona Passage and succeed at dodging the US Border Patrol agents combing the western coastline of Puerto Rico, a US territory with commonwealth status, Dominicans customarily work until they have enough money to travel to the US mainland. They either hop a plane from Luis Munoz International Airport in San Juan to the mainland, usually New York, with false documents, pretending to be Puerto Ricans, who are American citizens, and thus needing no visa or passport, or they board container ships sailing to mainland ports, sometimes paying crew members to look the other way. Naturally, it was much easier for Dominicans to travel illegally from Puerto Rico to the U.S.A mainland before September 11, 2001, and the establishment of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (Ibid, pps . 232-233).
There is a group of Dominicans called the "retornados (returned immigrants)." They have spent some time in the U.S.A., and then returned to the Dominican Republic, either to establish businesses with capital earned abroad or for personal reasons. There is no reliable data indicating just how many Dominicans have gone to America and then returned to their homeland, but their number must be significant as companies and organizations that serve "retornados" special needs have cropped up in the Dominican Republic (Ibid, p. 233).
Although clearly defined Dominican communities first appeared in the United States over sixty-five years ago, Dominican-Americans have always been the invisible Latinos, especially in comparison to Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban-Americans. And since a large percentage of Dominican Americans are of mixed African, native, and Spanish descent, they have encountered the same prejudice and racial discrimination that African-Americans have suffered in the U.S.A. Operating under the false belief that Dominican immigrants represent the poorest, most disenfranchised members of Dominican society, some Americans have argued that these immigrants shoulder the nation's social service system. While Dominicans do dominate the ranks of the small percentage of Latino's receiving public assistance, the truth is that the vast majority of Dominicans are extremely hard-working people who have never been on welfare or received food stamps or worker's compensation. What's more, as a group, Dominicans who come to the U.S.A. are more highly educated than those on the island, and a good number among them are professional (Ibid, pps. 232-233).
Unfortunately, too many Dominican immigrants end up in low-wage, low-status, blue collar jobs. Based on the the US 2000 Census Current Population Survey for 1998 and 2000, the Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research at the University of Albany estimated that in 2000, the mean earnings of employed Dominicans was just below $8,000 and that 36% of the population lived in poverty. In New York City, where Dominicans endure the highest poverty rate of all New Yorkers, a large number of Dominican women make a meager living working the garment industry (and enjoying little protection), while Dominican men work for modest pay in manufacturing, in the restaurant and hotel industry, or as livery drivers. No matter how scant their earnings, a good number of Dominicans send a significant portion of their paychecks to relatives back in the Dominican Republic (Ibid, 234).
Little by little, Dominicans in New York, with the support they get from their strong, close-knit community, have been working their way up. Some have launched small businesses or revamped preexisting ones, particularly bodegas, supermarkets, diners, family-style restaurants, travel agencies, and taxicab companies. As an example of just how invisible Dominican-Americans are, Dominican restaurateurs in New York are apt to describe their fare as Spanish and American, which is what Cubans and Puerto Ricans cooking in America used to be called in the old days. Thus many of their patrons, both Latinos and non-Latinos, have the false impression that they are being served by Cuban and Puerto Rican chefs. Dominican restaurateurs fear that if they told "the whole truth," their non-Dominican clientele, unfamiliar with Dominican flavors would shy away (Ibid).
Relative to the Dominican Diaspora, we can say the following from a theological standpoint:
1. Theology is the study about God by men and women in their relationship to God and to other persons. Theology forces the question: How do we know or love God if we do not first know or love the neighbor, "the other?" We cannot separate theology from the experience of a people. Experience, lived reality, is part of the ongoing process of creation and men and women's constant struggle and dialogue with it (Andres G. Guerrero, A Chicano Theology. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1987, p. 159).
Like that of other Hispanic communities in the U.S.A., the Dominican experiences is one of oppression. A Dominican diasporic theology must reflect on the process of liberation. It must re-invent, re-create, re-define, and re-construct in its proper context by drawing on its own proper reality. In its vision it must search for an experience of liberation; this demands the creation of new models that aid in understanding the oppressed-colonized context out of which Dominicans think, speak, and love. Old models cannot be inserted into new situations of liberation. These new models need to be created in the process of liberation. Dominican theology has to help Dominican people recognize this process. They must envision those new models which come from an experience of oppression moving towards liberation (Ibid).
The uniqueness of the Dominican experience lies in the fact that they exist between two worlds: the impoverished and the rich. In giving direction to a Dominican theology of liberation, Dominicans cannot be neutral. Neutrality in the global setting of rich and poor implies a choice. To opt for the poor involves a prophetic decision, one that paves the way toward liberation for both oppressed and oppressors (Ibid).
Theologically speaking, Dominicans must look for some alternatives for strengthening their history, culture, language, and dignity as human beings. The Church is one vehicle that can be utilized provided that we see the process of liberation going on concerning education. Dominicans who get an education can easily be alienated from the rest of the oppressed Dominican community. There is a need to organize or institutionalize endeavor to move leadership back into the Dominican barrios in the U.S.A. (Ibid, pps. 161-162).
The Church is not doing all it could for Dominicans. The Church as an instrument of liberation, is the last hope for the Dominican-American community. As responsible moral entities, we must cooperate in re-directing and restructuring a just society for humanity (Ibid, p.165).
