Recently
my daughter was a key player in the organization of a march that would
be held in Tucson, Arizona about immigration laws and how they are
affecting a wide range of people who are part of the Tucson community.
In the early morning before the march began Allison (her pastor) came
over to reassure and pray for her. She asked our good Lord to bless,
protect and guide her throughout the day.
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| Modern day Nahua |
Yet not only did she receive the most needed spiritual intervention from
one that shared her own faith, but also received it from an unexpected
member of the community. The local Nahua spiritual leader! He came
over to the premises of the Southside Presbyterian Church, where
everyone was gathered, to ask his deities to guide and protect those
who would be participating in the march. She told me how they had
called upon the Universe and showered her with incense that would help
her win the war. They painted her face as if she was one of their own
warrior women and for one brief second she felt part of these amazing
people, even when she is far away from being so. Even though she is
Hispanic, she was basically born in a pop culture society, she is an
American citizen by birth right, she is Christian and so many other
things separate her from the Nahua. But they do have something in
common, they struggle together to fight against a system that hurts and
condemns immigrants to living conditions that should bring shame to a
country that was born from immigrants. Bottom line, Tlaoamatli (which
means thank you) for wanting to protect the well-being of one of my
own. I have no words that can express how grateful I am for your
gesture. If only, I could also extend my own hand to be able to
protect your people from injustice I would do so. Yet, the only thing I
can do is pray for you and write about your struggles and suffering,
which I am more than willing to do.
The Nahua taught us a lesson with their openness and candor that we
as Christians are not willing to reciprocate. Why isn't it possible for
all people to come together crossing the bridges that separate us and
moving forward in creating a better world. Our country is full of
churches, temples, synagogues, and so many other buildings where people
gather to worship their own deities, but we are so far away from
spirituality and good.
Maybe we do need to call the power of
nature from the four corners of our Earth and ask our dear Lord to help
us get over ourselves and then and only then will we be able to
appreciate our diversity and rejoice as we build a better today, so
tomorrow the Nahua , Christian, Islamic or Jew children (just to mention
a few) enjoy a better place to live. By doing this we are all
contributing in creating a little piece of heaven here in this troubled
Earth that we call home.
