Tag Archives: Identity

Sermon: “Cesar Chavez & the Farm Workers’ Movement”

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By Benjamin Bolaños

Play Corrido de Cesar Chavez

That’s called Corrido de Cesar Chavez. It’s Tex-Mex Mariachi style music.   And I hate it.  Not the lyrics but the music.   I really really do.  German Polka music in Mexico?   Not really my thing.  However, regardless of my lack of affinity for this type of music, it does evoke strong memories for me.  I’ve been running away from Mariachi music for a long time.  Or at least I thought I was.  But it’s not really Mariachi music that I’ve tried to keep at arm’s length.  It’s what it culturally represents for me.   It anchors me to a time, place, a history I’ve battled with internally, again and again. The music has power over my identity and the path I forged for myself:  Latino, Hispanic, Salvadoran, Mexican, immigrant, the migrant worker, the outcast, outsider, the great unwashed, the spic, the illegal…. All  labels used to define my identity.  See, that music, its harsh melody, that accordian noise, reminds me of those labels. They are like chains to me, a prison, a monolithic omnipotent force that you cannot ever escape, forever shackled to my being, my mind and soul.   But assimilation, to belong, was the other power force.  Assimilation was the antithesis, the remedy, and the medicine  to those labels, to the music. Assimilation meant opportunity and a sure way out.  It was the language of the powerful.   Continue reading →

Sermon: “Reconciling with the Cross”

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By Addie Liechty

(cross-posted from https://addieswriting.wordpress.com/)

Fifth Sunday of Lent — “Soul Journey: Joyful is the Dark”

Ezekiel 37

The language of the soul is not one of words. It is one that speaks in symbols. In Christianity our main symbol is the cross. Personally, I have never felt very connected to this symbol. I have distanced myself from it as it has become wedded to Christian hegemony causing much harm all over the world. In our country’s history the confederate flag “X” is a derivative of the cross, after all. In my own genealogical history, the cross was likely utilized when hunting down and killing many of my anabaptist ancestors. In my lifetime, the cross has been used as a symbol that alienates me from Christianity and even the Mennonites due to my queerness. I would venture to say that there is no one in this room that has not been harmed, in some way, by the cross. Aside from that, when I think of it, I see those bloody images of an agonizing Jesus and the whole of it just feels violent. So, for most of my recent life, I have buried this image and much preferred the symbology of angels and hearts. When I picture the archetype of a Bible thumping, queer hating pastor, he is holding a bible or a cross, not a heart (although, trading the cross for the heart in my imagination is rather amusing and it takes some of the power out of it)

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