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Juan A. Carmona,
Visiting Professor of Theology, Tainan Theological College/Seminary
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Monday, November 6, 2017
The Cuban Diaspora: A Theological Conundrum
This essay deals with the complexity that is found in addressing the matter of the Cuban Dia.spora, a complexity that surpasses that of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. While Puerto Rico remains an unincorporated territory of the U.S.A., Cuba is no such condition or position. Cuba is an independent and sovereign republic. It does, however, share a colonial history with the U.S.A, just like Puerto Rico does. However, the historical dynamics of becoming a diasporic community are different. We will briefly address the relationship between Cuba and the U.S.A, see the difference between that history and the history of Puerto-Rico-U.S.A. relationships, and also describe the socio-economic conditi5ons of the Cuban Diaspora of the U.S.A, and then summarizing a theological view of the whole situation.
It is difficult to overstate the importance and impact of the Cuban Revolution on Latin America, the Americas, and the world. After his rebel army toppled the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Fidel Castro and his comrades transformed Cuba from a capitalist ally of the U.S.A. into a fully socialized economy closely linked to and heavily subsidized by the Soviet Union. The Cuban revolutionaries carried out most of the sweeping land reforms in Latin American history, radically redistributed wealth, providing all Cubans with basic health care, education, and social services, and became an important inspiration and ally in the export of Marxist revolution to other parts of the Americas and the Third World. The United States organized a failed attempt to invade Cuba and overthrow the Castro regime in April 1961, and the bitter conflicts between the United States and Cuba brought the world to the brink of nuclear war in October 1962. It is hard to imagine another country of its size (seven million inhabitants in 1960) that has played such a pivotal role in world politics in the last half century (Marshall C. Eakin, The History of Latin America: Collision of Cultures. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007, p. 308).
One of the most striking aspects of the Cuban Revolution was the triumph of such a radically antix-United States, Marxist revolution in a country so close to the U.S.A. (90 miles of the coast of Florida), and with such a long history of integration into the U.S.A. economy. Observers have often noted the extreme anti-Americanism of the Cuban regime was a direct result of decades of US cultural, economic, and political domination of this small island nation. The same holds true of the anti-Americanism of the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979. The strong economic ties between the U.S.A. and Cuba go back to the eighteenth century. The rapid expansion of sugar cultivation in the nineteenth century made Cuba the great sugar exporter of the world. Much of that production was controlled by U.S.A. dominated Cuban sugar. The sudden and dramatic U.S.A. intervention in the Cuban-Spanish War in 1898 temporarily derailed Cuban independence, as the US Army occupied and ran Cuba until 1902. For the next three decades, the US marines intervened repeatedly to "stabilize" Cuba and to "protect American lives and property." After 1934, the U.S.A.strongly supported Fulgencio Batista, an army sergeant/stenographer who rose to power and maintained it through his control of the Cuban Army (Ibid).
Ironically, the Cuban Revolution helped propel forward another fundamental change-this one in the U.S.A. Although Cubans had long moved back and forth between the U.S.A. and Cuba, in the early 1960's, some 250,000 Cubans fled into exile, mainly to south Florida, and the New York-New Jersey areas. These exiles were largely white middle-class and upper-class Cubans who were well educated. They transformed the politics of both regions and created a very powerful political lobby in Washington that has played a role in the U.S.A politics for more than fifty years (as swing votes in more than one state). In the early 1980's, facing internal and political challenges, Castro allowed another 125,000 Cubans to flee the island, and most again went to south Florida. The so-called Marielitos (named after Mariel, the key point of departure in Cuba) were largely darker-skinned and less educated than those of the 1960's wave. Their arrival created serious rifts within the Cuban community in the U.S.A. The hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles have also played a prominent role in the growing "Latinoamericanization" of U.S.A. culture and society. The bilingual and bicultural Cubans have been incredibly successful in academia, government, and the private sector. One of the great unintended consequences of the Cuban Revolution has been the diversification and enrichment of U.S.A. society and culture as the country has become "Hispanicized" (Ibid, p. 314).
On November 2, 1966, the U.S.A. Congress adopted the Cuban Adjustment Act, which gives all citizens of Cuba admitted to or paroled into the U.S.A. after January 1, 1959, and present in the country for at least one year, the special status of political refugees, with the right to automatic permanent residence. Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, Cuban refugees face none of the restrictions governing immigration to the U.S.A., such as presenting proof of persecution at home, and are virtually guaranteed permanent resettlement in the U.S.A. (unless they are convicted criminals), whether they simply overstay their tourist visas, or arrive anywhere on U.S.A. shores (and not just designated ports of entry) with no documentation at all. The Cuban Adjustment Act has remained in effect to this day, though it has come under challenge at times from those who believe that Cubans should not be affored special status (Himilce Novas, Everything You Need to Know About Latino History. New York: Penguin Group, 2008, pps. 194-195).
Cuban Americans generally have nothing good to say about the Castro regime (Fidel Castro died in January 2017). They considered him a dictator who stole their country, forced them into exile, caused them into incalculable suffering and pain. They call him "the tyrant, the devil, the grime ball," and other choice names. As for the U.S.A. sponsored embargo against Cuba, the majority of Cuban Americans are of the conviction that the only strategy for bringing an end to the Castro regime (Raul Castro, Fidel Castro's brother, became the defacto of Cuba in 2006 and is now the President), and at the same protecting the international community from potential acts of terrorism (especially bioterrorism, given that Cuba has invested heavily in biotechnology), is a continued economic blockade of the island (Ibid, p. 208.)
