Carlos Bulosan was born on November 2, 1911 in the rural farming village of Mangusmana, near the town of Binalonan (Pangasinan province, Luzon island) in the Philippines. He was the son of a poor farmer who decided to come to America to support his family and to continue his education. Carlos Bulosan arrived in Seattle on July 22, 1930 and he worked at various low-paying jobs: servicing in hotels and restaurants, harvesting in the fields, and working at the Alaskan canneries. During this time, Carlos experienced much economic difficulty and racism that gave him a more realistic view of America.

Bulosan became friends with fellow Filipino American Chris Mensalvas of the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA) and Mensalvas introduced Bulosan to labor politics. Carlos became editor of the biweekly workers’ newsletter The New Tide, which brought him in contact with progressive writers like Richard Wright, William Carlos Williams, William Sorayan, and Sanora Babb. Harriet Monroe, the editor of Poetry magazine, discovered Bulosan’s writings and began publishing his poetry.

From 1936 to 1938, Carlos Bulosan was confined to the Los Angeles General hospital due to tubercolisis and kidney problems. While in confinement, he read Pablo Neruda, Theodore Dreiser, Nazim Nikmet, John Steinbeck, Arshile Gorky, Karl Marx, Lillian Hellman and other leftist writers, as well as leftist periodicals like New Masses, the New Republic and the Nation. These various influences helped shaped his left wing political views and his writings that focused on social struggle.

Carlos Bulosan became a best-selling writers of books like The Laughter of My Father and American Is In The Heart. He was commissioned by President Franklin Roosevelt to write the essay Freedom From Want for the March 6, 1943 edition of the Saturday Evening Post that described an American democracy that included equal rights for Filipino immigrants and for all racial minorities. The book The American Radical has a quote that describes Carlos Bulosan’s motivations for his writings:

The question is- what impelled me to write? The answer is- my grand dream of equality among men and freedom for all. To give a literate voice to the voiceless one hundred thousand Filipinos in the United States, Hawaii and Alaska. Above all and ultimately, to translate the desires and aspirations of the whole Filipino people in the Philippines and abroad in terms relevant to contemporary history. Yes, I have taken unto myself this sole responsibility.

E. San Juan Jr. wrote an essay in The American Radical that described the struggles of Filipinos in the United States during the early twentieth century:

…over 100,000 Filipino workers had been recruited from the hinterland of the United States’ only Asian colony, the Philippines, to work in the plantations of Hawaii, the Alaskan canneries, and the farmlands of the West Coast. The Depression inflicted on Filipinos severe unemployment, intense labor exploitation, and racist vigilante violence. In 1928 and 1930, Filipinos were attacked by racist vigilantes in Yakima Valley, Washington; Watsonville, California, and other towns. On top of this, in 1935, when emigration from the Philippine Commonwealth was limited to fifty persons, Filipinos were threatened with deportation. Since the 1898 annexation of the islands up to 1946, Filipinos in the United States (called “Pinoys”) inhabited a limbo of indeterminancy: neither citizens, aliens, nor wards, they were “nationals” without a sovereign country. On the eve of Pearl Harbor, Bulosan summed up his years of experience as labor organizer and nomadic exile: “Yes, I feel like a criminal running away from a crime I did not commit. And the crime is that I am a Filipino in America.”

Due to his leftist politics, Carlos Bulosan was blacklisted during the McCarthy era and his name was prominent in FBI files. Sadly, Bulosan died obscure and penniless on September 11, 1956. In the years since his death, Carlos Bulosan’s writings have inspired Filipino Americans like me who are proud of both our American and our Filipino heritage.

Bulosan would write a fitting description of what it means to be an American:

America is not a land of one race or one class of men. We are all Americans that have toiled and suffered and known oppression and defeat, from the first Indian that offered peace in Manhattan to the last Filipino peapickers. America is not bound by geographical latitudes. America is not merely a land or an institution. America is in the hearts of men that died for freedom; it is also in the eyes of men that are building a new world. America is a prophecy of a new society of men: of a system that knows no sorrow or strife of suffering. America is a warning to those who would try to falsify the ideals of free men.

America is also the nameless foreigner, the homeless refugee, the hungry boy begging for a job and the black body dangling from a tree. America is the illiterate immigrant who is ashamed that the world of books and intellectual opportunities is closed to him. We are all that nameless foreigner, that homeless refugee, that hungry boy, that illiterate immigrant and that lynched black body. All of us, from the first Adam to the last Filipino, native born or alien, educated or illiterate- We are America!

