at the end of last semester i asked my students to bring a "cultural artifact" to share with the class. the idea was that this artifact would represent them in some way and/or some aspect of chicana studies. a lot of my students brought images of la virgen de guadalupe and spoke earnestly about the importance of religion and faith in their lives.
with each student testimony, i grew more and more mortified because i had not included any material about chicana religious practices or faith in the course.
this seemed ironic considering that i am also very earnest about (though not perfect in) my faith.
honestly, graduate school is a difficult place to profess your chrisitian faith or religiosity. there are many subscribers to the religion-as-opiate-of-the-masses philosophy. i suppose that, especially in the classroom, over the past six years, my faith has become more private, though not less important.
it might very well have been divine providence, this parade of undergraduate chicanas professing their faith in front of the classroom. it seemed courageous to me. and i was humbled.
this time around, i'm going to talk about chicana practices of faith. it won't be a bible study - of course not. but i feel like i can create some space to talk about religion, how it has become more "cultural" in some instances, how, in other instances, it retains its spirituality. i hope that i can talk about how peoples' faith fosters activism and art.
i don't think that it'll be easy because it will be personal. for me and for them. but i think that most worthwhile things aren't easy, right?
@>-->>---
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