last ethnographic chapter, faith, and politics

i'm working on my last ethnographic chapter. it was the first one that i wrote, nearly a year and a half ago. i wrote it before i knew what kind of structure my advisor wanted my chapters to have. and before i knew how i needed to limit the scope, blah blah blah.

in other words, the chapter is a mess.

i've been to the benson latin american library (the best library on the planet for anything remotely latino/a or latin american) and have gathered pertinent materials. the chapter is about the comunidades de base that formed in la feria at the beginning of the 1970s. i'm arguing that these groups, which formed within the mexican origin community of the catholic church, were integral to the town's process of racial integration.

they started out as bible studies, but expanded and began to promote popular Mexican Catholic practices including las posadas, a mass to la virgen de guadalupe, el dia de los muertos, etc. in creating a distinct cultural space for themselves in the church, i'm arguing that members of la feria's comunidades de base helped to broaden the scope of membership and belonging within the larger community of la feria.

anyway, the literature surrounding comunidades de base is great. they started as part of the liberation theology movements in latin america, but spread to Chicanos in the US Southwest. i cannot get over how political the priests, nuns, and lay people have been. local parishes and dioceses have taken strong stands supporting farmworker boycotts and generally promoting social justice.

what strikes me in some of the literature that i've been reading - and some of it has been theology - is the connection theologians make between faith in God and political convictions that support social justice movements.

honestly, i find it thrilling. it's exactly how i feel about my faith and my politics. i am baffled by the religious right who want to cut social services to the poor, who want to end affirmative action, who believe that we live in a just society where everyone can achieve what they want if they just "work hard enough." my christianity is about humility and understanding that the riches that i have (limited though they are) are a blessing, not a reward. my christianity is about loving the marginalized in our society and wanting to serve them.

don't get me wrong. i'm not saying in any way that i feel like i'm the perfect representative of *that* christianity, but it's something to aim for. certainly something to believe in.

so i have to be thankful to my dissertation this week. for renewing my passion about faith and politics. if only i could transform that passion to words on pages!

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