“Woman of the Year” / “La Mujer del Año”
“Woman of the Year” Sra. Rosa Helia Villa de Mebius was also recently awarded the “Legion of Honor” by the President of France
INTRODUCTION
Recently named Woman of the Year in San Luis Potosi, our friend Rosa Helia Villa de Mebius was recognized for her many and varied contributions to civic life. A member of Central Christian Church in San Luis, Rosa thanked us for attending the event in the capital city’s Teatro de la Paz where the governor presented her the award. We’ve enjoyed the way the March 8 International Day of Women is celebrated in Mexico; this year’s commemoration of Rosa Villa will be hard to top.
Rosa’s leadership in conserving the 400 year old city’s architectural treasures led to its official status as a Zone of Monuments. Her advocacy for women’s rights resulted in her publishing the first book written on women in the State of San Luis Potosi. She has taught at the university level, worked as a journalist and public relations officer and as a grandchild of Pancho Villa has labored to present a more intimate, truthful portrait of the mythical figure of the Mexican Revolution.
Shortly after she received the award, Rosa welcomed us to an interview in her home to introduce her to you. She began the conversation by sharing news of progress in finding a distributor for the film based on her book, Villa: Itinerary of a Passion. After winning awards at film festivals in New York, Montreal, Honolulu and St. Tropez, she now looks forward to the film Amorous Pancho Villa ‘s premiere in the States.
Married to the San Luis architect Jorge Mebius Isbrandt, now deceased, for 39 years, Rosa is the mother of two sons. She concludes her 2009 book The Image and the Reality of Women in San Luis Potosi (Imagen y Presencia de la Mujer Potosina) with a vision of the expanded role of women in all areas of civic life in the future. Her imagining of women freed to fulfill their potential as human beings ends with this tribute to Mexican mothers: “We will continue to be moved by the heroic devotion, sacrifice and love of Mexican mothers who give of themselves for their families as they always have.”
THE INTERVIEW
In your life as a public figure, what among your many contributions to civic life would you like most like to be remembered for?
The books I’ve written about the Region of San Luis Potosi. There are fourteen books and several treat the history and culture of the State of San Luis Potosi. One of the most important of these is The Religious Art of San Luis Potosi .
You’ve told us that your family left the Catholic Church as a result of your grandmother’s relationship with Pancho Villa. What was that about?
When my great grandmother learned that her daughter was intent on marrying a man who was already married, it drove her crazy. “How in the world could she do this? A married man?” Those were the questions that she couldn’t stop asking herself. Villa, for his part, was determined to get along with his beloved Lupe’s parents and sent members of his “security
Pancho Villa with Rosa’s Grandmother Lupe on the Cover of “Itinerary of a Passion”
guard” to try to reason with them; the only thing they accomplished was to learn that the parents had sent Lupe to another village, Ranchos de Santiago, Chihuahua to be exact. So the response of Villa’s men was “Well, okay, we’ll go see Lupe there.” And Villa sent Lupe the message, “I’m coming for you soon.” He went to the village by train, picked up Lupe there and they had two days on the train together honeymooning.
After Lupe became pregnant, the Bishop of Chihuahua blessed the couple in a ceremony on board the same train. As a result, my great grandmother Toñia refused to recognize Lupe as her daughter any more and gathered up every prayer book, rosary, religious picture and icon in the house, put them all in a pile and set it all on fire.
Now due to all the mines in Chihuahua, there were more Protestant churches than Catholic in the State, and one day Toñia was strolling in the nearby town and heard a hymn coming from a Protestant Church. She listened and several members of the church invited her to come in off the sidewalk. Within a few months, all her remaining children had been baptized in the Methodist Church of Chihuahua.
I understand that you grew up in Durango. What brought you to San Luis Potosi? I lived in Durango as a child but was living in Mexico City when the national Health Service decided they would build a chain of new hospitals across the country. The architect Jorge Mebius worked for a company that won the contract to build the hospital in San Luis Potosi and on the weekends for two years he would come to visit me in Mexico City. After two years of visits, he asked me to marry him and I, well I was crazy in love with him, I of course accepted. I married him and came to live in this house. We were married and lived here together for 39 years.
In the early 80’s the President of Mexico gifted a statue of Pancho Villa to the City of Tucson and quite a brouhaha broke out over accepting the statue and
Pancho Villa Statue in downtown Tucson
then where to place it in the city. There was a lot of opposition to the City even accepting the gift. Why should the United States honor your grandfather Pancho Villa?
Well, I really don’t know, but a year after the burial of Pancho Villa 50 U.S. citizens who had joined Villa’s air force as pilots and mechanics honored him. On the anniversary of the burial, they went up in their planes and dropped on the cemetery 10,000 Hawaian orchids. 50 men were part of this tribute! In the town of Columbus, New Mexico, the only town in the U.S. that Villa attacked, there’s a Pancho Villa museum, the main street is named “Francisco Villa Avenue” and the most popular restaurant is called “Pancho Villa”. The museum invited me to participate in an event and I kept asking myself, “Why?” Considering that Villa had come and done some real damage to the town. And I had to be content with the thought that none of the townfolk of our day were around when it happened and those that were weren’t killed in the raid.
I had an interview on CNN in English and they asked the same thing. Why? And I just said I still don’t know. I don’t understand but those 50 men who knew Villa honoring him with 10,000 orchids. It’s fantastic!
We conclude this introduction to this remarkable woman with some words she wrote for her book The Image and the Reality of the Potosina Woman
“When sexism is ended, there will not be “liberated women” but free human beings. Free to choose this or that for themselves, free to be or not to be as Shakespeare put it – and that’s the question we all always face. Certainly there will be females who betray themselves and others but there will be more heroines. And there will still be those who have to pay for their freedom.”
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Agradecemos a nuestros amigos queridos Hemer Sierra Silva y Marisela Huelga Diaz de Leon por su ayuda con la entrevista y la traducción de esta Introducción
INTRODUCCIÓN
Recientemente nombrada como: “Mujer del Año” en San Luis Potosí, nuestra amiga Rosa Helia Villa de Mebius, ha sido reconocida por sus muchas y variadas contribuciones a la vida cívica. Miembro de la Iglesia Cristiana Central “Discípulos de Cristo” de San Luis Potosí, Rosa nos agradeció por haber asistido al evento celebrado en el Teatro de la Paz de la capital, en donde el Gobernador del Estado, le otorgó la Presea. Nos hemos gozado en la manera que se celebra en México el Día Mundial de la Mujer y la conmemoración a Rosa Villa en este año será algo difícil de igualar.
El liderazgo de Rosa en la conservación de los tesoros arquitectónicos de la antigua ciudad de San Luis Potosi ha logrado el reconocimiento oficial de: “Zona de Monumentos”. Su defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer y su Advocación por el avance de la mujer en el Estado de San Luis Potosí ha resultado en la publicación del primer libro escrito sobre la mujer en la historia del Estado. Ella ha enseñado a nivel universitario, trabajó como periodista y Directora de Relaciones Publicas en la Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi; como nieta de Pancho Villa ha trabajado en presentar una más intimo y verdadera aspecto de la mítica imagen de la Revolución Mexicana.
Un poco después de haber recibido la Presea, Rosa nos permitió entrevistarla en su hogar, para poder presentarla ante Uds. Ella inició la conversación compartiendo la noticia del avance en encontrar una distribuidora para su película basada en uno de sus libros: Villa: Itinerario de una Pasión” . Después de ganar Premios en los Festivales Cinematograficos de Nueva York, Montreal, Honolulú y St Tropez, ella espera ahora la premier de la película “Pancho Villa Amoroso” en Estados Unidos.
Casada con el Arquitecto Potosino, Jorge Mebius Isbrandt , ya fallecido, Rosa es madre de dos hijos. Concluyó el libro escrito en el 2009, “La Imagen y Presencia de la Mujer Potosina” con una visión de la expansión en el futuro de ellas en su rol en todas las áreas de la vida cívica. Se imagina la liberación del potencial de la mujer como seres humanos y termina con un homenaje a las madres Mexicanas, “Y seguiremos viendo los sempiternos ejemplos de heroínas, entrega, devoción y amor de las madres mexicanas comprometidas con sus familias, como siempre”.
LA ENTREVISTA
¿En su vida como personaje público y entre sus múltiples contribuciones a la vida cultural por la cual prefiere ser reconocida?
“Los libros que escribi sobre la historia regional de San Luis Potosí. Hay como 14 libros y varios tratan de la historia de esta región, su cultura y arte. Uno mas importante trata sobre El Arte Religioso de San Luis Potosí.”
Nos dijo antes de que su familia había dejado la Iglesia Católica a causa de la relación de su abuela con Francisco Villa. ¿Qué pasó en la familia en esa época?
“Cuando mi bisabuela supo que su hija Lupe iba a casarse con un hombre casado se puso como loca. “¿Como de que con un hombre casado? ¿Cómo puede suceder esto?”, fueron las preguntas que se hacía de bisabuela. Villa, por su parte, quiso acercarse a la mamá y al papá de su querida Lupe y mandó su cuerpo de seguridad a hablar con ellos. Aquellos se enteraron de que los papás habían mandado a Lupe a otro rancho, Los Ranchos de Santiago, Chihuahua precisamente . Y la respuesta de los hombres de Villa fue nada más que, “Bueno, vamos por Lupe allá”. Y Villa mandó a Lupe el mensaje, “voy por ti”. Él se fue al rancho a bordo de su tren y luego subió a Lupe al mismo para pasarse dos días de “Luna de Miel” ahí. Cuando se embarazó Lupe el Obispo de Chihuahua bendijo el matrimonio en una ceremonia a bordo del tren.
Entonces mi bisabuela Toñia renunció a reconocer a Lupe como su hija y recogió todas las imágenes, cuadros, sus rosarios, los misarios y no se que mas. Se llevó todo a una pila y les prendió fuego.
Y como en Chihuahua había mas iglesias Evangélicas que Católicas, debido a las minas, un cierto día caminando Doña Toñia por un pueblo cercano oyó un himno y se detuvo. La gente de la iglesia la invitó a que pasara. En pocos meses se bautizaron todos sus hijos, en esa Iglesia Metodista de Chihuahua”.
¿Entonces por qué se desplazó usted de Durango a San Luis Potosí?
Vivi en Durango como niña pero vivía en Mexico Distrito Federal cuando el Seguro Social de México se comprometió a construir hospitales por todo el país. El Arq. Jorge Mebius trabajaba en una compañía que ganó el contrato para construir el hospital en San Luis Potosí y durante dos años los fines de semana iba hasta Mexico a visitarme. Después de dos años me pidió la mano y como no, acepté pues estaba yo loca de amor por él. Vine aquí para vivir en ésta casa. Estuve casada con él durante 39 años.
El Presidente de México en los años 80 le regaló a la ciudad de Tucson una estatua de Villa y esto desató mucha discusión en aquel entonces sobre aceptar y en donde colocar tal estatua. Muchos se opusieron a que la ciudad aceptara este donativo. ¿Por qué los de EE UU debían honrar a Pancho Villa?
Bueno, no sé, pero un año después del entierro de Pancho Villa lo honraron 50 ciudadanos norteamericanos que habían luchado por Villa como pilotos y mecánicos de su Fuerza Aérea. Estos hombres subieron a sus aviones ese día de aniversario del entierro de Villa y derramaron 10 mil orquídeas Hawaianas en el camposanto en donde él está enterrado. ¡50 hombres honrándolo!. En Columbus, Nueva México, es la única ciudad que invadió Villa y existe el “Museo Francisco Villa”, la calle principal se llama “Francisco Villa”, y el restaurante más importante del pueblo se llama “Pancho Villa”. El Museo me invitó para participar en un evento y yo me pregunté ¿por qué?. Tomando en cuenta de que Pancho Villa si vino y causó daños en Columbus. Y pensé que ellos de Columbus de hoy no experimentaron ellos mismos lo que pasó y no tuvieron muertos.
