PRACTICES OF FAITH AND RACIAL
INTEGRATION IN SOUTH TEXAS
A Case Study of Mexican Segregation
JENNIFER NAJERA
University of California, Riverside
o
----------ABSTRACT----------
The article presents a case study about the experience of segregation and the
process of racial integration within a local Catholic church in South Texas.
Following the ideology of segregation that was prevalent during the early part of
the 20th century, Anglo Catholics made efforts to both stymie Mexican popular
religious practices and to segregate Mexican origin people. The case study
demonstrates that, despite desegregation litigation of the 1960s, 'customary'
practices of Mexican segregation remained active well into "the 19708. The
article suggests that because Mexican segregation had become custom, a
change in the dominant racial ideology and, subsequently, racial integration
could only occur through community building and the cultural empowerment
of the Mexican origin community. In this case, cultural empowerment took
root in the revival of Mexican popular religious practices.
Key Words <> Catholic church <> Mexican-Americans <> race segregation
<> Texas
[Una de las primeras veces que] yo fui a misa aquf a St. Francis ... entramos yo y Javier
y Alma y Noe ... Fuimos y nos sentamos en una banca. Y fue el Sefior Harper, .. y Ie
toche6 a Javier y quieo sabe que Ie dijo; yo estaba alIa [seated on the other side of the
pew]. Y volteaba Javier y no mas dijo que no.
Y Ie dije a Javier, 'l.Que te dijo?'
Dijo Javier, 'Que 00 podemos sentarnos aqui .. . que tenemos que estar en el otrO lado.'
'Y despues l.que? l. Te dijo par que?'
Y dijo 'Que este lugar esta apartado.'
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Cultural Dynamics 21 (1)
6
'Oh,' Ie dijo, 'l,Esta reservado 0 que?'-
'No, no mas es aparte.'
'No, pues no,' dijo Jaime, 'No vamos a mover,'
Y no nos l11ovimos. (Victoria Paredes l)
[Onc of the first times that] I went to Mass here at $t Francis, Javier, Alma, Noe and
1 went in. We went and sat down in a pew. And Mr Harper went and touched Javier and
who knows what he told him; I was over there on the other side of the pew. And Javier
turned around and just told him, no.
And I asked Javier, 'What did he tell you?'
Javier said, 'That we can't sit here, not in this spot. That we have to be on the other side.'
'Why? Did he tell you why?'
He said, 'That this space is separated.'
'Oh,' Javier told him, 'Is it reserved?'
'No, it's just separated.'
'No,' Jaime said, 'We're not going to move.'
And we didn't move.
This vignette represents a typical experience for Mexican Catholics in
La Feria, Texas, during the period of segregation during the first half of the
20th century. In discussing incidents of racial separation within the context
of the local Catholic church, several Mexican origin community members
recounted similar stories to me. Though Anglo and Mexican parishioners
worshipped in the same sanctuary, Mexicans were relegated to a separate side
of the church. Many Mexican people remember that an Anglo usher would
make them feel 'uncomfortable' if they sat on the 'wrong' side of the church.
After years of this type of coerced separation, many Mexican families came
to accept their side of the church as natural.
For the Paredes family, however, the separation was anything but natural.
After Mr Paredes completed his college degree at a university in Michigan,
he and his family returned to South Texas. Though Mr Paredes was originally
from Weslaco and Mrs Paredes from Harlingen, upon returning to the Valley,
they believed that the community of La Feria would be a good place to raise
their young family. The year was 1979. The Civil Rights Act, which outlawed
segregation, had been passed fifteen years before in 1964, and the Paredes
family, newcomers to La Feria, refused to move to 'their' side.
Mexican segregation was supported by court cases that dealt with Black/
White segregation. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) was perhaps the most powerful
legal ruling supporting practices of racial segregation in the United States,
legalizing all forms of social segregation including school segregation
(Menchaca, 1993). In the Plessy ruling, the Supreme Court granted the states
rights to determine who was considered White and non-White for the purposes
Najera: Faith and Racial Integration in South Texas
7
of segregation. Because of the ambiguous racial status of Mexican origin
people, it was often unclear whether they should be treated as White or as
Indian. There were several local and state cases brought to trial to determine
the legality of Mexican segregation; these cases usually sought to determine the
racial status of Mexicans in order to make a ruling (Menchaca, 1993).
In Texas, the case of Independent School District v. Salvatierra was the first
to evaluate a local school district's segregationist policies toward Mexican
children (Orozco, n.d.). In 1930, Jesus Salvatierra and other Mexican parents
hired lawyer John L. Dodson to file a lawsuit against the school district,
alleging that Mexicans were being denied the privileges of 'other white
races'. In May of 1930, Judge Joseph Jones decided in favor of Salvatierra,
granting an injunction (Orozco, n.d.). This ruling was only a partial victory
for the Mexican community because it did not challenge the segregation of
'non-white' Mexicans (Menchaca 2001). In fact, Gonzalez (1990) argues that
the Salvatierra case 'enunciated the doctrine that Mexicans could not be
legally segregated ... on the basis of race ... that the only basis for separate
schooling for Mexicans was educational (language, culture, etc.)' (1990: 28).
The Texas Court of Appeals voided the earlier court's injunction in October
1930, granting power to the school district to segregate Mexican students
(Orozco, n.d.).
The outcomes of similar court cases throughout the Southwest were varied,
and there was no consistent legal precedent that would establish de jure
segregation for Mexicans in the United States. Even the court cases that
ended with a ruling in favor of Mexican segregation were not consistently
applied. Nevertheless, Mexican segregation was prevalent and persistent
throughout the Southwest. By the early 1930s, 90 percent of Texas schools
and 85 percent of California schools teaching Mexican students were racially
segregated (Menchaca, 1993: 598; Montejano, 1987: 160). Justifications for
the segregation of Mexican origin students in the schools included race, but
more often relied on arguments about Mexican students' language ability,
hygiene, alleged intelligence deficiencies, and inherent inferiority (Gonzalez,
1990; Menchaca, 1993; Montejano, 1987; San Miguel, 1987). This range offactors led to a degree of inconsistency as to how Mexican origin children were
segregated in the schools.
Within other public and private realms, Mexican segregation could be
classified as both de jure and de facto. In her book, Ethnic Labels, Latino Lives,
Suzanne Oboler emphasizes the fact that after the Plessy v. Ferguson case in
1896, segregation became a reality for non-White people in the United States
by law and 'by custom' (1995: 31). She asserts, 'newly and often violently
created customary practices frequently came to define [Latinos'] lack of
citizenship rights and to shape their experiences more clearly than the "law
of the land'" (1995: 38). In other words, though Mexican origin people were
8
Cultural Dynamics 21(1)
not consistently legally segregated (as mandated by laws or court decisions)
from Anglos, customary practices of segregation defined their subordinate
positions iu society in a similar fashion to those minorities who were legally
segregated.' In the city of La Feria, there were no laws that mandated the
segregation of Mexicans from Anglos. However, every Mexican origin person
raised in La Feria before a certain generation has vivid memories of the segregation betweeu Whites and Mexicaus in town. These customary practices of
segregation were not undone by the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Because segregationist practices were customs and not laws, per se, they were
not affected by such legislation. Especially within a non-government entity
like a local Catholic church, desegregation was difficult to mandate.