How does one evaluate the situation of the Cuban Diaspora from a theological standpoint? As previously stated, it is a very complex situation. Latin American Liberation Theology addresses the issues of oppression and suffering generated by colonization, imperialism, classism, and racism.
Cuba, for a long time, was an economic (though not directly political) colony of the U.S.A. Their economy was controlled by U.S. economic interests, resulting in a wide gap between the "haves" and the "have nots." As a result, there was widespread poverty. Liberation Theology denounces poverty, and calls for a total revamping of the economic structures so that poverty can be eradicated.
The economic and indirect political colonization of Cuba came as a result of U.S.A.imperialistic interests and the quest for hegemony. The concepts of the Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny legitimized and sugar-coated this imperialistic venture. Liberation Theology denounces thxxe e concept of one country "lording it" over another.
The migration of Cubans into the U.S.A. in 1959 was generated by economic factors. However, it should be noted that the migration primarily involved those who were members of a privileged socio-economic class who exploited the working class. The migration was generated by the redistribution of the wealth of the Castro regime, as well as the expanded benefits for the majority of the population. Liberation Theology denounces the hoarding of the resources by a few who use them for their own benefit at the expense of the many.
The privileged class who migrated were primarily white. They fled a government which was now moving to implement racial equality in Cuba. Liberation Theology denounces people being assigned and confined to social conditions on the basis of race.
The more "well to do" Cubans of the Diaspora are the same ones who kept and maintained their fellow black Cubans on the island in a position of subservience and secondary class status. In essence, they seek to replicate in the U.S.A. the same social-economic conditions which gave them a status of privilege on the island. Liberation Theology denounces the concept of "privilege," and advocates for and promotes the Gospel of equality.
En fin, Liberation Theology in its application to the Hispanic Diaspora in the U.S.A. takes on a different twist on the Cuban American community. The Puerto Rican and other Hispanic communities in the Diaspora consist primarily of people who came to U.S.A. shores as a result of economic havoc wreaked by U.S.A. foreign policy. Cubans in the Diaspora constitute a community that fled to a country had given economic, military, and political support to a dictatorial and morally corrupt government that allowed the few to prosper at the expense of the poor masses.
A genuine Liberation Theology in the Cuban Diaspora would call for a community organizing that would mete out justice to all Cuban Americans, and not just a select few. It calls for the Cuban American community to pursue a system in which all can have access to "the good of the land."
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Juan A. Carmona, Visiting Professor of Theology, Tainan Theological College/Seminary
It is difficult to overstate the importance and impact of the Cuban Revolution on Latin America, the Americas, and the world. After his rebel army toppled the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Fidel Castro and his comrades transformed Cuba from a capitalist ally of the U.S.A. into a fully socialized economy closely linked to and heavily subsidized by the Soviet Union. The Cuban revolutionaries carried out most of the sweeping land reforms in Latin American history, radically redistributed wealth, providing all Cubans with basic health care, education, and social services, and became an important inspiration and ally in the export of Marxist revolution to other parts of the Americas and the Third World. The United States organized a failed attempt to invade Cuba and overthrow the Castro regime in April 1961, and the bitter conflicts between the United States and Cuba brought the world to the brink of nuclear war in October 1962. It is hard to imagine another country of its size (seven million inhabitants in 1960) that has played such a pivotal role in world politics in the last half century (Marshall C. Eakin, The History of Latin America: Collision of Cultures. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007, p. 308).
One of the most striking aspects of the Cuban Revolution was the triumph of such a radically antix-United States, Marxist revolution in a country so close to the U.S.A. (90 miles of the coast of Florida), and with such a long history of integration into the U.S.A. economy. Observers have often noted the extreme anti-Americanism of the Cuban regime was a direct result of decades of US cultural, economic, and political domination of this small island nation. The same holds true of the anti-Americanism of the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979. The strong economic ties between the U.S.A. and Cuba go back to the eighteenth century. The rapid expansion of sugar cultivation in the nineteenth century made Cuba the great sugar exporter of the world. Much of that production was controlled by U.S.A. dominated Cuban sugar. The sudden and dramatic U.S.A. intervention in the Cuban-Spanish War in 1898 temporarily derailed Cuban independence, as the US Army occupied and ran Cuba until 1902. For the next three decades, the US marines intervened repeatedly to "stabilize" Cuba and to "protect American lives and property." After 1934, the U.S.A.strongly supported Fulgencio Batista, an army sergeant/stenographer who rose to power and maintained it through his control of the Cuban Army (Ibid).
Ironically, the Cuban Revolution helped propel forward another fundamental change-this one in the U.S.A. Although Cubans had long moved back and forth between the U.S.A. and Cuba, in the early 1960's, some 250,000 Cubans fled into exile, mainly to south Florida, and the New York-New Jersey areas. These exiles were largely white middle-class and upper-class Cubans who were well educated. They transformed the politics of both regions and created a very powerful political lobby in Washington that has played a role in the U.S.A politics for more than fifty years (as swing votes in more than one state). In the early 1980's, facing internal and political challenges, Castro allowed another 125,000 Cubans to flee the island, and most again went to south Florida. The so-called Marielitos (named after Mariel, the key point of departure in Cuba) were largely darker-skinned and less educated than those of the 1960's wave. Their arrival created serious rifts within the Cuban community in the U.S.A. The hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles have also played a prominent role in the growing "Latinoamericanization" of U.S.A. culture and society. The bilingual and bicultural Cubans have been incredibly successful in academia, government, and the private sector. One of the great unintended consequences of the Cuban Revolution has been the diversification and enrichment of U.S.A. society and culture as the country has become "Hispanicized" (Ibid, p. 314).
