Nuestras Naciones, Nuestras Iglesias

Dr. Cruz,

I appreciate the concerns and questions you raise in trying to understand what these missionaries were thinking when they took these 33 children and tried to cross the Haitian/Dominican border. I too really have been trying to wrap my head around what would drive a person or group of people to think that such an action was in any way acceptable. In addition to this, what is really drawing me to this story is the ways that, in light of studying the history of the Christian church in the Americas, it is simply the latest example of a dynamic between Europe, then the United States, and Latin America, that can be traced all the way back to 1492.

I cannot help but see these ten people as the newest generation of American missionaries that have historically rendered invisible entire communities and cultures throughout the Americas in the name of Christianization and Americanization (the U.S. brand). How conscious these particular missionaries are of the legacy that goes before them is unclear. A look back, however, shows that they are not straying far from their foremothers and fathers.

Historically, the missionary project in the Americas has functioned largely in this way – from the earliest days of frontier and borderlands missions in what is now Texas and the southwest to denominational participation in colonizing territories, as in the case with Puerto Rico. In the spirit of manifest destiny, missionaries have ventured out “into the wilderness” of our historical imaginations to play their part in the settling of lands. What is left out of this historical imagination is the communities of people, people who had been living throughout the americas for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. And yet, they were rendered invisible in this missionary imagination.

This dynamic has existed throughout the americas, including Haiti. Another example is in southern Texas, along the border, where a group of students traveled with Dr. Machado in January to study the borderlands region. One of the most striking parts of this history of the borderlands is the way in which European and Euro-american settlers and missionaries disregarded the Mexican and tejano peoples titles to their land despite it being in their families for generations. As evidenced in our visit to the Institute of Texan Culture, these people are absent in the history we tell of Texas. We also met with Catholic priest and theologian Virgilio Elizondo, who shared his struggle as part of the Mexican American community against invisibility and shame in the church. Dr. Machado’s work exposes the protestant denominations neglect of the Mexican American community and culture as well.

So, in a sense, the fact that these people didn’t take into account the families of these children, nor Haitian laws, is nothing new. It is the result of a dangerous mix of good intentions, missionary zeal and American exceptionalism. In my opinion, this makes it all the more reprehensible and dangerous. Given the post-earthquake influx of missionaries of different denominations into Haiti, we must be mindful of how this dynamic could manifest itself, in actions as extreme as the smuggling of children over borders, or in more subtile ways that could result as undermining community organization or culture. If our good intentions render invisible the community in which we are serving, it is all for naught.

To see more on the Borderlands immersion class, visit our class blog.