This article presents a case study about the experience of segregation and
the process of racial integration within the local Catholic church in La Feria,
Texas. Following the ideology of segregation that was prevalent during the
early part of the 20th century, Anglo Catholics made efforts to both stymie
Mexican popular religious practices and to segregate Mexican origin people.
This segregation occurred sometimes as separate churches, but also, at times,
within the space of one local church. In presenting a case study of Mexican
segregation in La Feria, Texas, this article will demonstrate that, despite
desegregation litigation of the 1960s, 'customary' practices of Mexican segregation remained active well into the 19708. I argue that because Mexican
segregation had become custom, a change in the dominant racial ideology
and, subsequently, racial integration could only occur through community
building and the cultural empowerment of the Mexican origin community. In
this case study, I contend that cultural empowerment took root in the revival
of Mexican popular religious practices.
In order to examine this case study of Mexican segregation within a local
Catholic church I will rely on methods of historical ethnography. To construct
the history, I rely on primary sources such as church records and documents.
This article is part of a larger community history for which I conducted twentyfive qualitative interviews. Seven oral history interviews pertained specifically
to the manifestation of segregation within the local Catholic church. I also
utilized secondary sources to construct a broader narrative about Mexican
Catholicism and segregation in Texas. Finally, I engaged in participant observation of contemporary popular religious practices within La Feria's local
parish during 2002-3.
Locating Mexican Segregation
La Feria is located at the western corner of Cameron County in the lower Rio
Grande Valley, approximately seven miles north of the US-Mexico border.
Currently, the city boasts a population of just over 6000 people and, according
Najera: Faith and Racial Integration in South Texas
9
to Census data, is about 77 percent Hispanic (White and non-White) and 23
percent White (Non-Hispanic).
The area encompassing La Feria was well-established as a Mexican and
ranching and farming community in the mid-1800s (Galarza, 1964; Government
Service Agency, 1999; McNail, 1975). After the war for Texas independence
and its subsequent annexation by the United States, however, Anglo settlers
began to populate the area, acquiring land and assuming control of local
industry (McNail, 1975; Menchaca, 2001; Montejano, 1987). The City of La
Feria was incorporated at the behest of some of these Anglo settlers in 1915.
During this same time period, because of the construction of the railroad
and the migration of Anglos to the Rio Grande Valley, the regional industry
shifted from ranching to farming. Anglo farmers secured crews of largely
Mexican laborers to toil in their fields, establishing a tacit racial division of
labor (Foley, 1988; Madsen, 1973; Montejano, 1987; Rubel, 1966; Valdes, 1991).
This division of labor went hand in hand with the social reorganization of the
region. Anglos assumed economic, social, and political positions of power
while their Mexican counterparts most often lived in poverty.'
Segregation was a reality for the majority of Mexicans in the Rio Grande
Valley, and it was often mapped on to the geography of a town. The new
railroads coursing through the region, which facilitated the burgeoning farming
industry, also served to divide Valley towns into two stratified communitiesone Mexican and one Anglo. This pattern of two racially divided towns within
a town was prevalent throughout South Texas (Foley, 1988; Madsen, 1973;
Richardson, 1999; Rubel, 1966). In La Feria, the neighborhood north of the
railroad track was referred to as el pueblo mexicano (Mexican town), while the
neighborhood south of the tracks was called el pueblo americano (American
town). These cross-sections of town were by no means equal. The housing lots
on the Mexican side of town were easily half the size of those on the south
side of town.' To the present day, the difference between the north and south
side of town is stark, not just in terms of bigger lots on the south side of the
railroad tracks, but also better infrastructure (e.g. wider streets, sidewalks,
landscaping, parks, etc.).
Mexican/Anglo segregation manifested itself in a variety of ways in La
Feria apart from residential segregation. In 1925 a group of concerned citizens
approached the School Board about the problem of 'overcrowding' in La Feria
schools. They demanded of the Board a new ward school to be constructed
north of the railroad tracks where Mexican children could attend (La Feria
News, 20 March 1925). By September of 1927, in addition to La Feria High
School, the junior high school, and the grammar school, there was also a
Mexican school as well as a Negro school (sic) (La Feria News 2 Sept. 1927).
The Mexican School, later to be renamed Sam Houston Elementary School,
was for Mexican children enrolled in first through third grades. Although the
10
Cultural Dynamics 21(1)
people who had initially demanded the Mexican school stated that it was to
ease the problem of overcrowding, the justification for the construction of the
school quickly shifted to helping develop English-language skills (Armour,
1932).' After the third grade, Mexican students were allowed to attend school
on the Anglo side of the tracks to complete elementary school, junior high, and
high school. The number of Mexican students enrolled, however, dwindled
in each progressive grade (Armour, 1932).6
The other major institution where Mexican origin people experienced
segregation in La Feria was in the local Catholic church. For the purpose
of this article, I have chosen to focus on the experiences of Mexican origin
people in the local Catholic church because of its historical predominance as
the religion of this population.
The first Catholic Church in La Feria benefited from the faith practices of
one of the town's early land speculators as well as the French missionaries
whose ministry was prevalent in South Texas. As I mentioned earlier, the
first part of the 20th century marked a period of intense Anglo settlement
in the Rio Grande Valley in general and La Feria in particular. In 1907, S. J.
Schnorenberg and other developers from Minnesota bought the 6000-acre
strip of land that encompassed the present-day site of La Feria. Schnorenberg,
who was Catholic, donated land for the construction of a Catholic church
(MeNail, 1975; United Church Directories). A wooden mission was constructed on the site, dedicated in 1912, served by the Oblate Fathers, the order
that had been sent to evangelize South Texas in the middle of the 18th
century. The Oblate Fathers served La Feria until 1930 when La Feria attained
its status as a parish and was then ministered by diocesan clergy (United
Church Directories).' La Feria's Catholic church received its first pastor,
H. J. Schmidter, in 1930.8
In Texas, during the first half of the 20th century, Catholic ministry to
Mexicans expanded, but often reinforced separate Anglo and Mexican
spheres. In 1930 the Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence, an order
exclusively of Mexican American women, compelled the Church to expand
its ministries (Trevifio, n.d.). The Catholic Church Extension Society and the
American Board of Catholic Missions financed much of this expansion,
providing money for 'Mexican work' during the first half of the 20th century
(Trevifio, n.d.). Furthermore, in 1945, the Bishop's Committee for SpanishSpeaking, controlled by San Antonio's progressive Archbishop Robert E.
