First Interamerican Symposium on Feminist Intercultural Theology
Center for the Study of Latino/a Catholicism, University of San Diego
Institut of Missiology Missio, Aachen (Germany)
Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City (Mexico)
The Interamerican Symposium on Feminist Intercultural Theology gathered a group of prominent feminist social scientists and U.S. Latinas 1 and Latin American feminist theologians to deliberate about the epistemological and hermeneutical frameworks for a critical feminist theology that develops in intercultural terms. This event was highly significant for us because, for the first time in the history of the Americas, feminist theologians from the U.S. and from Latin America and the Caribbean came together to exchange common concerns and visions for the present and future of our theological activity. Thirteen countries were represented. Held entirely in the Spanish language, the symposium took place in Mexico City, from July 5 to 11, 2004, as a collaborative project with the Institute of Missiology Missio, of Aachen (Germany), and with the Iberoamericana University, of Mexico City (Mexico).
This project sought the following goals:
1) To critically analyze and understand the relationship of religion, culture, feminism and power for a feminist intercultural theology,
2) To establish a space for dialogue about the key conceptual frameworks and analytical categories to support a critical feminist theology in intercultural terms,
3) To seek resources for empowering the work of U.S. Latina and Latin American feminist theologians,
4) To contribute to the visibility of the critical feminist theological perspectives in our region,
5) To gather the reflections shared in essays to be published as a collective book.
The participants in this symposium deliberated on how a critical feminist theology framed in intercultural terms may contribute to the empowerment of the current democratic movements that seek to confront, critically and constructively the diverse–and often ambiguous and contested–processes of contemporary globalization. The organizing theme of this symposium was Feminist Intercultural Theology: Religion, Culture, Feminism, and Power . This theme was addressed through a participative-deliberative method that represented to us an epistemological rupture in that, moving away from a centralized and elitist way to produce knowledge, we all engaged in the theoretical activity as learners/teachers, compañeras/aprendices/maestras . All of us brought forth our plural wisdoms and recognized ourselves as a feminist Wisdom group for change and liberation.
The program developed in seven sessions throughout the meeting. In the first session, discussions were focused on the pertinence and challenges of the proposed theme in the context of our particular locations and socio-political processes across the Americas and the Caribbean. In the second session we addressed the perspectives and dimensions (conceptual, analytical, rhetorical, methodological, political, etc.) involved in the theme, goals, and tasks of this symposium. In the third session we discussed the insights provided by contemporary critical feminist thought in view of clarifying the socio-political function of our theological activity for the empowerment of the democratic-transformative movements today. In the fourth session we addressed both the possible problems, limitations, and obstacles to develop a feminist intercultural theology in our region and the possible strategies to confront them. In the fifth session we focused the debate on envisioning and naming the resources, possibilities, contributions, and insights which are already present in our feminist memory, struggles and experience to support the goals of this symposium. In the sixth session, the reflection was held around the possible questions, issues, and topics that we need to develop to continue the exploration of the symposium's theme. As a constant element, the group stressed the need of shifting our concerns from the restricting and limiting rhetoric of “identity politics” to approaches that express the mobility and dynamism of the new social subjects in the global contexts lived today. Finally, in the seventh session, the group produced a preliminary table of contents for the publication of a collective book. This book will gather the contents generated during the previous sessions around the following methodological axes: Wisdom words, epistemological frameworks, hermeneutical instruments, new paradigms, and theological-political knots.
The participants committed themselves to submit their first draft of essays by January, 2005. From January to May, 2005, the essays will be circulated among the participants for the purpose of facilitating transversal reading and the sharing of interpretative methods. The final draft of essays is to be submitted on May, 2005. The editors of the book are María Pilar Aquino and María José Rosado-Nunes.
Crucial to the positive development and outcome of this event was the preparatory phase which was conducted with extraordinary dedication, diligence, and efficiency by the local organizing team composed by Professors Christa Godínez, Mari Carmen Servitje, and María Laura Marique, of the Department of Religious Sciences of Iberoamericana University. Their work provided us with a clear sense of welcoming, safety, friendship, joy, and mutual support, while at the same time they made sure that flowers, music and computers were available to us. The diligent “behind the scenes” work done by Professors Orlando O. Espín and Gary Macy in all phases of this event also contributed greatly to its smooth development and outcome.
