August 29, 2017--Settling In

Today the team began our first day of lessons and orientation to Mexico and Cuernavaca. Below are reflections from team:


BISHOP KAREN OLIVETO


This is my second time to come to Cuernavaca to attend this language school. People ask me why I am leading this trip for the Mountain Sky Area. There are several reasons. I believe that we as Christians are called to speak the language of the people God has asked us to serve. As the US population grows increasingly Hispanic, and when 60% of the school children in Denver speak Spanish as their second language, that is a sign for me that we have new things to learn in order to effectively communicate the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As many of you know, our theme for this quadrennium is "Living Into Beloved Community." We in the Mountain Sky Area will be working towards creating peace-filled, healthy, and just communities through the power of unconditional love. We are here in Cuernavaca to learn from practitioners of Liberation Theology, who share that vision with us. Liberation Theology addresses our sin and the ways it exploits and oppresses others. One seeks to view the world through the experience of those who experience such oppression, because the biblical story reveals over and over how God is to be found with the poor and oppressed. In this way, one is moved to be an agent of God's grace by working to eradicate poverty and injustice in order to create a just world.

Mario teaching us about Mexican culture

Today, I saw this in action through the testimony of Mario, one of our instructors. As he was teaching us about Mexican culture, he spoke of how he was raised--like most men in Mexico--to embrace machismo--which is an attitude which holds to traditional understandings of manliness, male power, and roles. A school community opened his eyes to the rights of others: women, indigenous people, the poor, lgbtq persons, the disabled... He began to see the cost of machismo, how his rights were at the expense of the rights of others and also didn't allow him to experience the fullness of life beyond prescribed roles. In spite of derisive and mocking remarks from friends, he began sharing household duties with his wife, and took an equal role in the raising of his two children. He learned more about those he had been taught to "other". He keeps a sign up in his house: "El machismo mata" (machismo kills) as a way to remind himself of why it is vitally important to move beyond machismo in order to create a healthier and more just world.



REV. MELINDA BABER:

Cuernavaca Cathedral

Today was a collage of beauty and travesty, dignity and desperation, in the faces of men and women begging and selling wares  outside the choir singing from within the Cathedral in Cuernavaca. 
Here I am, in a different country and culture, but still in another place in the Americas that has such a pervasive heritage of Christianity's religious traditions... but the salt seems to have lost much of its saltiness.

Both the juxtaposition of the values of the Kingdom of God and Mammon sometimes competing, sometimes colluding, in the same city square, and the signs of the ravages of systemic marginalization and poverty's dehumanization in the sacred faces and mundane marvelous places of Mexico-- these are difficult to comprehend or reconcile. 
I find myself fighting back tears all afternoon. 
In that, it still feels like home.




REV DENISE BENDER:

Cuernavaca Cathedral

Cuernavaca is a city of beautiful plants and flowers as well as colorful and intriguing buildings. As I end my first day I reflect on the busyness of the city and the quiet space at la escuela where we had wonderful classes in Spanish that are focused on our strengths and moving us to a better understanding of this beautiful language.

In the afternoon we ventured by bus to the downtown area where the cathedral and churches poked their bell towers and steeples above the trees. Government buildings - both old and new - were prominent near the city square where families, friends, lovers, and vendors moved to the rhythm of a Cumbian beat.

A full day of community, learning, good food, and the sound of gentle rain has lessened my reluctance to complete my tarea (homework)! Buenos noches.

Learning about religion in Cuernavaca

from instructor Francisco

Our group strolling down a pedestrian mall

to the City Center

ROBIN RIDENOUR:

I came to Cuernavaca 38 years ago to study Spanish.  I don't recognize the city except for the gazebo in the center of downtown.  My first time here, I was young, nervous and anxious about trying to speak Spanish. 

This time, I am grateful for  the sensitivities this school employs to make everyone comfortable to learn and speak Spanish as well as educate us about Mexican history, culture and politics.

REV. DR. YOUNGSOOK KANG:

We finally arrived in Cuernavaca! After a year of planning, a group of us has arrived in
Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico yesterday for a complete language, cultural, and social justice immersion experience. It is only the first day, but I am already falling in love with the way that our host school CETLALIC (http://www.cetlalic.org.mx) teaches the Spanish language and about Mexico’s cultural and justice issues. Their pedagogy of social justice education starts with the recognition of the intersectionality of various aspects of injustice including poverty, gender, LGBTQ community, education and political corruption.

As a real beginner of Spanish language, I am “fiercely” immersing myself in order to learn the
language. One thing I know how to say now is “Me gusta el pan.” (I love the bread.) I love the
bread that they have here. More Spanish expressions to come. But, this is for now. Mucho
Gracias.

REV. BRAD WALSTON:

Tu, y yo – Somos America! The United States is now the second largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world, second only to Mexico. There are more Spanish speakers in the U.S. than there are in Spain! Bishop Karen said something that I think is very important. I often preach about the Beloved Community and some of you are probably aware that the theme of the next quadrennial – the next four-year period for our conference is “Beloved Community.” I don’t know, it just worked out that way, it’s probably a God thing.  Bishop Karen reminded us all today that if aren’t doing something to understand all these people, and their culture, how are we ever going to change the world into more loving and inclusive world for everyone? It’s not just about our local church.

One of the things I that has been front and center in my mind yesterday and today as we arrived and settled into our host homes, is the feeling of isolation that comes from not understanding the language being spoken around you. There’s really nothing much more marginalizing than not having any idea what everyone is talking about – having no idea what the signs say -- or how to ask for help. Many of us know first hand the feeling of being alone in a crowd. It’s much worse if you don’t understand the language. People laugh and talk (maybe even about you, you wonder) and you feel like a true outsider. You feel invisible. This Cuernavaca experience has already given us an experience to help us increase our empathy for the least of these – the sojourner, the refugee, the outsider. I pray that we can remember these feelings when we get home. We can use this experience in our hometowns to understand our foreign neighbors, to welcome them into our Beloved Community, and to help them feel at home there.