Tuve una entrevista en el CNN en inglés y me preguntaron lo mismo. ¿Por que? Y no lo sé hasta ahora. No entiendo pero los hombres, quienes lo conocieron en su tiempo, le regalaron 10 mil orquídeas. ¡Fantástico!
Concluyamos con estas palabras escritas por Rosa Villa de Mebius en su libro Imagen y Presencia de la Mujer Potosina:
“Al acabar con el sexismo habrá, no mujeres liberadas, sino seres humanos libres. Libres para optar por esto o aquello, libres para ser o no ser, lo que como bien apunto Shakespeare, es el eterno dilema. Sin duda habrá más villanas, pero veremos más heroínas. Es el costo de la libertad.”
“La Joya Divina” Transforming a Community
La Joya women on front row with Pastor Francisco at left met the U.S. Women to Women delegation last year
More than a six hour drive from San Luis Potosi through mountains and hills, the town of Xilitla is nestled at the bottom of a mountain in the Sierra Huasteca Region. Throughout this Region live some of the indigenous peoples of Mexico who have held on to forms of the original Aztec (Nahuatl) and Mayan languages and whose lifestyle bears many signs and characteristics of how people in Mexico lived before the Spanish conquest. Flight to these mountain retreats promised an escape from other Indian cultural groups as well as from the Spanish. Today, the cool mountain breezes and
A statue of the Huastec culture carved from stone around 1400 AD
natural beauty of the area have made the Huasteca a favored destination for summer vacationers from all over Mexico and elsewhere.
For several decades, two churches in the Region have maintained contact with Disciples of Christ churches in cities and towns of the State of San Luis Potosi and surrounding States. Last year, the national Disciples Women organization began a coffee project to enable purchase of the high quality Huasteca-grown coffee from women of the Church in “La Joya” (the jewel in English). Although less than a year in operation, the “La Joya Divina” project has benefited women and families in the Huasteca in some significant ways. For an update on the project, funded initially by a grant from the UCC/Disciples of Christ Global Ministries, we interviewed a month ago the Coordinator of “La Joya Divina” Sra. Nohemi Nidia Bravo Pardo.
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Se maneja por mas de seis horas desde San Luis Potosí, atreves de montañas y colinas, hasta el pueblo de Xilitla, que está arropado en el fondo de una montaña en la Sierra en la Región de la Huasteca Potosina. En esta Región viven indígenas, quienes han mantenido las lenguas Huasteca y Azteca y cuyo estilo y costumbres de vida guardan mucha similitud con los habitantes del México de antes de la Conquista Española. Un vuelo a estos retiros promete un escape de otras culturas, así como de la Española. Actualmente, la brisa fresca de la montaña y la belleza natural de esta área ha hecho de la Huasteca Potosina un destino favorito de los vacacionistas de México y de otras partes.
Waterfalls with pools abound in the Huasteca
Durante varias décadas, dos Iglesias de la Región han mantenido contacto con las Iglesias Discípulos de Cristo del Estado de San Luis Potosí y Estados circunvecinos. El año pasado, la organización de la Sociedad Feminil de los Discípulos de Cristo en Mexico, iniciaron un Proyecto para poder comprar el café Huasteco de alta calidad vendido por las mujeres de la Iglesia de “La Joya”. Aun con un Proyecto de escaso un año de iniciado el projecto “La Joya Divina” ha beneficiado a mujeres y familias de la Huasteca de una manera significativa. Nos llena de satisfacción el avance del Proyecto y el aporte económico de los Ministerios Globales de la UCC/Discípulos de Cristo que proveyeron la semilla de los fondos. Aqui abajo es una entrevista con la Sra. Nohemí Nidia Bravo Pardo, Coordinadora de “La Joya Divina”.
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We thank Sr. Hemer Sierra Silva for his Spanish translation of the introduction. Below is the interview translated from the original Spanish transcript. Several photos follow the Spanish text.
What is the “La Joya Divina” (The Divine Jewel) project of the Disciples
A platform next to the La Joya Church for drying coffee
Women in Mexico?
In the Huasteca area of the State of San Luis Potosi, indigenous men and women are taken advantage of in their sale of the coffee they have grown. They sell their picked, unprocessed coffee at two and a half pesos the kilo. Those who buy it, grind it and sell it at 30 pesos the kilo. The Board of the Disciples Women agreed in our 2012-13 program year to buy their processed coffee ready for consumption at a just price and sell it on our own. That is to say, we committed to help them with the marketing and sale of their coffee. To carry the project out, they named me as Coordinator, responsible for organizing the sale of the coffee.
So I, as the Coordinator, am accountable to the Executive Committee of the Disciples Church and to the Board of the Disciples Women. They supervise the project.
Describe for us the conditions in the Huasteca area
I became President of the Disciples Women for the 2012-13 program year and in 2012 made a visit to our churches in the Huasteca noting that their needs had increased since the last time I visited. Instead of the deep poverty there diminishing, it had actually increased. Our sisters and brothers there were not eating well; they ate twice a day and were usually restricted to a diet of tortillas, beans and coffee. That was it. But the feeling among them was this is what we have and we are going to be content with what we have. All those who went on that trip picked up on that feeling and were moved by it – that is, my sister in law, my husband and children and Jemimah Duran, the current President of Disciples Women. When we got there, the women came out of the forest and always offered us something to eat. It was a package containing what they ate – folded over tortillas with chiles inside – and a lot of it. We were really touched.
We had thought about a coffee project before but without the resources we had gotten nowhere. But the same year as this Huasteca visit the possibility of some startup funds presented itself. We became aware that year that Global Ministries in the U.S. was going to provide Disciples Women in Mexico with around $7000 for micro enterprise development. So we were ready to consider helping the women in the Xilitla area of the Huasteca with this project. Other Board members of the Disciples Women were quite aware of the situation in the Huasteca (the annual DW retreat had been held there a few years ago, ed.) and we agreed this was the best use of the funds. So what was our plan at the time? Well, we saw it as “commercializing the coffee production” of women in the area.
So how did you go about the start up of the “La Joya Divina” project?
La Joya Church sign
We organize trips we call Volunteer Mission Trips to the Huasteca’s La Joya Disciples of Christ Church with the intention of buying coffee from the women there and returning with it to the cities and towns of other Disciples women to sell the coffee. This year we plan to make at least 4 trips to buy and bring back more coffee. This coming Monday Mary Helen from the Los Retes Church on the edge of San Luis Potosi (who has visited regularly the La Joya Church since 2010) will be taking a group from the Guadalupe, Zacatecas Church to the Huasteca. These Mission Trip participants are responsible for covering their expenses and another group has already volunteered to go in March.
In the La Joya Church there are 15 women actively participating in the project processing and selling the coffee to us. AmoTng them is a Project Coordinator Dolores Anaya. Her role is to gather up and buy the coffee from the women, package it up and keep the accounts and deposit in the bank the payments I send when she mails us coffee between the trips we are making.
So what are the benefits for the participants you’ve seen so far?
The first time we bought coffee from the women one of them told us how her son had been admitted to “Prepa” (three year preparation for university equivalent to last years of high school in U.S., ed.) but had been told that without purchasing a uniform and the required books he wouldn’t be able to attend. She of course had been saddened by the fact there was no way they could buy these for him. When we paid her for the coffee she began to cry and asked if she could bring another gunny sack full of coffee to sell. On her return she told us she had never before earned cash for herself and her family. She then went to buy the uniform for the boy. It was very satisfying for us to see how the project had helped this woman in a practical, concrete way.
There is also a financial benefit for the women in the cities and towns who are selling the coffee. We take them the coffee and let them have it on consignment; when they sell it they send us the money for however many kilos they have received. Whatever profit they have in the sale they get to keep. So this is another group benefiting from the project.
How did the Disciples begin this relationship with the Huasteca Region?
Around 35 years ago Pastor Bernabe Lara of the Disciples Julien Carillo Church in San Luis Potosi got to know and work with Pastor Francisco Hernandez who was serving three churches in the Huasteca including the La Joya Church. A little while later, Pastor Francisco decided to bring his churches into the Disciples with the support of the Julien Carillo Church. So members of Julien Carillo began to visit the Huasteca at least once a year. I grew up in that Church so I too had the opportunity to go but then around the year 2000 we sort of lost contact with the churches there. Aside from the difficulty of getting to the Huasteca there is the poverty one has to deal with. Around 2008 we began thinking about how we could really help the people there. We were sending some offerings to the churches but we wanted to find another way to help. At that time we didn’t consider how the people there grow coffee and process it, and although it was all done by hand it was good quality coffee.
How has the project affected the traditional gender roles of the culture? How do the men see the women now that they are earning some money from the coffee sales?
Well the man has been the one to provide and care for the physical needs of the family. And the women is to look after the family and stay in the house, toasting the
Some of the coffee project participants with Doug outside the Church
coffee on a comal and grinding it, all domestic labor. Now although normally it is the men who cultivate the coffee plants and harvest the coffee and the women who process it, there are now men who want to be involved in all of it.
In the Sierra Huasteca women normally do not speak up. Even now when we visit the women will sit quietly some with their heads bowed. This complicated the beginning of the project as we would present the plan and the women would say nothing.
So we would ask who wants to participate in the project, who wants to process and sell coffee to us and we would not get a response. Then one day Dolores raised her hand and asked if I could explain what we proposed in the Nahuatl language. They normally only talk Nahuatl among themselves. When I described the project in their language, there was more of a response. We learned from what they said that the women do not bring in money for the household. They look after the family. There are women who do earn something but they are the housekeepers who leave the Huasteca and go work for a family in the cities.
Although it brings changes, the project since it comes from the Church has not faced any opposition. In fact, there are now men who want to help out the project. There’s a man who has volunteered to take Dolores to Xilitla any time she needs to mail us a coffee order with the help of the overnight delivery service. There’s also a local council made up of respected men in the community. Normally it is these men who guide the community through moral and political issues. For example, if someone wants to marry a person who is not from the community, it is the local council who must give their approval. So we asked ourselves if we would need to present the project to them for their approval. Without our making a formal presentation they let it be known that since we were from the Church and were clearly honorable, honest people there would be no problem. That was really good news for us as it showed us that the Church in La Joya really carried some weight among the people. It was also good to know that although the gender roles are so very rigid in their culture they saw us women of the city as not representing any threat to them.
What are the future plans for the project?
We plan to be able to recoup the original investment of 85,000 pesos (the help from Global Ministries) within three years. We’ve been at it only a little over six months and have already brought in 12,000 pesos which encourages us to think that we are on track to begin the second stage in three years. The project has three stages. The first consisted of the investment in a scale, packages, sacks and the coffee and we still need to buy a packages’ sealer. In the second stage we want to “semi industrialize” the processing of the coffee for sale. “Semi industrialize” would include building a site to prepare the coffee for export. That means having a toaster machine and packaging equipment at the site. We could build a plant next to the church in La Joya but lack of power would be the challenge right now. So we’ve projected a 2020 date for the building and having everything ready for exporting the coffee. And the third stage of the project is to begin another project elsewhere to develop the local economy and opportunities for women.
Are there benefits other than the financial and economic for the participants in this project?
Yes, there is more openness now among those who participate. The way they relate to us women of the city is different. Before the lines were clearly drawn: we are from the Sierra and you all are from the cities. Before they emphasized the difficulties they had in taking part in events organized by Disciples Women. Now one of the woman has told us there is no excuse for them not to participate in such events even when they take place several hours away. Evidence of their commitment in that area is how they now have set aside funds for some of their women to go to these events. It has also really impressed me how they are talking about now being able to help the Church and the pastor with their needs.
What about benefits for women of the city?
