Latinos in the U.S.A.

This next series of essays is designed to have us examine the economic, political, and social conditions of the Latinx community in the U.S.A which will enable us to construct a theology for the Latinx diaspora.  As I mentioned before, theology does not and cannot take place in a historical vacuum. Theology always emerges from a particular historical and social context.

There are certain factors involved in dealing with Hispanic-Americans.  We will explore some of those issues in this series of essays.  A discussion of those factors include the following questions:

1.  Who are Latinx people?  Let me begin by saying that the terms Hispanic, Latino/Latina, and Latinx will be used interchangeably in these essays.  They are different ways of describing and referring to the same community in the Diaspora of the U.S.A.

From Himilce Novas, we get the following: "Over the centuries, many peoples 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 American 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 Hispanics.  The U.S. Census Bureau also includes Spanish-Americans whose forebears came directly from Spain among Hispanics, but many scholars limit the definition to those of Spanish-speaking Latin American origin (Himilce Novas, Everything You Need to Know About Latinos.  New York: Penguin Group, 2008, p. 3)."

Due to their geographical location, some may want to challenge the notion of  Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico being part of Latin America.  My own response to that challenge is that culture more than geography dictates which countries are or are not part of Latin America.

2.  Why are people of Latin American descent 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 included in our evaluation of this:

a. Land-grabbing.  There was land-grabbing by the Spaniards in the 15th century and then by the U.S.A. in the 19th century.  Much of what now constitutes the southwestern part of the U.S.A., 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 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, op. cit., 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 well 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 issuances of this declaration, which became known as the Monroe Doctrine, was motivated by the concern that certain European nations were planning to use military force to restore to Spain the Spanish colonies that had 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 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 (Ibid., p 138).

However, the Monroe Doctrine did not contain any language about the United States doing the same, i.e refraining  from interfering in colonies and nations in the Americas that were not its own.  Thus, while it appeared, at first glance, to be a straightforward exercise in isolationism and a 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 during many decades to come.  Puerto Rico was one of the stops along the way (Ibid.).

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.)

For further information on how the economic impact of  U.S.A imperialism generated chaos in Latin America, I refer the reader to the following books:

Open Veins in Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of A Continent by Eduardo Galeano
Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, by Juan Gonzalez

How, then, is theology in the Latinx Diaspora supposed to be done and carried out?  We must take note of the fact that the above-mentioned factors generated the deplorable living conditions for Latinos in the U.S.A. These conditions lay the foundation for the emergence and development of Liberation Theology in the U.S.A. Diaspora.  These economic, social, and political conditions of the Latinx community will be addressed and discussed in subsequent essays.

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

Dr. Juan A. Carmona