M
Maryam
Guest
As Catholic means “universal” that is how I envision it to be… not about race… I grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood but there were also African-Americans 
from the Americas (Central America, South America, and the Caribbean) and if it wasn’t for their Spanish accent you couldn’t tell them apart from American blacks… I see many Latinos from Latin “America” blending into the African-American communities and influencing culturally the churches in their areas.
When I hear terms like “black culture” it mystifies me as I myself am of African ancestry (one of the pre-requisites for being a Latina from the Caribbean lol). And for most of us of African ancestry in the Americas we also have the European, indigenous mixture going on… so when I hear “black culture” it doesn’t equate with what I have seen around me growing up and my own mixed race features…
Personally it doesn’t matter to me whether there are cultural representations of my heritage at church…its not about me… its about being with Our Lord.
I think there needs to be an embrace of every part of our background and if the parishioners of a particular church want to have their cultural ancestry celebrated in church then I am all for it as long as it does not take away from the focus on the Eucharist.
God bless
from the Americas (Central America, South America, and the Caribbean) and if it wasn’t for their Spanish accent you couldn’t tell them apart from American blacks… I see many Latinos from Latin “America” blending into the African-American communities and influencing culturally the churches in their areas.When I hear terms like “black culture” it mystifies me as I myself am of African ancestry (one of the pre-requisites for being a Latina from the Caribbean lol). And for most of us of African ancestry in the Americas we also have the European, indigenous mixture going on… so when I hear “black culture” it doesn’t equate with what I have seen around me growing up and my own mixed race features…
Personally it doesn’t matter to me whether there are cultural representations of my heritage at church…its not about me… its about being with Our Lord.
I think there needs to be an embrace of every part of our background and if the parishioners of a particular church want to have their cultural ancestry celebrated in church then I am all for it as long as it does not take away from the focus on the Eucharist.
God bless