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ABSTRACT
This article was presented as a plenary address at the June 2019 annual conference of the Society for Pastoral Theology in Denver, Colorado. Building on Ryan LaMothe's work, the author posits that the criminalization of Mexican people can be understood as a contemporary case of disidentification. The author argues that one way of counteracting this disidentification is to accompany people of color with compassion and a spirit of solidarity. To illustrate his point, he reflects on his own case as a graduate student of color and on the significance of his relationships with his mentor, Robert C. Dykstra.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on Contributor
Rubén Arjona, a native of Mexico, is an ordained Presbyterian. Before obtaining his PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary, he served as a pastor in several congregations in Mexico City, taught in two seminaries, and served as the executive secretary of the board of education of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico. One of Ruben's greatest passions in ministry is the care and accompaniment of theological students.
Notes
1 Butler and Lee, “Changing the Margins,” 117.
2 Goto, “Writing in Compliance with the Racialized ‘Zoo’ of Practical Theology,” 113.
3 Ibid., 113.
4 Boisen, Out of the Depths, 15.
5 Dittes, “The Investigator as an Instrument of Investigation,” 363.
6 McGarty, Yzerbyt, and Spears, Stereotypes as Explanations, 198.
7 Reyes Nevarez, El amor y la amistad en el mexicano, 73.
8 Jernigan, “Teaching Pastoral Theology from a Global Perspective,” 98.
9 De La Torre, Embracing Hopelessness, 154.
10 I use quotations marks for “American” to remind the reader that although the word is commonly used to refer to the United States, America is the name of the whole continent.
11 “Here's Donald Trump's Presidential Announcement Speech,” Time, June 16, 2015.
12 Casares, “Trump's Repeated Use of the Mexican Rapist Trope Is as Old (and as Racist) as Colonialism.”
13 Farris and Silber Mohamed, “Picturing Immigration,” 814.
14 Ibid., 814.
15 Ibid., 814.
16 Tobar, “Avoiding the Trap of Immigration Porn.”
17 Ibid.
18 Farris and Silber Mohamed, “Picturing Immigration,” 814.
19 Silber Mohamed and Farris, “‘Bad Hombres’?,” 12.
20 Ibid., 13.
21 Ibid., 14.
22 Tobar, “Avoiding the Trap of Immigration Porn.”
23 Ibid.
24 LaMothe, Pastoral Reflections on Global Citizenship, xviii.
25 Nanko, Theologizing en Espanglish, xiii.
26 In this article, I use the term Latinx instead of Latino/a, except when the authors I cite use the word Latino/a. Cristobal Salinas and Adele Lozano define Latinx as “an inclusive term that recognizes the intersectionality of sexuality, language, immigration, ethnicity, culture, and phenotype.” Salinas and Lozano point out that this word “has evolved as new form of liberation for those individuals who do not identify within the gender binary of masculinity or femininity, and it is used to represent the various intersections of gender as it is understood in different ways within different communities of people.” “Mapping and Recontextualizing the Evolution of the Term Latinx: An Environmental Scanning in Higher Education,” 9.
27 LaMothe, Pastoral Reflections on Global Citizenship, 19.
28 Ibid., 19.
29 Ibid., 20.
30 Ibid., 20.
31 Ibid., 20.
32 Ibid., 20.
33 Ibid., 21.
34 Ibid., 21.
35 Ibid., 21.
36 Patrick Crusius, now indicted for capital murder, confessed to authorities that when he entered an El Paso Walmart with an AK47 assault rifle, he was targeting Mexicans. The Guardian, October 10, 2019.
37 LaMothe, Pastoral Reflections on Global Citizenship, 21–22.
38 Ibid., 23.
39 Ibid., 23.
40 Doehring, The Practice of Pastoral Care, 1.
41 Ibid., 2.
42 McGarrah Sharp, Misunderstanding Stories, 185.
43 Ibid., 181.
44 Ibid., 181.
45 Boisen, “The Period of Beginnings,” 15.
46 McGarrah Sharp, Misunderstanding Stories, 179–80.
47 Association of Theological Schools, “2018–2019 Annual Data Tables.”
48 Beliso-De Jesús, “Confounded Identities,” 315.
49 Ibid., 315.
50 Doehring, The Practice of Pastoral Care, 2.
51 Comer, What I Learned in School, 127.
52 Ibid., 135.
53 Ibid., 114.
54 Wessels, “The Critical Role of Relationship in Education,” 3.
55 Butler and Lee, “Changing the Margins,” 112.
56 Ibid., 112.
57 Ibid., 111.
58 Ibid., 111.
59 Ramos, Profile of Man and Culture in Mexico, 57.
60 Elizondo, “Mestizaje as a Locus of Theological Reflection,” 11.
61 Ibid., 11.
62 Ibid., 12–13.
63 Arjona Mejía, “The Minister as Curator of Desire,” 146–47.
64 Dykstra, Personal communication.
65 LaMothe, Pastoral Reflections on Global Citizenship, 20.
66 Ibid., 20.
67 Ibid., 20.
68 Erikson, Young Man Luther, 168.
69 Mish, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 938.
70 Examples of books and handbooks that use the concept of acompañamiento in the context of pastoral care and/or pastoral psychology include: Daniel Schipani, Manual de psicología pastoral, 2016; Sara Baltodano, Acompañamiento pastoral: unidad de studio CT118, 2005; Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano, Familias en situaciones difíciles, 2013; Héctor Muñoz, Ministerio de la salud: pastoral con los enfermos y ministerio del acompañamiento y el alivio, 2015; Jorge Edmundo Ramírez and Ofelia Camacho de Martínez, Con Ofelia en el camino: un modelo de acompañamiento pastoral, 2005; and Roberto Amparo Rivera, No Me Dejes Solo: una pastoral comunitaria de cuidado, afirmación y acompañamiento, 2005.
71 Goizueta, Caminemos Con Jesús, 205.
72 Ibid., 207.
73 Ibid., 207.
74 Mish, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 963.
75 Ibid., 963.
76 Whiting, Roll, and Vickerman, Plant Structures. Roots by D. Whiting, M. Roll, and L. Vickerman ; Line Drawings by S. Johnson.
77 Ibid.
78 Steffens and Rasmussen, “The Physiology of Adventitious Roots,” 603.