We’ve talked about the fact that some of the women earn from their sale of the coffee which they buy at a wholesale price. Even at wholesale prices, what they pay promises to be enough to pay something to those who are now coordinating the project, Mary Helen and I in the cities of San Luis Potosi and Guadalajara and Dolores in La Joya. This project comes from God (“divina”, ed.) and as such it promises to benefit us in economic terms as well as the women in the Huasteca. We hope to learn and experience that a business such as this can bless us and others in many ways.
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Gracias al hermano Hemer Sierra Silva por la traduccion en Espanol de la introduccion que se halla arriba. Unas photos se muestran despues de la entrevista.
Entrevista con Nohemí Nidia Bravo Pardo
¿Que es el proyecto Mujer a Mujer “La Joya Divina” de las Sociedades Femeniles de los Discípulos?
En la Huasteca Potosina, en la parte de la Sierra de Xilitla, los hermanos y hermanas estaban explotados en su venta de su café. Vendían su café a dos pesos con cincuenta centavos el kilo de café seco. Los que compraban su café lo vendían a 30 pesos o más. La Directiva de la Unión de Sociedades Femeniles en el año 2012-2013 acordamos comprar el café listo para consumir de ellos y pagar un precio justo. Es decir nos comprometimos a “comercializar el café”. Al cambio de la directiva me nombraron como encargada del Proyecto, con la responsabilidad de venderlo.
Yo, como Coordinadora del proyecto Mujer a Mujer “La Joya Divina” doy cuentas al Comité Ejecutivo de la Confraternidad y a la Unión de Sociedades Femeniles. Ellos son los que supervisan este proyecto.
Describe las condiciones actuales en la Sierra.
Yo llegue a ser Presidente de la Unión nacional de las mujeres en 2012-13 y visite la Huasteca en 2012 viendo que la carestía era mayor a diferencia a lo que había visto en años anteriores que había ido. En lugar de disminuir la pobreza aumentaba. Los hermanos no comen bien, lo máximo que comen es dos veces al día y su comida regularmente es tortilla, frijol y café. No hay más. Pero el sentido fue siempre este es lo que tenemos y este es lo que vamos a disfrutar. Este satisfacción lo proyectaron a los que fuimos, mi cuñada, mi esposo, mi hijo y mi hija y Jemimah (actual Presidente de la Sociedad Fem). Cuando llegamos las hermanas salieron de entre los arboles con un bulto a ofrecernos algo de comer, la comida de ellos y era tortillas dobladas con chile y las ofrecieron con liberalidad. Fue un momento emotivo.
Y fue entonces en 2012 que nos informaron que había posibilidad de recibir ayuda para este proyecto que ya estaba pensado desde antes, pero no teníamos los recursos para llevarlo a cabo. A través de la programa de la Mesa Conjunta (hubo un donativo de alrededor de $7000 US de la parte de Ministerios Globales), con lo que se inició la ayuda a La Joya, Xilitla en S.L.P. La Directiva de la Sociedad Femenil como conocemos la situación de la Sierra Huasteca votamos para destinar los recursos y ayudar con estos fondos. ¿Que vamos a hacer? Bueno, “comercializar café”. El objetivo en aquel entonces fue “la comercialización del café”.
Y que hicieron ustedes para que “La Joya Divina” con la ayuda de Ministerios Globales arrancará?
Organizamos lo que llamamos Viajes Misiones Fraternales a la iglesia de La Joya en la Sierra Huasteca, pagamos al contado el café y lo llevamos a los de la ciudad que están vendiendo. A partir de este año 2014 realizaremos 4 viajes al año. Este lunes que viene por ejemplo Elena de la Iglesia de Los Retes en San Luis Potosí (que empezó a visitar constantemente a partir del ano 2010, ed.) con un grupo de la Iglesia Discípulos de Guadalupe en Zacatecas salen para la Sierra. Y ellos asumen sus propios gastos. Otro grupo sale en marzo para visitar, comprar y llevar café. Al menos cuatro visitas al año.
Aha en la Iglesia Discípulos de La Joya participan activamente 15 hermanas en el proyecto haciendo el procesamiento y vendiendo el café. Tenemos una coordinadora entre las 15 participantes que es la hermana Dolores Anaya. Su función es recolectar el café, comprarlo, ponerlo en paquete y manejar la cuenta bancaria en la cual hago depósitos ella lo envía por paquetería o si alguien viaje nos lo manda.
Ya han visto ustedes unos beneficios para las participantes?
Un testimonio que me impacto mucho fue de una hermana que después de la primera compra que hicimos nos dijo que su hijo había estado aceptado por entrar en la Preparatoria pero la habían dicho que sin uniforme y sin la compra de los libros el no podía entrar a la Prepa. Y ella estaba muy triste por que no tenia dinero para comprárselo nada. Cuando la pagamos por su café empezó a llorar y nos pregunto si podía traer más café hasta un costal más. Cuando vino con más café nos dijo ella que fue la primera vez que vio un fruto de su trabajo. Fue para comprar el uniforme y se lo llevo al muchacho. Fue algo muy grato, muy satisfactorio sentir como esa compra la ayudo.
Ahora hay tambien beneficio financiero para unas mujeres Discípulos de las ciudades en donde venden el café en sus lugares. Se lo entregamos el café a ellas a consignación y nos pagan con el pago que reciben para el café.
Cuando ellas lo venden van a pagar el costo por el kilo y su ganancia es de ellos. Este es el segundo grupo que se ha beneficiado de este proyecto.
Como empezó la obra de los Discípulos en la Sierra Huasteca?
Hace unos anos (alrededor de 35 anos, ed.) el pastor de la Iglesia Discípulos Julián Carillo, Pastor Bernabé Lara, (originario de la iglesia de Los Peregrinos) conocía al Pastor Francisco Hernandez que servia en dos iglesias en la Huasteca incluyendo la Iglesia de La Joya. Y un tiempo después Pastor Francisco se decidió afiliarse con los Discípulos con el apoyo de los de la Iglesia Julián Carillo. Entonces los de Julián Carillo visitaba la Huasteca mínimo una vez al ano. Yo crecí en esa iglesia y tuve la oportunidad de visitar pero desde el ano alrededor de 2000 hubo un tiempo de poco contacto. Además de lo difícil el acceso a esa zona para nosotros en SLP hay también la pobreza. Y alrededor de 2008 empezamos a pensar como podemos ayudar. Buscamos otra forma a parte de llevar ofrendas otra forma de ayudar. Habia perdido de vista que en esa zona hay café y que los hermanos saben procesar el café, en manera rustica pero saben hacerlo bien y es un café de muy buena calidad.
¿Como ha afectado el desarrollo del proyecto los roles tradicional del genero? ¿Como vieron los hombres de la comunidad a las participantes cuando empezaron a ganar mas con su venta del café?
Como el hombre esta para proveer y para cuidar. Y la mujer para estar en casa, para la crianza de los hijos, para tostar el café, para labores domesticas totalmente. Ahora aunque normalemente los hombres cultivan y recogen el café y se lo entregan a las mujeres para procesar ya hay unos hombres que están involucrados en el todo.
Para las mujeres en la Sierra normalmente las mujeres no hablan. Cuando vamos a visitar no hablan, a veces se asientan con cabeza agachada. Fue un poco complicada cuando empezamos el proyecto por que nosotros explicamos los beneficios y no decían nada.
Entonces preguntábamos quienes quieren participar, quienes podrían hacer la producción y no recibimos respuesta. Pero una vez la hermana Dolores levanto la mano y nos pregunto “¿Se los puedo explicar en Nahuatl?” Por que en la Sierra entre ellos hablan en Nahuatl. Y cuando los explico en Nahuatl tuvimos un poco mas de respuesta. Nos dimos cuenta que la mujer no gana activamente en la comunidad. Ellas tienen la familia. Hay muchachas que salen a trabajar como trabajadora en casas pero tienen que irse a otro estado a hacerlo.
Hasta ahorita como el proyecto es de la iglesia no hemos tenido reacciones desfavorables. De hecho hay hermanos que respaldan a las hermanas en el proyecto. Hay un hermano que la lleva a la hermana Dolores cada vez que quiere llevar café hasta Xilitla para mandarlo hacia nosotros. También hay un consejo local conformado por miembros respectados en la comunidad. Normalmente son ellos que moralmente administran la comunidad. Por ejemplo si alguien de La Joya quiere casarse con una persona afuera de la comunidad hay que pedir permiso a esas personas. Entonces lo que nos preguntábamos era si seria necesario tener aprobación del proyecto por estas personas. Y nos dijeron que como era de la iglesia y como eramos gente honorable no es un problema. Fue muy buena noticia para nosotros. Y que la iglesia La Joya tiene reconocimiento por la comunidad. Aunque es muy marcado los roles de genero no hemos (las mujeres de la ciudad ed.) experimentado ningún rechazo de la parte de los hermanos.
¿Cuales son los planes para el desarrollo de “La Joya Divina” en el futuro?
Nosotros pensamos que vamos a recuperar la primera inversión de 85 mil pesos (la ayuda de Ministerios Globales) dentro de 3 anos. Ya llevamos medio ano y hemos recibido hasta ahora 12 mil pesos lo cual nos alienta planear que en tres anos vamos a recuperar la inversión y empezar la segunda etapa del proyecto. Nuestro proyecto tiene tres etapas. La primera inversión fue para comprar basculas, paquetes, bolsas y tenemos aun que comprar una selladora y la compra del café. En la segunda etapa queremos semi-industrializar el proceso de preparar el café para la venta. Semi industrializar la producción y preparar lo necesario incluso un sitio para exportar el café. Entonces construir un local para preparar el café con tostadora, paquetería y todo. Podríamos erigirlo allá cerca del templo de La Joya pero la cuestión de la energía ahora nos impediría. De todos modos pusimos la fecha del año 2020 para lograr con este plan. Y la tercera etapa que proyectamos para 2021 seria patrocinar otro proyecto de ayuda en otro lugar.
Hay unos beneficios a parte de lo financiero para las mujeres que participan en el proyecto?
Si, entre las que participan hay mas apertura. La forma de relacionarse es diferente a como la que veía antes. Si antes fue muy marcada nosotros somos de la Sierra y ustedes son de la ciudad. Antes las hermanas veían que era muy difícil que ellas participen en los eventos de la Sociedad Feminil como Confraternidad que tenemos. Ahora no, una hermana nos dijo que ya no hay pretexto para decir que nosotros no tenemos. Ahora pueden convivir con nosotros. Yo creo que lograron avances en todas las áreas, hasta armaron un plan que van a apartar una porción de lo que ganan del proyecto para participar en los eventos de la Sociedad Femenil de la Confraternidad. Y también me llamo mucho la atención que han hablado que de sus ingresos van a apoyar a la iglesia en caso de necesidad del pastor o otra necesidad.
Y beneficios para las de la ciudad? –
Las hermanas de la ciudad, tiene también un beneficio económico se les da un precio de mayoreo y la ganancia de la venta es para ellas, y lo que pagan va directo al proyecto. Elena y yo, no recibimos algún salario por lo que hacemos en cuestión de coordinación y viajes, pero esperamos ya que este consolidado el proyecto también poder recibir ayuda. La “Joya Divina” proviene de Dios y creemos que Dios nos bendecirá también en la área económica. Como a través de un negocio se puede bendecir a nosotros y a los demás.
The freshly painted Cuilinilco Disciples Church an hour hike from La Joya Church
Coffee and oranges are the “cash crops” in the La Joya area
Coffee Project Coordinator Dolores Anaya in her kitchen. Grinder for coffee is seen in background with a bowl cover.
Dolores purchasing coffee from a La Joya household
A Mission Volunteer tries out the coffee grinder
The first step in grinding the coffee beans. The wooden mortar and pestle resembles the essential tool used in Africa and worldwide.
Toasting the coffee beans on a hot comal
Mission Volunteers preparing the coffee purchased for the trip to the city
Nohemi Bravo is selling coffee after presenting the project at a church in San Luis Potosi
The coffee project will be a major theme at the Disciples Women’s Retreat this year
Will the coffee project help enable families on the mountain to begin cooking with gas or electricity?