Here are a few of Carlos Bulosan’s poems from the book On Becoming Filipino: Selected Writings of Carlos Bulosan.

FOR A CHILD DYING IN A TENEMENT

How hard it is to see you go;
to watch the shame of starvation in your face.

Dear child, you are among the first to know
the terror of plenty, the crimes of innocence,
the anguish of poverty…

I guess I know
the cold of winter, the despair of being poor,
the terror of loneliness and of not having fun.
I guess I know the perplexed look in your face,
the unanswered question, the wordless answer;
all the faces that could not stand pain.

Fear is dying. Now try to sleep off
the agony of hunger, the lion in the hollowed breast,
the spreading fire snapping the walls of the lung.
You are among the first to go. Now try to sleep.
And now goodbye till we meet again.

THE FOREIGNERS

You cannot blame us. We followed the sun
And the rain with gladness and hope .
There are many lands to go to,
But we are astounded by your horizons,
And we are glad we came with our children.
We came to share with the machinery of your greatness,
But we are unhappy to discover this:
Your people are miserable from the lack of mutual speech,
And their children are stereotyped.
We cannot by like them-
We brought our country’s speech with us.

I am afraid I cannot write our language,
But I can work and walk in the streets
People with men who know no compromise,
Till I stumble against you in the dark;
And I can rap at you and scratch you like a cat,
And I can make you feel the strength of our city.

We can jump over the tall buildings like leaves
But without words to deceive us,
And fall upon your feet
But without tears to deceive us-
We are invincible with death!
Look and examine us!

HYMN TO A MAN WHO FAILED

Evening and the voice of a friendly river
The symmetry of stars, time flowing warm,
The perfect hour sitting on the tree-tops,
And peace, birds of shy understanding, waiting.

This is your world, this tin-can shack on the dry
River bed, this undismayed humanity drinking
Black coffee and eating stale bread, this water
Blue under the dark shadows of the proud city.

Lie down and laugh your worries away,
Or sit awhile and dream of impossible regions,
While there is no hunger, no endless waiting,
No cry for blood, no deceptions, no lies.

You are lost, lost between two uncertainties,
Between two conflicts, the mastered and the unharmed.
You are altogether alone and cold and hopeless.
The end is crouching like a tiger under your feet.

Evening and returning home, finding no peace,
No embrace of devotion, my beaten friend,
O failure who returns always to the dry river bed,
We are betrayed twice under the fabulous city.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT WE ARE

If you want to know what we are who inhabit
forest mountain rivershore, who harness
beast, living steel, martial music (that classless
language of the heart), who celebrate labour,
wisdom of the mind, peace of the blood;

If you want to know what we are who become
animate at the rain’s metallic ring, the stone’s
accumulated strength, who tremble in the wind’s
blossoming (that enervates earth’s potentialities),
who stir just as flowers unfold to the sun;

If you want to know what we are who grow
powerful and deathless in countless counterparts,
each part pregnant with hope, each hope supreme,
each supremacy classless, each classlessness
nourished by unlimited splendor of comradeship;

We are multitudes the world over, millions everywhere;
in violent factories, sordid tenements, crowded cities;
in skies and seas and rivers, in lands everywhere;
our number increase as the wide world revolves
and increases arrogance, hunger disease and death.

We are the men and women reading books, searching
in the pages of history for the lost word, the key
to the mystery of living peace, imperishable joy;
we are factory hands field hands mill hand everywhere,
molding creating building structures, forging ahead,

Reaching for the future, nourished in the heart;
we are doctors scientists chemists discovering,
eliminating disease and hunger and antagonisms;
we are soldiers navy-men citizens guarding
the imperishable will of man to live in grandeur,

We are the living dream of dead men everywhere,
the unquenchable truth that class-memories create
to stagger the infamous world with prophecies
of unlimited happiness_a deathless humanity;
we are the living and the dead men everywhere….

If you want to know what we are, observe
the bloody club smashing heads, the bayonet
penetrating hallowed breasts, giving no mercy; watch the
bullet crashing upon armorless citizens;
look at the tear-gas choking the weakened lung.

