Performative Theologies: Ritualizing the Daily Latinamente

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Notes

This article employs Spanglish as both an intentional writing strategy and as a metaphor for the hybridity constituted by the Hispanic presence in the United States. Spanglish is one of many terms used to describe the fusion of Spanish and English in daily communication. It is manifest here through the following conventions. First, words and expressions in Spanish are not italicized unless they appear as such in direct quotations; at times sentences include both languages. Second, the use of the term Latin@ conveniently combines the “o” and “a” into one character that is gender inclusive. The use of @ for this purpose is evident in the work of other Latin@ scholars and is in place of Latino/a or Latina/o.

Tomás Bamat, and Jean-Paul Wiest, Popular Catholicism in a World Church: Seven Case Studies in Inculturation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999).

Orlando O. Espín, The Faith of the People: Theological Reflections on Popular Catholicism (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997).

Pope Benedict XVI, “Letter of His Holiness Benedict XVI to Seminarians,”http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/letters/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20101018_seminaristi_en.html (Oct. 18, 2010), no. 4 (accessed Feb. 8, 2014).

Jaime Lara, “The Liturgical Roots of Hispanic Popular Religiosity,” in Misa, Mesa y Musa: Liturgy in the U.S. Hispanic Church, ed. Kenneth G. Davis (Schiller Park, IL: World Library Publications, 1997), 32.

Raúl Gómez-Ruiz, Mozarabs, Hispanics and the Church (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2007), 181.

Miguel H. Díaz, “Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres: We Walk-with Our Lady of Charity,” in From the Heart of Our People: Latino/a Explorations in Catholic Systematic Theology, eds. Orlando O. Espín and Miguel H. Díaz (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999), 153–171.

Orlando O. Espín, Faith of the People: Theological Reflections on Popular Catholicism (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1997), 119.

National Museum of Mexican Art, Hanal Pixán: Food For the Souls, Día de los Muertos Twenty-Sixth Annual Exhibition, 2012, http://www.nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org/exhibits/featured/d%C3%AD-de-los-muertos-2012 (last accessed October 2012).

To see a description and image of this ofrenda, go to “Mexican Museum Honors Day of the Dead,” People's World (November 2, 2007), http://www.peoplesworld.org/mexican-museum-honors-day-of-the-dead/ (accessed Feb. 8, 2014).

See, for example, National Museum of American History, “A Vision of Puerto Rico: The Teodoro Vidal Collection,” http://amhistory.si.edu/vidal/about/ (accessed Feb. 4, 2014).

See Roberto Octavio González Nieves, OFM, “¡Bendición! Carta Pastoral sobre Identidad Católica y Piedad Popular en Puerto Rico,” El Visitante (6–12 Septiembre 2009), paragraph #53 at http://www.elvisitante.biz/visitante-web/2009/evwebed3609/pdf/suplemento.pdf (accessed Feb. 4, 2014).

Some of this material about las posadas has appeared in other venues; see, for example, Carmen Nanko-Fernández, “Buscando una posada with a God-in-Motion,” Homiletical Hot Tub (Dec. 1, 2008) at http://www.goodpreacher.com/blog/index.php?page=177 (accessed Feb. 4, 2014).

See, for example, David Agren, “Cristero Martyr Now Popular Patron of Mexican Migrants Headed to US,” Catholic News Service (May 31, 2012), at http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1202255.htm (accessed Feb. 8, 2014).

See David Dorado Romo, “My Tío the Saint,” Texas Monthly (Nov. 2010) at http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/my-t%C3%ADo-saint (accessed Feb. 8, 2014).

Orlando O. Espín, “Traditioning: Culture, Daily Life and Popular Religion, and Their Impact on Christian Tradition,” in Futuring Our Past: Explorations in the Theology of Tradition, eds. Orlando O. Espín and Gary Macy (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2006), 9.

Bamat and Wiest, Popular Catholicism, 13.

Roberto S. Goizueta, Caminemos con Jesús: Toward a Hispanic/Latino Theology of Accompaniment (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995), 158.

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Carmen Nanko-Fernández

Carmen Nanko-Fernández is associate professor of Hispanic Theology and Ministry and director of the Hispanic Theology and Ministry program at the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, Illinois. A Latin@ theologian, she is a past president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS) and is author of Theologizing en Espanglish: Context, Community and Ministry (Orbis Books, 2010).