Lucey, focused on farm worker advocacy. Despite this outreach to the Mexican
population in Texas, Catholic Mexican ministry in the state was characterized
by institutional segregation (Trevifio, n.d.). Some of this segregation was
reflected in the missions that were established in rural areas to serve Mexicans.
For example, shortly after La Feria became its own parish, it started a mission
church in Santa Rosa with the support of the Catholic Church Extension
Najera: Faith and Racial Integration in South Texas
11
Society (United Church Directories). Eight miles north of La Feria, Santa
Rosa has historically boasted a higher Mexican origin population than La
Feria. Santa Rosa thus became a de facto 'Mexican Church'.'
Nevertheless, though the Catholic church in La Feria, St Francis Xavier,
served both Anglos and Mexicans, it was still marked by an ethos of segregation
and racial dominance.
Extending the Reach of Segregation: Cultural
Dominance in the Church
In the early 1940s, during World War II, Mrs Zamarripa recalls traveling
from the rural area on the outskirts of La Feria to attend Sunday Mass at
St Francis Xavier.
Veniarnos a 1a iglesia, a pie, descalzas, con muy pacos recursos ... Me acuerdo que a 1a
iglesia mi mama nos trafba chiquitas porque nii hermana, se llama Joe Sanchez, fue al
invasion ... No no mas Ia familia de nosotros. Otras familias tambien. A 1a iglesia entraban
de rodillas. Entramos de rodillas. AI.usa de antes.
Entonees nos criticaban y nos iban y nos levantaban [los americanos] .
X deeian que no quieren que nos hinquen .
Mucha gente iba de rodillas hasta el altar a pagar su manda porque sus hijos estaban en
Ia guerra de Ia invasi6n ...
Entonces los hicieron que se levantaran. Como dando de entender que era ridiculo. Que
esto no se hacfa asf. Entonces ya. Poco a poco ya Ia gente nO se usaba eso.
We would go to church on foot, barefoot, with very few resources .... I remember that my
mother would take us when we were little because my brother, his name is Joe Sanchez,
went to war ... It wasn't just our family. It was other families as well. They would enter
the church on their knees. We would enter on our knees. The way it used to be done.
Then [the americanos] would criticize us and they would go and pick us up.
And they would say that they didn't want us kneeling ...
A lot of people would go on their knees to the altar to pay their obligation because their
sons were in the war ...
Then [the americanos] would make them get up. With the idea that what they were
doing was ridiculous. That that was not their way. Then it ended. Little by little, people
stopped doing it.
This narrative testifies to the Anglo religious hegemony of the. time.
Mrs Zamarripa asserts that her family, as well as others, expressed their
religious devotion traveling by foot to La Feria for Sunday Mass. Their expressions of religious piety were especially important to them because many
of their sons were fighting in the war. The Mexican custom was to enter the
church and proceed to the altar on their knees. While common to Mexican
origin people, Mrs Zamarripa states that this custom seemed 'ridiculous' to
12
N:ljera: Faith and Racial Integration in South Texas
Cultural Dynamics 21(1)
Anglo members of the congregation. Rather than let the Mexican members
of the congregation worship as was their custom, however Anglo parishioners
would literally lift up Mexican people from their knees, establishing - and,
actually, policing- the boundaries of what was acceptable behavior in the
church.
I assert that there were two elements causing racial/cultural tension within
La Feria's local church during this time period. The first was that Anglos
and Mexicans had different ideas about what it meant to be Catholic. Being
Catholic to Mexican people extended beyond the Mass; it also included
elements of popular religious practices. These popular religious practices
could be the everyday (e.g. proceeding to the altar of a church on one's knees
to demonstrate piety), but they could also be associated with a culturally
specific religious holiday, such as el dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe. Though
these faith practices were common to Mexican origin people, they were
foreign to Anglo Catholics, who did not find them acceptable within the
context of their church.
If cultural differences constituted the first source of tension between
Anglos and Mexicans in La Feria's local Catholic church, the second
source of tension was power and racial hierarchy. By the 1940s, practices of
racial segregation against Mexicans were pervasive throughout Texas and,
as I have discussed earlier, La Feria was no exception to these practices.
Though, '1rguably, a church should function as a sanctuary from certain social
problems and perhaps try to forge their solution, an ethos of segregation
and, by extension, inequality was present within this local Catholic church.
It seemed that the Anglo community extended their economic and political
power into the local parish. Mr Zamarripa, a long-time resident of La Feria
now in his eighties, recounts, 'Como enos, los americanos, habian hecho Ia
iglesia, ellos creian como duenos' (Because the Anglos had built the church,
they felt like they owned it). For Mexican Catholics, this meant that they
would not be able to worship according to their custom and that would be
relegated to one side of the church. lO
1
Social Justice Ministries in Texas in the 1960s
The 1960s was a significant epoch for Mexican American Catholics. On
a secular front, social justice movements throughout the United States
demanded a change in dominant racist and sexist ideologies. Within the
Catholic Church, the Second Vatican Council held a series of meetings that
mandated changes to make the church more accessible to its parishioners
worldwide. These secular and religious interests seemed to converge when
local Catholic churches in the Southwest joined the struggle for social justice
for Chicano/as (Cadena, 1987; Trevino, n.d.).
13
In 1966, a Mexican American priest from Houston, Father Antonio
Gonzalez, along with Reverend James Novarro and labor organizer Eugene
Nelson, led a march from the Rio Grande Valley to Austin to support striking
farm workers and their quest for a minimum-wage law and improved working
conditions (Trevino, n.d.). While their demands were not met, the march
served to raise political and ethnic consciousness among Mexican American
Catholics in Texas (Trevino, n.d.). A few years later, in October 1969, a group
of about fifty priests converged in San Antonio and formed Padres Asociados
para Derechos Religiosos, Educativos y Sociales (PADRES), a national
activist priests' organization. Father Patricio Flores, of this organization,
was appointed as the first Mexican American bishop in 1970 (Cadena, 1987;
Martinez, 2005; Trevino, n.d.).
The early 1970s saw a dramatic push for a stronger Chicano/a Catholic
ministry nationally; significant organizations and centers were located in
Texas. In 1970 Gloria Gallardo and Gregoria Ortega, both activist nuns,
founded Las Hermanas. Las Hermanas was a national organization of lay
and religious Hispanic women dedicated to raising awareness of community
needs, promoting social change, and increasing Latino/a leadership, while
lobbying the Church to support its organizational goals (Flores, n.d.; Trevino,
n.d.). Members of Las Hermanas were actively involved with the Mexican
American Cultural Center (MACC), which was founded in San Antonio in
1971 (Cadena, 1987; Flores, n.d.). Father Virgilio Elizondo, a member of
PADRES, was the principal founder of the Mexican American Culture
Center. This center (still located in San Antonio) played an important
role in developing religious materials for US Latinos while simultaneously
helping non-Latinos to better serve local Spanish-speaking populations
(Cadena, 1987). Furthermore, the center connected the religious in Texas to
Latin American liberation theologians who would teach courses and atteud
meetings at MACC (Cadena, 1987).
