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CEHILA USA 2009

University of New Mexico

Albuquerque, New Mexico

May 21^st – May 24^th, 2009

WELCOMING RECEPTION -Thursday, May 21^st, 2009 (6:00pm to 8:00pm)

Faculty Staff Club

Located at 1923 Las Lomas Rd. NE at UNM

Small Hors d'oeuvres and Cash Bar

PRESENTATIONS

Anderson School of Management – Room 1064

Located at 1924 Las Lomas NE at UNM

Friday Morning – May 22^nd, 2009 (9:00am to 12:00pm)

Mario Garcia

“Liberation Correspondent: The Homilies of Moises Sandoval”

Ellen McCracken

"Polysemy and the Struggle for Interpretive Closure: Ritual Devotions to La Conquistadora in Santa Fe, New Mexico"

LUNCH and special presentation (12:00pm to 1:50pm)

La Fonda del Bosque – National Hispanic Cultural Center

1701 4th Street SW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Main: (505) 246-2261

Private Presentation by artist Federico Vigil of Torreon Fresco

Friday Afternoon - (2:00pm to 5:00pm)

Hjamil Martinez

"Where Do We Fit? A Critical Assessment on the Status of U.S. Latina/o Religious Historiography"

A. Why Asking the Question?

1. Are we a service field for Hispanic/Latina/o Theology?

2. Do we have a discipline?

3. Is our scholarship an endangered species?

B. Sub-field of U.S. Religious History?

1. Do we complete the traditional discourse?

2. Are we at the margins?

C. Re-interpreting Ourselves

1. What exactly do we do?

2. Who do we talk to?

3. Do we reproduce the colonial representations/master narratives?

D. Inviting Theory In

1. Theory as a process of deconstruction

2. Dismantling the theological focus

3. Beyond the stories

4. Adjusting our lenses

Timothy Matovina

“Remapping American Catholicism”

Histories of U.S. Catholicism tend to depict Catholics as progressing from disestablishment in a Protestant nation to struggling immigrants to successful American Catholics, or Catholic Americans, as some analysts prefer to put it. But today the U.S. Catholic Church is no longer an overwhelmingly European immigrant church, as it was a century ago, nor is it solely an “Americanized” church. Rather, it is a church largely run by middle-class, European-descent Catholics with sizeable contingents of African Americans, Asian and African immigrants, some Native Americans, and especially rapidly expanding numbers of Latinos whose ancestors were the first major group of Catholics in what is now the United States. The present and future of ecclesial life and mission is best addressed with a clearer view of the part Latinos – as well as all our fellow Catholics – have played in our collective

Deborah L. Berho

“Becoming Visible: Protestant Hispanic Churches of the Portland, Oredon Metropolitan Area.”

Oregon’s Hispanic population and Protestant Hispanic churches are emerging from invisibility. Research is available on Hispanic populations and their religious practices in other regions of the U.S., but not regarding Protestant Hispanics in Oregon. This study traces the history of Hispanics in Oregon and notes how this group doubled in size from 1990-2000. It examines the growth of Protestant Spanish-speaking ministries in the state throughout the twentieth century, but focuses on the current status of evangelical Hispanic churches of Multnomah and Washington Counties. Through triangulated sociological methods including participant observation of church services, literature collection, and pastoral interviews, the researcher studied such churches: their location, stability and visibility; any relationship with a sponsoring church (U.S. or Latin American); and pastoral background, training, and inclusion.

RECEPTION in honor of Moises Sandoval – (6:00pm to 9:00pm)

George Pearl Hall, School of Architecture & Planning

Located at Plaza level room 130

2401 Central Ave NE at UNM

Saturday Morning – May 23^rd, 2009 (9:00am to 12:00 noon)

Professor Alberto Pulido and Professor Olivia Ruiz

“Violence and the Sacred on the U.S.-Mexico Border”

With over a thousand deaths due to drug violence in 2008, a death by gunfire reported every day in January of this year, and hundreds of people disappeared or missing, Tijuana ranks as one of Mexico’s most dangerous cities. Such a reality has had a tremendous impact on the people and social institutions of Tijuana. Of particular interest to us in this paper is the impact of that violence on the faith of a people, especially on its most vulnerable members, in this case, undocumented migrants, an integral part of border cities like Tijuana. The authors have begun preliminary research at the Casa del Migrante in Tijuana where they are working with focus groups, primarily of migrants recently deported by the US government, regarding this and issues related to personal faith and belief

Robert Wright

“National Shrine, Basilica, Santuario: Devotion to la Virgencita de San Juan del Valle in the 21st Century.”