On November 2, 1966, the U.S.A. Congress adopted the Cuban Adjustment Act, which gives all citizens of Cuba admitted to or paroled into the U.S.A. after January 1, 1959, and present in the country for at least one year, the special status of political refugees, with the right to automatic permanent residence. Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, Cuban refugees face none of the restrictions governing immigration to the U.S.A., such as presenting proof of persecution at home, and are virtually guaranteed permanent resettlement in the U.S.A. (unless they are convicted criminals), whether they simply overstay their tourist visas, or arrive anywhere on U.S.A. shores (and not just designated ports of entry) with no documentation at all. The Cuban Adjustment Act has remained in effect to this day, though it has come under challenge at times from those who believe that Cubans should not be affored special status (Himilce Novas, Everything You Need to Know About Latino History. New York: Penguin Group, 2008, pps. 194-195).
Cuban Americans generally have nothing good to say about the Castro regime (Fidel Castro died in January 2017). They considered him a dictator who stole their country, forced them into exile, caused them into incalculable suffering and pain. They call him "the tyrant, the devil, the grime ball," and other choice names. As for the U.S.A. sponsored embargo against Cuba, the majority of Cuban Americans are of the conviction that the only strategy for bringing an end to the Castro regime (Raul Castro, Fidel Castro's brother, became the defacto of Cuba in 2006 and is now the President), and at the same protecting the international community from potential acts of terrorism (especially bioterrorism, given that Cuba has invested heavily in biotechnology), is a continued economic blockade of the island (Ibid, p. 208.)
How does one evaluate the situation of the Cuban Diaspora from a theological standpoint? As previously stated, it is a very complex situation. Latin American Liberation Theology addresses the issues of oppression and suffering generated by colonization, imperialism, classism, and racism.
Cuba, for a long time, was an economic (though not directly political) colony of the U.S.A. Their economy was controlled by U.S. economic interests, resulting in a wide gap between the "haves" and the "have nots." As a result, there was widespread poverty. Liberation Theology denounces poverty, and calls for a total revamping of the economic structures so that poverty can be eradicated.
The economic and indirect political colonization of Cuba came as a result of U.S.A.imperialistic interests and the quest for hegemony. The concepts of the Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny legitimized and sugar-coated this imperialistic venture. Liberation Theology denounces thxxe e concept of one country "lording it" over another.
The migration of Cubans into the U.S.A. in 1959 was generated by economic factors. However, it should be noted that the migration primarily involved those who were members of a privileged socio-economic class who exploited the working class. The migration was generated by the redistribution of the wealth of the Castro regime, as well as the expanded benefits for the majority of the population. Liberation Theology denounces the hoarding of the resources by a few who use them for their own benefit at the expense of the many.
The privileged class who migrated were primarily white. They fled a government which was now moving to implement racial equality in Cuba. Liberation Theology denounces people being assigned and confined to social conditions on the basis of race.
The more "well to do" Cubans of the Diaspora are the same ones who kept and maintained their fellow black Cubans on the island in a position of subservience and secondary class status. In essence, they seek to replicate in the U.S.A. the same social-economic conditions which gave them a status of privilege on the island. Liberation Theology denounces the concept of "privilege," and advocates for and promotes the Gospel of equality.
En fin, Liberation Theology in its application to the Hispanic Diaspora in the U.S.A. takes on a different twist on the Cuban American community. The Puerto Rican and other Hispanic communities in the Diaspora consist primarily of people who came to U.S.A. shores as a result of economic havoc wreaked by U.S.A. foreign policy. Cubans in the Diaspora constitute a community that fled to a country had given economic, military, and political support to a dictatorial and morally corrupt government that allowed the few to prosper at the expense of the poor masses.
A genuine Liberation Theology in the Cuban Diaspora would call for a community organizing that would mete out justice to all Cuban Americans, and not just a select few. It calls for the Cuban American community to pursue a system in which all can have access to "the good of the land."
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Juan A. Carmona, Visiting Professor of Theology, Tainan Theological College/Seminary
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Theology from a Puerto Rican-American Standpoint
This essay deals with a very complex situation. It focuses on the Puerto Rican community in the Diaspora of the U.S.A. This community has both differences and similarities with other Hispanic communities in the Diaspora. The basic similarities are ones of colonial history, language, religion, and second-class treatment as citizens and/or residents. The one basic difference is that unlike most other Hispanics, Puerto Ricans are U.S.A. citizens by both imperialistic imposition, and also by birth.
In order to address the issues of theological relevance to the Puerto Rican community in the Diaspora, one must first take into account their colonial history, and how that history, in turn, generated migration to the U.S.A. In addition, one must consider and evaluate the economic, political and social conditions of Puerto Ricans living in the U.S.A. The role of religion also plays a part in making a theological assessment of the Puerto Rican-American community.
Puerto Rico hhas a peculiar status among the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. As one of Spain's last two colonies in the New World (along with Cuba), Puerto Rico experienced the longest period of Spanish influence in the region. On July 25, 1898, however, U.S. troops invaded the island during the Spanish-American War. In 1901, the U.S. Supreme Court defined Puerto Rico as "foreign to the United States in a "domestic sense" because it was neither a state of the union nor a sovereign republic. In 1917, Congress granted U.S. citizenship to all persons born in Puerto Rico, but did not incorporate the island as a territory. Until now, Puerto Rico has remained a colonial dependency, even though it attained a limited form of self-government as a commonwealth in 1952 (Jorge Duany, Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identities on the Island and in the United States. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002, p.1).