Comunidades de base, a lay movement in the US Catholic Church that
emerged in the 1970s, had a significant impact on the Chicano/a community.
Chicano scholar Gilbert Cadena describes comunidades de base as 'basic
Christian communities' and as groups that 'study the Bible and link the words
of scripture to the conditions in which the participants live. The comunidades
de base bring together fellowship and engage in consciousness-raising and
commnnity action' (1987: 8). In his report, Cadena reports that 40 percent
of Chicano clergy in 1986 reported involvement in comunidades de base in
California and Texas (1987: 13). Other reports show that Las Hermanas were
also highly committed to the comunidades de base concept (Flores, n.d.).
Cadena argues that the aforementioned lay movements along with
the establishment of Chicano/a Catholic organizations and centers were
contributing factors to a US version of liberation theology.ll Working from the
14
Cultural Dynamics 21 (1)
premise that liberation theology creates theology anew, from the perspective
of the poor, he asserts that there were a number of Chicano!a religious and
laity that were working to reinterpret Catholicism to represent and empower
the US Chicano!a community (1987: 7-8). Understanding that Chicano!as
in the US had long faced social injustices, Chicano!a liberation theologians
proposed to seek 'the tools to work for social justice within the Christian
gospel' (Cadena, 1987: 9).
Despite the dramatic changes that had occurred with the Civil Rights
Movement and those that had occurred within the Catholic Church-both
internationally and in some local parishes- Mexican origin people in La Feria
continued to face everyday acts of discrimination in their local parish. Even
as late as 1979, Anglo parishioners continued their attempts to enforce a
kind of racial segregation within the local Catholic church despite all of the
gains made for people of color in the United States over the previous fifteen
years. Organizations such as PADRES and Las Hermanas, as well as the
religious and lay activities of the Mexican American Cultural Center in San
Antonio, set a radical context for the changes that occurred in La Feria in the
late 1970s and early 1980s. Nevertheless, I argue it was primarily the actions
of local individuals and groups that propelled the most dramatic changes at
St Francis Xavier.
Surgiendo de fa Base
In May 1978 Father Francisco Aguirre, the first Hispanic priest at St Francis
Xavier, wrote a letter to Sister Maria Elena Ortiz, the Mother Superior of the
Congregation of Franciscan Eucharistic Missionaries. His letter petitioned
that two nuns be sent to La Feria to help with the religious education of La
Feria's Mexican Catholic community. During this time period, there was only
one house of Mexican origin sisters in the United States, and this house was
located in San Antonio. Because the sisters had been considering extending
their ministry, they decided to visit La Feria to become familiar with the
town, its people, and the work they could perform there.
A written narrative of the nuns' experiences in La Feria explains their
decision to send two sisters to minister in La Feria:
Conociendo la realidad y 1a urgente necesidad de evangelizar en especial a los inmigrantes
de habla espanola que son mayorfa [sic], se encontraron familias que no hablan el ingles,
atras que 10 hablan poco, casa camtin aqui en el Valle. (Pineda, 1991)
[They] saw the reality and the urgent need to evangelize, especially to Spanish-speaking
immigrants, of whom there are many. They found families who did not speak English
and others who spoke only a limited amount [ofEnglishl, a common characteristic of the
[population] in the [Rio Grande] Valley.
N:ljera: Faith and Racial Integration in South Texas
15
After their brief sojourn in La Feria, the nuns returned to San Antonio to make
arrangements to establish residence in town. In August of that same year,
Sister Margarita Vargas and Sister Maria de los Angeles Enriquez" arrived
in La Feria, occupying a house designated for them near the parish. It was
decided that Sister Margarita would assume the responsibility of organizing
and directing CCD (Catholic Christian Doctrine) classes, and Sister Angeles
would dedicate herself to fa pastoral.
A vocation dedicated to la pastoral meant getting to know the needs of
the Mexican origin community. Sister Angeles walked through the Mexican
neighborhoods in town, knocking on doors and becoming acquainted with
the people and their concerns. Sister Margarita Vargas, the nun who worked
with Sister Angeles in La Feria, narrates the work the latter performed in the
late 1970s and the early 1980s:
[La Hna. Angeles] se encargaba de visitar casas en los barrios para ver 10 que necesitaba
1a gente. Y la gente expresaba que querfa conocer su fe. Compartfan sus vidas con ellatodo 10 social y religioso. Tenfan muchas preguntas. Despues del Segundo Congreso del
Vaticano, sucedieron muchos cambios en 1a iglesia. La gente no entendia los cambios.
Sister Angeles was in charge of visiting houses in [Mexican] neighborhoods to see what
people needed. And people expressed to her that they wanted to learn more about their
faith. They shared their lives with her-everything both social and religious. They had
a lot of questions. After Vatican II, there were a lot of changes in the Church. People
didn't understand those changes.
.
Sister Angeles arrived in La Feria at an opportune moment to answer the
questions that the Spanish-speaking members of the community had about
their faith. The Second Vatican Council had instigated several changes that
were being enacted in local parishes, and parishioners still had questions
about these changes. Though her narrative focuses on questions of faith, one
can imagine that as Mexican people shared 'their lives', with Sister Angeles,
including 'todo 10 social', issues of poverty and discrimination would also
be a major part of their stories. Sister Angeles's service to the Mexican origin
community thus would address both the spiritual and social needs of the
people.
Individual meetings with Sister Angeles were soon converted into small
home groups, where people could learn more about the practice of their
faith and build a stronger community that provided mutual aid to each its
members. Sister Clara explains:
Les dieron laoidea -lpor que no formamos pequeiios grupos de reflexi6n biblica? l C6mo
estoy viviendo el evangelico que me pide a milas lecturas de domingo? Entonces invitaban
a sus vecinos, amisrades de sus vecindades para esos grupos.
They got the idea - why don't we form small groups for biblical reflection? How am I living
the teachings that the scriptures ask of me on Sundays? So they invited their neighbors
and friends of their neighbors for these groups.
16
Cultural Dynamics 21(1)
These small home groups were organized in Mexican neighborhoods and
usually hosted about ten people in a home once a week. Each week, a different family would take their turn to host the group. In different neighborhoods, people would organize days and times to meet, according to their
schedules.
In the spring' of 1984, Sister Ana Maria de la Torre arrived in La Feria from
San Antonio, where she had received training at the Mexican American
Cultural Center with Father Marins (Pineda, 1991). She reorganized the
existing groups and formed new ones, introducing the themes and techniques
of comunidades de base, a lay movement that was prevalent at this time. In
an interview, Sister Ana Maria maintains that, unlike the comunidades de
base in Latin America, US comunidades de base were related to charismatic
rather than liberation theology movements within the Catholic Church.