A new strain of disease resistant coffee plants supplied by the State line the front of this house
A poster on the wall of Dolores’ home warns coffee growers of a new pest to guard against
Xilitla is a bustling town, and a tourist attraction, 20 minutes down the mountain by truck
The La Joya delegation at the Mujer a Mujer event prepare to sing in
Spanish although they mostly use Nahuatl in their worship
Becoming a New Person at Huentepec/Llegando a Ser Una Nueva Persona al Campamento Huentepec
Hemer is a 1950’s Grad of Oklahoma State in Chemical Engineering
We are happy to share the following testimony written by a beloved friend to accompany the previous posting of Erasing Borders, “A Camp to Remember/Un Campamento Inolvidable”. Sixty two years ago, Hemer E. Sierra Silva attended the Huentepec Camp of Disciples of Christ youth in Mexico and it changed his life forever. After he read the Huentepec article on the blog, he told us he had always wanted to write about his own Huentepec experience and here below is his testimony.
Hemer, wife Marisela, and children Cynthia (Cindy), Ernesto and Edgar were among the first people we met in San Luis Potosi and have since made us feel part of the family. Doug loves listening to Hemer’s stories about his youth and his forty years working as a chemical engineer with the national oil company PEMEX. He occasionally joins in the conversation of Hemer and a group of friends who want to keep up their English. On first meeting Kate, Marisela volunteered to be one of her Spanish teachers and they now seem destined to remain lifelong friends.
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Compartimos con gusto el siguiente testimonio que escribió el querido amigo, quien colaboró en el anterior articulo de Borrando Fronteras “Un Campamento Inolvidable”.
Hace sesenta y dos años, Hemer Ernesto Sierra Silva ,asistió por primera vez al “Campamento Huentepec” de los jóvenes Discípulos de Cristo, el cual cambió su vida para siempre. Después de que leyó el artículo en el blog, nos comentó que él siempre había deseado escribir algo sobre su experiencia personal en el Campamento Huentepec y esto es lo que escribió.
Hemer, su esposa Marisela y sus hijos Cynthia (Cindy), Ernesto y Edgar son de las primeras personas que conocimos en San Luis Potosí y son quienes nos hicieron sentir como en familia.
A Douglas le gusta oír los relatos ( sus hijos les llaman “Pato aventuras”) sobre su juventud y los treinta años laborando como Ingeniero Químico en PEMEX.
Ocasionalmente Douglas interviene en la pláticas semanales de unos amigos, quienes platican en Ingles , para evitar se les olvide este idioma.
La primera vez en que Kate conoció a Marisela se ofreció voluntariamente para también enseñarle Espanol y ahora parece que llegaran a ser amigas de toda la vida.
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As the firewood crackled and warmed the cool, spring night, we youth that had gathered in the circle around the fire listened to the powerful voice of the great missionary, writer and magnificent preacher Frederick Huegel (whose son John with family also served with the Mexican Disciples, ed.). I had accepted the invitation of my friend in the State Public High Schol, Miguel Gallegos, with whom I had had many deep conversations about the Christian faith. Our talks had sown questions, concerns and doubts that I wanted to explore.
My religious advisor with the Catholic Youth Association at that time, Olegario N., never had been able to respond in a satisfactory way to my questions about the numerous statues Catholics worshipped, why we would confess to another person and other questions. I was sixteen years old and Huentepec ( in those days held at the Disciples training center outside Aguascalientes ed. ) was the ideal setting to inspire in me the decision that would would completely change my life’s course.
The preacher’s voice urged us to walk with Jesus and with pounding heart and my mind and spirit fully convinced and then driven as though by a powerful force I stood up and then and there accepted Jesus as my sole and sufficient Personal Savior, my Redeemer and my intercessor with the Lord. This chain of events, my doubts about my faith, my attending Huentepec Camp that year with its unique atmosphere, the inspiration of meeting missionaries in attendance like Paul Kepple, Miss Leila Callender and others, all this combined for an impact that makes Huentepec carry for me the meaning of “to leave behind the old ways and become a new person”.
Everything in my life changed for the good after that night at Huentepec; I was converted and then baptized in my “Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)”. It was in Central Christian San Luis Potosi that I had the good fortune to meet my wife
Hemer and Marisela in downtown San Luis Potosi before marrying
andcompanion of more than 50 years and other good and beloved life long friends. There I met the missionary with a great heart named Guy Mantle ( uncle of the famous Mickey Mantle) who helped me to study in the university in the States on a Presidential Scholarship. He also personally supported me financially at times and thanks to him I was able to earn the degree for the career that I had always dreamed about.
It would make for a much longer article if I wrote of all the blessings that originated with the great event of my life that took place at the Huentepec Camp. So I give many thanks to the Lord for the Disciples Church that continues to organize this event for the youth today.
May the Lord bless you all.
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Se oía el crujido de los leños que alimentaban con su calor la fresca noche de Primavera y a los jóvenes que estábamos alrededor de ella nos invitaba a oír la potente voz del gran misionero ,escritor y magnifico predicador, Federico Huegel. Había yo aceptado la invitación de mi compañero en la Escuela Normal Estatal, Miguel Gallegos con quien había yo tenido muchas controversias religiosas y quien había sembrado en mi ser tantas inquietudes y dudas, que acepté con gusto su invitación para ir a Huentepec; mi Asesor religioso de la ACJM ( Asociación Católica de Jóvenes Mexicanos) Olegario N. nunca pudo contestar a plena satisfacción mis múltiples dudas ( Los innumerables ídolos y la confesión ante un hombre ,etc )
Tenia yo 16 años y Huentepc (luego ubicado al sitio de la Granja Huentepec de los Discipulos a las orillas de la ciudad de Aguacalientes, ed.) era un lugar ideal para que en una noche estrellada tomara yo la decisión que cambio por completo el rumbo de mi vida; la voz del predicador nos invitaba a caminar con Jesús y con mi corazón latiendo fuertemente, mi mente y mi espíritu plenamente convencidos y como impulsado por un potente resorte me paré y ahí acepté a Jesús como mi Único y Suficiente Salvador Personal , mi Redentor y mi intercesor con el Señor.
Esta cadena de hechos, mis dudas, mi aceptación para asistir a Huentepec, la atmosfera única en que se desarrollaba el Campamento, la presencia tan inspiradora de los misioneros que conocí ahí Paul Kepple, Miss Leila Callender, etc. todo esto en conjunto influyeron tanto en mi vida que para mi la palabra Huentepec, significa “dejar atrás el hombre viejo y ser un hombre nuevo”. Todo en mi vida cambió para bien, me convertí y me bautice en MI “IGLESIA CRISTIANA DISCIPULOS DE CRISTO”.
Ahí tuve la dicha de conocer a mi esposa y compañera de mas de 50 años, a muy buenos y queridos amigos de toda la vida, ahí conocí a un misionero de un gran corazón, Guy Mantle ( tío del famoso beisbolista Micky Mantle). quien obtuvo para mi la beca “Presidential Scholarship ” ,fue mi aval financiero, y gracias a él obtuve el titulé en la carrera en la que siempre soñé.
Seria muy largo enumerar TODAS las Bendiciones que derivan del gran evento en mi vida que es haber asistido a mi querido e inolvidable Campamento “HUENTEPEC” , le doy muchas Gracias al Señor por que nuestra Iglesia organiza este evento .
Que el Señor los Bendiga
A Camp to Remember/Un Campamento Inolvidable
120 Youth from 3 States of Mexico Met the Challenges of the Disciples Camp Experience!
By 11 am on Christmas morning the first of 120 youth had arrived to clean the seminary grounds in preparation for the 2013 Campamento Huentepec. Ten or so youth had traveled three hours that morning from Zacatecas to fulfill their assignment. As most family Christmas celebrations in Mexico take place on Christmas Eve, the group seemed pleased to be here early on Christmas day and be among the first to choose their bed in the dormitory.
The annual Campamento Huentepec has become a tradition for Disciples youth in Mexico; held in different churches each year from December 26 to 30, the fields and many rooms on the seminary grounds were an ideal setting for last year’s event. Although the house where Kate and I live stands within thirty feet of the dormitories, we were able to sleep in Christmas morning; we then enjoyed the opportunity to mingle with and get to know better some of the campers.
The name Huentepec is from one of the native languages of Mexico and means “Light of the Hill”. Eighty years ago, disciples chose the name for a farm they purchased to hold trainings and camps throughout the year. Virtually every Disciple pastor in Mexico, past and present, has a story to tell about growing in their faith thanks to a Huentepec camp experience. While the farm was sold years ago, the name was retained for the Campamento in December that continues to shape future leaders of the Church.
Mil gracias to Hemer Sierra Silva (member of Central Christian Church in San Luis Potosi) for the translation below into Spanish. Hemer has
The 2013 Camp sign noting the theme “Kingdom Values”
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Muchas gracias a Hemer Sierra Silva (miembro de muchos anos de la Iglesia Central de San Luis Potosi) por su traduccion en espanol del articulo sobre el Campamento Huentepec de diciembre 2013. En el proximo articulo de “Erasing Borders” Hemer quiere compartir de su propia experiencia transformativa durante un Campamento hace muchos anos.
“Cerca de las once de la mañana del día de Navidad habían llegado al seminario (Centro de Estudios Teológicos – C.E.T.) los primeros de los 120 jóvenes para preparar el sitio por el Campamento Huentepec 2013.
Alrededor de 10 jóvenes, viajaron durante tres horas desde Zacatecas, para llevar a cabo labores de limpieza. Puesto que la mayoría de las familias en México celebran la Noche Buena en casa, nos agradó mucho que el grupo de jóvenes llegaran temprano el día de Navidad y así tener la oportunidad de escoger su cama en el dormitorio.
Dentro de los jóvenes Discípulos de México este evento anual del Campamento Huentepec ha llegado a ser una tradición. Tiene lugar cada año del 26 al 30 de diciembre en alguna iglesia u otro sitio de la Iglesia Discípulos; el año pasado del 2013 el seminario parecía tener un sitio adecuado por el terreno amplio, canchas y muchos lugares para convivir.
A pesar del hecho de que la casa en donde vivimos Katalina y yo se encuentra como a diez metros de los dormitorios del Seminario, pudimos dormir y descansar a gusto durante la mañana de navidad. Es cierto que aprovechamos la ocasión para convivir y conocer algunos jóvenes y también ahondar la relación con otros.
El nombre de “Huentepec” se deriva de un vocablo indígena que significa “Luz del Monte”. Hace ochenta anos se organizó el primer campamento Huentepec para promover el crecimiento de la fe en los jóvenes Discípulos. Casi cada pastor, ya fallecido o en vida, de los Discípulos, puede contar de alguna enseñanza o experiencia de importancia primordial para su fe en Cristo que tuvo lugar durante alguno de los Campamentos. Aunque no existe un sitio construido exprofeso para el Campamento, como en tiempos pasados, el Campamento Huentepec sigue formando líderes del futuro de las Iglesias Discípulos en México”.
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- Setting up tent Christmas morning. Rain began that night and continued. No camp fires this year.
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- Moving shelves from the Library for more space
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- The tent is almost ready for campers to arrive 12/26 morning
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- Clean cushions for the domitory bunkbeds
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- Morning reveille at 8 even on the last day of Camp
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- Praise Band/Banda de Alabanza preparing for the morning devotion time
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- Former camper Rev. Lisania Martinez shares her story and just completed seminary training experience
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- Rev. David Martinez Flores (l.) and other members of the Youth Organizing Team in the camp kitchen
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- Morning prayer in the Library
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- Participants were assigned to one of Ten Groups
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- Groups were scored on how they worked together
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- Good work by this group!
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- Another challenging activity for the Groups
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- There’s a balloon there somewhere??