If you want to know what we are, see the lynch
trees blossoming, the hysterical mob rioting;
remember the prisoner beaten by detectives to confess
a crime he did not commit because he was honest,
and who stood alone before a rabid jury of ten men,

And who was sentenced to hang by a judge
whose bourgeois arrogance betrayed the office
he claimed his own; name the marked man,
the violator of secrets; observe the banker,
the gangster, the mobsters who kill and go free;

We are the sufferers who suffer for natural love
of man for man, who commemorate the humanities
of every man; we are the toilers who toil
to make the starved earth a place of abundance
who transform abundance into deathless fragrance.

We are the desires of anonymous men everywhere,
who impregnate the wide earth’s lustrous wealth
with a gleaming fluorescence; we are the new thoughts
and the new foundations, the new verdure of the mind;
we are the new hope new joy life everywhere.

We are the vision and the star, the quietus of pain;
we are the terminals of inquisition, the hiatuses
of a new crusade; we are the subterranean subways
of suffering; we are the will of dignities;
we are the living testament of a flowering race.

If you want to know what we are
WE ARE REVOLUTION!

Books by Carlos Bulosan:

American Is In The Heart by Carlos Bulosan

The Laughter of My Father by Carlos Bulosan

On Becoming Filipino: Selected Writings of Carlos Bulosan edited by E. San Juan Jr.

A youtube video of a reading of the Carlos Bulosan poem “If You Want to Know What We Are

Allan Manalo reads a section of Carlos Bulosan’s book “America Is In The Heart

Andrew Eisenman reads a section of Carlos Bulosan’s book “America Is In The Heart

Students in 2009 read various writings of Carlos Bulosan at his grave in Seattle, Washington

The first time that a poet gave a reading at an Inauguration was Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy’s Inauguration in 1961. Frost had written a new poem for the event called Dedication, but he was unable to read it because the strong sunlight made it impossible for Frost to read the faintly typed manuscript that held his poem. He recited instead a poem that he had memorized The Gift Outright. Maya Angelou recited her poem On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton’s first Inauguration in 1993, while Miller Williams recited Of Hope and History at Clinton’s second Inauguration. Ellizabeth Alexander read her poem Praise Song for the Day, Praise Song for Struggle at Barack Obama’s first Inaugural in 2008.

The Gift Outright

By Robert Frost

The land was ours before we were the land’s.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England’s, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.

A youtube video of the history of the Inaugural Poets

On The Pulse Of Morning

By Maya Angelou

A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since departed,
Mark the mastodon.
The dinosaur, who left dry tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.
But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,
But seek no haven in my shadow.
I will give you no hiding place down here.
You, created only a little lower than
The angels, have crouched too long in
The bruising darkness,
Have lain too long
Face down in ignorance.
Your mouths spelling words
Armed for slaughter.
The rock cries out today, you may stand on me,
But do not hide your face.
Across the wall of the world,
A river sings a beautiful song,
Come rest here by my side.
Each of you a bordered country,
Delicate and strangely made proud,
Yet thrusting perpetually under siege.
Your armed struggles for profit
Have left collars of waste upon
My shore, currents of debris upon my breast.
Yet, today I call you to my riverside,
If you will study war no more.
Come, clad in peace and I will sing the songs
The Creator gave to me when I
And the tree and stone were one.
Before cynicism was a bloody sear across your brow
And when you yet knew you still knew nothing.
The river sings and sings on.
There is a true yearning to respond to
The singing river and the wise rock.
So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew,
The African and Native American, the Sioux,
The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek,
The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh,
The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,
The privileged, the homeless, the teacher.
They hear. They all hear
The speaking of the tree.
Today, the first and last of every tree
Speaks to humankind. Come to me, here beside the river.
Plant yourself beside me, here beside the river.
Each of you, descendant of some passed on
Traveller, has been paid for.
You, who gave me my first name,
You Pawnee, Apache and Seneca,
You Cherokee Nation, who rested with me,
Then forced on bloody feet,
Left me to the employment of other seekers–
Desperate for gain, starving for gold.
You, the Turk, the Swede, the German, the Scot…
You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru,
Bought, sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare
Praying for a dream.
Here, root yourselves beside me.
I am the tree planted by the river,
Which will not be moved.
I, the rock, I the river, I the tree
I am yours–your passages have been paid.
Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need
For this bright morning dawning for you.
History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage,
Need not be lived again.
Lift up your eyes upon
The day breaking for you.
Give birth again
To the dream.
Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands.
Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts.
Each new hour holds new chances
For new beginnings.
Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.
The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out upon me,
The rock, the river, the tree, your country.
No less to Midas than the mendicant.
No less to you now than the mastodon then.
Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister’s eyes,
Into your brother’s face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.