In an interview, long-time member of the comunidades de base Antonio
Tenorio stated, 'El tema ya los transportaba a hacer comunidades de base y no
grupo de biblia. Aunque usaba la biblia, ~ verdad? Pero habla que llamarle la
comunidad que sea de base.' (The 'tema' was what distinguished comunidades
de base from Bible studies. Though we would use the Bible. But they were
comunidades de base.)
Comunidades de base focused on 'temas' that would relate the scripture to
their lives. According to Tenorio, temas would include issues of alcoholism,
spousal abuse, and discrimination. In a more political vein, Tenorio recalls
temas discussing farm worker activist Cesar Chavez, as well as those that
encouraged members of the comunidades de base to participate in local, state,
and national elections. Though the comunidades de base were not related to a
liberation theology movement per se, they still sought to improve social relations within families and communities as well as, in some instances, promote
political involvement and social justice. 13
As the comunidades de base began to grow in La Feria so did a stronger
sense of community among Mexican origin people. Mr and Mrs Zamarripa
recounted to me the impact of the weekly meetings of the comunidades de
base on the Mexican origin community and the Catholic Church.
Mr Z: La mejor que tuvo todo [fue que] ... tuvimos una comunidad de base aqu( en
esta casa, 1a siguiente seman a en otra casa, 1a siguiente en otra casa, y en otTa casa.
Entonces nos unimos todos. En Arroyo Heights. En Rancho Solis. Comunidades de
base en muchas partes.
Mrs Z: Y de allf nos unlamos y haciamos una comida para convivir todas. No era para
otTa cosa. Si nada mas era para convivir.
Mr Z: Allf sf habfa mucha unidad.
Mrs Z: Entonces nos fuimos unicodo mas y mas. La comunidad de base tuvo que ver
can esta.
Mr Z: Y compartfamos y de aUf a otros y a otros .
Najera: Faith and Racial Integration in South Texas
17
Mrs Z: Y asi fue como fuimos creciendo.
Mr Z; No no mas haciamos en la pura iglesia, sino en las casas. SaHa la gente. Hazte
cuenta que la iglesia se Ie hacia para afuera. A las casas.
Mr Z: The best thing of all was that we would have a comunidad de base meeting here in
this house, the next week in another house, and in another house. Then we became closer.
In Arroyo Heights. In Rancho Solis. There were comunidades de base all over.
Mrs Z: And from there we became close and we would have meals so that we could come
together. Just so that we could be together.
Mr Z: We were very united.
Mrs Z: Then we became more and more united. The comunidades de base had to do
with that.
Mr Z: We would share with other people.
Mrs Z: And that was how we began to grow.
MrZ: We weren't just doing this in the church, but in peoples' homes. People would come
out. Imagine the church going outside. To people's homes.
According to Mr and Mrs Zamarripa, the comunidades de base were instrumental in fostering a sense of unity among Mexican origin Catholics in
La Feria and its surrounding rural settlements. Though marginalized within
the local parish, unable to practice their culturally specific religious customs
and relegated to a separate side of the church, Mexican Catholics in La Feria
found that the comunidades de base were, as Mr Zamarripa maintained, the
Church going outside to peoples' homes. It is significant to note that it was
the parish's first Mexican origin priest who initiated the church's outreach to
the local Mexican origin community. Furthermore, the Mexican nuns who
served the community, and specifically Sister Angeles, made the home a
central place to build community.
Religious education was just the beginning of how the comunidades de
base were to serve the Mexican origin community in La Feria. Mr Tenorio
asserts that, in addition to learning about the Bible in their meetings, members
of the comunidades de base would learn about each other. If people who
attended meetings were struggling with their spouses or their children,
the group would support them however they could. If others did not have
money to pay utility bills, the group would take a small collection. If someone
were to pass away, the group would pay forftowers or take food to the bereaved
family. They would pray for each other's needs and provide as much social
and material support as possible. This informal system of mutual support
was of particular importance to a community that had been economically
and politically disenfranchised.
The initial ideology fueling the comunidades de base came from the
Mexican American Cultural Center in San Antonio, which promoted a type
of liberation theology that could be applicable in US Catholic communities.
Cultural Dynamics 21(1)
Najera: Faith and Racial Integration in South Texas
However, as these small religious home groups spread throughout the Rio
Grande Valley, these local groups grew in collaboration with each other for
their mutual development. These Valley comunidades de base developed
a distinct purpose as they sought to address the specific needs of Mexican
origin Catholics. One of these regional needs was the rectification of decades
of racial exclusion and discrimination.
After a long period of segregation and discrimination, one of the most
obvious needs of the Mexican origin Catholic community in the Valley was
to become further integrated into the local communities. One of the ways
in which comunidades de base facilitated this process was to reinvigorate
Mexican popular religious practices. As 1mentioned earlier, Mrs Zamarripa's
narrative illustrated one way that Anglo Catholics in La Feria shamed Mexican
Catholics in La Feria out of their culturally specific religious practices at
St Francis Xavier. Although the Mexican Catholics in La Feria were able
to practice their faith by attending church on Sundays, people missed the
Mexican Catholic celebrations they had practiced in Mexico and in Texas
before Anglo settlement. Sister Clara explains:
Las Posadas. This is a reenactment of the biblical journey Joseph and Mary
made in Bethlehem looking for a place to spend the night. It recounts how
the couple is denied a place to stay at various houses. Finally, they find one
person willing to open their doors to them. Mr Tenorio explains how the
Posadas transpire in La Feria:
18
Eso se llama religiosidad popular. La cultura mexicana es muy rica. Los miembros de
las comunidades de base son inmigrantes e hijos de inmigrantes. Cuando empezamos
ya no celebraban la virgen de Guadalupe, las posadas. La gente decfa, n~estros hijos no
saben de nuestra cultura. Aqui no tenemos nada. Era el deseo de celebrar 10 que ya no
se celebraba. Para ellos era su deseo. Les daba tristeza que pasaron [los dias festivos]
como cualquier diu. Querian revivar su cultura.
It's called religiosidad popular (religious practice that comes of the people). Mexican
culture is very rich. The members of the comunidades de base are immigrants and children
of immigrants. When we began, they no longer celebrated la Virgen de Guadalupe, Las
Posadas ... People would tell us, our children don't know about our culture. We seem
to have nothing here. The desire was to celebrate what was no longer celebrated. It was
their desire. It made them sad that their traditional days of festivity would pass like any
other day. They wanted to revive their culture.
The sense of loss that Mexican immigrants expressed to the nuns was both
cultural and religious in nature; they could still be Catholics, but not in the way
that they had once been. Furthermore they would be unable to pass on their
culturally specific faith practices to their children. Mexican origin people told
the nuns that here, in the United States, they felt they had nothing. 'Nothing'
most likely referred to economic as well as political and social clout. Perhaps
more painful, however, was the sense that they were also losing their cultural
practices.
