September Newsletter - Winston in Mexico

Hi All,
I hope this newsletter finds everyone well back home in the States. Since this is my first newsletter from Mexico, I want to take the time to discuss both my orientation for Young Adults in Global Mission in Chicago and then my first three weeks in Mexico.
Before heading out to their various countries of placement, volunteers from the ELCA, the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) and the Reformed Church (RCA) gathered for a weeklong orientation in Chicago. During the week, we had the opportunity to worship, engage in Bible Study, hear keynote speakers (including my dad!) and participate in workshops covering a wide variety of topics from racism and issues of gender to the various effects of the current neoliberal (free markets, privatization) economic order on the majority of human beings today. In addition, the common mealtimes, free evenings, and dorm-style living provided wonderful opportunities for intellectually and spiritually stimulating discussions with other young adults.
Nevertheless, after the one-week orientation, each group of volunteers boarded flights headed to their respective destinations. After a four-hour flight from Chicago, myself and the four other Young Adults working in Mexico landed in Mexico City where were we greeted by the Mexico In-Country Coordinator, Heidi. Upon leaving the airport we immediately felt the effects of altitude and the high levels of pollution that permeate the environs of planet Earth’s second largest city (some argue THE largest). That being said, the city was teaming with humanity, and all shades of the good, the bad, and the ugly, so to speak. Symbolic of this eclectic mix, was the massive mural by Diego Rivera that adorns multiple walls of the national palace. It is here that one of the 20th century’s greatest artists chronicles the history of Mexico beginning with the pre-Hispanic peoples and ending with the early 20th century industrial era. Rivera portrays a Mexican reality that is fundamentally conflictual, beginning with the human sacrifices practiced by the Aztecs, followed by the arrival of a syphilitic Hernán Cortés and his conquistadores (Cortés ironically was born the same year as Martin Luther and his encounter with the peoples of Mexico chronologically parallels the Protestant Reformation in Europe) and finally the 20th century struggles wrought by the ambiguities of industrialization. I find it fascinating to see a piece of artwork displayed on such a large and public scale. Perhaps this is the prophetic nature of Rivera’s work. Right there in the national palace, a symbolic epicenter of money and power in contemporary Mexico, a history characterized by ambiguity and conflict is prominently displayed question what is and provoking us to think what could be.
As I reflect on the meaning of this mural in light of my upcoming year of service in Mexico, I am struck by its sobering message. For one, Rivera’s portrayal of institutionalized Christianity’s role in Mexico is highly critical. Nevertheless, I find myself asking whether there is something within Rivera’s artistic piece that is not antithetical to the Gospel, but is actually secretly and unintentionally affirming. Perhaps it is in the life of the people, rather than simply behind the safety of closed that we encounter the God of life, a God that that constantly is challenging our limited, human visions of the world.
I personally derive great vocational satisfaction from playing with ideas and it is this hypothesis that I hope to ponder in the next year as I begin to understand what it means to encounter oppression in a rural Mexican community. In fact, woven throughout the conversations I had with other Young Adults in Global Mission was the recurring question, what does it mean to call yourself Christian in a world fractured by hidden (sometimes not so hidden) faults lines of conflict that exist not just on the personal level, but on a national and global scale.