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- Saturday night after worship was for group skits
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- This dance team was a big hit
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- Performing a zippy dialog
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- Kate Moyer preached for Saturday night worship
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- Sunday night was the gala dinner where all the groups were celebrated
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- A bus tour of downtown San Luis Potosi preceded the Gala Dinner
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- A high scoring Group is honored at the Dinner
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- Ruth of the Guadalupe, Zacatecas Disciples and Jonathan from Maravillas near San Luis Potosi are a popular couple at Disciples youth gatherings
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- Mazatlan adult advisor Juan Millan is in stocking cap across from his wife and daughter. Twenty youth from the Congregational Church of Mazatlan traveled 14 hours by bus to the camp.
It Takes More Than Money/Se Requiere Mas Que el Dinero
The new sanctuary building is larger than the old and will have a balcony seating over 100 persons
December 29 of last year, the Disciples of Christ Church in Maravillas, Mexico saw its new roof on the sanctuary collapse. In the following interview, Maravillas member Ramiro Ortiz Pardo describes the remarkable progress made in rebuilding the sanctuary in the past year. As President of the Building Committee, Ramiro testifies about the congregation’s growth in faith as they marvel at what God and they working together have been able to accomplish.
The English translation by Doug Smith precedes the original interview conducted in Spanish. For more of the Maravillas story enter Maravillas in the search engine window of “Erasing Borders” to locate the blog articles published on Feb. 13 and May 5 this year.
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El 29 de diciembre del ano pasado el nuevo techo de la Iglesia Discipulos
After a month of grieving the loss of their sanctuary, the congregation began making plans to rebuild
conta la historia del progreso impresionante en la reconstruccion del templo durante el ano 2013. Como Presidente del Comite de Construccion, Ramiro da testimonio sobre el crecimiento de fe dentro los fieles de la Iglesia tanto que alaban a Dios por lo que Dios y la congregacion trabajando conjuntos han podido lograr.
La traduccion en ingles de Doug Smith se sigue con el espanol de la entrevista originale. Para leer mas sobre lo que ha succedido en Maravillas el ano pasado pase a la ventana de Busqueda (“Go”) de este blog para marcar” Maravillas” y hallar dos articulos del 13 de Febrero and 5 de Mayo.
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Ramiro, give us a recap of the progress and the Church’s experience in rebuilding the sanctuary this past year –
“We’re all surprised that in less than a year we’ve made this kind
of progress on the construction. It is a sign that God has been with us in
Ramiro Ortiz in the turquoise shirt stands next to Pastor Rosendo Arvizu Avalos (l.) and spouse Olivia
With the help we have received how could we get discouraged? We have shown that we are strong in our faith, stronger in reality than we were a year ago, stronger in every way, even in our daily lives, since we now have a charge, a work to carry out for the honor and glory of God. So, finally, the work has become a testimony that we are not alone.
Tell us more about the financial support the Church has received for the construction project.
To be frank, as a Church with no insurance on our buildings we always had the idea that other churches were going to help out. We had faith that we would receive aid, but as it is our project and our responsibility we
Jim Piper, Idaho Disciple, Global Ministries service volunteer, with three members of the Ortiz family at the Ortiz Machinery plant
We’ve received help from various churches of the Cofraternity (Disciples of Christ in Mexico) and from churches in the U.S. We also received a grant from the current administration of Maravillas township for the construction of the roof. Their donation amounted to 50,000 pesos (around $4000). I visited with the mayor and within a month his administration helped out.
Tell us about your own experience in being involved in this project –
A short while ago I had some good advice from a sister in the Church who
described how God knows whom to give to and whom to bless abundantly. If God gives a lot to someone who doesn’t know how to manage what they have that person is going to spend purely on material things. This sister told me that God had given me resources to manage for Him and for that reason I need to seek for ways to do just that. God knows to whom money should be given. Here on earth I consider myself one of God’s treasurers. All that God has chosen to give me carries for me the message that I am to watch over it, take care of it, manage it for Him. I don’t feel that I own it because in reality it isn’t mine, it belongs to God. Therefore I have to give, I have to put it to work as my sister in Christ advised me. But I also believe that we all have the opportunity to be blessed by our giving even though we don’t have much money.
I appreciate your sharing about the real pleasure you have found in giving and helping others –
I don’t give with an eye on how much you are giving to give. It’s true that I have felt joy in giving. It’s like when one gives to another person 10,000 pesos and that person feels happy, it’s the same happiness that I should feel in giving this amount to help out. I am happy when I can give to someone who needs help. I tell myself that this is my opportunity to show that God is truly in my heart.
There have been times when I wanted to give a testimony about how God has blessed me in many ways through my giving. But I don’t do it because there are others who give testimony about how they give so much and God has returned double the amount to them or how they received a good job after they gave or how with the money received after they gave they were able to buy a machine for their factory. I don’t want to speak about giving in that way because people could think that giving is like I’m investing and also that I’m boasting. I feel this way even though in my nine and a half years of running my company I have never failed to pay my employees on time. We’ve always been able to cover our payroll even at times when it’s been complicated by a lot of bills and unforeseen costs.
What are the Church’s plans for finishing the sanctuary building?
The congregation understands that during the month of December when most people receive a little extra at their work place – a salary increase, a loan, a bonus, a little exta money – we are hoping that this month they’ll be able to give a little more to the project. They aren’t obligated to give more. Only that with what extra they receive this month they will
Entry portico for the new sanctuary in July 2013
With 20,000 pesos a month we can put the finishing touches on the roof. And then we’ll proceed step by step inside and out with a window here and something else there until we spend the 300,000 pesos (around U.S. $24,000) that we estimate will be needed for the final stage of the project. That way it won’t look like we’ve abandoned the work. It’s important that we carry on and people won’t forget the need to pitch in. And with the much and the little that people are able to give and the help we receive from others God will enable us to finish the new sanctuary in the year to come.
No one can ever say this new sanctuary is mine; no one can ever say this is mine and I’m going to sell it. At the same time I can say it’s mine, it’s ours, it belongs to us all. So we are going to pledge among ourselves that we will complete the project. The worse would be to say no we can’t go on because I’m sick or I don’t have the money. Money and the material supplies it buys aren’t everything. This sanctuary is being built with something other than money and that’s why I am sure we will finish it before the end of this year.
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Ramiro, danos un breve resumen del progreso y la experiencia de la iglesia en reconstruir el santuario este año pasado:
“Estamos muy sorprendidos que en menos de un año hemos hecho esta especie de avance en la construcción. Es una señal de que Dios ha estado con nosotros en este proyecto. Es una señal de que Dios ha estado con nosotros aún con la pérdida de nuestro santuario, aun cuando el techo se derrumbó. Siempre ha estado con nosotros hasta este momento. Es un testimonio frente a toda la comunidad de que nuestra iglesia cree en un Dios poderoso que ha sido capaz de ayudarnos a seguir adelante a pesar de nuestra pérdida. Es un testimonio para todas las iglesias que nos han ayudado con sus ofrendas, es un testimonio de que somos fuertes en la fe con su ayuda.
Con la ayuda que hemos recibido, ¿Cómo podríamos desalentarnos? Hemos demostrados que estamos fuertes en nuestra fe, más fuertes de lo que éramos hace un año, fortalecidos en cada aspecto, incluso en nuestro día a día, ya que ahora tenemos una encomienda, un trabajo que llevar a cabo para la honra y gloria de Dios. Finalmente, el trabajo ha sido un testimonio de que no estamos solos.
Dinos más acerca del apoyo financiero que la iglesia ha recibido para el proyecto de construcción
Para ser honesto, al ser una iglesia sin seguro en nuestros edificios siempre tuvimos la idea de que otras iglesias iban a ayudar. Teníamos fe de que recibiríamos ayuda, pero como éste era nuestro proyecto y nuestra
Jovenes de Maravillas despues del drame presentado el domingo de la ninez en 2013
Hemos recibido ayuda de varias iglesias de la Confraternidad (Discípulos de Cristo en México) y de iglesias en los Estados Unidos. También recibimos una suma de parte de la actual administración del pueblo de Maravillas para la construcción del techo. Esa donación alcanza los 50,000 pesos (alrededor de $4,000 US dolares). Yo visité al presidente dela comunidad y en un lapso de un mes su administración ayudó.
Cuéntanos más acerca de tu experiencia formando parte de este proyecto
Hace poco tiempo recibí un gran consejo de una hermana en la iglesia que describía cómo Dios sabe a quién dar y a quién bendecir en abundancia. Si Dios la da mucho a alguien que no sabe cómo manejarlo, esa persona va a gastarlo enteramente en cosas materiales. Esta hermana me dijo que Dios me ha dado recursos de Él para administrarlos y por esa razón necesito buscar maneras para hacerlo. Dios sabe a quién debe ser dado el dinero.
Aquí en la tierra me considero uno de los tesoreros de Dios. Todo lo que Dios ha escogido darme conlleva un mensaje de que debo observarlo, cuidarlo, administrarlo para Él. No siento que me pertenezca porque realmente no es mío, le pertenece a Dios. Por esa razón yo debo dar, debo poner todo mi esfuerzo justo como la hermana en Cristo me lo aconsejó. Pero también creo que todos tenemos la oportunidad de ser bendecidos por nuestras ofrendas a pesar de que no tengamos mucho dinero.
Agradezco que nos compartas acerca del placer que has encontrado en dar y ayudar a otros-
Yo no doy fijándome en lo que voy a recibir a cambio. Es verdad que he sentido gozo en dar. Es como cuando uno le da a una persona $ 10 000 pesos y esa persona se siente feliz, es la misma felicidad que yo debería sentir al ayudar con esa cantidad. Soy feliz cuando puedo ayudar a alguien en necesidad. Me digo a mí mismo que ésta es mi oportunidad de demostrar que Dios realmente está en mi corazón.
Ha habido tiempos en los que he querido dar testimonio acerca de cómo Dios me ha bendecido en muchas formas a través de mis ofrendas. No lo hago porque hay otros que dan testimonio de cómo han dado tanto a Dios y han recibido el doble o han recibido un buen trabajo después de haber dado o gracias al dinero que recibieron después de haber dado pudieron comprar una máquina para su empresa. No quiero hablar acerca de dar en esa manera porque la gente podría pensar que dar es algo parecido a invertir o podrían pensar que alardeo. Me siento así a pesar de que en los 9 años y medio que he estado dirigiendo mi compañía nunca he dejado de pagarles a mis empleados a tiempo. Siempre hemos sido capaces de cubrir la nómina incluso en ocasiones complicadas por las cuentas por pagar y los costos no previstos.
¿Cuáles son los planes de la iglesia para terminar la construcción del santuario?
La congregación entiende que durante el mes de diciembre la gente recibe un poco de dinero extra en sus trabajos – un aumento de salario, un préstamo, un bono, dinero adicional – Esperamos que en este mes la gente sea capaz de dar un poco extra al proyecto. No están obligados a dar más. Es sólo que con lo extra que reciben este mes ellos mismos querrán dar un poco más.
Si ellos mismos no quieren dar simplemente no deberían hacerlo, eso sería peor. Cuando alguien da porque se siente obligada o su corazón simplemente no está en eso, eso no ayudará. Aquellos que sientas el deseo de hacerlo en sus corazones, adelante. En enero evaluaremos nuestra deuda (actualmente en $300 000 -ed.) y qué tanto ha disminuido o aumentado. En cualquier caso podemos continuar colocando los toques finales en el techo ya que no implica mucho gasto en esa acción.
Con $20 000 pesos al mes podemos poner los toques finales en el techo. Entonces podríamos proceder paso a paso adentro y afuera con una ventana aquí y otra cosa allá hasta que gastemos los $300 000 pesos (alrededor de $24, 000 dólares) que estimamos necesitaremos para completar la etapa final del proyecto. De esta manera no parecerá que hemos abandonado el trabajo. Es importante que sigamos adelante y que la gente no olvide la necesidad que tenemos de avanzar. Y con lo mucho y lo poco que el agente sea capaz de dar y con la ayuda que recibimos de otros, Dios nos permitirá acabar su nuevo santuario en el año que viene.
