One of the many issues in focusing on Hispanic-American theology is that of women. Since Liberation Theology, of which Hispanic-American theology is a part, focuses specifically on oppression and suffering, our attention here is given to women as an oppressed and suffering group. Whereas in Latin America, women are oppressed on the basis of both gender and social class, in the U.S.A., women are oppressed on the basis of ethnic/racial discrimination as well as on the basis of gender and class. Hispanic-American women have an African background, therefore, experience a fourth layer of oppression.
Every kind of human thought maintains an intrinsic relation to the historical context in which it originates and to which it seeks to respond, whether to transform or to legitimize the context. Theology is not exempt from this principle, even when one acknowledges the internal structure of theology as a discipline that reflects upon the experience of faith in the light of revelation (Maria Pilar Aquino, "Doing Theology from the Perspective of Latina Women." Roberto Gozuieta, ed., We Are A People. Minnesota, Fortress Press, 1992, p. 79).
Theology, "try as it might to flee from historical objectivity and to isolate itself from inter-religious discourse," almost always performs a historical function and enters into a relationship with the surrounding culture. At times it is offering assistance to the new cultural categories and legitimizing the established order against which these struggle for a new order. At other times, it is receiving with approval the new cultural climates, reformulating the faith in accord with these new climates, exercising a critical and evangelical function, and making possible or supporting changes in the direction of greater justice (J.J. Tamayo-Acosta, Para Comprender la Teologia de la Liberacion. Estrella, Spain: Verbo Divino, 1989, p. 53).
In this sense, the theology articulated from the perspective of women commits itself to the needs, interests, and hopes of oppressed women who join their energies to those of other women and men in the construction of new social and ecclesial realities where egalitarian participation, human integrity, and life for all will be possible, and where women and men will be able to realize their full potential, thus foreshadowing the New Creation already initiated by Jesus Christ. Our reflection is based on women's physical and spiritual experiences of oppression-liberation; it understands the historical present as the place where God's manifestation takes place, and it wants to respond to that manifestation within the horizons of the Christian faith. We are thus speaking here of a task that is undertaken out of the experience of those Christian communities that struggle for their liberation and for an end to the age-old history of exploitation, colonial oppression, increasing impoverishment, and human subjugation to which the great majority of Latin Americans, especially women are exposed. The existence of these women is also affected by the patriarchal structure and the systemic machismo that relegate them to a subordinate place. This clarification will help the reader to understand the framework and emphases of women's contribution to this issue (Aquino, op. cit. p. 80).
The second point refers to the limits and challenges one confronts when doing theology from the perspective of women. Since this is a perspective only recently in the history of the Church and theology, Latin American and Hispanic women in the U.S.A ought to engage in this task with all their energies alongside women from every corner of the earth, since they share the most profound longings of the oppressed in their eagerness to renew all things; that is, to incorporate in the social and ecclesial orders and in the processes of knowledge, the constitutive expression of humanity: women and men both destined to enjoy the fulness of life in communion with the earth and with the whole of creation (Ibid., p. 81).
Discrimination against women in the Church is one of the most clear examples of the violations of human rights. Women make up at least half of the faithful and women are ten times the number of their male counter parts. However (from a Catholic standpoint), they are juridically considered to be incapable of almost any leadership function, rarely present in secretariats, commissions, and sacred congregations. Due to cultural tradition as well as the historical expression of the Word of God, they are excluded from ministerial duties associated with the sacraments of orders (Leonardo Boff, Church: Charism and Power, Liberation Theology and the Institutional Church. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1985, p. 35).
