Constructing a Diasporic Theology

We might begin this essay by asking a question. The question is "How can theology (God-talk) take place in the context of an exiled community living in a different country and under difficult conditions?"  In other words, "How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"  There are no easy answers to that question in that we are dealing with a very complex situation.  Our history is a complex one.  The factors leading to our presence here are numerous.  The Hispanic (or Latino) community in the U.S.A. is not a monolithic community.  There is diversity among our Hispanic people, i.e. different customs  and traditions, as well as different mindsets.  We are one, yet many.

I make an analogy between the historical situation of the Hebrew? Jewish people in both Egypt and Babylon, as depicted to us in the books of Exodus, Daniel, Nehemiah, and Ezra, on the one hand, and on the other, the historical situation of Hispanics in the U.S.A. The Hebrews had left Canaan for Egypt because of a famine in the land.  Jacob's descendants settled in Egypt after migrating from Canaan.  Initially for them, Egypt was the "land of abundance" because of the resources and the amounts of food available.  Eventually, because of the xenophobic mindset of the Egyptian king, the "house of plenty" became the "house of bondage."  Because of this xenophobic hysteria, the Hebrews were enslaved and subjected to agony, cruelty, and misery.  They were, eventually, through Yahweh God's intervention and salvific activity,  mediated through the leadership of Moses, liberated from that bondage and were able to return to their land.

The Jews were exiled to Babylon.  They spent 70 years in that new country. There they were exposed to a new language (Aramaic, a cognate language of their own Hebrew), a new culture, and a different religious outlook.  There is no doubt that the religious mindset of the Babylonians had an impact on Hebrew/Jewish theology, even extending to the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament).  The belief in angels and demons, previously unheard of in Hebrew/Jewish theology, crept into their Scriptures and theology.   During their time in Babylon, they also came under the rule of the Persian and Greek Empires. Under the influence of the Greeks, they were exposed to philosophy, especially that of Plato.  Plato's idea of the body-soul dichotomy and the "immortality of the soul" was embraced by the Jews and later on by the Christians who inherited Jewish biblical theology.

The Hispanic colonial and diasporic experiences carry certain similarities.  For one, Hispanics, among other things, have come here as a result of U.S.A. imperialistic activity in their countries of origin.  This imperialistic activity has in turn, generated economic conditions that have made it necessary to migrate to the "land of plenty."  Eventually, as we shall see much later, the "house of abundance" has become the "house of bondage."

Now, there is a caveat in understanding Hispanic/Latinx migration history.  Hispanic/Latinx roots in what is now the U.S.A. are more ancient than the Anglo-American ones.  To the extent that the immigrant analogy is appropriate, it must be nuanced by such significant facts as the symbiotic relationship of Hispanic immigrants, at least the largest groups of them-the Mexicans and the Puerto Ricans-with their homeland (Allan Figueroa Deck, SJ, "At the Crossroads: North American and Hispanic."  Roberto Goizueta, ed. We Are a People. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992, p. 3).

It is also relevant to note that the Spanish language, unlike the language of other immigrant groups, is not "foreign."  It was spoken here long before English was, and has become, by default, the second language of the U.S.A. and has been continuously spoken in the American Southwest from the sixteenth century onwards (Alfredo Miranda,, The Chicano Experience: An Alternative Perspective. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1985, pp. 185-200)

The marginality of Hispanics within North American society is a complex matter that needs to be understood at the outset.  Certainly, one of the factors is the strong anti-Hispanic bias of Anglo-American culture.  Linked to this, of course, were the bitter polemics of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation.  Spain herself had become marginalized from the modern world through her strident identification with Catholicism, especially the distinctive Spanish brand formed in in the Reconquest.  Hispanic Catholicism, moreover, rooted itself to the indigenous cultures of the Americas in the sixteenth century, a century before Anglo-American Protestants set foot on North American soil.  Already, in the sixteenth century, Spain and Portugal were importing slaves from Africa.  Another important branch of Hispanic-American culture was born in the Antilles and the Coast of Central and South America as the Spaniards and Africans forged a new mulatto race.  Such an intense miscegenation never occurred in the Anglo-American colonies, where colonization involved the transfer of preexisting European patterns upon a wilderness.  In Hispanic America, by contrast, a complex hybrid was being forged.  Hence, the starting points for these two cultures-the Hispanic-American, and the Anglo-American-are drastically different (Deck in Goizueta, op. cit. p. 4).

A key issue in doing theology from the Hispanic-American standpoint is to know and understand that theology has to take into consideration land-grabbing colonization and exile into account. The theology or discourse about God, has to emerge from and be constructed by those who have been victims of colonization and forced exile.  It cannot be a theology which is imposed by the conquering colonizer.  Liberation Theology, both Latin-American and Hispanic-American begins with the assumption that oppression and suffering (in this case, colonization and exile) are the starting points for biblical interpretation and theological reflection.  In subsequent essays, we will discover how this theology is done and carried out in the Latinx community of the Diaspora in the U.S.A.

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

Dr. Juan A. Carmona