Nadie podrá decir nunca que este nuevo santuario es mío; nadie nunca podrá decir que es mío y que pienso venderlo. Al mismo tiempo, puedo decir que es mío, es nuestro, nos pertenece a todos. Así que vamos a pedir entre nosotros para así completar el proyecto. Lo peor sería decir que no podemos continuar por enfermedad o falta de dinero. El dinero y los recursos materiales que compra no lo son todo. Este santuario está siendo construido con algo más que dinero y esa es la razón por la que estoy seguro que terminaremos antes de que termine el próximo año.
Meet Rev. Lisania Sustaita Martinez/Conozca Pastora Lisania
Rev. Lisania also considered doing a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts
ESTA ENTREVISTA DE LISANIA SIGUE EN ESPANOL DESPUES DE LA TRADUCCION EN INGLES DE REV. DOUGLAS SMITH
Rev. Lisania Sustaita Martinez was ordained as a pastor in the Central Christian Church of San Luis Potosi. She is the first Mexican Disciples pastor, male or female, to have both Bachelor’s and Master’s level training as a pastor. Her study for the Masters in Divinity at the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico was made possible by scholarship support from the Latin America office of the Department of Global Ministries (U.C.C. and Disciples)
Tell us Lisania about your life and especially about your experience of the Church and how you were led to enter seminary –
My history in the Church began at a very young age because my parents began to prepare for pastoral leadership of a church as lay pastors when I was around 5 years old. This family involvement in the Church led me to participate at a young age in the life of two congregations, the one which my parents pastored and the church where we were members. In the two churches I began to take on leadership roles with the children and youth and with children’s education programs – by necessity in the small church my parents pastored and in the other congregation with the desire to become more involved. From a young age I took classes that the adults took and completed the work assigned and fully participated in the class. So from around ten years old I was committed to serve the church and that’s the way it’s always been.
So it was easy then to make your choice of vocation to serve as a pastor?
No, no it was not easy in any way. My concept of being a female pastor was very limited. My concept was that of having to be a single woman as a pastor and for me at that time of my life forming a family was a top priority for my life. I did not see my mother as a pastor as my father has been and is the one officially charged with the pastoral functions where they serve. To be a pastor then meant making the sacrifice to not have one’s own family. For this reason, I preferred to see myself as well prepared to serve as a pastor’s wife with a family instead of myself serving as a pastor.
On finishing high school in San Luis Potosi I decided that if I didn’t pass the exam to enter university for nursing studies then I would enter seminary. So when I passed the exam with a very good score I was elated; it was a great relief for me. But during my university studies I developed a close friendship with the missionary couple from Puerto Rico, Justino Perez and Zaida Rivera. Relating to them led me to think harder and deeper about theology and specific doctrines that I held at the time. Doctrines having to do with “this is how God speaks to us”, “this is how to be church”, “this is how not to be church”, “this is what the Bible says”, etc.
Also during my university training for nursing, we went to a summer session for Latinos held at Brite Seminary in the U.S. In that environment I felt the need to think more about how I would serve the church. I can say now that I felt a call to be a pastor. I talked with Justino and Zaida and they counseled me to complete my Bachelor’s degree in nursing so I would be prepared to apply for seminary studies at the Master’s level.
After graduating with the Bachelor’s, I chose the seminary in Puerto Rico mainly because that was where I knew some people, namely the two missionaries who were returning home. On their recommendation, I sent all my documents and academic records to Felix Ortiz in the Global Ministries’ Latin America office and it was a wonderful surprise for me and for Justino and Zaida to learn I would be receiving a generous scholarship in support of my pastoral studies.
So you finished your studies in June of this year and returned to Mexico to be ordained by the Disciples’ Church and serve the Church as have 18 other members of your family
Yes, it’s true that in the Martinez and Rosas families (on my mother’s side) 18 others have served and some now serve as pastors. My cousins Josue (pastor of Central Christian in San Luis Potosi, ed. Note) and David (pastor
Lisania’s parents Elizabeth and Andres
of Los Retes on the outskirts of SLP) are the most recent along with me. I see this as a beautiful legacy but also something that can become a burden because there are so many who have gone before who are well known by persons still active in the Church.
So now what are your priorities or the outstanding priority for your work with the Roundtable of the Disciples and Congregational Churches and with the Central Christian Church here in SLP?
Well, in my prayers, it comes down to continuing education and “true accompaniment”. Accompaniment in the sense of not serving in a paternalistic manner which leads the church to dependency on someone to make its decisions or approach the Biblical text or become closer to God. “Effective accompaniment” as I see it means to share our experience and help administer programs but in a way in which the church walks on its own. Involvement in all the diverse areas of church and family life, providing tools for living by the faith but never pretending that we have the final solutions this is what I mean by “effective accompaniment”.
And in continuing education I plan to offer some new concepts, new ways of doing theology to lay and pastoral leaders alike; for example I intend to present the theology of liberation, awareness of community building required didn’t have and now can offer such as new versions of the Bible and capacity and resources for biblical exegesis, etc.
Continuing education carries more importance in our churches because lay leaders are required to take on such an important role in forming the discourse in our congregations and in our Disciples Church as a whole. So they need support in acquiring the educational tools for this role. Many of them take on the pastoral role faced with the immediate necessity, among them, my parents. They were provided with the best education the Church had but it was not a formal seminary course of instruction. They have been trained and they have been recognized for many years for filling the role of pastor of a congregation. We now must make accessible to them new concepts and learnings in response to their needs and the role they are dedicated to filling.
As a woman, as a young woman with a post graduate Master’s degree in pastoral training, don’t you feel a great challenge in beginning your work here where you are known as a daughter of the Church?
Yes, I do feel challenged but in a positive way. In the past I could feel it was more like a burden given my own high expectations and those of others; but I worked on that way of seeing the challenges in a process of
Nov. 17 Ordination of Lisania with Elena Hueghel on her right shoulder and Kate Moyer at her left
“self discovery” during my seminary training. What really helped me was the recognition that I was not alone in facing the challenges and this moving away from preparing to face them in a solitary, lonely struggle helped me a great deal. There are many others with their own worries, desires and similar challenges.
I began to take more notice that in Mexico while I was in seminary there were pastors and leaders of churches who were living their own processes of growth and learning. And in talking with pastors and lay leaders here I met with many who shared their desire for further training through continuing education. They spoke with me about their own efforts to approach challenging themes such as new theological concepts, traditional doctrine, how to read the Bible and how to come closer to God. So finally, this set of challenges pleases me because I don’t return to Mexico with the idea of opening doors or a door that is completely unknown. I know there are people around me and with me at those doors and that fact helps me greatly in seeing the doors and the challenges with more clarity.
In a spiritual retreat in Puerto Rico, I saw the challenges from the point of view of the parable in which the kingdom of heaven is described as being like the woman taking some leaven and putting it in some dough. Seemingly nothing happens until the next morning when on awakening the woman sees the dough has been leavened. Thinking about this woman, I began to consider my task in seminary as gaining some leavening of real quality. I now want to share this leavening, I want to teach things that are meaningful and important today, I want to share quality experiences that effectively leaven the dough.
Where do you see real progress with the churches in Mexico today? Where is there a breaking in of a vision of the kingdom of God in the life of the churches?
Well, I see an intergenerational opening in the churches today. One generation is open to listening and entering into dialog with another. I have seen some beautiful examples of change, of progress, of improvement when the youth become aware that they have a voice, they have ideas, they have something to offer and the adults are responding, “I want to listen and I am ready to work with you”.
When I’ve visited congregations where this kind of dialog is happening and not only dialog, but accompaniment also, and where the youth feel appreciated and backed by the adults and where the adults do not feel intimidated or threatened by the youth, in those congregations new opportunities flourish and the church is in movement. When the generations really listen to each other, the structures of the church become less important than the people in the church.
So Lisania, is there any other area in the church life today where you feel called to add your leavening?
Yes, I am interested in being involved in the opportunities of continuing education. I am interested in sharing what I have learned and am in the process of learning and I am interested in providing opportunities for women who face the consequences of machismo in the Mexican culture and the rigid gender roles that are so strong here. I want them to come to know and understand the way in which the Bible has often been used to support these conditions for women and men. I feel strongly the need to offer opportunities to study and discuss the way in which we can prevent the Bible from being used to maintain oppressive structures. Right now, there are only three ordained female pastors un Mexico un Disciples of Christ. But a lot of women are working, more than we three. I know de can change that reality.
Finally, I don’t see this context of machismo as healthy or pleasant for men either. I see that machismo damages both men and women. Men must get tired out from having to be right all the time, from having to be in control all the time and not having the right to express their fragility or the fact that they are tired. Machismo it seems to me is extremely oppressive and damaging for men as well.
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La Revda. Lisania Sustaita Martinez fue ordenado en la Iglesia Central de San Luis Potosi el 17 de noviembre. Ella es la primera pastora o pastor de los Discipulos en Mexico de haber sido formado a los niveles de licenciatura y la de maestria. Sus estudios en el Seminario Evangelico de Puerto Rico como candidata para el nivel de M.Div. fueron apoyados por una beca otorgada por la oficina de America Latina del departamento de Ministerios Globales de los Discipulos y la U.C.C.
Hablemos de tu vida Lisania sobre todo tu experiencia de la iglesia y cómo has entrada en el seminario en Puerto Rico –
Yo creo que mi historia en la Iglesia empieza desde muy pequeña porque mis papas comenzaron a prepararse para atender una iglesia como obreros laicos desde que tenia como cinco años de edad. Esta cercanía me involucró desde una corta edad en la vida de dos Iglesias, la Iglesia que mis papas pastoreaban y la Iglesia a que pertenecíamos. En las dos Iglesias comencé a involucrarme en el liderazgo de la juvenil y con la educación de la niñez; en la Iglesia de mis papas con pocos miembros, por la necesidad de quien se involucrara en el trabajo y por la otra iglesia, por deseo de involucrarme más.
Desde muy joven tomaba las clases que los adultos tomaban y me dejaban presentar tareas y participar; me permitieron a participar y estudiar con ellos y con esto creo que desde los diez años estaba comprometida con el servicio de Dios y así fue siempre. Trabajé en el liderazgo sobre todo con la niñez y con la juventud.
Fue fácil su decisión vocacional de servir como pastora entonces?
No, no fue fácil en ninguna manera. Mi concepto de pastora fue limitada. Mi concepto de pastoral femenina era de ser soltera y en esa época para mí, formar una familia era un deseo prioritario. No veía a mi mamá como pastora por que mi papá es el encargado oficial de las funciones pastorales en la Iglesia. Ser pastora para mi llevaba el sentido de hacer el sacrificio de no formar una familia propia. Por esos conceptos, prefería verme como preparada para ser esposa de pastor y con familia, en lugar de servir yo misma como pastora.
Al término de la preparatoria, decidí que si no aprobaba el examen a la universidad, significaría que debía entrar al seminario. Por eso me regocijé cuando pasé el examen para seguir una carrera de Enfermería en la Universidad. Fue alivio para mi. Pero en esa época de mis estudios universitarios tuve una relación mas estrecha con los misioneros de Ministerios Globales, Justino Perez y su esposa Zaida Rivera. Relación que
Revda. Lisania tiene dones musicales tambien
fue muy nutritiva para mi por las ideas que me plantean en cuanto a las perspectivas y las doctrinas específicas que yo tenía. Como “así habla Dios”, “esto es iglesia”, “esto no es iglesia” “esta es lo que proclama la Biblia”, etc.
