Liberation Theology In Chicano Literature

Liberation Theology in Chicana/o Literature looks at the ways in which Chicana/o authors who have experienced cultural disconnection or marginalization because of their gender, gender politics and sexual orientation attempt to forge a connection back to Chicana/o culture through their use of liberation theology.

This exploration of Iberian, Latin American, and US-Hispanic representations of Christ focuses on outliers in art, literature, and theology: Spanish painter Salvador Dalí, Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco, Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, Spanish existentialist Miguel de Unamuno, Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff, and Mexican philosopher José Vasconcelos, some of the most brilliant stars in the Spanish and Latin American firmament. Their work, and that of others, stands out from the conventional and the traditional, stretching our imagination by opening our eyes to what we do not want to see. The author also reflects on such significant lesser-known writers as New Mexican author, painter, and priest Fray Angélico Chávez; Argentine writer and political leader Ricardo Rojas, author of The Invisible Christ; Mexican American theologian Virgilio Elizondo; and Chicana feminist Gloria Anzaldúa, author of Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. He shows how artists project their concerns onto representations of Christ and how the perceptions of the reader and viewer reflect their culture and their psychology. Along the way, Candelaria explores the philosophical issues of representation in aesthetics and the problems of hermeneutics and identity.

In the chaos that is Latin American politics, what role does the Catholic church play with regard to its clergy and its members? How does the church function in Latin America on an everyday, practical level? And how successful has the church been intervening in political matters despite the fact that Latin American countries are essentially Catholic nations? Philip Berryman addresses these timely and challenging issues in this comprehensive.Unlike journalistic accounts, which all too frequently portray liberation theology as an exotic brew of Marxism and Christianity or as a movement of rebel priests bent on challenging church authority, this book aims to get beyond these cliches, to explain exactly what liberation theology is, how it arose, how it works in practice, and its implications. The book also examines how liberation theology functions at the village or barrio level, the political impact of liberation theology, and the major objections to it posed by critics, concluding with a tentative assessment of the future of liberation theology. Author note: Phillip Berryman was a pastoral worker in a barrio in Panama during 1965-73. From 1976 to 1980, he served as a representative for the American Friends Service Committee in Central America. In 1980, he returned from Guatemala to the United States and now lives in Philadelphia.

Liberation theologies are the most important theological movement of our time. In the 20th century, their influence shook the Third and First Worlds, grass root organizations and the affluent Western academy, as well as the lives of priests and laypeople persecuted and murdered for living out their understanding of the Christian message. In the 21st C their insights and goals remain – unfortunately – as valid as ever.

I selected twelve themes because of their importance to the Chicano community. These themes deal with Chicano liberation. One cannot speak about liberation. One cannot speak about liberation without mentioning these social political, economic, psychological and religious issues, nor without mentioning these symbols. - Machismo y La Mujer - Racism-Classism - Education and Labor - Violence and Nonviolence - Respect for the rights of others is peace (Benito Ju‡rez) - The Land - Fatalistic and Anarchistic Tendencies - The Catholic Church - Theology - The Symbol of Exodus - The Religious-Spiritual Symbol of Guadalupe - The Secular-Spiritual Symbol of La Raza C—smica - from the book

Individual chapters focus on the way that the origi-nal concepts of Latin American libertion theloogy have become the foundation for feminist, African-American, Hispanic, African, First World and Asian theologies of liberation.