In this final essay on the Hispanic Diaspora in the U.S.A., I will focus on all the Hispanic groups who for a variety of reasons, have migrated to and settled in the U.S.A. Much could be said about them like has been said of other Hispanic groups. The reasons for the immigration might be somewhat varied, but are, in essence, the same basic reasons why other Hispanic groups have come to the U.S.A.
We begin this time, by first posing the theological question, i.e. how do we evaluate the presence of Hispanics in the U.S.A. from a theological standpoint? What does Liberation Theology have to say, if any thing, about this situation? Is Liberation Theology as applicable to the socio-economic and political conditions of Hispanics in the U.S.A. as it is in Latin America? If so, what are the differences and the similarities of how it is relevant?
We have previously observed that Liberation Theology in Latin America and the Caribbean addresses the issues of imperialism, colonization, genocide, classism, and racism. It also addresses the issues of poverty and suffering. We will discover that in the U.S.A. Liberation Theology addresses these very same issues as well as the issues of second-class treatment, immigration, and deportation.
Much of the story of Latin America in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has been one of the transformation of the colonial heritage of large-landed estates, governed by a light-skinned elite who controlled a largely non-white slave or free labor force, and often employing authoritarian methods of political control. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, Latin America has become an overwhelmingly urban society characterized (in most countries) by racial and cultural mixture. The economies of the region have moved in very diverse paths. While some places remain heavily dependent on the export of agricultural products and raw materials, Latin America is the most industrialized region of what used to be called the "Third World." After centuries of monarchs and dictators, democratic regimes prevail in many countries of Latin America. The most enduring legacy of the colonial collisions is the staggering socioeconomic inequity in nearly every country. As Latin America moves further and further away from the legacies created out of the collisions of the sixteenth-century Conquest, the "social question" remains the largest facing Latin Americans. These inequities form one of they key features of Latin American identity. The central challenge for Latin American in the twenty-first century is how to mobilize its citizens through democratic, representative politics to elect leaders who will pursue forms of economic development that will some day diminish the substantially enormous socioeconomic inequities that have so long plagued Latin America. In many ways, the current challenge of Latin America is finally to dismantle this vicious legacy of the colonial heritage that helped define the region. Ironically, those countries that are most successful in this pursuit of development and equity will no doubt, redefine what it means to be Latin American (Marshalll C. Eakin, The History of Latin America: A Collision of Cultures. New York: Palgrave MacMillian, 2007, pp. 417-418).
The socioeconomic and political conditions of Hispanics in the U.S.A. must be evaluated and understood against the background of the aforementioned. The economic conditions of many of the countries of Latin America, were generated by the foreign economic policies of the U.S.A., thus generating migration to the north. In addition, as we have previously seen in the cases of Cuba and the Dominican Republic, we encounter the irony that migration is generated to the very same country that has given economic, military, and political support to the countries from which these Hispanics proceed, and which in turn, have been ruled by dictators. An analogy to this situation would be that I am oppressing you indirectly by giving aid to the person who is oppressing you directly. And then you come to running to me to escape the oppressive condition in which you find yourself due to my indirect support of that condition.
Hispanics (or Latinos) with roots in Central America include Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans,s Panamanians, and Costa Ricans. While Central Americans began entering the United States in small numbers as early as the nineteenth century, immigration from Central America to the United States did not reach significant levels until the late twentieth century, and so Hispanics with roots in Central America are truly newcomers. They are such newcomers that in 2000, 34.5% of the foreign-born population of the U.S.A. was from Central America, according to the March 2000 U.S. Census Bureau Data. Scourges of every kind-from military dictatorships, right-wing death squads, and guerilla insurgencies to grinding poverty and hunger-are what triggered the movement north of peoples from most Spanish-speaking Central American countries. In the 1990's, with democracy in place in Central American nations, economic chaos was the primary factor motivating Central Americans to head north the the United States. Economic upheaval continues to drive Central American immigration to this day (Himilce Novas, Everything You Need to Know About Latino History. New York: Penguin Group, 2007, pp. 240-241).
A significant percentage of the Central American population in the U.S.A. has relatively low levels of educational attainment. Among the foreign born aged twenty-five or older, only 44.3% have a high school diploma, according to Census 2000 data. The high school graduation rate is lowest among those born in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, and highest among those born in Costa Rica and Panama. As a consequence, the overwhelming majority of Central Americans are employed in lower-paying jobs, and a good number live in poverty (Ibid.).
Latinos of Spanish-speaking South American ancestry, include Colombians, Ecuadorians, Peruvians, Argentineans, Chileans, Venezuelans, Bolivians, Uruguayans, and Paraguayans. Although they began immigrating to the U.S.A. in small numbers as early as the nineteenth century, South Americans, like Central Americans, are relatively new to the American scene. The vast of majority of Spanish-speaking South American immigrants came to the U.S.A., after 1960, and a large percentage arrived after 1980. In the year 2000, 6.6% of the foreign-born population in the U.S.A. was from South America (Ibid.).
Most Spanish-speaking South Americans have come to the U.S.A. in search of greater economic opportunity, although some such as Colombians and Chileans, have also sought shelter from war, military dictatorships, and political instability. In recent times, the people of South America have experienced the most trying period in their history since the days of military dictatorship almost two decades ago. Unraveling economies, rampant unemployment, escalating crime, and social-turmoil-as well as inept rule, abuse of power, and large scale corruption-have not only fueled popular protests that have toppled governments, but have also stimulated immigration the the United States (Ibid.).
