Open Your Heart , livre ebook

University of Notre Dame Press - David P. Sandell

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

135 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

In this ethnography of Catholic religious practice in Fresno, California, David P. Sandell unveils ritualized storytelling that Mexican and Mexican American people of faith use to cope with racism and poverty associated with colonial, capitalist, and modern social conditions. Based on in-depth interviews and extensive field research conducted in 2000 and 2001, Sandell's work shows how people use story and religious ritual (including the Matachines dance, the Mass, the rosary, pilgrimage, and processions) to create a space in their lives free from oppression. These people give meaning to the expression "open your heart," the book argues, through ritual and stories, enabling them to engage the mind and body in a movement toward, as one participant said, "the sacred center" of their lives.

Sandell argues that the storytelling represents a tradition of poetics that provides an alternative, emancipatory epistemology. Américo Paredes, for example, defined this tradition in his scholarship of border balladry. According to Paredes, storytelling with ritual elements raises a feature of performance characterized as a convivial disposition and shared sense of identity among people who call themselves Mexican not for national identification but for a cultural one, understood as "Greater Mexico." Sandell contributes to this tradition and achieves an understanding of Greater Mexico characterized by people whose stories and rituals help them find common ground, unity, and wholeness through an open heart.

Sujets

Religion

Christianisme

Hispanic American Studies

Ethnic Studies

Social Science

HISTORY

Sociologie, société et politique

México

América

Reconquista (Mexico)

General officer

Mass (liturgy)

Latin America

General

American

Mexico

Informations

Publié par	University of Notre Dame Press
Date de parution	15 avril 2015
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780268092894
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1450€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

LATINO PERSPECTIVES
José Limón, Timothy Matovina, and Luis Ricardo Fraga,
series editors