As an overseas possession of the United States, the island has been exposed to an intense penetration of American capital, commodities, laws, and customs unequaled in other Latin American countries. Yet today, Puerto Rico displays a stronger cultural identity than most Caribbean people, even those who enjoy political independence. In the early part of the twenty-first century, Puerto Rico presents the apparent paradox of a stateless union that has not only not yet assimilated into the American mainstream. After more than one hundred years of U.S. colonialism, the Island remains a Spanish-speaking Afro-Hispanic Caribbean nation. Today, the Island's electorate is almost evenly split between supporting commonwealth status and becoming the fifty-first state of the Union; only a small minority favor independence (Ibid., p. 2).
Recent studies of Puerto Rican cultural politics have focused on the demise of Puerto Rican nationalism on the Island, the rise of cultural nationalism, and the enduring significance of migration between the Island and the U.S. mainland. Although few scholars have posited an explicit connections among these phenomena, they are intimately linked. For instance, most Puerto Ricans value their U.S. citizenship and the freedom of movement that if offers, especially unrestricted access to the continental U.S. But as Puerto Ricans move back and forth between the two countries, territorially grounded definitions of national identity become less relevant, while transnational identities acquire greater prominence. Constant movement is an increasingly common practice among Puerto Ricans on the Island and the mainland. We can raise questions of Puerto Rican identity, articulation, and definition. Reconsidering the Puerto Rican situation can add much to scholarly discussions on colonialism, nationalism, and transnationalism (Ibid.).
Then original name of the island of Puerto Rico was Boriquen (some pronounce it Borinquen). It means "land of the brave lord." It was the name given to the island by its original inhabitants, the Taino, who were a subgroup of the Arawak, the collective name of the indigenous people inhabiting the West Indies (the islands in the Caribbean Sea, which are divided into the Lesser Antilles, Great Antilles, and the Bahamas). The Taino, a seafaring people, inhabited not just Puerto Rico, but also the other islands of the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, and Jamaica), as well as the Bahama and some of the islands of the Lesser Antilles (an island group to the east and south of Puerto Rico). In actuality, the native peoples of Puerto Rico did not call themselves "Taino" before the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Christopher Columbus christened this subgroup of Arawak indigenous people "Taino," meaning "peace," because it was the first word they uttered when they laid eyes on the conquistador (Himilce Novas, Everything You Need to Know About Latino History. New York: Penguin Group, 2008, p. 130).
Since all Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens-no matter if they dwell in San Juan or San Franciso-and not foreigners, they can travel freely back and forth between the island and the mainland United States without passports or visas. In other words, their movement constitutes the internal migration of Americans, not immigration. Confusion abounds in mainstream society about Puerto Rican citizenship status. Most Puerto Rican mainlanders have a story or two to tell about the time they were asked to give their green card or about Puerto Rico's currency, or Puerto Rico's president. Some may even raise the questions about the issue of "illegal" Puerto Rican immigrants in America (Ibid, p. 155).
Puerto Ricans first came to the United States in the 1860's. After Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States at the end of the Spanish-American War, more Puerto Ricans began making their way way to the United States, and after 1917, when they were given U.S. citizenship, to the U.S. mainland to settle or to sojourn, an experience fraught with risks, uncertainty, and obstacles, including a language barrier, poverty, social isolation, and overt discrimination. In the early days, the majority went to Florida and New York to labor in cigar-making shops. Forty percent of those who arrived between 1890 and 1910 eventually returned to Puerto Rico (Ibid).
The first great wave of migration from Puerto Rico to the mainland United States took place only in the aftermath of World War II and lasted until 1967. The reasons were many, but they essentially boiled down to one issue: economics. During World War II, about one hundred thousand Puerto Ricans served in the U.S. armed forces. Military life exposed these islanders to the "superior"quality of life on the mainland, fueling their desire to move north. In addition, Puerto Rico's population doubled in size to two million during the first quarter of the twentieth century and continued to grow at a rapid pace due to improvements in medical services. With so many more people on the island, the standard of living did not rise substantially, and the unemployment rate soared. By contrast, jobs on the island were plentiful. New York was a major destination for Puerto Rican workers who found low-paying, labor-intensive jobs in the manufacturing sector which eagerly hired unskilled and semi-skilled workers making apparel, shoes, toys, novelties, and electrical goods, and assembling furniture and mattresses. They also went to work in the food and hotel industries, the meatpacking and baking industries, distribution, laundry service, and domestic service. About half of all these were women (Ibid).
Since 1867, islanders have settled on the mainland in spurts, depending on the health of the U.S. economy and mainland job market. Those who went to New York City in the 1960's generally wound up in manufacturing, even though this sector had already began as a gradual decline as early as the 1950's. Then in the 1970's, New York City was gripped by a major fiscal crisis as businesses packed up and headed south and overseas in search of low-wage non-union labor. This shrinking of the manufacturing sector had a devastating impact on New York City's Puerto Ricans, who generally did not have the formal education needed to fill the white collar jobs that were opening in the city's growing services sector (Ibid).
