U.S. Archbishop: American Roots Are Also Hispanic, Catholic
Preach it brother!…I mean, father, your Excellency, Sir.
I get carried away when I read stuff like this, written by Archbishop Jose Gomez, of Los Angeles:
When we forget our country’s roots in the Hispanic-Catholic mission to the new world, we end up with distorted ideas about our national identity. We end up with the idea that Americans are descended from only white Europeans and that our culture is based only on the individualism, work ethic and rule of law that we inherited from our Anglo-Protestant forebears.
When that has happened in the past it has led to those episodes in our history that we are least proud of — the mistreatment of Native Americans; slavery; the recurring outbreaks of nativism and anti-Catholicism; the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II; the misadventures of “manifest destiny.”
There are, of course, far more complicated causes behind these moments in our history. But at the root, I think we can see a common factor — a wrongheaded notion that “real Americans” are of some particular race, class, religion or ethnic background.
Yeah, he went there.
Gomez made that statement at a conference sponsored by the Napa Institute – organized to equip Catholics “In the next America.” His statement was reported on CatholicCulture.org. I first heard the idea from Catholic clergy decades ago in a conversation with a parish priest in San Antonio. In a rolling conversation over dinner Father Virgil Elizondo told me, “they always talk about the protestant work-ethic; but there is a Latino work ethic also.”
Before the founding fathers and the pilgrims there were missionaries in Florida, California and Texas, establishing settlements and imposing religion.
I can’t write this without making room for the imposition of faith and all that it brought along. But Gomez’ point is well made.
“Long before the Boston Tea Party, Catholic missionaries were celebrating the holy Mass on the soil of this continent… Immigrant missionaries were naming this continent’s rivers and mountains and territories for saints, sacraments and articles of the faith.”
We’re too quick to forget or not acknowledge these facts because they don’t fit the political and cultural narrative. But that’s changing. So much so that what was once a topic of dinner conversation is now a point made at large conference.
The point is this: the history of Latinos in America, for better or for worse, is older than all others – with the notable exception of native Americans. I’ll take it one step further: the cultural group we speak of, Latinos in America and the American continent, was forged here; it didn’t come from somewhere else, fleeing persecution. Granted, it was a violent and painful forging, but that history has much to do with who and what we are today. We are the product of native and European cultures. We’ve been downplaying it at a high cost.
Gomez used the historical narative to make a political point:
“most of the men and women who are living in America without proper documentation have traveled hundreds even thousands of miles. They have left everything behind, risked their safety and their lives. They have done this, not for their own comfort or selfish needs. They have done this to feed their loved ones.”
Immigration and history were, I have to admit, the undertones of the speech. The Archbishop wasted no time making his points about abortion and what he called an open hostility toward religious faith.
He went there; I won’t. I’ve been around long enough to know that those conversations never end well, and Gomez brought them up before a like-minded crowd. But I will say that his points about historical facts and the place of Latinos in the American narrative were spot-on. And for that, at least, they bear repeating.
Follow Victor Landa on Twitter: @vlanda
[Photo by scanmyoldphotos.com]
