I moved into my grandparent's home in East Los Angeles when I was nine years old when my parents divorced. Life before that was in Phoenix, Arizona without much religion. I mean, I knew we were Catholic and had been baptized and all that, but we did not attend mass regularly and I don't remember Mom praying much at all. We were a Mexican family living in a mostly Anglo-American neighborhood. Most of our neighbors were very religious Baptists and Pentecostals. They were good people and good neighbors and they were very concerned that we were not close to the Lord. So whenever they asked, Mom would send us off to church with them. Many times they'd take us to big tent revivals where they would pray for us, lay their hands on us hoping that we would feel and receive the holy spirit.
When we moved into my grandparent's home, it was a Spanish speaking world of prayers and rosaries and novenas and mandas (promises to God or to the saints)... The Padre Nuestro (the Lord's Prayer) played on the red radio on top of the refrigerator everyday at 12 noon. My grandmother prayed the rosary everyday and sometimes two or three times depending what was going on in her life. At nine years old I had not yet made my First Holy Communion and so I began catechism, learned my prayers, learned to confess my sins and received the body of Christ.
At a meeting not too long ago for the City of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission, where I sit as a Commissioner, a new member was being introduced and they shared that she is a Muslim. So, as we went around introducing ourselves we all, in good humor, declared our religion. Some Christians, some Jews, Muslims and Catholics. Almost all of us Catholics declared ourselves as "non-practicing." One of the Jewish Commissioners commented: "What's with all the non-practicing Catholics?" Most of us on the Commission are progressive. It's hard to be a progressive and a Catholic.
In Charity: Part III of A Mexican Trilogy, Gina and Rudy have distanced themselves from their religion and their faith. Their children made their sacraments out of obligation to tradition and they raised their children to question, if not dislike, any kind of organized religion and the Catholic Church. They believe in contraception, a woman's right to choose, gay rights and a whole bunch of other stuff that is contrary to the Catholic Church. But, Gina and Rudy have just lost their son, Emiliano, who was killed in Iraq and Gina is desperate to hold on to him somehow. The death of Pope John Paul II and his funeral rites make her want religion, prayers, faith. She wants to believe that she will see her son again, somehow. While her son's spirit is upstairs talking to her grandmother, Gina is trying to figure out how to pray the rosary because it has been so long. She knows the basics, Hail Marys and Our Fathers, but beyond that she is lost. She doesn't know the mysteries or anything else. So, she asks her daughter Valentina to Google it and they come upon a website: How to Pray the Rosary... Valentina reads: "1) Make the sign of the cross and say the Apostles Creed. But, Gina doesn't remember that prayer anymore. Not all of it. She knows that it begins with "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth...." and ends with "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting." But, does she?
The Process....
We have finalized our cast (finally) and we are reading the latest draft of the script tonight. We open on May 11th! Buy your tickets now: www.thelatc.org
This Virgen is from one of my Nana's prayer books. On it she wrote "Maria de Guadalupe, no me desapares (sp.) ni un momento, alludanos a todos, perdoname Maria Santisima de Guadalupe." (Maria of Guadalupe, don't abandon me for even one moment, help all of us, forgive me blessed Maria of Guadalupe)
I love your blog.
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