Colonial Footprints in the Puerto Rican Chruch.
Introduction:
In this short essay, I explore some of the relationships between coloniality and Puerto Rican Christian worship. Due to length and format considerations, I have divided this work into two parts. In this first part, I briefly explore some historical aspects of colonization and define concepts such as coloniality, the coloniality of being, and the colonial matrix of power, among others. I will then point out what I believe are some elements of Puerto Rican Christian Church worship that reflect coloniality and colonial mechanisms within the church.
Brief Historical Background and Definitions:
The church's presence in Puerto Rico began with Spanish ecclesiastical officials who, along with the conquerors and Admiral Christopher Columbus, planted the Spanish flag and the Christian cross in Borinquen in 1493. This event marks the beginning of the colonial enterprise and the justification for the abuse, mistreatment, and plundering of the island and its inhabitants, all in the name of Evangelization and Christianization.[1] In May 1512, with the signing of agreements between the Spanish kings and the church's first bishops established in what the conquerors called America, the rules for implementing the Christian church in the New World were set.[2] Later, during the Spanish-American War in 1898, Puerto Rico became a booty-of-war ceded by Spain to the United States of America (USA). Today, the island exists as a colony under the colonial rule of the USA.
The arrival of American missionaries to Puerto Rico established Protestant evangelicalism, which took firm root in the country. Francisco Reus Froylán affirms that both the Catholic and Protestant churches served the needs of colonial powers.[3] Months before the Spanish-American War, seven missionary boards from various Protestant evangelical denominations met in New York to discuss the future of the territories to be invaded—Cuba, Puerto Rico, and later the Philippines—eventually dividing the map of each island and assigning themselves territories by geographic regions.[4] In both circumstances, under Spanish and USA rule, the island was and continues to be, a victim of oppression, invisibilization, racism, and abuse. In this context, theology and the Christian church are also a product of a whole colonial enterprise, which still manifests today through coloniality.
Coloniality is defined as a cultural construct that seeks to “legitimize the relations of oppression that colonialism presupposed.”[5] Peruvian sociologist Aníbal Quijano, one of the precursors of the term, establishes that it refers to the cultural logic of domination underlying contemporary social practices. For Quijano, coloniality exceeds colonialism and persists even after the processes of independence and liberation of Latin American nations.[6] As research continues, new conceptualizations addressing the concept of coloniality from different frameworks and contexts are developed.
For example, the coloniality of being, as explained by José Ramón Fabelo in the cited article above, is a term that encompasses concepts describing the devaluation or dehumanization of the culture of the “other” (dominated or colonized people) based on the idea that the Eurocentric perspective is superior. For Walter Mignolo, the colonial matrix of power—an idea developed by Mignolo, drawing from Quijano’s original concept of the colonial pattern of power—is defined as a historical-epistemological structure that affirms the Western European and, subsequently, Anglo-North American worldview as unquestionable and absolute.[7] Through conquest and colonization, Europe affirms its self-perception as the “center of the world” and the only global model for other civilizations. An example of this can be seen in the writings of Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who, anchored in his European ideology and perception of the inhabitants of the Americas, sought theological justification for domination and war by proposing four reasons to fight the Amerindians:
The Indigenous people were considered inferior. This idea strongly permeated the European colonizer's mindset (and many thinkers of the time), who viewed Indigenous people as savage, brutish, and akin to animals.
They believed it was necessary to eradicate Indigenous religious cults and customs, as they involved “human sacrifices.”
They claimed they needed to “safeguard the lives” of future victims.
They sought to spread the Gospel. Evangelization was the driving force behind the colonial enterprise of the Spanish crown.[8] This led to a Christian theory of colonization that pretended to be a theology of liberation.[9]
Elements of Coloniality in Puerto Rican Church and Worship:
With this in mind, I would now like to point out some aspects of Puerto Rican worship that, in my view, manifest coloniality within the church and reflect the influence of this historical-epistemological thinking on our religious traditions.
Centralization of Power—The church's hierarchical structure, with centralized leadership (for example, the prominence of the male leader or pastor), reflects colonial patterns of authority and dominant gender structures. Likewise, a clear division between the roles of the laity and clergy and the distinct functions each performs also reflects how power and hierarchy are centralized in the church.