También al medio de mis estudios fuimos a un curso de verano para latinos en el seminario de Brite en los EUA. En esa ambiente me sentí en necesidad de enfocarme en el servicio de la Iglesia. Lo que puedo llamar vocación pastoral. Hablé con Justino y Zaida, quienes me aconsejaron terminar con la Universidad para que así pudiera aplicar en un seminario a nivel maestría. Escogí el seminario en Puerto Rico sobre todo por que ellos son de allá y en otros lugares con seminario no conocía a nadie. Presenté todos mis documentos y mis planes a Felix Ortiz de Ministerios Globales y fue una agradable sorpresa para mí, para Justino y Zaida que recibiera una beca generosa para apoyar mis estudios pastorales.
Entonces cumpliste tus estudios en junio de este año y volviste a Mexico para ser ordenada por la Iglesia Discípulos y servir a esta iglesia como 18 otros de su familia han servido.
Si es cierto que en la familias Martinez y Rosas (familia por parte de mamá) hay 18 otros que han servido y sirven como pastores. Mis primos Josué Martínez y David Flores son los más recientes y después yo. Creo que este es un bello legado pero también podría resultar una carga por que hay tantos antes de ti que son reconocidos de la gente aun en vida.
Y tus prioridades o la prioridad sobresaliente por tu trabajo con la Mesa Conjunta de los Discípulos y los Congregacionales y con la Iglesia Central de San Luis Potosí?
Bueno, en una oración, la educación continua y acompañamiento efectivo. Acompañamiento en el sentido de no servir en una manera paternalista que la iglesia no dependa absolutamente para hacer sus decisiones o acercarse al texto bíblico o para su experiencia con Dios. El acompañamiento es compartir nuestra experiencia y administrar programas pero de un modo en el que la iglesia camina sola. Asumir las diversas áreas de la vida de la congregacion, de las familias, proveyendo herramientas para vivir en la fe, pero nunca presumiendo que tenemos las soluciones definitivas.
Y en la educación continua, también otorgando nuevos conceptos nuevas maneras de hacer teología a los lideres laicos como por ejemplo proponiendo la teología de liberación, consciencia de labor social que se requiere de la iglesia; avances, descubrimientos que antes no teníamos y ahora podemos conocer como nuevas versiones de la Biblia, incursión en la exégesis bíblica, etc.
La educación continua lleva aun mas importancia dentro de nuestras Iglesias por que los laicos asumen un papel sobresaliente formando el discurso dentro de nuestras Iglesias y la Iglesia Discípulos en México, requiere que la pastoral sea respaldada con herramientas educativas. Muchos de ellos y ellas, laicos que se lanzan a pastorear ante la inminente necesidad; entre ellos, mis padres. Hubo la mejor educación que se les pudo otorgar, pero no educación académica formal en seminario. Han sido capacitados como líderes u obreros laicos y son reconocidos como pastores por sus muchos años y porque la labor que han realizado es propiamente la de pastorear una congregación. Tenemos que hacer accesibles, conceptos y enseñanzas actualizadas a este cuerpo pastoral y líderes laicos, en respuesta a la labor y esfuerzo que vienen realizando.
Como mujer, como joven con una formación de posgrado tras la licenciatura, no te sientes muy desafiada empezando tu trabajo aquí en donde te conocen como hija de la Iglesia?
Si, me siento muy desafiada, pero de manera positiva. En el pasado pude sentirme desafiada como una carga agresiva, dadas las expectativas propias y ajenas sobre mí; pero he estado trabajando con estos desafíos en Puerto Rico en mi proceso de auto-descubrimiento durante los estudios. Aprendí que se tiene que aceptar y tomar conciencia de las altas expectativas propias y de la gente que te rodean, por los logros que ya has alcanzado o los legados que llevamos detrás. Es entonces que puedo pasar al sentido más positivo del desafío, que no es un desafío solitario y esa me alegre mucho.
Muchas y muchos hay con inquietudes, deseos y esfuerzos similares. Para avanzar mis propios procesos de renovación me tenía que ir, pero al volver he podido reconocer que cada cual vive sus propias experiencias, sus pausas, sus caminos, según como les era necesario.
La gente aquí en Mexico durante ese tiempo ha vivido sus propios procesos. Hablando con pastores y líderes laicos aquí, me encuentro también con quienes me comparten que quisiera capacitarse de manera continua. Me hablan de sus esfuerzos a abordar temas desafiantes como la doctrina, nuevos conceptos teologicos , la Biblia y la manera de ver a Dios. Entonces es un desafio que me da gusto finalemente, que no vengo con la intención de abrir una puerta totalemente desconocida, que la gente a mi alrededor está a la puerta conmigo y entonces miro esta puerta y este desafío con mayor claridad.
En un retiro espiritual en Puerto Rico me imaginé el desafío desde el punto de vista de la parábola en la que el reino de los cielos es semejante a una mujer que tomo un poco de levadura y la metió en una medida de masa y aparentemente no pasó nada pero tras la noche y sin que ella se diera cuenta toda la masa está leuda. Pensando en esta mujer, consideraba la necesidad de adquirir levadura de calidad. Quiero compartir esta levadura, quiero enseñar cosas de calidad, compartir experiencias de calidad que leuden correctamente la masa.
Dónde ves un avance en las Iglesias actualmente en Mexico? Dónde hay una vista del reino de Dios dentro de las Iglesias hoy?
Bueno, veo una apertura intergeneracional en las Iglesias hoy. Una esta dispuesta a ceder y a diologar con la otra. He visto hermosas muestras de cambio, de avance, de mejora cuando la juventud se pone en actitud de saber que tiene voz, que tiene ideas, que puede aportar y la adultez dice “te quiero escuchar y voy a trabajar contigo”.
Cuando he visitado congregaciones en que han permitido este dialogo y no solamente eso, sino el acompañamiento también, que la juventud se siente reconocida, respaldada por la amplia experiencia de la adultez, y esta no se siente intimidada o desplazada, allí se abrireron oportunidades y las Iglesias caminan. Cuando las generaciones se escuchan ente ellas las estructuras llegan a ser menos importantes que las personas.
Y Lisania, hay otra área de la obra en que puedas añadir tu levadura?
Si, me interesa involucrarme en eventos de educación continua. Me interesa compartir lo que he aprendido y lo que estoy en proceso de aprender y me interesa mucho dirigirme hacia las mujeres por causa de la sociedad Mexicana que tiene un matiz machista y roles de genero rígidamente establecidos, y por la manera en que la Biblia ha sido usada para reforzar eso. Siento esa responsabilidad fuerte de invitar a foro, a discusión, de qué manera podemos evitar el uso de la Biblia para mantener estructuras opresivas. En la actualidad somos tres pastoras ordenadas en México, por parte de Discípulos de Cristo, aunque obviamente muchas más mujeres están ejerciendo esta labor sin dicho reconocimiento o respaldo. Sé que podemos cambiar esa realidad.
En fin, no creo que este matiz de machismo es por gusto de los hombres. Yo veo que el machismo nos hace daño a ambos, a los hombres y a las mujeres. Por que debe ser extremamente cansado que siempre deban tener la razón, estar siempre controlando el todo, no poder expresar su fragilidad o que están cansados. El machismo me parece altamente opresivo para los hombres.
Violencia y Amor en Mexico
La principal diferencia entre las sub-culturas dedicadas a la violaencia en
Mexico y los EE.UU. es que virtualmente todas las familias en Mexico se han
visto afectadas de alguna manera por la “ insecurity “ / inseguridad que
amenaza a muchas areas del pais. Las rutas de viaje estan determinadas por
los reported de “incidentes de seguridad” en ciertas carreteras principales.
Se han tomado precauciones tales como no manejar de noche en cualquier
Carretera, especialmente en las areas rurales y se aconseja no parar por
nadie en cualquier carretera en la noche o durante el dia.
Hemos estado vivendo aqui por solo un año y si sabemos de los efectos del
aumento de la violencia. El hermano de un amigo cercano fue secuestrado
recientemente en un estado vecino para pedir rescate, pero, gracias a la
rapida respuesta de su familia, fue liberado ileso dos dias despues. Nuestro
amigo estaba terriblemente estremecido por el calvario de su familia y Kate
y yo todavia estamos involucrados en la busqueda de maneras de expresar
nuestro amor, preocupacion y soporte.
Hace pocos dias una amiga en los EE.UU. pregunto en un correo electronico,
lo que la Iglesia aqui esta haciendo para responder al aumento de la
inseguridad y la violencia en Mexico. Ella tambien pregunto: “? Hay una
manera en que pudieramos trabajar juntos en esto?.
Despues de preguntarnos si teniamos algo que decir sobre esto, dos
respuestas de los Discipulos e Iglesias UCC a la “inseguridad” necesitan ser
mencionados. En primer lugar esta el hecho de que las Iglesias no se
sienten intimidadas en su trabajo por la violencia que leemos a diario. No
hay reuniones que hayan sido canceladas, no viajes restringidos, no hay
programas suspendidos debido al clima de vioslencia.
El año pasado una furgoneta cargada con los Discipulos de Ciudad Juaraez,
en la noche, se dirigieron a San Luis para la convencion de los hombres,
pero se vieron obligados a parar por una barricada en la carretera, y
articulos personales y la furgoneta fueron robados. Ilesos, los delegados
volvieron a casa en autobus. Este año, intrepidos ante las perdidas del año
anterior, una delegacion, aun mayor, de los hombres y las mujeres,
manejaron desde Ciudad Juarez hasta la convencion anual de los Discipulos
de la Iglesia.
El origen del café comercializado por mujeres Discipulos en San Luis Potosi,
en un ambicioso proyecto de “micro-empresa”, proviene del area mas
peligrosa del Estado. Aunque el café es cultivado por los Discipulos mejeres,
en una region donde se han producido represalias del cartel de drogas, no
hemos oido ni una palabra sobre el peligro que enfrentan las mujeres que
viajan por alli.
En segundo lugar, la Iglesia aqui ayuda a que la vida transcurra con la
ronda regular de las, fiestas y tradiciones de manera que se celebra la
presencia, con nosotros, de aquel cuyo “ el perfecto amor echa fuera el
temor” (I Jn 4:18 ). En este aspecto, pensamos en el pastor Victor y su
esposa que ahora viven y trabajan en Villa Union, una devastante
comunidad pobre en las orillas de Mazatlan, Sinaloa. La mahyoria de los
jovenes de esa comunidad, el pastor Victor nos dijo, ven dos opociones para
su vida: la temporada de pesca, con red, de camaron o participacion a bajo
nivel en el comercio de la droga. Victor y su esposa esperan ampliar la
vision de la juventud para sus vidas. Una nueva oportunidad que ellos
comenzaron a ofrecer, al mudarse a la comunidad era el entrenamiento en
la musica. Otras Iglesias Congregacionales en Sinaloa, el estado con el mas
antiguo y mas grande cartel de la droga en Mexico, estan involucrados en
el servicio a las familias mas vulnerable, al uso de drogas y la participacion
en su comercio.
Las mujeres en varias Iglesias Congregacionales de Sinaloa han iniciado
pequeñas empresas con fondeo financiero de Ministerios Globales. La Iglesia
de Mazatlan sostiene una serie de programas que atienden a los pobres, las
consultas gratuitas de salud, entre ellas. Asi, la vida transcurre en Sinaloa y
otros estados de Mexico, en parte, gracias al testimonio dinamico de
nuestras Iglesias asociadas en regiones conocidas principalmente en los
EE.UU. por su trafico de drogas y los incidentes de violencia.
En estas Iglesias asociadas, los bebes estan dedicados (bautizados), los
matrimonios realizados, cumpleaños reconocidos y se celebra la comunion
de la Cena del Señor. En cierto sentido, todos los que participan en la
adoracion, aqui estan declarando que el amor triunfa sobre el miedo. Como
comunidades de fe que representan “una buena noticia”, miembros de la
Iglesia tambien se preparan para envolver a los que sufren la perdida y el
trauma con un testimonio del amor de Dios, ! Gracias a Dios !