Puerto Ricans have historically been the most socially and economically disadvantaged of all Hispanics. In 1998, for instance, a full 30.9 percent of mainland Puerto Ricans lived in poverty, and 43.5 of Puerto Rican children were below the poverty line, and in 2000, approximately 40 percent of New York City's Puerto Ricans hand slipped to or below the poverty line. The depressed economic status of mainland Puerto Ricans has been attributed to a number of phenomena, such as the disproportionate number of poor Puerto Rican migrants settling stateside as compared to immigrant groups, owing to the fact that Puerto Rican citizenship removes all obstacles to entering the mainland United States. Low levels of educational attainment, limited job skills, disease (including a high incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure, and depression in the Puerto Rican community), and drug abuse have also been frequently cited as reasons for the economically underprivileged class of Puerto Ricans on the mainland. Some social observers have suggested that the culprits underlying all these social circumstances are rampant ethnic and racial discrimination, the language barrier, and the process of transculturation, of straddling two cultures and two languages, which is commonly accompanied by a disorienting sense of being neither "here, nor there" (Ibid, p. 157).
However, it is also important to point out that the socio-economic status of mainland Puerto Ricans is advancing at a steady pace. Large numbers of mainland Puerto Ricans hold professional, managerial, technical, and administrative support jobs, which are cornerstones of economic well-being. Interestingly enough, Puerto Rican mainlanders who live outside the Northeast, have shown better socio-economic outcomes than their counterparts in the Northeast, owing to the human capital and labor market characteristics (Ibid, p. 158).
What would a model theology look like for the Puerto Rican Diaspora? This is a very difficult question to answer, in that, religious practices among Puerto Rican-Americans vary from one community to the other. Furthermore, there appear to be some points of solidarity among the different communities. For example, the worship practices of the Pentecostal movement appears to be similar to that of Santeria and Espiritismo (Spiritualism). Spiritualism (communicating with the spirits of the dead is a practice that dates back to biblical times. We find in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) divine prohibitions of this practice. Yahweh, the God of Israel, commands the death penalty for those engaged in this practice.
Santeria has its roots in African Spirituality. It emphasizes veneration of the ancestors, some of whom are considered to be "saints," or as is said in Spanish "santos," from which the word "Santeria" comes. The major similarities between Pentecostalism and these other two forms of spirituality are the emphasis on individuals being possessed by external forces or spirits, and also speaking in languages (tongues) other than the vernacular as a means of conveying the divine message. In all these three faith groups, possession by external forces leads to manifestations such as dancing and trances. Pentecostal Christians tend to get offended at this comparison, because they believe that these occurrences in their communities stem from a moving of the Holy Spirit, whereas, in the other two communities, they are prompted by demonic and/or diabolical spirits. The book "Masked Africanisms," by Dr. Samuel Cruz, a professor of Religion and Society at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, is a very good resources for information on the link between Pentecostalism and these other two faith groups.
Liberation Theology is relevant to the Puerto Rican community in the Diaspora of the U.S.A. As in Latin America and other parts of the so-called "Third World," Liberation Theology addresses the issues of socio-economic and political alienation and marginalization. "Essays from the Margins," written by Dr. Luis Rivera-Pagan, Professor Emeritus of Ecumenics at Princeton Theological Seminary, provides much helpful insight in this regard. The Puerto Rican community in the Diaspora suffers from the historical legacy of colonialism, imperialism, discrimination, and second-class treatment in the U.S.A. How then, we ask, does Liberation Theology address the situation of the Puerto Rican Diaspora? I would humbly submit the following:
1. Liberation Theology emphasizes that theology should emerge from the "bottom up," and not from the "top down." In other words, theology should emerge from those who are alienated, marginalized, and powerless, not from those who are in positions of authority and power. Since the Puerto Rican community in the Diaspora is a subjugated and marginalized group, their theological mindset and perspective must emerge from their existential and experiential reality, not from the dictates of classical Western theological hegemony.
2. Those who are in a condition of powerlessness and subjugation are in a privileged position to receive and and understand God's revelatory acts in history. This means, then, that Puerto Ricans in the Diaspora, together with all oppressed people, have been "chosen" to be not only the recipients, but the conveyer belts transmitting the message of God's salvific acts.
3. Oppression and suffering are the starting points for biblical interpretation and theological reflection. The Puerto Rican community understands the message of Scripture in the light of its experience as a colonized and suffering people.
Although Liberation Theology, in the modern sense of the word, emerged within a Christian context, it offers a message of hope for the Puerto Rican Diaspora, regardless of the variety of religious practices within our community. It does not seek to demonize any particular religious expression, but rather, to identify with the liberating elements in all religious traditions, and to establish ties of solidarity with all those individuals whose goal is to dismantle structures of injustice and work for the construction of the Beloved Community. Our Puerto Rican sisters and brothers in the Diaspora, as descendants of our colonized parents, and as a people who have been treated as second-class citizens in the U.S.A, have in Liberation Theology, the call and hope for a society of full equality, justice, and peace.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Juan A. Carmona
Visiting Professor of Theology Tainan Theological College/Seminary
In order to address the issues of theological relevance to the Puerto Rican community in the Diaspora, one must first take into account their colonial history, and how that history, in turn, generated migration to the U.S.A. In addition, one must consider and evaluate the economic, political and social conditions of Puerto Ricans living in the U.S.A. The role of religion also plays a part in making a theological assessment of the Puerto Rican-American community.