Since its beginnings in 1948, the Marian devotion centered in San Juan, Texas, along the U.S.-Mexico border, has evolved in popularity and significance as the sociocultural location of its pilgrims has evolved. The recent clerical and popular significance of this devotion will be explored.

Santos Vega

“The Understanding of Faith in God in the Context of Colonialism and Oppression"

This paper is a first draft of "The Mexican American Catholic Theology addressing the Understanding of Faith in God in the Context of Colonialism and Oppression. The work employs the Method in Theology of Bernard Lonergan and combines theology and historical experience of Mexican American faithful.

LUNCH – (12:00pm to 1:15pm)

Saturday Afternoon – (1:30pm to 5:00pm)

Gilberto Hinojosa

"Faith-based Activism: the Catholic Church and Chicano Movement in Texas, an Oral History Project."

Our project involves interviewing on high definition digital video 15 Catholic priests, women religious (nuns), lay men and women connected with the Church in order to determine their role in the various social justice activities and programs related to the Chicano Movement in Texas in the late nineteen sixties and early seventies.

We will disseminate the findings to other scholars and to the general public by creating an archives of the videotaped interviews and transcripts at both UIW and OLLU, by making this archives available on a website, by producing short thematic video programs and posting these on a website, and by producing longer video programs that can be broadcast.

Preliminary findings: The interviews convey more the emotions related to events and reflections on the past rather than new information. More importantly, the interviews reflect the faith that motivated the individuals in the events of those turbulent times.

Juan Romero

“PADRES and the Farmworker Ministry”

2009 CEHILA USA Meeting Minutes

May 21-23, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

Present: Deborah Berhó, Gilberto Hinojosa, Ellen McCracken, Mario García, Hjamil Martínez, Timothy Matovina, Alberto Pulido, Juan Romero, Olivia Ruiz, Moisés Sandoval, Santos Vega, Bob Wright OMI. Some other members communicated that they were unable to attend this year due to funding restrictions by their institutions.

CONFERENCE

On the evening of May 21, a welcoming reception was held at the Faculty Staff Club with several UNM professors and staff. On May 22-23, participants introduced their previously mailed drafts of their work in progress, followed by extensive discussion of each as is the practice in CEHILA:

Mario García, “Liberation Correspondent: The Homilies of Moisés Sandoval”

Ellen McCracken, “Polysemy and the Struggle for Interpretive Closure: Ritual Devotions to La Conquistadora in Santa Fe, New Mexico”

Hjamil Martínez, “Where Do We Fit? A Critical Assessment on the Status of U.S. Latino/a Religious Historiography”

Timothy Matovina, “Remapping American Catholicism”

Deborah Berhó, “Becoming Visible: Protestant Hispanic Churches of the Portland, Oregon, Metropolitan Area”

Alberto Pulido and Olivia Ruiz, “Violence and the Sacred on the U.S.-Mexico Border”

Robert Wright, “National Shrine, Basilica, Santuario: Devotion to the Virgencita de San Juan del Valle in the 21^st Century”

Gilberto Hinojosa, “Faith-Based Activism: The Catholic Church and the Chicano Movement in Texas, an Oral History Project”

Juan Romero, “Padres and the Farmworker Ministry”

Santos Vega, “The Understanding of Faith in God in the Context of Colonialism and Oppression”

At midday on Friday, the group went to the National Hispanic Cultural Center, where Federico Vigil gave a private presentation of the monumental fresco he is creating inside the Torreon on the historical roots of Hispanic culture in the Southwest, followed by a meal of the comida típica of New Mexico at La Fonda del Bosque at the Cultural Center.

Friday evening a meal reception was held honoring Moisés Sandoval, committed journalist and lecturer on Latin American Christianity, founding two-decade (1983-2002) coordinator of CEHILA USA, executive secretary of CEHILA International, and editor and/or author of the first published histories of U.S. Hispanic Christianity. Moisés was presented with a honorary plaque, and received a letter of recognition from Bishop Ricardo Ramírez, a colleague in the founding and organization of CEHILA International and CEHILA USA. As usual, Moisés regaled us with his humorous and appreciative anecdotes of his experiences with CEHILA and Maryknoll.

