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Feminism in Latino(a) Evangelical Tradition
Description
Throughout history, women have been relegated to lesser roles within their societies, and the Latino(a) culture is no exception. With the prevalence of “machismo” (the strong sense of masculine pride that men experience over and above their feminine counterparts), women of the Latino community have been consigned to such roles as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of their families. In many cases, women have often been forced to do all of these things and more; women often worked in the fields like the men, but they also had to raise the children and do the household chores also. In Takaki’s work, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, one woman recounts, “When we finish work at suppertime, I have to do cooking and wash the dishes…. Really I am suffering doubly. There must be several thousand women like me in the fields,” (Takaki 323). To make matters worse, when they did work outside the home, the reality is that Latina women were usually assigned to the worst jobs and received the lowest wages (Takaki 319).
In the 1970’s amidst the rise of the American feminist movement, Latinas, especially those of Mexican descent, decided that they wanted to be a part of the movement as well, so they formed the Comision Femenil Mexicana Nacional in October 1970. This boldness among women was not simply
constrained to the secular world, however. Soon, within the church, feminist and mujerista theologies began to emerge with Yolanda Taranga and Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz being at the forefront. According to De la Torre, these women, “…sought to create a Hispanic cultural, feminist, and liberation theology that captured the sentiment and struggles of ordinary women. They saw themselves as activists for justice and peace and saw no conflict in combining theology and activism. They sought to fight “militantly” against both Anglo-American and Latino multi-layered sexism, patriarchy, classism, and economic oppression,” (De la Torre, 84-85). These women called on Latino men to share leadership and theological expertise with other women. They gave voice to Latina women and, “…sought to shift the focus away from orthodoxy (right belief) to orthopraxis (right practice)” (De la Torre, 85). While Latina feminism is much broader, pluralistic, and effusive than the work of Taranga and Isasi-Diaz, (De la Torre 85), the work that they pioneered had a tremendous impact on the feminist movement within the Latino(a) evangelical church at large as Latina women soon began to take on more and more leadership roles. In a recent 2007 article by Sam Rodríguez entitled, “The Death of Machismo,” the author indicates that the megachurch phenomenon within the Latino(a) community is actually co-driven by women, and one of the largest Latino churches in the state of Nevada is led by a woman. The author of the article states that, “While many in the non-ethnic evangelical community still debate the role of women in ministry, the Latino church is leading the way in a progressive facilitation of female pastors.” It seems that if there is ever to be a death of machismo within the Latino culture, it will most undoubtedly be led by the Latino(a) church.
Stories
Women in the Latino(a) church today recognize that there is still an imbalance in the roles of men and women in the church. According to Marta Martinez, member of Primera Iglesia Evangelica Libre, "Women do more stuff than men...Women think that they are supposed to be doing more. Men feel the same way. They think that women should do more. For example, on Sundays, it is announced that the men are having lunch and they sign up. And then the day of they ask [their wives], "Can you make this?""
But that imbalance is changing slowly but surely within Latino(a) churches. Juan Carlos Rivera points out that, “In the past, some of the people would not even let some of the women say anything in the church, [But] these things are changing. Women have more opportunities to be part of leading a group in the church; they can say something now. In the past these were only for men and now women have the same opportunity. In our church, the Free Church, women are not allowed to be the pastor, but they can get closer now. There are more opportunities to get together and work as a group and decide things.”
Dreams
Although women have come along way within Latino(a) evangelicalism, there are still dreams of more to come. Felix Posos, chairman of the Latin American Theological Seminary points out that, "Hispanic denominations and fellowships are more open to female executive leadership than many of our non-ethnic brothers and sisters. I predict we will see female leadership of our denominations before others do."
In his article, Sam Rodríguez asks the question, “How will all this change the face of the church? At the end of the day, the evangelical church in America may well see women in all roles and positions in the church—including denominational leadership and the senior oracles of biblical orthodoxy and renewal, thanks in good part to the Hispanic church looking beyond machismo and embracing biblical equality.”
References
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, Dec 12 2008, 7:00 PM EST
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Evangelical
Feminism
Feminist
Latino(a)
United States
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