In order to regain some of what Mexican Catholics of La Feria felt they
had lost, the nuns and the members of the comunidades de base began to take
charge of reviving some of these Mexican Catholic celebrations. Celebrations
for la Virgen de Guadalupe, Las Posadas and Las Vias Cruces began to take
root in La Feria. One of the largest of these was the annual celebration of
19
Tienen dos niiios que van a representar a Jose y a Maria. \
Entonces nosotros ya traemos hechos los cantitos, las lecturas bfblicas y esa noche
comenzamos en una casa a pedir posada ...
Se junta de cien, dento y pico de gente esa noche. Bajan segun el tiempo a cuarenta
treinta.
0
Cantamos de casa en casa, vamos cantando 0 rezando. Y pedimos posada en la primera
casa, luego en la segunda y nos responden que no hay posada. Vamonos a la otra ...
Jose y Maria siguen caminando en irente ... Lleva Ia lamparita prendida que neva
Jose cargando, la virgen Ia lleva pescada siempre con eI. ... Toda la gente espera en la
ultima casa porque saben que alii si les van a abrir y saben que alIi ya dan la entrada a
los peregrinos.
Hay muchos ninos. Ese es 10 que el padre Ie gusta mucho ver. Muchos niiios. Porque .
cuando ya terminamos en la Oltima casa, la monjita que esta con nosotros les da muchas
explicaciones a los ninos ... y contesta sus preguntas tambien....
Es parte de Ia celebraci6n. Cuando viene la piiiata y viene todo el convivio alli .
Siempre [hay] comida tradicional mexicana. Tamales ... Chocola,te cuaudo da el friazo.
Nosotros no cancelamos posada. Si esta hclando 0 no esta helando.
Las ocho posadas estan en comunidades de base, La novena la hacemos alli enla iglesia.
En el sa16n. Alli reunimos a todas las comunidades y mas gente aparte todavia ... Alli
ya damos regalos para los ninos, jueguetitos.
[Todos llevan algo]. La gente toda coopera para celebrar.
There are two children who represent Joseph and Mary.
At that point, we have our songs and our Bible passages ready. And that night we begin
at one house to ask for posada (a place to stay).
A hundred or more people will gather that night. The number of people will go down
according to the day to forty or thirty.
We sing going from house to house. We sing and pray. And we ask for posada at the first
house, then the second and they respond that they will not give us posada. Then we go
to another house.
Joseph and Mary continue to walk in front. Joseph carries a small lamp, the virgin always
by his side. Everyone waits at the last house because they know that there they will open
the doors to us. They know that they will let the pilgrims enter.
There are a lot of children. That's what the priest likes to see. A lot of children. Because
when we arrive at the last house, the nun who is with us will explain everything to the
children. She answers their questions.
It's all part of the celebration. Then there is a pinata and time to enjoy each other's
company.
20
Cultural Dynamics 21(1)
There is always traditional Mexican food. Tamales. Mexican hot chocolate when it gets
very cold. We never cancel the posadas. Even if it's freezing.
The first eight days of posadas are in the comunidades de base. The ninth is at the church
hall. We all get together there-the comunidades de base and people from olltside of the
comunidades de base. There we give gifts to children, little toys.
Everyone takes something. Everyone gives something to celebrate.
The celebration of Las Posadas is significant because it represents the revival
of a popular religious practice that Mexican origin people felt that they had
lost. 1would like to suggest, however, that more than a simple cultural revival,
the celebration of Las Posadas also reflects how Mexican origin people forge
a system of mutual self-reliance and community building. As a cultural
practice, the Posadas celebration is decidedly Mexican in nature. The songs
and prayers of the procession occur in Spanish. At the end of the procession,
the community enjoys traditional Mexican food, and the children celebrate
with a pinata. In addition to the positive cultural/religious aspects of the
celebration, Las Posadas demonstrates how members of the comunidades
de base facilitate community building in the Mexican origin community.
They coordinate which houses the procession will visit and who will host the
parties; people must practice the songs and prayers to lead the procession;
and they cooperate to make food and bring toys for the children. All of these
elements of the celebration demonstrate the effective way by which an economically disenfranchised community pools its resources to promote the
celebration. Furthermore, the inclusion of children in the procession and the
subsequent celebrations ensures that the next generation is educated about
Mexican Catholic culture so that these practices will continue. In this way, las
comunidades de base not only revive a popular religious practice, they also
reinforce the bonds and support of the local Mexican origin community.
This type of community building that occurred outside of the church facilitated Spanish-speaking parishioners' increased attendance at the church.
Prior to the ministry of Spanish-speaking nuns from San Antonio, many
Mexican origin Catholics did not attend St Francis except for special occasions
(e.g. baptisms, weddings, Christmas, Easter). This could have been because
many lived in the rural outlying areas of La Feria or because of racial discomfort
and a sense that they did not 'belong' at the church. It might have also been
because of their religious apathy. Whatever the reason, the nuns' ministry
and the activities of las comunidades de base inspired a renewed interest in
the church for many Mexican origin people. Several interviewees reveal that
the number of Spanish-speaking Catholics who attended St Francis began to
grow. By building community outside of the church, Mexican origin people
began to feel empowered to integrate themselves inside the church as well.
In addition to the activities of las comunidades de base, other church groups
as well as individual priests contributed to the involvement of Mexican origin
people in the church and the shifting attitudes of parishioners about race
Najera: Faith and Racial Integration in South Texas
21
"
relations. There were several groups, or movements, at St Francis Xavier
in the 1970s and 1980s; while some specifically targeted the Mexican origin
population, others had a more broad demographic focus. According to a
parish history, a Guadalupana Society was organized in 1980. Many members
of the parish also participated in the Cursillo, Charismatic, and Marriage
Encounter movements (United Church Directories). Long-time parishioner
Mr Zamarripa also recalls the movimiento familiar cristiano (Christian Family
Movement) andgrupos de oracion (prayer groups) as significant movements
where people would come together to actively participate in their faith.
New parish priests also facilitated a shift in people's attitudes about the
politics of racial inclusion and exclusion in the church. Mr and Mrs Zamarripa
recall Father Buckholt and Father Gomez as two priests who began to change
the way parishioners thought about each other. Mrs Zamarripa recounts that
it was in their sermons that these priests facilitated change:
En serrnoncs decia ... Comenz6 el a trabajar sabre eso y a decirnos, a inculcarnos que
todos eramos hermanos. Todos eramos hijos de Dios. A Dios no dividia ni color ni raza.
Entonces hay esto en los sermones, esos fuertes que el ponfa ...
In his sermons he [the pri]est] would say ... He started to work on this and tell us, to
ingrain in us that we were all brothers and sisters. We were all children of God. God did
not divide by color or by race. He would put those [themes] in his sermons, those strong
[sermons] he would give.
The priests at St Francis Xavier were in the powerful position of influencing
people's moral positions and attitudes every Sunday at the pulpit. They gave
'strong' sermons about how parishioners were all children of a God who did
not divide them by race. The Zamarripas assert that these sermons effected
change within the church. Mr Zamarripa asserts that the efforts of the priests
along with the movements helped to 'componer' (repair) things in the church.
