Caritas Mexicana, a Woman in Charge of Pastoral Activity:
I am an Afro-Mexican woman, I carry in my throat the voice of my ancestors: my mother’s, my grandmothers’, my great-great-grandmothers’. In my travels through a large part of this beautiful Latin American and Caribbean continent, I have discovered different faces, especially the faces of black women, poor women who are three times marginalised for the simple fact of being women, for being poor and for being black.
But I have also seen faces full of hope, women who are overcoming racism, discrimination, sexism, anthropocentrism, etc. every day. I believe in our being black women who rise up every day, who resurface here and there, with the strength that comes from our ancestors and from divinity. Nothing is given to us by grace; if we want to lead and occupy certain spaces in society and in the church, we have to work very hard, and many times we have to “put up with” certain negative experiences, even within our own Church.
In October 2022, at the 15th meeting of the Afro-American and Caribbean Pastoral Ministry in the Diocese of Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico, I was asked to coordinate the Secretariat of the Pastoral Ministry, and I gladly accepted. At the same time, the Mexican Bishops’ Conference appointed me in February 2023 as Coordinator of the Afro-Mexican pastoral.
Sister Ruperta Palacios Silva, Carmelite missionary of Santa Teresa. Mexico; Secretary of the Afro-Mexican Pastoral in Cáritas Mexicana.
I recognise that these spaces are spaces of growth, where God calls me to serve and to generate processes of greater visibility in Mexico and in Latin America and the Caribbean. Doing Afro pastoral work means continuing to promote, encourage and accompany the processes of our peoples to better live their own spirituality, based on their cultural identity, where life is promoted in all its aspects: human and spiritual.
Being an Afro woman leader is not born, it is made every day.
The women’s forum held in May 2023 in Puerto Rico was a rich experience to share. I believe that it is necessary to continue advancing in the awareness of our being women, in society and above all in the Church. I believe that here we have one of the strongest “locks” that prevent us from continuing to advance.
An important step forward is the work being done by CELAM, CLAR and Cartias on the axis of women in the Church and society. We must continue weaving networks.
I think we are making progress, but we need to continue to strengthen the path, our struggle must be inclusive, encompassing the different realities of women regardless of their religion, their colour, their culture.
Within this sphere of exclusion, our Afro and indigenous sisters are in first place. We still need to include them in our agendas, to visualise them, to walk with them from the grassroots, our struggle has to be like a spiral, which opens up, more and more, or like a rainbow of different colours.