Hispanic American Heritage Month kicks off on September 15th (also the day of independence for all Central American nations except Panama and Belize) and concludes on October 15th. But the term “Hispanic Heritage” belies a simple, though perhaps inconvenient, fact: Hispanic peoples in the United States and around the world are anything but homogenous or singular. (Indeed, contentious debates and confusion over whether to use Latino, Latinx, Hispanic, or Latine should be enough to convince even the most ardent skeptic of the inherent complexity of so-called “Hispanic identities.”) “Heritages” is a more apt term to describe the multifaceted and sometimes contradictory markers of Hispanic ancestral and land ties, identities, and affiliations (including religious ones).
Both authors acknowledge the painfully imprecise use of the term “Hispanic” to describe peoples from Latin America and the Caribbean. But for practical reasons (tracking the language of Hispanic Heritage Month) and to avoid confusion, we will use Hispanic throughout. Feel free to substitute Hispanic with Latinx, Latinos, Latinas, Latine, or Latin@.
The majority of Hispanics in the US trace their origins to Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. I say trace because, contrary to popular knowledge, the majority of Hispanics (67 percent) are US born and English proficient. Since these three territories have yielded the majority of Hispanics, another common misconception is that all Hispanics are Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban. Most Hispanic theologians in the US are from or trace their ancestry to these three places as well, further cementing in the theological and popular imagination that Hispanic experience is tantamount to “the” Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban experience.
Yet, as many Hispanic theologians rightly point out, the diversity among individuals from those places is itself enough to quash any claim to understanding identities and experiences that should baffle observers, that should elude capture by non-Hispanic gazes. For example, a Cuban born in Miami (and even then, depending on the neighborhood, family, schools attended) will have vastly different experiences and identities than a Cuban who left the island during Fidel Castro’s reign. Hispanics with origins in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic have and continue to enhance the multiplicity of US Hispanic identities. Add generational differences to the mix and we truly have an ethno-racial group with several roots, branches, and offshoots—growing and expanding all across the US, sometimes in unexpected ways.
So during this month and beyond, one important practice is to avoid the temptation to neatly categorize identities that are far too rich and complex to be contained by any academic or sociological methodologies and discourses or by popular culture referents. Avoiding the temptations of essentialism by delving into the particularities of lived experiences is thus paramount. Hispanic theologians have paved the way with an innovative concept known as “lo cotidiano.”
The direct translation of “lo cotidiano” is everyday life. However, when Hispanic theologians speak of lo cotidiano, we do not solely refer to mundane and common tasks or experiences as part of a routine for one’s survival. It is encountering the divine in the mundane, finding the metaphysical in the ordinary. We speak of lo cotidiano as locus theologicus. Thus, it is an exploration of the realities of Hispanic communities as interpretative lenses with the hermeneutical certainty of the divine experience in the midst of joy/suffering and oppression/liberation, recognizing the people as interpreters and teachers of revelation.
Our vastly different daily life experiences in the community shape our understandings of the Divine. Our families may not be in church every Sunday or pray the liturgy of the hours, but they make chapels out of our home—harkening back to early Christian communities. Our mothers’ refrigerators and wardrobes become altars decorated with candles, souvenirs from the latest quinceañera, a bible, and multiple statues of Our Lady and the saints in communion with pictures of our beloved deceased.
In the cosmo-vision of Hispanic spirituality, relationality with the divine is not vertical but horizontal. It emerges from nature, community and centuries of social and political struggle. For U.S. Latina theologians, spirituality functions not only as a way to relate to the Divine and others but also as “a weapon of protection.” To recognize God’s presence among us and to proclaim God’s love is to seek liberation from any oppression that denies our imago dei and sensus fidei. Hence, in Hispanic theology, those suffering and marginalized reveal the face of God.
Nonetheless, the spirituality of Hispanics in the US is diverse. We cannot talk of a spiritual identity but of spiritual identities. We cannot assume that all Hispanics practice religiosidad popular (popular piety) or that such practices mean the same for all. There is a tendency to assume that all Hispanics in the US are Catholic, but the origins of our spiritual identity/ies differ. Even among those who self-identify as Catholics, there is a plurality of spiritual identities. For instance, there are some Catholics who see Our Lady of Guadalupe as Tonatzin-Guadalupe or simply as Tonantzin, while others see her more as Guadalupe.
As Hispanic Heritage Month kicks off, we ask our readers to cherish and celebrate the multiplicity inherent in Hispanic cultures, identities, and religious/faith traditions. Honor the several ancestors present within each Hispanic body—itself a site of constant change because of interaction with others and the various environments. By paying attention to the everyday, we pay attention to the many faces of the Divine in our midst.
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César “CJ” Baldelomar, LL.M., J.D., is a doctoral candidate in Theology and Education under the guidance of Prof. Hosffman Ospino. CJ has authored several academic and popular articles (most recently on necropolitics and hopelessness) and is currently at work on his dissertation and a book titled Fragmented Theological Imaginings (Convivium Press, 2023). See more of his work here and here.
Brenda Noriega-Flores is a second-year doctoral student in the Theology and Education program under the guidance of Prof. Hosffman Ospino. Her research project is related to practices of everyday mysticism and faith formation processes with US Hispanic-Latin@ young people. Brenda is recognized as a national speaker in the United States. Brenda collaborates in many national and international ministry and education committees and boards including the International Youth Advisory Body for the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life in Rome.