Puerto Rico hhas a peculiar status among the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. As one of Spain's last two colonies in the New World (along with Cuba), Puerto Rico experienced the longest period of Spanish influence in the region. On July 25, 1898, however, U.S. troops invaded the island during the Spanish-American War. In 1901, the U.S. Supreme Court defined Puerto Rico as "foreign to the United States in a "domestic sense" because it was neither a state of the union nor a sovereign republic. In 1917, Congress granted U.S. citizenship to all persons born in Puerto Rico, but did not incorporate the island as a territory. Until now, Puerto Rico has remained a colonial dependency, even though it attained a limited form of self-government as a commonwealth in 1952 (Jorge Duany, Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identities on the Island and in the United States. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002, p.1).
As an overseas possession of the United States, the island has been exposed to an intense penetration of American capital, commodities, laws, and customs unequaled in other Latin American countries. Yet today, Puerto Rico displays a stronger cultural identity than most Caribbean people, even those who enjoy political independence. In the early part of the twenty-first century, Puerto Rico presents the apparent paradox of a stateless union that has not only not yet assimilated into the American mainstream. After more than one hundred years of U.S. colonialism, the Island remains a Spanish-speaking Afro-Hispanic Caribbean nation. Today, the Island's electorate is almost evenly split between supporting commonwealth status and becoming the fifty-first state of the Union; only a small minority favor independence (Ibid., p. 2).
Recent studies of Puerto Rican cultural politics have focused on the demise of Puerto Rican nationalism on the Island, the rise of cultural nationalism, and the enduring significance of migration between the Island and the U.S. mainland. Although few scholars have posited an explicit connections among these phenomena, they are intimately linked. For instance, most Puerto Ricans value their U.S. citizenship and the freedom of movement that if offers, especially unrestricted access to the continental U.S. But as Puerto Ricans move back and forth between the two countries, territorially grounded definitions of national identity become less relevant, while transnational identities acquire greater prominence. Constant movement is an increasingly common practice among Puerto Ricans on the Island and the mainland. We can raise questions of Puerto Rican identity, articulation, and definition. Reconsidering the Puerto Rican situation can add much to scholarly discussions on colonialism, nationalism, and transnationalism (Ibid.).
Then original name of the island of Puerto Rico was Boriquen (some pronounce it Borinquen). It means "land of the brave lord." It was the name given to the island by its original inhabitants, the Taino, who were a subgroup of the Arawak, the collective name of the indigenous people inhabiting the West Indies (the islands in the Caribbean Sea, which are divided into the Lesser Antilles, Great Antilles, and the Bahamas). The Taino, a seafaring people, inhabited not just Puerto Rico, but also the other islands of the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, and Jamaica), as well as the Bahama and some of the islands of the Lesser Antilles (an island group to the east and south of Puerto Rico). In actuality, the native peoples of Puerto Rico did not call themselves "Taino" before the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Christopher Columbus christened this subgroup of Arawak indigenous people "Taino," meaning "peace," because it was the first word they uttered when they laid eyes on the conquistador (Himilce Novas, Everything You Need to Know About Latino History. New York: Penguin Group, 2008, p. 130).
Since all Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens-no matter if they dwell in San Juan or San Franciso-and not foreigners, they can travel freely back and forth between the island and the mainland United States without passports or visas. In other words, their movement constitutes the internal migration of Americans, not immigration. Confusion abounds in mainstream society about Puerto Rican citizenship status. Most Puerto Rican mainlanders have a story or two to tell about the time they were asked to give their green card or about Puerto Rico's currency, or Puerto Rico's president. Some may even raise the questions about the issue of "illegal" Puerto Rican immigrants in America (Ibid, p. 155).
Puerto Ricans first came to the United States in the 1860's. After Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States at the end of the Spanish-American War, more Puerto Ricans began making their way way to the United States, and after 1917, when they were given U.S. citizenship, to the U.S. mainland to settle or to sojourn, an experience fraught with risks, uncertainty, and obstacles, including a language barrier, poverty, social isolation, and overt discrimination. In the early days, the majority went to Florida and New York to labor in cigar-making shops. Forty percent of those who arrived between 1890 and 1910 eventually returned to Puerto Rico (Ibid).
The first great wave of migration from Puerto Rico to the mainland United States took place only in the aftermath of World War II and lasted until 1967. The reasons were many, but they essentially boiled down to one issue: economics. During World War II, about one hundred thousand Puerto Ricans served in the U.S. armed forces. Military life exposed these islanders to the "superior"quality of life on the mainland, fueling their desire to move north. In addition, Puerto Rico's population doubled in size to two million during the first quarter of the twentieth century and continued to grow at a rapid pace due to improvements in medical services. With so many more people on the island, the standard of living did not rise substantially, and the unemployment rate soared. By contrast, jobs on the island were plentiful. New York was a major destination for Puerto Rican workers who found low-paying, labor-intensive jobs in the manufacturing sector which eagerly hired unskilled and semi-skilled workers making apparel, shoes, toys, novelties, and electrical goods, and assembling furniture and mattresses. They also went to work in the food and hotel industries, the meatpacking and baking industries, distribution, laundry service, and domestic service. About half of all these were women (Ibid).