A significant feature of our gathering was that of intense moments of celebration through feminist rituals, prayer and spiritual sustenance. We all shared religious symbols, colors, fabrics, music, singing and dancing coming from the different regions of the Americas and the Caribbean. We recognized that our theologies emerge from and pass through our bodies, plural and common at the same time. We see ourselves as bodies of borders beyond borders, willing to enter the paths of nepantla-chakana , journeying together through irreverent roads, crossing sites and social locations through imagination and common political goals, engendering epistemologías peregrinas , reclaiming our right to transgress kyriarchal theologies, drinking with pleasure from different feminist wisdoms and wells, disputing concepts and meanings, and declining the domesticating courtesy of established academies. Our bodies continue to be fashioned by our situated feminist visions and our theologies continue to be renewed by the joys, the tears, the cries, the struggles, and the rhythms that we share both with ourselves and with our communities. We remembered together the hopes and pains of the Women of Juárez, 2 celebrated every effort to bring justice to them and their families, and committed ourselves to continue the struggle to eliminate sexual violence against women. Together with our peoples we want to affirm our common belief that another world is possible. Together, we find support and inspiration for this journey in the feminist legacy of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the first feminist theologian of the Americas. We visited her home, talked with her, she shared with us la luz de su saber and blessed our tasks with her healing waters. We find strength, axé , meaning, and empowerment for our endeavors in Divine Wisdom, whose life-giving presence is there in every corner of the earth, active within the global movements for change and liberation.
Plans are underway for a second Interamerican symposium in 2007 to continue exploring the frameworks and themes of a critical feminist theology in intercultural terms.
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Participants in the 2004 Interamerican Feminist Theology Symposium were:
Prof. Clara Luz Ajo
Seminario Evangélico de Cuba, Matanzas (Cuba)
Prof. María Pilar Aquino
University of San Diego, San Diego, CA (USA)
Prof. Nancy E. Bedford
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, IL (USA), and Instituto Universitario ISEDET, Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Prof. Geraldina Céspedes
Centro Audiovisual de Comunicación y Educación de Guatemala, and Núcleo Mujeres y Teología de Guatemala, Guatemala City (Guatemala), and Pontificia Universidad de Comillas, Madrid (Spain)
Prof. Christa P. Godínez Munguía
Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City (Mexico)
Prof. Michelle A. González
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA (USA)
Prof. Sylvia Regina de Lima Silva
Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana, and Departamento Ecuménico de Investigaciones, San José (Costa Rica)
Prof. Daisy L. Machado
Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX (USA)
Prof. María Laura Manrique Nava
Comunidad Teológica de México, and Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City (Mexico)
Prof. Maricel Mena López
Escola Superior de Teología, and Instituto Ecuménico de Estudos da Religião, São Leopoldo, (Brazil)
Prof. Nancy Pineda-Madrid
St. Mary's College of California, Moraga, CA (USA)
Dr. Yury Puello Orozco
Católicas pelo Direito de Decidir, São Paulo, (Brazil)
Prof. Violeta Rocha Áreas
Facultad Evangélica de Estudio Teológicos, and Centro Inter-eclesial de Estudios Teológicos y Sociales, Managua (Nicaragua)
Prof. Jeanette Rodríguez
Seattle University, Seattle, WA (USA)
Prof. María del Carmen Servitje Montull
Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City (Mexico)
Prof. Olga Consuelo Vélez Caro
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá (Colombia)
Prof. María Cristina Ventura
Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana, San José (Costa Rica)
Prof. María José Rosado-Nunes Fontelas
Pontíficia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, and Católicas Pelo Direito de Decidir, São Paulo, (Brazil)
Prof. Virginia Vargas
The “Flora Tristán” Center of Peruvian Women, Women for Democracy (MUDE), and Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima (Peru)
Ms. Anthonia Beentjes
Centro de Migrantes Latinoamericanos/as, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Prof. Raúl Fornet-Betancourt
Institute of Missiology Missio, Aachen (Germany)
1The understanding of the term Latina is referred to “A person born or raised in the United States of Latin American ancestry,” see “Glossary,” in From The Heart of Our People. Latino/a Explorations in Catholic Systematic Theology , ed. Orlando O. Espín and Miguel H. Díaz, (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999), 262.
2For more information about this, see the website of the Comisión para Prevenir y Erradicar la Violencia contra las Mujeres en Ciudad Juárez (CPEVMCJ o Comisión para Juárez) and related links, http://www.comisioncdjuarez.gob.mx. See also the Report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States, http://www.cidh.org/DefaultE.htm.
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March 29 2008 16:41:13