Several recent publications were made available to participants: Mario García’s Católicos: Resistance and Affirmation in Chicano Catholic History (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008) and A Dolores Huerta Reader (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008); and Santos Vega’s The Worm in My Tomato : A Novel Inspired by a True Story about the Repatriation of a Mexican American Family by the United States Government (Tempe, AZ: Community Documentation Press, 2007). Santos has also written Mexicans in Tempe (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2009). Forthcoming publications were announced: Alberto López Pulido, Barbara Driscoll de Alvarado, and Carmen Samora, eds., Moving Beyond Borders: Julian Samora and the Establishment of Latino Studies (University of Illinois Press); Mario García, Chicano Liberation Theology: The Writings and Documents of Richard Cruz and Católicos por la Raza (Kendall Hunt Publishing Co.); Juan Romero and Thomas Steele’s edited English translations of Padre Martínez’s writings (University of New Mexico Press); and Mario García’s biography of Moisés Sandoval.

It was also recommended that members contact Gilberto Hinojosa (

ghinojosa@uiwtx.edu) with a view to their expanding beyond Texan subjects the excellent scholarly and educational resource that he and Maria Carolina Flores are developing that provides internet video and print interviews (subdivided into brief topical segments) of religious pioneers in the Chicano movement (the free website will be up soon).

BUSINESS MEETING

1. Future meetings: the members present decided to hold the meeting every 18 months, and to schedule meetings at least two years in advance to allow for local arrangements and for members to seek funding for attending. Traditionally we have tried to arrange meetings with hosting institutions providing free or discounted lodging. Another criterion has been to try to schedule the meeting at a place and time where we can have interaction with local professors, students, and Latino/a Christians (as occurred so successfully at Miami last year thanks to Ana María Bidegain’s efforts).

Hjamil Martínez volunteered to arrange for holding the next meeting in October 2010 (tentatively October 14-16) in Fort Worth (TCU, Brite Divinity School), in conjunction with an annual Latino Studies lecture. Hjamil (

libertadsiempre1@hotmail.com) welcomes recommendations for who might give the lecture. Deborah Berhó volunteered to arrange for hosting the following meeting in May 2012 in the Portland vicinity (George Fox University, possible cooperation with Mt. St. Angel School of Theology and other institutions). It was also approved that in order to attend a CEHILA USA meeting a member must ordinarily present for discussion a work in progress (no requirement for a final draft); the presentation of the work in progress must be at least a one-page abstract of the work, distributed before the meeting.

2. Publication: the project of having a joint publication on the recent history of U.S. Hispanic/Latina Christianity was reaffirmed, but adopting Tim Matovina’s recommendation to shift from the original regional perspective to the emerging U.S. Latino/a diaspora, that is, emphasizing less studied aspects of increasing significance. Examples are some of the projects presented at this meeting -- e.g., the faith experience of undocumented immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, Latino Protestants in the Pacific Northwest – and other known projects of members such as Latino/a Muslims, the religious experience of the Colombian-origin in the U.S., etc. Alberto Pulido is in charge of the project, and will again put out a call to CEHILA members and others recommended by them for contributions, which will be due within a year (May 31, 2010). It was approved that the editor(s) of the project will have the authority to select among the contributions for publication and to recommend editorial improvements to those accepted for inclusion in the volume.

3. Website: members were reminded of and encouraged to visit the CEHILA International website (www.cehila.org) which has a link to the CEHILA USA website (www.cehilausa.org). Paul Barton is the webmaster for the CEHILA USA website. Information to be posted on the website, subject to appropriate screening, should be sent to him at

pbarton@ssw.edu.

4. CEHILA International: Bob Wright remains the CEHILA USA representative to CEHILA International; he is also the administrative secretary (treasurer) of that organization. In January CEHILA International issued a call for papers for its October 2010 symposium in Sao Paolo, Brazil, on the Historia Presente of Christianity in Latin America. Final drafts of those papers are due this September. Drafts may be submitted in English, but if accepted for presentation at the simposium will have to be presented orally in Spanish, and if accepted for publication after the symposium will have to be written in Spanish. CEHILA USA members are encouraged to contribute to this international project. There is a possibility that those persons whose essays are accepted for presentation at the symposium will have their travel paid for by the sponsors of the symposium (CEHILA International and other Latin American scholarly associations). More information is available at

www.cehila.org (2010 Symposio) and/or from Bob Wright (wright@ost.edu).

