{"id":440,"date":"2014-01-18T16:59:59","date_gmt":"2014-01-18T16:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=440"},"modified":"2014-10-28T16:59:58","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T16:59:58","slug":"the-long-march-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-long-march-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"The Long March Continues\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was intrigued by the first sentence on the back cover of Modern Social Imaginaries<\/em>, \u201cCharles Taylor is internationally renowned for his contributions to political and moral theory, particularly to debates about identity formation, multiculturalism, secularism, and modernity.\u201d\u00a0 As I engaged in reading \u201cModern Social Imaginaries<\/em>\u201d I found myself being challenged and invited to understand and recognize a broader range of human possibilities within the moral order of what Charles Taylor calls the modern social imaginary.<\/p>\n

Taylor defines social imaginary as ways people imagine their social existence, how they fit together with others, how things go on between them and their fellows, the expectations that are normally met, and the deeper normative notions and images that underlie these expectations.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

As I thought about this definition I couldn\u2019t help but think about the Latino community.\u00a0 How do Latinos imagine their social existence? How does society imagine Latino\u2019s social existence? Just recently in the Texas Tribune, the candidate for land commissioner said, \u201cWe\u2019ve got to denounce some of the ignorant statements that are made bout Hispanics\u2026whether it\u2019s to the military, our nation\u2019s economy or to the history of Texas.\u201d [2]<\/a> This was in response to a comment made about the gubernatorial candidate when she and her running mate were addressed as \u201cAbortion Barbie with Hispanic Senator\u2026\u201d Others were appalled by the statement and called it \u201cdisrespectful language towards women and Hispanics.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 It is sad to see that in this day and age, for some, the way Latinos fit or are imagined, is still based on the stereotyped images which present distorted, offensive and in some cases, superficial portrayals of Hispanic people.<\/p>\n

The Texas Tribune also states that in the keynote address, the candidate for land commissioner highlighted the importance of Hispanic inclusivity by saying: \u201cit\u2019s not about Hispanic outreach. It\u2019s about Hispanic inclusivity.\u201d[4]<\/a> According to the 2010 census, Hispanics are the nation\u2019s fastest growing and largest \u201cminority\u201d group. Yet, Hispanics\/Latinos are not seen as a people or community, but rather a population or number, \u201ca quantified slice of the social whole\u201d, if you will. This image of the Hispanic community by official measurement is thus inherently instrumental, since the immediate goal is really to identify, not so much social groups, or lines of cultural unity and diversity, but voting blocs and consumer markets.[5]<\/a> It is unfortunate that these may be the only images that people in the United States and in the world may have of Hispanics. Thus, Hispanics become a package to sell and a target to market.<\/p>\n

The Latino community is an \u201cimagined community\u201d \u2013 to use the words of Benedict Anderson \u2013 a compelling present-day example of social group being etched and composed out of a larger, impinging geopolitical landscape.\u201d[6]<\/a> In various parts of the country (New York, Miami, Portland, Oregon, Los Angeles, etc\u2026) it is not uncommon to look at someone and be able to determine if they are Latino\/Hispanic. An image begins to form in the eyes and minds of those who make this determination. For Latinos the outside representation is the dominant one. Yet, we must be mindful and careful of how Latinos are being imagined \u2013 from \u201cwithin\u201d or \u201cwithout\u201d \u2013 and to what ends and outcomes.<\/p>\n

Charles Taylor suggests that in order for a social imaginary to be transformed, people must take up, improvise and be introduced to new practices. This new outlook provides a new context to people\u2019s practices. Therefore, the new understanding comes to be accessible to the people in a way it wasn\u2019t before.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps, Latinos themselves need to serve as a healthy corrective to the countless stereotypes that go to define what or who is Latino in the public mind. To transform society according to a new principle of legitimacy, we have to have a repertory that includes ways of meeting this principle. These practices must make sense to the people, and the people must have an understanding of what these practices are.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

Recently I was attending a pastoral leadership conference. At this conference my good friend of over 30 years, Elizabeth Conde Fraizer, and I scheduled some uninterrupted time to talk.\u00a0 We were up past midnight sharing personal stories, leadership stories, and ministry stories. Through the sharing of our stories I was able to see a new image emerging in me. I was reminded that, as Taylor puts it, it has been a long march toward inclusivity. It has been a long march toward breaking these old forms, in which equality replaces hierarchy. Yet for the Latino community, the long march of economy, public sphere, and \u201cinventing the people\u201d still has a great distance to travel.<\/p>\n

While Taylor may do a fine job in articulating the moral order of the modern social imaginaries for the Western world, in my humble opinion, he shares very little about non-Western societies.\u00a0 What does this mean for those whose resources are required, but are excluded from having a voice in the social, political, and economic world?\u00a0 Again, the long march still has a great distance to travel.<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Charles Taylor, Modern Social Imaginaries, <\/em>(Public Planet Books, Durham: Duke University Press, 2004), 23.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[2]<\/a> Alexa Ura, Bush Targets Ignorant Statements About Hispanics, <\/em>(The Texas Tribune, January 15, 2014)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[3]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[5]<\/a> Juan Flores, From Bomba to Hip Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity,<\/em> (Columbia Univeristy Press, New York: NY, 2000), 194.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[6]<\/a> Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism,<\/em> (London: Verso, 1991), 5-6.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[7]<\/a> Charles Taylor, Modern Social Imaginaries, <\/em>(Public Planet Books, Durham: Duke University Press, 2004), 29.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[8]<\/a> Ibid., 115.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was intrigued by the first sentence on the back cover of Modern Social Imaginaries, \u201cCharles Taylor is internationally renowned for his contributions to political and moral theory, particularly to debates about identity formation, multiculturalism, secularism, and modernity.\u201d\u00a0 As I engaged in reading \u201cModern Social Imaginaries\u201d I found myself being challenged and invited to understand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1768,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions\/1768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}