It is interesting to note his choice of words. Discrimination against Mexican
Catholics and the segregation they experienced within the church had, in a way,
broken the Catholic community. While the work of the nuns, the comunidades
de base, and other local church groups and ministries began to repair this
fragmentation, new priests used their influence to push forward the project
of racial reconciliation.
Finally, I would like to argue that many of the vestiges of discrimination
and segregation that Mexican origin people experienced within the local
Catholic church were both unearthed and put to rest with the construction
of the new church. At the groundbreaking ceremony for the new church on
3 December 1992, Norma Sanchez, a Mexican American woman who has
been involved in the church for several years, narrates how she came to an
understanding of race relations then and now within the church.
One of the things that I always remember is when the priest, which' was Father _ _'
{who]
was here the whole time ... On December the third ... we dedicated the new
church
and they announced how long he had been here. And it was a long time. But I'm
/
22
Cultural Dynamics 21(1)
sitting there, already as an adult, already married, and already working here at the church
.. . And they said how long he had been here and I'm thinking, why didn't I ever have a
personal conversation with him? You know, like I do now with [the current priest].
And it hit me.
And I remember so vividly that we would walk out of church and he would walk. You
Najera: Faith and Racial Integration in South Texas
23
Sacred and Secular Struggles
Here, in the everyday, common struggle for our survival as a people with a dignity bestowed
on us by God, the political and the personal, the economic and the spiritual, the intellectual
and the emotional, the sacred and the secular are united. (Roberto Goizueta)
know how they greet the people? It was in the capilla (the old church), so he would go like
half way ... and everybody was around him, talking with him. And I always wondered,
'Why can't we do that?' But I don't think we were ever told not to do that. Ijust remember
seeing all the Anglos.
It kind of made me sad because I thought ... he was such a good priest and I loved him
and everything. And he was the one who married me. That I remember. When we got
married, we had one conversation with him. And you know, what he told us was good,
but that was the only time I remember just talking to him personally.
While Mr and Mrs Zamarripa hold very early memories of the discrimination
they experienced within the Catholic church in La Feria, Mrs Sanchez came
to the realization only as they closed the doors to the old church and opened
those of the new church. Unlike Mr and Mrs Zamarripa, who are in their late
seventies and early eighties, Mrs Sanchez is in her early sixties, having grown
up in the church when the racial order had already been established. Mexican
Catholic customs had already been suppressed by Anglo members of the
congregation. Mrs Sanchez grew up in the church not necessarily questioning
why her family sat on a particular side of the church. When asked why she sat
there, she stated, 'That's where we sit as a family ... Ithought it was normal.'
This normalized set of racial rules was disrupted only by the construction of
the new church.
As I stated earlier, the first Catholic church in La Feria was built by Anglo
residents with the land and financial support from one of La Feria's first land
speculators from the Midwest, S. J. Schnorenberg. I would like to suggest
that his support, along with that of other Anglo Catholics, set a precedent for
Anglos to feel a sense of ownership of the church. Mrs Sanchez recalls how
this sense of chnrch ownership shifted to the larger community of La Feria
with the construction of the new church in 1992:
When we moved into the new church, all the confirmation students and everybody was
working together. Not just the students but the adults. I could see vividly ... On the last
day ... I remember Father Tom making the comment that this is everybody's church.
This church doesn't belong to just this people; it belongs to everyone ... And I was like,
wow. And I think it's true. I think in the other church we felt like it was their church.
Mrs Sanchez recognizes that moment as a turning point in the church's history.
She sees all the confirmation students as well as the adnlts- both Mexican
and Anglo-working together. She understands what Father Tom is saying
when he says that this is everybody's church. This church will not divide
Mexicans from Anglos by an aisle. 14 It will not belong to one group. It will
belong to everyone.
This article has examined the experience of Mexican segregation and the process of racial integration in a local Catholic church in South Texas. Despite
the fact that St Francis Xavier was not segregated by church doctrine, it was
not exempt from national and local racial attitudes. The internal boundaries
of St Francis Xavier parish were drawn along racial lines, much as they were
in other local institutions. When Anglos settled La Feria, they established a
local Catholic church with their money and the land that they had purchased.
Though the church was supposed to belong to all Catholics, there remained a
strong sense of Anglo ownership of that church space since its inception in the
1930s. During that early period of the 20th century, Anglo Catholics made it
clear to Mexican faithful that their practices were not welcome. Furthermore,
the long aisle separating the two columns of pews facing the altar divided the
church into two racially distinct areas.
Though social justice movements in the 1960s and 1970s challenged racial
attitudes and the discriminatory treatment of racial minorities in the United
States, Anglo racial dominance and forms of segregation persisted in La Feria,
even within the local Catholic church, a space that might have transcended
the social injustices of that epoch. The movements for social justice within the
United States, changes enacted by the Second Vatican Council, as well as
Latin American liberation theology all exerted an influence on the US Catholic
Church. In Texas, the establishment of groups such as PADRES and Las
Hermanas as well as the Mexican American Cultural Center in San Antonio
helped in the struggle for Mexican American rights - both inside and outside
of the church. Nevertheless, Mexican origin people in La Feria recount their
experiences of discrimination and racial discomfort within St Francis Xavier
even until the late 1970s.
Because much of the segregation that Mexican origin people in this country
faced was de facto, based more on common practices than on laws, racial
integration for Mexicans necessitated not only a change in the law, but also
grassroots social action that challenged dominant racial ideologies. In this
article, I have argued that racial integration in La Feria's Catholic church was
a process that was effected by various actors, including priests, nuns, and
members oflay movements. I have paid particular attention to the comunidades
de base lay movement in this article because of the way that they demonstrated
mutual self-reliance and community building to enact social and cultural
change in their church. I argue that it was precisely this kind of social action
that led to the creation of a culturally viable space within the church for
24
Najera: Faith and Racial Integration in South Texas
Cultural Dynamics 21(1)
Mexican origin people in LaFeria. I would like to suggest that this space was
an important way that racial integration occurred.
One of the most significant aspects of the comunidades de base was the
mutual support and community building that occurred within the groups. In
his article, 'Aesthetic Processes and Cultural Citizenship', Richard Flores
asserts that 'enactments and practices that forge a sense of community and
belonging, lead to renewed experiences of identity and provide a social space
for the formation of collective practice and its concomitant forms of power'
(1997: 125). The comunidades de base functioned in this way through their
weekly meetings. Mr Zamarripa's narrative asserts that the best thing that
the comunidades de base had to offer was the fact that they would meet in
different people's houses every week, in Mexican neighborhoods in town
and in outlying rural communities. In the intimate space of the home, they
shared food and music. They studied the Bible and their lemas, but were
also able to learn about the needs of their fellow community members. They
pooled resources to help members of the group who were in need, which was
significant when one considers the fact that the Mexican origin community in
this region had historically been economically disenfranchised. Through these
social and religious meetings Mr Zamarripa states, 'Nos fuimos uniendo mas
y mas' (We became more and more united). Community building, in this case,
was achieved not only through religious education, but also through a social
network of mutual support and concern. As Flores indicates, this space of
belonging and community led its members to collective action. In the case
of the comunidades de base, they moved from the intimate spaces of their
homes to their neighborhoods as they began to revive some of their popular
religious practices.