5. Coordinator: Alberto Pulido is beginning the second year of his two-year term. In view of changing the meeting to every 18 months, Alberto’s term was extended until the October 2010 meeting. It was also approved to elect a President-elect to provide better continuity in leadership. Hjamil Martínez was elected President-elect, his term as President to begin after the October 2010 meeting and continue through the May 2012 one.

6. Funding and dues: CEHILA USA has no regular source of funding, other than monies which have been granted by CEHILA International. Currently that amount is only $200 annually, but even that will most probably cease entirely after next year. These modest funds have been used to help defray some of the expenses (certain meals, partial room cost, local transportation) of the annual meeting for participants. Several sponsoring institutions have been very generous with us in previous years in providing free or discounted lodging and sometimes some meals also. Prior to this 2009 meeting, there was about $1,000 in funds; a few hundred dollars remain after this meeting. There was a discussion whether to begin assessing dues or not. While it was not judged opportune to have regular dues at this time, a recommendation to ask for voluntary (i.e., optional) dues of $50 a year was received more favorably, but no decision was taken.

CEHILA USA

CEHILA USA is an organization of Catholic, Protestant, and independent scholars, pastors, and students involved in the historical study of Hispanic Christianity in the U.S. It is the U.S. branch of a Pan-American organization dedicated to the historical study of Latin American Christianity, called CEHILA: Comisión para el Estudio de la Historia de la Iglesia en América Latina y el Caribe / Commission for Historical Studies of the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean. This organization was established in 1972 through the efforts of Latin American historian and philosopher Enrique Dussel. He and others were inspired by Vatican II and the Latin American Bishops Conference at Medellín in 1968 to create an organization that would examine the history of the church in Latin America from the perspective of the poor.

Annual Meeting

CEHILA USA meets annnually each spring at rotating institutions. The meeting provides participants with the opportunity to share their scholarship with each other and to receive responses to their submitted papers. CEHILA USA enjoys the participation of persons from various professions: Masters and doctoral students, pastors and lay church leaders, independent scholars, and professors of universities, Bible institutes, seminaries, and schools of theology.

Contact

For more information on CEHILA and CEHILA USA, contact the chairperson:

Dr. Paul Barton

Associate Professor of Hispanic Church Studies

Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest

P.O. Box 2247

Austin, TX 78768

(210) 512-439-0338

pbarton@ssw.edu

Advisory Board
Ana María Bidegain, Ph.D.
Arlene Sanchez Walsh, Ph.D.
Juan Martínez, Ph.D.

Dates for 2007 Annual Meeting

April 20-22, 2007

Notre Dame University

Commission for Historical Studies of the Church in Latin America

Mission

CEHILA's members--historians, theologians, anthropologists, social scientists and writers throughout the Americas--interpret historical events in the light of Faith. In the words of its founder, Dr. Enrique Dussel, CEHILA sees the history of the church as the history of the sacramental institution of communion, of mission, of conversion, as prophetic word that judges and saves, as the church of the poor. The poor receive special emphasis because the church has always been challenged by the task of evangelizing the poor: the indigenous people, blacks, the mestizos, the criollos, the workers, the campesinos.

Objectives:

To promote research, study and formation on the history of Christianity, of the churches and of religious denominations, of the religious reality in general in Latin America, the Caribbean and Hispanic communities in the United States.
To collaborate with public, private, civic and church organizations in academic research and in the preservation of documents.
To promote courses, seminars and symposiums.
To edit, publish and disseminate the results.
To maintain academic links with centers of research in history and in the general area of religion.
To carry out these objectives on three levels: academic, popular and eclesial.

Accomplishments

Cehila has accomplished the following in its 34 years to the church.

A general history of the Latin American Church in 10 volumes, including the first comprehensive history of the Hispanic church in the United States.
Mini-histories of the church in countries and regions.
Popular histories in various regions.
Histories of Protestant denominations.
Two general history conferences drawing hundreds of presenters.
25 symposiums on a great variety of themes, including women, urban workers, indigenous people, farm workers, frontiers and immigration.
Cehila has encouraged other historians to develop new perspectives of the history of the churches and to focus on areas and groups previously neglected.

Education

CEHILA has sponsored many long and short courses and held over 20 symposiums on a variety of themes ranging from indigenous people, women, urban workers, frontiers, immigration and the like.

Moises Sandoval Recibe Reconocimiento Por Su Trabajo con CEHILA