The Institute for Latino Studies, in keeping with the distinctive mission, values, and traditions of the University of Notre Dame, promotes understanding and appreciation of the social, cultural, and religious life of U.S. Latinos through advancing research, expanding knowledge, and strengthening community.
OPEN YOUR HEART
Religion and Cultural Poetics of Greater Mexico
DAVID P. SANDELL
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS
NOTRE DAME, INDIANA
Copyright © 2015 by the University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
E-ISBN 978-0-268-09289-4
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at ebooks@nd.edu Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sandell, David P. Open your heart : religion and cultural poetics of greater Mexico / David P. Sandell. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-268-04146-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 0-268-04146-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Mexican American Catholics—California—Fresno—Religious life. 2. Catholic Church—Customs and practices. I. Title. BX1407.M48S26 2015 263.0972—dc23 2014049367 ∞ The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. -->
FOR GABRIELA, CLAUDIA, AND ALEJANDRO
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
ONE. The Dance
TWO. The Daily Service
THREE. The Journey Home
FOUR. The Sacred Circle
FIVE. The Passion Play
SIX. Pilgrimage
Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited Index -->
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book comes by way of encouragement and guidance from research participants, colleagues, mentors, friends, and family members. They have been a part of a journey that began long before my first visit to the parish of Saint Anthony Mary Claret in southeast Fresno, California, and my role as a student in Austin, Texas, among other events that mark the passage of time. Their presence on the journey accounts for a collective effort, as does the journey’s outcome in this book. Any errors or faults, however, I claim as my own.
Gracie Romana Adame taught me to think of life as a journey. Gracie also taught me to make this journey with trust in fellow travelers. She trusted me with her name, asking that I use it. She introduced me to parishioners. On one occasion, she declined to sign a document that asked research participants if they understood the research and were, indeed, willing to participate. “We don’t need these things,” Gracie said, indicating that we were to continue according to the terms of the parish and its people. These accounts of trust make Gracie a representative of all the people featured in this book. I thank Gracie for her help. And in doing so, I thank all participants for their generous contributions.
Material support came from several libraries and staff members. They include the University of Texas at Austin’s Benson Latin American Collection, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, and Perry-Castañeda Library; Fresno State University’s Henry Madden Library; Fresno County Library; and Texas Christian University’s Mary Couts Burnett Library. I am particularly indebted to the Diocese of Fresno Pastoral Center and archivists Adrienne Alston and Scott Alston for their attention to my research needs.
Chapter 3 was originally published in Anthropology of Consciousness , and chapter 4 in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies. I thank reviewers and editors for their guidance.
Contributions also came in the form of conversations with mentors and colleagues, each playing a role in different stages of progress. John Hartigan, Ricardo C. Ainslie, Kathleen C. Stewart, Pauline Strong, José E. Limón, and Richard R. Flores inspired me early on and in many ways continue to do so to this day. At the University of Guanajuato, Luis Miguel Rionda introduced me to a different area of research that created distance from this project and allowed time for reflection, leading, I believe, to a better, refined work. Douglas E. Foley has been an ever-present voice since my Mexico stay, also offering an ear and a good dose of humor.
My colleagues at Texas Christian University deserve special mention. Shawn Keane brought ease to the day. Morrison Wong, Nowell Donovan, and others in administrative positions gave me time to write. Michael A. Katovich and Miguel C. Leatham were always available for conversation, acting as consultants under the auspice of friendship.
Ken R. Crane, Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo, Ana María Díaz-Stevens, and other members of the Paral Study heard, read, and/or endured parts of this project, always providing feedback and support.
The University of Notre Dame Press’s editorial team and reviewers provided direction that enabled me to bring this project to an end. I thank Acquisitions Editor Stephen Little for reaching out to me at a time when I thought the project was on indefinite hold.
William Scott Howard at University of Denver has been a wonderful friend and conversationalist, often tipping the scale of reciprocity far in his favor.
Marilyn Brown, a family friend and Fresno resident, gave me a place to stay and delightful evening conversation during an exploratory phase of research.
My aunt, Sister Patricia Celeste Pagliarulo, read the manuscript in different stages with the eye and patience of a copy editor.
Diego Gándara and Florencia Gándara Sáenz, my in-laws, have encouraged me for years, particularly in relation to unconventional choices. I am most thankful.
As indicated in the pages that follow, the writing responds to the loss of my parents, Carol Sandell and Harold David Sandell. I am forever grateful to them for just being who they were. I also thank my siblings, Mary, John, and Katy—my family.
And my wife, Gabriela, and our children, Claudia and Alejandro, have traveled along my side, helping to make a remarkably beautiful life.
INTRODUCTION
Many questions drive this work about Latino people of faith in Fresno, California. One addresses history and the way history impresses itself upon the present. Another addresses the application of theory—in particular, historicism and psychoanalysis—to what people say and experience. And another addresses my role as a writer and my ability to represent the lives of people whom readers might perceive as different from themselves and, moreover, to compel readers to empathize with those people. These questions constitute the theoretical baggage that I took to the field. I realized very shortly, however, that I couldn’t begin to answer them, much less consider their relevance, until I addressed two other interrelated questions. These other questions were much more immediate and fundamental. They came up every time I participated in such activities as attending Mass, prayer groups, and processions: Why do these people practice religion? What is the role of rituals that define their religion?
The answers to these questions involve a paradox. This paradox is similar to Sister Mary Tiziana’s comments about locating the center of a sacred circle (which I discuss in chapter 4). 1 My efforts to find answers entailed frustration and thoughts of wasting time. But they also involved an underlying conviction that I was never far from answers—that they were everywhere but with no special designation, enabling me to craft responses that readers could understand.
Then, in January 2001, after seven months in Fresno, I attended a monthly parish council meeting at Saint Anthony Mary Claret Church, 2 where I spent most of my time. About eight or nine of us sat around a table in the back room of the parish social hall. We clasped hands in preparation for a “live rosary,” a ritual prayer consisting usually of five decades of the Hail Mary, each initiated with the Our Father and an implicit recollection of a biblical mystery about Mary and her son Jesus. At a live rosary, each participant takes a turn saying the Our Father, with another saying the first half of the Hail Mary and the entire group saying the second half. On this occasion, however, there was a change in the format. Before saying the Our Father, participants took turns expressing a special intention with respect to an event or condition—an upcoming retreat, an economic hardship, a friend’s battle with cancer. This moment reminded me of what James Fernandez (1986) has said about metaphors: they link semantic domains, and in doing so, link the lives of the people affected by those domains.
This summary explanation of the ritual was, of course, simplistic, not capturing nearly what was at stake; nevertheless, it provided me with direction. At my next meeting with my friend and consultant Gracie Romana Adame, I asked, “Gracie, can you tell me about the rosary?”
Gracie said, “Ah, the rosary is a journey that tells how Mary followed her heart. Mary loved, Mary obeyed. Mary got involved. So a journey of her life, today, brings me to this journey that I am so involved with. . . . The rosary is a journey about following your heart.” 3
Each time I met with Gracie, I asked the same question: can you tell me about the rosary? She always responded in the same way. She would say, “The rosary is a journey,” and proceed to tell me stories about her grandfather who had escaped assassination under Porfirio Díaz’s regime, about her grandmother who’d tell a little girl that somebody loved her, about the mothers of incarcerated children, about the youth group, about going places and the way those places would affect other places and times. She told her stories for hours. They often came with tears, laughter, and long pauses that broached new images about love, strife, fear, abjection, and hope, alway