Since 1867, islanders have settled on the mainland in spurts, depending on the health of the U.S. economy and mainland job market. Those who went to New York City in the 1960's generally wound up in manufacturing, even though this sector had already began as a gradual decline as early as the 1950's. Then in the 1970's, New York City was gripped by a major fiscal crisis as businesses packed up and headed south and overseas in search of low-wage non-union labor. This shrinking of the manufacturing sector had a devastating impact on New York City's Puerto Ricans, who generally did not have the formal education needed to fill the white collar jobs that were opening in the city's growing services sector (Ibid).
Puerto Ricans have historically been the most socially and economically disadvantaged of all Hispanics. In 1998, for instance, a full 30.9 percent of mainland Puerto Ricans lived in poverty, and 43.5 of Puerto Rican children were below the poverty line, and in 2000, approximately 40 percent of New York City's Puerto Ricans hand slipped to or below the poverty line. The depressed economic status of mainland Puerto Ricans has been attributed to a number of phenomena, such as the disproportionate number of poor Puerto Rican migrants settling stateside as compared to immigrant groups, owing to the fact that Puerto Rican citizenship removes all obstacles to entering the mainland United States. Low levels of educational attainment, limited job skills, disease (including a high incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure, and depression in the Puerto Rican community), and drug abuse have also been frequently cited as reasons for the economically underprivileged class of Puerto Ricans on the mainland. Some social observers have suggested that the culprits underlying all these social circumstances are rampant ethnic and racial discrimination, the language barrier, and the process of transculturation, of straddling two cultures and two languages, which is commonly accompanied by a disorienting sense of being neither "here, nor there" (Ibid, p. 157).
However, it is also important to point out that the socio-economic status of mainland Puerto Ricans is advancing at a steady pace. Large numbers of mainland Puerto Ricans hold professional, managerial, technical, and administrative support jobs, which are cornerstones of economic well-being. Interestingly enough, Puerto Rican mainlanders who live outside the Northeast, have shown better socio-economic outcomes than their counterparts in the Northeast, owing to the human capital and labor market characteristics (Ibid, p. 158).
What would a model theology look like for the Puerto Rican Diaspora? This is a very difficult question to answer, in that, religious practices among Puerto Rican-Americans vary from one community to the other. Furthermore, there appear to be some points of solidarity among the different communities. For example, the worship practices of the Pentecostal movement appears to be similar to that of Santeria and Espiritismo (Spiritualism). Spiritualism (communicating with the spirits of the dead is a practice that dates back to biblical times. We find in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) divine prohibitions of this practice. Yahweh, the God of Israel, commands the death penalty for those engaged in this practice.
Santeria has its roots in African Spirituality. It emphasizes veneration of the ancestors, some of whom are considered to be "saints," or as is said in Spanish "santos," from which the word "Santeria" comes. The major similarities between Pentecostalism and these other two forms of spirituality are the emphasis on individuals being possessed by external forces or spirits, and also speaking in languages (tongues) other than the vernacular as a means of conveying the divine message. In all these three faith groups, possession by external forces leads to manifestations such as dancing and trances. Pentecostal Christians tend to get offended at this comparison, because they believe that these occurrences in their communities stem from a moving of the Holy Spirit, whereas, in the other two communities, they are prompted by demonic and/or diabolical spirits. The book "Masked Africanisms," by Dr. Samuel Cruz, a professor of Religion and Society at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, is a very good resources for information on the link between Pentecostalism and these other two faith groups.
Liberation Theology is relevant to the Puerto Rican community in the Diaspora of the U.S.A. As in Latin America and other parts of the so-called "Third World," Liberation Theology addresses the issues of socio-economic and political alienation and marginalization. "Essays from the Margins," written by Dr. Luis Rivera-Pagan, Professor Emeritus of Ecumenics at Princeton Theological Seminary, provides much helpful insight in this regard. The Puerto Rican community in the Diaspora suffers from the historical legacy of colonialism, imperialism, discrimination, and second-class treatment in the U.S.A. How then, we ask, does Liberation Theology address the situation of the Puerto Rican Diaspora? I would humbly submit the following:
1. Liberation Theology emphasizes that theology should emerge from the "bottom up," and not from the "top down." In other words, theology should emerge from those who are alienated, marginalized, and powerless, not from those who are in positions of authority and power. Since the Puerto Rican community in the Diaspora is a subjugated and marginalized group, their theological mindset and perspective must emerge from their existential and experiential reality, not from the dictates of classical Western theological hegemony.
2. Those who are in a condition of powerlessness and subjugation are in a privileged position to receive and and understand God's revelatory acts in history. This means, then, that Puerto Ricans in the Diaspora, together with all oppressed people, have been "chosen" to be not only the recipients, but the conveyer belts transmitting the message of God's salvific acts.
3. Oppression and suffering are the starting points for biblical interpretation and theological reflection. The Puerto Rican community understands the message of Scripture in the light of its experience as a colonized and suffering people.
Although Liberation Theology, in the modern sense of the word, emerged within a Christian context, it offers a message of hope for the Puerto Rican Diaspora, regardless of the variety of religious practices within our community. It does not seek to demonize any particular religious expression, but rather, to identify with the liberating elements in all religious traditions, and to establish ties of solidarity with all those individuals whose goal is to dismantle structures of injustice and work for the construction of the Beloved Community. Our Puerto Rican sisters and brothers in the Diaspora, as descendants of our colonized parents, and as a people who have been treated as second-class citizens in the U.S.A, have in Liberation Theology, the call and hope for a society of full equality, justice, and peace.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Juan A. Carmona
Visiting Professor of Theology Tainan Theological College/Seminary
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