Underserved Suffering

From the Introduction

"This story seeks to nuance moments in my history as the son of diasporic parents. As members of the many who migrated, my parents became an "us" to a "them" in a world where being different felt threatening. They experienced their own undeserved suffering, while holding on to the dream of American Exceptionalism. Puerto Rican-Americans arrived with prayers on their lips, bibles and rosaries in hand, and though it felt like an expulsion from paradise, our colonial faith sustained us. The God we knew over there was also here, in our new hiding place called Spanish Harlem, fondly called, el Barrio. The faith inherited from 5 centuries of colonialism has grown into our collective identity, and though its sacred stories speak to our realities, its legacy has also contributed to colonial aims."

"I draw from the life of one of colonial Christianity's greatest saints, St. Francis of Assisi, who emulates the life of Jesus in the 13th century. Francis faced the falseness of religious clericalism, the plight of the poor in a shame / honor culture, and a dualistic consciousness that still prevails and which refuses to embrace otherness. How might his life speak to Puerto Ricans in diaspora? How might we re-imagine the colonial faith inherited?"