In his book, A Chicano Theology, Andres Guerrero makes reference to Dolores Huerta, who at the time of writing, was the vice-president of the United Farm Workers and together with Cesar Chavez, devoted her life to the fight for justice and dignity for farm workers. She says "The Church has been responsible for a lot of the machismo because it does not do anything to counteract it. I think that it is important that the Church take a role and make a moral statement, which it has not done. The Church really contributes to the oppression of women. It's a male-dominated Church. The churches are all male-dominated, and the roles they have for women are all male-dominated roles, in spite of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Even in the whole idea of children-which I think is very important-the Church has done nothing in terms of helping women with those children. The Catholic Church should be number one in terms of setting up educational facilities for children and they should be helping Latina women who have such tremendous cultural problems in this country with their kids. Yet the Church is doing very little (Dolores Huerta in Andres Guerrero, A Chicano Theology. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1987, p. 40).
Kortright Davis alludes to this issue of women leadership. While his focus is on the English-speaking Caribbean, much of what he says is also applicable to the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, which is culturally-speaking, part of Latin America and of the Hispanic Diaspora of the U.S.A. He says "Women are by far, the more dominant sector, numerically in the life of the Church in the Caribbean, just as they are in other areas of the Christian world. The lifeblood of the church would be seriously malnourished if women were to withdraw their full participation and support. Yet church leaders continue to be ambivalent and hesitant about the significance of such participation and about the value of women in the leadership structures of the Christian movement. Can women be ordained? Some people in the Caribbean doubt it. Many more are decidedly against such a proposition. Caribbean society has been overwhelmingly a matriarchal society. Women have played the dominant and leading roles in the survival and shaping of the Caribbean. They have been the shapers of the Caribbean conscience, for they have nurtured most of these consciences singlehandedly, or carried many on their backs and cradled them in their arms (Korthright Davis, Emancipation Still Comin: Explorations in Caribbean Emancipatory Theology. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1990, pp. 90-91)."
Caribbean women have indeed, been the major preserves of the Caribbean cultural foundations. They have even provided most of the plantation labor, especially for export crops that have provided bread for the region and profits for the wealthy outside the region. Their ministry and service in the Church and society are without question. The Church has an inescapable obligation to improve the lot of women in every possible way-not only through ordination, but also through a recognition of the significance of motherhood and feminine strength, and a determination to secure rights and privileges of women (Ibid., p. 91).
Latin American and Hispanic women doing theology of liberation attempt to recover a right that has been usurped: the right to reflect upon their unique way of experiencing revelation and living their faith as a liberating force rather than as a source of oppression. They want to recover the right to express their experience of faith out of the integrity of their being so that the theological intelligence in its configuration, structure, method and contents will promote the fulfillment of women as subjects in their own right. This enterprise, though not unique to women, is required of them in the face of the male-centered focus of theology, currently articulated by men, including those who take a liberationist perspective (Aquino, op. cit., p. 83).
Latin American and Hispanic feminist liberation theology assume the option for the poor as their hermeneutical perspective and the social location for its theological task. This option is the fundamental and necessary principle for articulating the intelligibility of the faith in a way that will remain open to the actual reality and the divine manifestations it contains. The existence of massive poverty, the immeasurable suffering of whole peoples, and the longstanding oppression of women cannot but influence this theology at its very core. The option for the poor is demanded by reality itself and represents the necessary, honest, and appropriate response to reality. At a more fundamental level, such an option is demanded by the sources of biblical liberating traditions, the praxis of Jesus, the early Christian movement, and the prophetic movements that have occurred in the history of the Church and society. As an enterprise that articulates the language of faith, theology from the perspective of women understands itself as tied to the great current of popular social movements that seek to eradicate existing inequalities; it is based on the experiences of this people in search of alternative realities and seeks to contribute, from the horizon of the Christian faith, to this people's liberating journey (Ibid., p. 95).
En fin, what we are faced with is the reality that the Church as to address issues of oppression of women within its ranks. The Church cannot afford to "sweep under the rug" the issues of the theological justifications and rationales for maintaining women in subservient roles. The Church is called to be proactive in seeking to dismantle all the structures of injustice within its very life and within its ranks. In order to do this, the Church needs to construct and adopt a biblical hermeneutic that will enable it to be faithful, effective, and responsible in carrying out its task of proclaiming the Gospel of Christ.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dr. Juan A. Carmona
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