On March 10, 1968, Cesar Chavez ended a 25-day hunger strike in which the diminutive labor leader lost a reported 35 pounds—weight his slight frame could scarcely afford to shed. Chavez, the leader of the National Farm Workers Association (later known as the United Farm Workers of America) and committed pacifist, began the hunger strike as an act of penitence for the violence that fellow labor members had resorted to as a result of a stalemated 3+ year-long strike.
He had joined his cause to that of Filipino-American migrant farm workers as both groups sought recognition for their union and better working conditions for their members. Hearing of their struggles, Senator Robert Kennedy would travel to Delano, California—the epicenter of the strike against grape-growers in that area. Kennedy would be there when Chavez ended his protest. The two nationally-prominent men would break Chavez’s fast with the Bread of Life.
They went to Mass together.
It was a poignant moment. These two men—from very different educational, financial, ethnic, and social backgrounds—had come together in a common commitment to justice. It was a commitment born of the thing they most shared: their Catholic faith.
Photojournalist William James Warren would capture the moment in a photograph that would garner national attention. While it would not have been apparent in 1968, the picture signaled the beginning of a shift in the demographics of national politics as well as the Catholic Church so beloved by both men: the torch of justice and political responsibility taken up by Kennedy’s older brother at his inauguration was being passed.
It was picked up by a prominent member of a community that was in North America since Europeans first came to stay in this hemisphere.
September 15 began Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month in the United States. Inaugurated in 1968 as “Hispanic Heritage Week” the celebration was extended to a month in 1989 as a means of recognizing the histories, traditions, cultures, and achievements of the diverse communities who comprise over 19% of the population of the United States.
While the month is rightly dedicated to highlighting the accomplishments of members of the Hispanic and Latino communities in the areas of education, the arts, sports, and politics, we Catholics should take special pride in the religious contributions of this part of our Faith family.
On one level, the Hispanic and Latino communities are a microcosm of the Church itself. There is, for example, no monolithic “Hispanic culture.” Cubans are different from Mexicans who are different from Puerto Ricans. A Guatemalan would be as lost in Argentinian culture as an Englishman would be in India. But, for the most part, they share a common faith.
There is a special charism within the Hispanic/Latino communities. Detroit bishop, Arturo Cepeda, Chair of the USCCB Committee on Cultural Diversity notes a “sense of community…that sense of being together, of solidarity, of being united with our own planet, celebrating and respecting life, our own Catholic traditions, our great love for Our Lady and the celebration of our faith through the sacraments” as characterizing Hispanic and Latino Catholics. The Faith permeates Latino culture in a way from which other ethno-Catholic groups could take a lesson.
And that if present demographic trends continue, by 2040, fully 60% of Catholics in the United States will be of Hispanic and/or Latino descent.
But like the Catholic Faith as a whole in the U.S., the Hispanic/Latino Catholic community is leaking members—some to evangelical communities, some among the ranks of the “nones” (those who claim “none” when asked their religious affiliation). The U.S. Bishops saw this coming when they warned as early as 1995 that
[t]he Hispanic presence is also a prophetic warning to the church in the United States. For if Hispanic Catholics are not welcomed warmly and offered a home where they can experience our church as their church, the resulting loss of their Catholic identity will be a serious blow to the church in our country. We will have missed an opportunity to be truly Catholic. (USCC Statement: “The Hispanic Presence in the New Evangelization in the United States.”)
Such is the importance of the contributions in spirituality, culture, and sacramental vision of Hispanic and Latino Catholics to the Church as a whole that last summer the American bishops in their Missionary Disciples Going Forth in Joy committed themselves to empowering these men and women to be “missionary disciples.”
As a Church family we are all called to evangelize— to be the “light of the world” (Mt. 5:14). But that torch is being carried in a special way by Hispanic/Latino communities.
Catholicism permanently arrived in what became the United States with Spaniards settling in St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. It grew in the Spanish missions of Sacramento and San Francisco in California, Santa Fe in New Mexico, and Corpus Christi in Texas. It lives on in bishops with names like Perez, Gomez, and Flores and in the families whence they came.
During Hispanic Heritage month we Catholics should remember that our past has had a Latino flavor.
And so will our future.
A.M.D.G. / B.V.M.H.