Mujerista Theology

Women (mujeres) are claiming their voices and spaces in all areas of 21st-century life, including the arena of theology. Mujerista may not be a familiar term yet, but as demographics change in the United States, theologians and others are starting to take notice of the voices of Latinas, particularly in North America. Mujerista theology is emerging as a major expression of feminist theology from the context of the lived experience of Hispanic women.

While efforts of Hispanic women to liberate themselves take varying forms in the United States, Mujerista theology is one strain of a multistranded struggle for justice and liberation of Latinas. Mujerista theology weaves together elements of feminist (feminista), cultural, and Latin American liberation theologies.

Since Christian belief and practice is intrinsic to Hispanic culture, many Latina women in the United States express a need to practice their faith and do theology in light of grassroots Latina experience, refusing to deny the cultural lens they bring to their thinking and practice. In the last decade such mujeres intentionally renamed what was formerly known as “Hispanic women's liberation theology” “Mujerista theology.” Mujerista theologians work to bring the voices and experiences of Latina women out of the margins and into the mainstream of academic study of theology, as voices and efforts made by communities of mujeristas (women who opt to struggle for and with women, particularly women living in poverty and oppression). Leading Mujerista theologian Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz has worked extensively to articulate and define Mujerista theology for mujeristas and for the mainstream, bridging the worlds of Latina practice of Christian faith and the academy, and struggling [Page 987]in solidarity with those who live at once the culture of the United States and one's country of origin.

Mujerista theology enables Latinas to understand how much they have internalized their own oppression by acclimating themselves to the prevailing systems in society-including the religious systems-rather than creating spaces for their particular voices and cultural expression within systems. Mujerista theology helps Latinas to see that radical structural change cannot happen unless radical change takes place inside each and every one of them.

Within the field of biblical scholarship, the context from which a reader comes crucially impacts her/his process of doing theology. The social, cultural, and economic contexts of the reader drastically impact the questions (s)he asks of the text, and her/his interpretation and use of the text. Mujerista voices add to the emerging multiplicity of voices for a flourishing body of work in theology that ideally includes all people.

Mujerista theology distinguishes itself in a number of ways. Like African American Womanist theology, from which it has drawn inspiration and influence, it emphasizes liberating praxis, which deals with concerns less typical of Caucasian women. Where Feminist theology is likely to be directed more to an economically and educationally privileged audience, Mujerista theology insists upon addressing the concrete and the particular. Doing “Mujerista Theology” unfolds theology, anthropology, and ritual from within the context of the lives of Latinos in the United States. Its goal is not complex theoretical work, but change in the understanding and lucha/struggle, and ultimately, the elimination of injustice in the lives of Latinas.

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