The popular religious practices revived by the comunidades de base were
both a struggle for cultural survival and a political struggle. In an essay about
Latino popular religious practices, theologian Roberto Goizueta states that
'precisely because these practices emerge on the margins of society and the
official Church, they are nurtured by the spiritual and intellectual demands of
the struggle for survival, by the everyday resistance to vanquishment' (1997:
p. xvii). While the marginalization Mexicans experienced (being ushered to
one side of the church) at St Francis Xavier was painful, many of the members
of the comunidades de base also lamented the loss of their culturally specific
practices within the Catholic Church. It upset them that they were not able to
pass these practices~part of their culture~on to their children. Theologian
Orlando Espfn asserts that 'popular Catholicism stands out as one of the
very few social (public and private) spaces that have been able to preserve
some high degree of protagonism for Latinos' (1997: 102). In reviving their
popular religious practices, they were asserting their right not to disappear,
resisting the Anglo religious hegemony. The activities of the comunidades de
25
base and the revival of their popular religious practices were thus political in
nature, part of the struggle for cultural visibility and racial integration within
the local Catholic church.
Racial integration for Mexican origin people was a process that extended
into the decades following the Civil Rights Movement. Within the community
of La Feria, along the Texas-Mexico border, we can see how the struggle for
racial integration was dependent upon grassroots social action. Within the
local Catholic church, Mexican origin people were marginalized as they were
unable to practice their Mexican Catholic popular customs and ushered to
one side of the church. I have argued that within the struggle for racial integration, members of the lay movement-comunidades de base-helped to
broaden the scope of belonging to the church. They achieved this through
the creation a strong social network of mutual aid and thrOUgh the revival of
popular religious practices that had been suppressed within the historically
Anglo-dominant church. In this way, Mexican Catholics remained engaged
the institution and, as Edward Said has said, this type of engagement with a
dominant power has the potential to 'dispute its hierarchy and methods, to
elucidate what it has hidden, to pronounce what it has silenced or rendered
unpronounceable' (quoted in Goizueta, 1997: p. xi). The social actions of
La Feria's comunidades de base reflect grassroots critique and resistance.
These home group communities not only create cultural space for Mexican
origin people within the local Catholic church, they challenge national racial
attitudes and set the stage for broader racial integration and community
transformation.
NOTES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
All of the names in this article are pseudonyms unless the person's name has
already appeared in a published account.
See Menchaca's (1987) ethnography for a relevant discussion of contemporary
common sense segregation, which she theorizes as 'social apartness.'
There were few exceptions to this equation, but those Mexicans who were
descendants of land grant families were, at times, able to maintain their social
and economic standing.
A City employee related to me that the original city planner designed the Mexican
side of town to have the minimum amount of space as was legal between houses
so as not to pose a fire threat.
In his article about the history of Mexican Americans and 10 testing, Carlos Kevin
Blanton writes that La Feria teacher, then principal, Basil Armour regularly
employed IQ testing, which further supported ideas about Mexican intellectual
interiority in the context of local schools (Blanton, 2003).
6. This trend was not meaningfully addressed until the 1960s and early 1970s when
the school district began to employ its first Mexican American faculty and staff.
26
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Cultural Dynamics 21(1)
The desegregation of Sam Houston Elementary School did not occur until 1972
because of the pressure the district received from the Health, Education, and
Welfare Agency (see Najera, 2005).
Protestant newcomers to the area worshipped in various town spaces, including
a local pool hall and beer parlor and then, later, the one-room school building
(McNail, 1975). 1n 1914, Union Church was constructed as a place of worship
for the town's Protestants. A Methodist Church was constructed later that same
year; Baptist and Presbyterian churches soon followed (MeNail, 1975).
The original Catholic burned down in 1930 and was reconstructed that same
year.
Similarly, one of my oral history interviews revealed that the Mexican Baptist
Church, which began to advertise its services in the local newspaper in September
of 1947 (La Feria News), began as a mission of the La Feria Baptist Church.
Nevertheless, Mexican origin people were not abandoned in the church. St. Francis
Xavier provided a form of religious education to its Mexican parishioners in
Spanish. One Mexican origin parishioner, Norma, now a very active member of
the church, recalls that in the early 1950s, she attended a form of catechism at the
church. Though there were no formal catechism classes as there are today, Norma
recalls that one of the town's prominent Mexican American women would meet
with Mexican origin Catholic children to teach them prayers in Spanish.
Liberation theology emerged strongly in the Catholic Church in the early 1970s,
primarily in Latin America. It emphasized a Christian mission of social justice
for people who experienced political, social, and economic oppression.
I use the real names of these two nuns because their story is told in both published
and non-published accounts of Church history.
In the mid-1980s, members of La Feria's comunidades de base became involved in
helping Central American refugees who were being detained in the Rio Grande
Valley. The groups took up small collections and donated clothes and food
performing, as Sister Clara said, 'muchas obras de misericordia' (many acts of
charity).
Interestingly, the new church is constructed such that there is a semi-circle of
pews facing the altar, not two long columns as it had been at the other church.
The other church has since been converted into a small chapel.
Najera: Faith and Racial Integration in South Texas
27
Flores, M. E. (n.d.) 'Las Hermanas', Handbook of Texas Online, URL (consulted
Sept. 2008): http://www.tshaonline.orgihandbook/online/articles/LLlix13.html
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Foley, D. (1988) From Peones to Politicos. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Galarza, E. (1964) Merchants ofLabor. Charlotte, NC: McNally & Loftin. Goizueta 1997.
Goizueta, R. S. (1997) 'Foreword', in O. Espin, The Faith of the People, pp. ix-xxii.
Maryknoll, NY: Orbis.
Gonzalez, G. G. (1990) Chicano Education in the Era of Segregation. Philadelphia,
PA: Balch Institute Press.
Government Service Agency (1999) La Feria, Texas: Comprehensive Development
Plan. Dallas, TX: GSA.
McNail, E. (1975) The Bicentennial History of La Feria, Texas. La Feria, TX: Author.
Madsen, W. (1973 [1962]) The Mexican Americans of South Texas, New York: Holt,
Rinehart & Winston, Inc., 2nd edn.
Martinez, R. (2005) Padres: The National Chicano Priest Movement. Austin, TX:
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Cultural Dynamics 21(1)
28
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Region, 1917-1970. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
NAJERA, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Chicano/a Studies in the Department
of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside. She is currently working
on a book manuscript that explores the history of raCial segregation in a South
Texas community. Address: Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California
Riverside, 4033 CHASS Interdisciplinary North. Riverside, CA 92521, USA. [email:
[email protected]}
JENNIFER