Hispanics with roots in Spanish-speaking South America belong largely to the middle and upper-middle classes and reside primarily in urban areas. In 2000, they were most concentrated in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan region, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area. As a group, they are generally well-educated. For this reason, they are employed in large numbers in the managerial and professional sector. Very few are employed in agriculture (Ibid).
The Census 2000 figures relative to Americans with roots in Spanish-speaking Central and South America are not very reliable. As with the Dominican population, the Central and South American populations in the U.S.A. are much smaller than experts estimate. Some attribute this to a trend among Hispanics of relinquishing national self-identification and embracing a pan-Latino identity. Many others, however, attribute the under count to the fact that the Census 2000 form did notle include examples of possible ethnic descriptions to guide those filling it out, such as "Salvadoran," or "Nicaraguan," terms that appeared on the 1990 Census form, and a great many simply identified themselves as "Hispanic." Based on the U.S. Census Current Population Survey for 1998 and 2000, the Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research at the University of Albany estimates that the actual size of the various subgroups of Spanish-speaking Central and South Americans in the U.S.A. was much larger in 2000 than what Census 2000 indicates (Ibid).
Relative to how much political clout Hispanics in the U.S.A. have, the following can be said: If political power is measured by the number of Hispanic leaders in all levels of government in the first decade of the twenty-first century, the answer to the question is "mucho." And if it is measured in terms of the significance of Latino voters to the Democrats and the Republicans, then the answer is again "mucho," since both parties acknowledge that the days of alienation and so-called "voter apathy" among Latinos are gone. With this in mind, both parties have been both courting Latinos, who are considered a "swing group," able to be won over by either party, due in part to their religious and demographic diversity. What makes Hispanics such a sought-after voting bloc is the fact that the Hispanic population has been growing at a phenomenal rate, and thus with each passing year, Latinos constitute a greater percentage of the U.S. population. They are projected to eventually represent 14% of the electorate. Also, a good number of Latinos are recent arrivals with no political allegiances at all, and thus their affiliation is up for grabs. Hispanics are also concentrated in a number of key electoral states, including California, Texas, New York, and Florida (Ibid., pp. 283-284).
The question of partisan affiliation among Hispanics in the U.S.A. is a complex one from both a social and theological standpoint. From a social standpoint, the question that is raised is whether Hispanics are participating in a genuine democratic process, or is it what is called often-time in the African-American community in the U.S.A. "the illusion of inclusion?" Is it really a "melting pot," or is it more of "salad bowl" in which Latinos live "side by side" with other ethnic and racial communities in the U.S.A? Based on present trends within the government of the U.S.A., i.e. criminalization, defamation, stereotyping, etc., it is safe to say that Hispanics in the U.S.A. are still being treated with condescension, and paternalism. No one can deny that we are considered, even if in a subconscious and subtle manner, to be "second-class" citizens/residents. As will be seen in subsequent essays, Hispanics constitute at least 30% of the incarcerated population in the U.S.A.
From a theological standpoint, the question is even more complex. The educational, economic, and political "achievements" in the U.S.A. have been realized within the framework of the economic system known as "capitalism," a system in which a small number of people are able to "lord it," so to speak, over the resources which are necessary for survival, and also, one in which the privileged few advance at the expense of the many. Liberation Theology, which has historic roots in Latin America, denounces such a system, which in both our Latin American countries and in the U.S.A., continue to perpetuate the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots."
In tracing the historical origins of Liberation Theology in Latin America, we find that that the end of the 1960's with the crisis of populism and the developmentalist model brought about the advent of a rigorous current of sociological thinking, which unmasked the true causes of underdevelopment. Development and underdevelopment are two sides of the same coin. All nations of the Western world were engaged in a vast process of development; however, it was interdependent and unequal, organized in such a way that the benefits flowed to the already developed countries of the "center" and the disadvantages were meted out to the historically backward and underdeveloped countries of the "periphery." The poverty of Third World countries was the price to be paid for the First World to be able to enjoy the fruits of overabundance (Clodovis and Leonardo Boff, Introducing Liberation Theology. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1987, p. 68).
If these inequities that our Latino sisters and brothers experienced were the driving-force behind immigration to the U.S.A., they did not cease to exist in the "land of abundance." which like for the Hebrew people, eventually turned out to be for Hispanic people "the land of bondage." The participation in the economic and political life of Hispanics in the U.S.A. is one of engaging in "reformist" approaches to social change. The reformist approach describes placing "band-aids" on the socioeconomic problems that Hispanics and others encounter in the U.S.A. Liberation Theology seeks not to "reform," but rather to "overhaul and restructure" the system. Liberation Theology enables us to see that the "reformist" approach to social change is nothing more than a perpetuation of a dehumanizing social system.
En fin, if the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to be fully and genuinely implemented in the Hispanic community in the U.S.A., it cannot be done as long as we take a "paella in the sky" approach to social change. Neither can Hispanics afford to embrace the so-called "prosperity Gospel," that is pervasive in the U.S.A. As Liberation Theology seeks to do in Latin America, the Hispanic Church in the U.S.A. must proclaim and implement within its own faith communities, a Gospel which calls for:
1. Doing theology from the "periphery" and not from the "center." The theology of the Hispanic Church needs to be one which emerges from the continued oppression and suffering in the Hispanic Dialpsora, and not one which is done from those Hispanics who "have made it," so to speak in U.S.A. society.
2. Liberation Theology in the Hispanic Diaspora should impel us to strive for socioeconomic system in which there will no longer be a "center" nor a "periphery". The struggle for the Hispanic Diaspora is a quest for the construction of the Beloved Community, i.e. the Reign of God in Christ.
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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