Suppression of Indigenous and Afro-descendant Practices – Christian worship in the island excludes and minimizes elements related to Indigenous or Afro-descendant spirituality, mostly maintaining Christian and Eurocentric forms of worship. This can be seen in the selection of hymns or the lyrics of the songs we sing in worship. This kind of worship suppresses Afro-descendant spaces and movements, which use percussion instruments with more lively or joyful rhythms.
Dependence on External Resources – In most of the island’s churches, various lectionaries and liturgical resources are not adapted to our context, making references, for example, to snow and the challenges it brings. Historical churches with “mother” denominations in the United States, such as Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians, often promote and reflect aspects of external dependence in how they operate, their rules, and procedures. In this case, it seems necessary for local churches to resolve their colonial situation, as it reflects in the way they make decisions and organize their worship.
The Pulpit as a Tool of Oppression – Eliseo Pérez, in his book A voltear la tortilla, asserts that when the Iberians arrived with their culture, they transplanted theirs and devoured our cultures. His text questions whether, when analyzing biblical texts for our sermons, we use local experiences as a guide or if we resort to Eurocentric and Anglo-North American traditions.[10] A justice-centered analysis of the Bible shows how the experiences of slaves and plantation workers have historically been ignored and made invisible to satisfy the interests of a church operating from a colonial mindset. As recently as 2019, we have an example of this when Jeanine Añez, who served as the president of Bolivia, used the Bible to divide the people and demonize Indigenous people for their religious customs.
These are just a few of the notable elements that evidence colonial relationships in the island's worship, gatherings, and ecclesiastical structures. My intention here is not to claim that these are the only elements or that they are more important than others but to discuss them to provoke healthy and deep discussions that analyze, in meaningful ways, the possibilities of thinking about Puerto Rican worship from a decolonial perspective. In the second part of this article – coming soon – I will revisit these manifestations of coloniality to offer suggestions for decolonizing Puerto Rican Christian worship.
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Notes:
[1] Luis N. Rivera Pagán, Evangelización y Violencia: La Conquista de América (San Juan, PR: Publicaciones Gaviota, 2020), 13.
[2] Luis N. Rivera Pagán, “Iglesia y Colonialidad, tragedia indígena, voz profética y episcopado. Bartolomé de Las Casas a la sombra de la muerte,” Revista Teológica de la Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana Vol. 37, Tomo 1&2, San José, Costa Rica 2017, accesado en agosto 24, 2024 en http://www.revistas.ubl.ac.cr
[3] Francisco Reus Froylán, “El Papel Histórico de Las Iglesias En La Autodeterminación de Puerto Rico,” in Fe Cristiana y Descolonización de Puerto Rico, ed. Luis Rivera Pagán (San Juan, Puerto Rico: Mesa de Diálogo Martin Luther King Jr., 2013), 17–26.
[4] Samuel Silva Gotay, Protestantismo y Política en Puerto Rico, 1898-1930: hacia una historia del protestantismo evangélico en Puerto Rico. Segunda Edición, (San Juan, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1998).
[5] Jose Ramón Fabelo Corzo, “La colonialidad del poder y la logica del capital.” Perspectiva 14 (16): 91-98, 2013.
[6] Anibal Quijano, “Colonialidad y modernidad/racionalidad.” Perú Indigena 13(29): 11-20, 1992.
[7] Walter Mignolo, El lado más oscuro de la modernidad occidental: Futuros globales, opciones descoloniales. (Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial Prometeo, 2024).
[8] Rivera Pagán, Evangelización y Violencia: La Conquista de América, 38.
[9] Juan Antonio Mujica García y José Ramón Fabelo Corzo, “La colonialidad del ser: la infravalorización de la vida humana en el sur-global,” 2019. Estudios de filosofía práctica e historia de las ideas, 21(2), 1-9. Recuperado en 23 de agosto de 2024, de http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1851-949020190002000004&Ing=es&tlng=es.
[10] Eliseo Pérez Álvarez. A voltear la tortilla; método de la predicación anticolonialista. Prólogo por Mitri Raheb; epilogo, Cherie R. White. Montevideo, Uruguay: (Fundación Amerindia), 2020.
