“The cross is the eternal expression of the length to which God will go in order to restore broken community. The resurrection is a symbol of God’s triumph over all the forces that seek to block community. The Holy Spirit is the continuing community creating reality that moves through history." Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I'm grateful to have a day to formally reflect upon the life and ministry of Rev. Dr. King. I'm sobered by the fact that most Americans, and especially those in the church, did not support his efforts to desegregate our nation; and yet most Americans now claim his message in a watered down way that leaves the legacy of racist structures and institutions in tact. Where did my own family stand in the 1950's and 1960's? Where would I have stood?
I'm challenged by the way in which Rev. Dr. King called out racism so unequivocally, and yet also called us all to the Beloved Community which invites people of every ethnicity, language, and cultural group. The temptation in many Christian circles today is to seek a toothless Beloved Community which overlooks the suffering of communities of Color and claims that "all is well," thereby perpetuating racial and cultural divisions; on the other hand, the temptation in many activist circles is for us to seek the well being of our respective ethnic community, but without a robust vision of Beloved Community. I'm sure I'm guilty of both.
On this MLK Day, I am also so thankful for the history and legacy of the Black Church. As Latinas and Latinos, we owe so much to the civil rights struggle, past and present, of our Black sisters and brothers. To be honest, I'm jealous of the Black Church. I wish that the Brown Church would also step up in a unified way to challenge injustice, whenever and wherever we see it, in the name of Jesus. I also wish that the Brown Church would take the time to learn from, and partner with, the Black Church in the pursuit of racial justice in the United States.
It is important to note that African heritage runs deeply through the veins of the Brown Church as well. We need to celebrate this fact, and perhaps this day can give many of us a chance to reflect on that. I’ve been teaching about Africans in colonial Mexico for more than a decade, and know that their history runs through my own blood too! Africans in Mexico are known as the forgotten “third root” (“tercera raíz”) and it is estimated that 120,000 African slaves were forcibly settled in “New Spain” between 1519 and 1659. Indeed, individuals of African descent outnumbered those of "Spanish" descent in Mexico City until the 19th century. Black Mexicans did not take their oppression sitting down, and, in 1537, African slaves of New Spain staged the second armed revolt in all of the Americas. Between 1725 and 1768, five slave revolts shook the Veracruz area of eastern Mexico. Runaway slaves were known as cimarrones, and the autonomous communities which they established were called maroons. The most famous Mexican maroon community was founded by a Congoese rebel leader known as Gaspar Yanga, and his memorial can be visited in Veracruz today. African culture and identity continues to thrive in Mexico, and 1.4 million Mexicanos presently self-identify as Afro-Mexican. Mixed race “Blaxicans” are also rising in the United States as important members of the US Latina/o community. I am proud to be able to claim this heritage as part of my multilayered racial identity, y estoy muy orgulloso de tener familia que son Blaxican, también.