PD: Nos complace saber que recientemente, los populares cruceros
estadounidenses de Los Angeles y otras ciudades de la costa oeste, a
Mazatlan, se reanudaran el proximo año despues de un parentesis de tres
años.
Mil gracias a Alfonso Amparan por su traduccion de este articulo al espanol.
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IP 3:14-15 : “No temais lo que ellos temen, y no se dejen intimidar, pero en sus corazones santificad a Cristo como Señor. Siempre esten listos para
hacer una defense ante cualquiera que exija de ustedes una razon de la
esperanza que hay en vosotros”.
I Jn 4:18 “En el amor no hay temor, sino que el perfecto amor echa fuera el temor.”
On Violence and Love in Mexico
Sign made of confiscated firearms in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez. Photo by Monica Ortiz Uribe of Fronteras
The major difference between the sub-cultures dedicated to violence in Mexico and the U.S. is that virtually every family in Mexico has been affected in some way by the “inseguridad”/insecurity that hovers over many areas of the country. Travel routes are determined by the reports of “incidents of insecurity” on certain major highways. Precautions are taken such as not driving at night on any highway especially in rural areas and one is advised to stop for no one on any highway at night or daytime.
We’ve been living here for just a year now and yes we know the effects of the rise in violence. The brother of a close friend was kidnapped for ransom recently in a neighboring state but, thanks to the quick response of his family, was released unharmed two days later. Our friend was terribly shaken by the family’s ordeal and Kate and I are still involved in finding ways to express our love, concern and support.
A few days ago a friend in the U.S. asked in an email what the church here is doing to respond to the rise in insecurity and violence in Mexico. She also asked, “Is there a way we could work together on this?”
After wondering if we had anything to say on this, two responses of the Disciples and UCC churches to the “insecurity” need to be mentioned. First is the fact that the churches are not intimidated in their work by the violence we read about on a daily basis. No meetings have been cancelled, no
Civilian possession of “military grade firearms”, including automatic assault weapons, is also prohibited in Mexico.
Last year a van loaded with Disciples from Ciudad Juarez headed at night to San Luis for the men’s convention but was forced to stop by a roadblock and personal items and the van were stolen. Unhurt, the delegates returned home by bus. This year, undaunted by the losses of the previous year, an even larger delegation of men and women drove from Juarez for the Disciples Church’s annual convention.
The source of the coffee marketed by San Luis Potosi Disciples women, in an ambitious “microenterprise” project, comes from the most dangerous area of the State. Although the coffee is grown by Disciples women in a region where drug cartel reprisals have taken place, we have not heard a word about the danger faced by the women traveling there.
Secondly, the Church here helps life go on with the regular round of holidays and traditions in a way that celebrates the presence with us of the one whose “perfect love drives out fear” (I Jn 4:18). In this regard, we think of Pastor Victor and wife now living and working in Villa Union, a devastatingly poor community on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Sinaloa. Most youth in that community, Pastor Victor told us, see two options for their lives: seasonal netting of shrimp or low level involvement in the drug trade. Victor and his spouse hope to broaden the youth’s vision for their lives. One new opportunity they began to offer on moving to the community was training in music. Other Congregational Churches in Sinaloa, the state with the oldest -and biggest?- drug cartel in Mexico, are involved in serving families most vulnerable to use of drugs and involvement in their trade.
Women in several Sinaloa Congregational churches have started small businesses with funding support from Global Ministries. The Mazatlan Church carries out an array of programs serving the poor, free health consultations among them. So life goes on in Sinaloa and other states of Mexico in part thanks to the dynamic witness of our partner churches in regions primarily known in the U.S. for their drug trafficking and incidents of violence.
In these partner churches, babies are dedicated, marriages performed, birthdays acknowledged and the Communion of the Lord’s Supper is celebrated. In a sense, all of those who participate in worship here are declaring that love triumphs over fear. As communities of faith representing that “good news”, Church members are also prepared to enfold those who do experience loss and trauma with a witness to God’s love. Thanks be to God!
P.S. : We were pleased to learn recently that the popular U.S. cruises from Los Angeles and other West coast cities to Mazatlan will resume next year after a three year hiatus.
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I P 3:14-15: “Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you.”
“There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear.” I Jn 4:18
The Conquest and Christianity
Cortes and troops were dazzled as they entered the “capital of the Western world”, Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City) on November 8, 1519.
The Spanish conquest and colonisation of the New World soon led to a debate over enslavement of the Indian native population decades before the rest of Europe confronted the horror and injustice of the enslavement of Africans. This was due in large part to a few prophetic priests’ fierce criticism of their fellow countrymen’s treatment of Indians. The leading defender of the Indians, Father Bartholomew De las Casas, devoted himself for fifty years to enactment of labor reform in the Spanish colonies and to proclaiming the liberty and equality of the original inhabitants.
Sent in 1502 to manage the properties of his father in the Domincan Republic, De las Casas himself owned Indian slaves before he was converted to protect and defend the Indians by some powerful preaching and by his studies of the Bible. Consecrated as a priest by the Dominicans in 1510, he heard Father Antonio de Montosinos preach in the cathedral of Santo Domingo against all forms of oppression and exploitation. Anticipating the furious response to his sermon, Father de Montosinos chose the text, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness”. His congregation included the colony’s highest officials who demanded the priest retract his views in the following Sunday’s sermon.
Prior to the next Sunday’s sermon, the Prior of the Dominican community assured the officials that Father de Montosinos spoke for all the priests serving the colony. With this backing from his superior, the indomnitable de Montosinos based his sermon on Job 36:3 the following Sunday and added to his denunciations of injustices the proclamation that the sacraments would be denied any slave holder in the colony.
It seems important to note that the views of Father De las Casas on the treatment of the colonies’ natives were slow in evolving. Father de Montesinos mentored De las Casas with the warning, “the truth has ever had many enemies and falsehood many defenders”. Consecrated a priest at age 36, his first charge was managing a property and converting Indians in Cuba. Having witnessed gruesome attacks by Spaniards on “rebellious” Indians and the routine mistreatment of their laborers by the Spanish settlers, the turning point for the middle aged priest came on Pentecost 1514.
Searching for an appropriate text for the celebration of the birthday of the church, De Las Casas came upon the words of Eccl 34: “He that sacrificeth of a thing wrongfully gotten, his offering is ridiculous, and the gifts of unjust men are not accepted. The most High is not pleased with the offerings of the wicked; neither is He pacified for sin by the multitude of sacrifices….He that taketh away his neighbor’s living, slayeth him;
Father Bartholomew de las Casas was converted to the cause of the Indians in 1514 and labored tirelessly on their behalf until his death in 1566 at age 92.
The sermon’s effect was immediate on the preacher. De las Casas met with the Governor of Cuba to relinquish his properties and his rule over the Indians working there. He further began to make plans for his first of many trips to Spain to plea eloquently for equal rights for the Indians of the New World. The message in Spain on this first trip and all that followed included the conviction that those who ignored the rights of those created in God’s image would be condemned eternally in the court of God’s justice.
It took De las Casas a few years to extend his doctrine of justice and equality for the natives of the New World to the slaves bought on the coasts of Africa. When pressed on one of his first advocacy tours of Spain whether it would be acceptable to replace Indian laborers with African slaves working in Spain or direct from Africa, the defender of the Indians gave his approval to importing Africans as well as Spanish laborers. For nearly one hundred years Spain had bought African slaves from the Portuguese traders and they were a prominent feature of Spanish society especially in Las Casas’ hometown of Seville. De las Casas soon recanted from his support for African slave labor and extended his doctrine of equality and justice for those exploited by European rule to all the world’s colonized people.
Reading accounts of the conquest and colonization of the New World found in the Western Hemisphere one is struck by the consistent reference to conversion of the natives as the primary motive for the daring adventures. Cortes for example masterfully employed advance of the true faith in motivating his small band to enter yet another battle with the Indians. So how could their “championing of the Cross” have resulted in the near total decimation of the Indian population in the colonies of Spain?
Cortes himself explained to an Indian ally the behavior of some of his troops with the following words: “The Spaniards were troubled with a disease of the heart, for which gold was a specific remedy.” De las Casas’ biographer Francis McNutt points to the many temptations of the colonial setting as the background to the outrages of the colonizers: “Perverted as their conception of the true spirit of Christin propaganda may appear to us, it may not be doubted that many of these men were animated by honest missionary zeal and actually thought their singular methods would procure the conversion of the Indians. On the other hand, few of those who left Spain, animated by high motives, resisted the prevalent seductions of avarice and ambitions amid conditions so singularly favorable to their gratification.”
The great 19th century historian of the conquest William Prescott provided another explanation of the Spanish sins in their colonies: “Religion in that day was one of form and elaborate ceremony. In the punctilious attention to discipline, the spirit of Christianity was permitted to evaporate.” This sounds like something we need to be attentive to and avoid in our own day.
POST SCRIPT: Hatuey, an Indian chief in the first Spanish colony in the West, was urged to convert to Christianity before being burned at the stake so his soul would enter heaven. He asked if the white man would be there and when answered affirmatively, he responded, “Then I will not be a Christian, for I would not go again to a place where I must find men so cruel.”
For further reading on the era of Spanish conquest and the struggle to ameliorate the treatment of the native population:
Francis Augustus MacNutt, Bartholomew de las Casas; his life, apostolate and writings
Bartholomew de las Casas, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies
Bernal Diaz del Castillo, The Memoirs of the Conquistador, a remarkable account of the conquest of Mexico by one of Cortes’ troops
William H. Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico
Grateful, Grateful
Doug with Dr. Humberto Gonzalez Mercado. San Luis Potosi’s med school where he trained is hailed as among the best in Mexico.
Like crocus buds pushing their way through the snow, faith that felt authentic and sure reappeared yesterday morning. Just the heads pointing to the sky but it was enough. The constant hip pain that was the new symptom of my month long illness would too pass away and I would soon be active and healthy again.
Lacking a definite diagnosis, faith didn’t come into play in the early days of my illness. Cancer had been mentioned but soon the evidence weighed against such a diagnosis. So in the absence of a focus on faith, while going over my favorite Psalms, my favorite prayers, and praying for myself and others, gratitude quickly emerged as the primary theme of my thoughts. Gratitude for the concern and prayers of family and friends in many places. Gratitude for the many hospital visits of friends in Mexico coming from as far as two hours away. Gratitude for the dedication to caring for others manifested by nurses and doctors in both Oli-Med Hospital San Luis Potosi and at the University of Kansas hospital in Kansas City where I was transferred October 8.
Gratitude for the quality of care I have received began with the initial visit of Dr. Humberto Gonzalez Mercado of San Luis Potosi Julien Carrillo Disciples Church. It was soon apparent that he was both competent and ready to commit to seeing me through this illness at no cost. He it was who on October 1 had me admitted to the private room in the SLP Hospital whose nurses and staff treated me like royalty. Dr. Mercado is the only doctor I have ever known who asked me to pray for another patient of his; I was grateful to be under the care of such a physician whose directness, sharing of his own life and optimism I could feel contributing mightily to my healing.
Thanks to the MRI and other expensive tests (covered by my U.S. care-only health insurance) in Kansas City we now know the extensive blood clot on my liver is the cause of the symptoms I had felt to a slight degree even five months ago. So my blood is being thinned under medication and once I adjust to the effect of coumedin on my body we will be flying back to SLP.
My room in the Kansas City hospital faced the sun rise and I was treated to a golden horizon most mornings before facing the needles of the new day. W.H. Auden’s definition of faith is “to choose to do what is difficult every day of our lives as though it were easy, that is faith”. Some times the difficult may just be getting out of bed. So I’m also very grateful for those sun rises in the hospital that made it so much easier to get out of the bed.
Dr. Mercado’s Pastor Rogelio Espino Flores with daughters and Kate. Total cost of my six night stay in Oli Med Hospital came to less than $4000.
Mil gracias to Heidi, Pastor Rogelio’s spouse, for the photos
Erasing Borders 