A youtube video of Maya Angelou reading her poem at the Clinton Inaugural

Of History and Hope

By Miller Williams

We have memorized America,
how it was born and who we have been and where.

In ceremonies and silence we say the words,
telling the stories, singing the old songs.

We like the places they take us. Mostly we do.
The great and all the anonymous dead are there.
We know the sound of all the sounds we brought.
The rich taste of it is on our tongues.
But where are we going to be, and why, and who?
The disenfranchised dead want to know.

We mean to be the people we meant to be,
to keep on going where we meant to go.

But how do we fashion the future? Who can say how
except in the minds of those who will call it Now?

The children. The children. And how does our garden grow?

With waving hands — oh, rarely in a row –
and flowering faces. And brambles, that we can no longer allow.

Who were many people coming together
cannot become one people falling apart.

Who dreamed for every child an even chance
cannot let luck alone turn doorknobs or not.

Whose law was never so much of the hand as the head
cannot let chaos make its way to the heart.

Who have seen learning struggle from teacher to child
cannot let ignorance spread itself like rot.

We know what we have done and what we have said,
and how we have grown, degree by slow degree,
believing ourselves toward all we have tried to become –
just and compassionate, equal, able, and free.

All this in the hands of children, eyes already set
on a land we never can visit — it isn’t there yet –
but looking through their eyes, we can see
what our long gift to them may come to be.

If we can truly remember, they will not forget.

A youtube video of Miller Williams reading his poem at Clinton’s second Inaugural

Praise Song for the Day, Praise Song for Struggle

By Elizabeth Alexander

Praise song for the day.

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each others’
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, “Take out your pencils. Begin.”

We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of someone and then others who said,
“I need to see what’s on the other side.
I know there’s something better down the road.”
We need to find a place where we are safe;
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by “Love thy neighbor as thy self.”
Others by “first do no harm,” or “take no more
than you need.” What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp —

praise song for walking forward in that light.

A youtube video of Elizabeth Alexander reading her poem in Obama’s first Inauguration

One Today

By Richard Blanco

One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,
peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces
of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth
across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.
One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story
told by our silent gestures moving behind windows.

My face, your face, millions of faces in morning’s mirrors,
each one yawning to life, crescendoing into our day:
pencil-yellow school buses, the rhythm of traffic lights,
fruit stands: apples, limes, and oranges arrayed like rainbows
begging our praise. Silver trucks heavy with oil or paper—
bricks or milk, teeming over highways alongside us,
on our way to clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives—
to teach geometry, or ring up groceries as my mother did
for twenty years, so I could write this poem.

All of us as vital as the one light we move through,
the same light on blackboards with lessons for the day:
equations to solve, history to question, or atoms imagined,
the “I have a dream” we keep dreaming,
or the impossible vocabulary of sorrow that won’t explain
the empty desks of twenty children marked absent
today, and forever. Many prayers, but one light
breathing color into stained glass windows,
life into the faces of bronze statues, warmth
onto the steps of our museums and park benches
as mothers watch children slide into the day.

One ground. Our ground, rooting us to every stalk
of corn, every head of wheat sown by sweat
and hands, hands gleaning coal or planting windmills
in deserts and hilltops that keep us warm, hands
digging trenches, routing pipes and cables, hands
as worn as my father’s cutting sugarcane
so my brother and I could have books and shoes.

The dust of farms and deserts, cities and plains
mingled by one wind—our breath. Breathe. Hear it
through the day’s gorgeous din of honking cabs,
buses launching down avenues, the symphony
of footsteps, guitars, and screeching subways,
the unexpected song bird on your clothes line.

Hear: squeaky playground swings, trains whistling,
or whispers across cafe tables, Hear: the doors we open
for each other all day, saying: hello, shalom,
buon giorno, howdy, namaste, or buenos días
in the language my mother taught me—in every language
spoken into one wind carrying our lives
without prejudice, as these words break from my lips.

One sky: since the Appalachians and Sierras claimed
their majesty, and the Mississippi and Colorado worked
their way to the sea. Thank the work of our hands:
weaving steel into bridges, finishing one more report
for the boss on time, stitching another wound
or uniform, the first brush stroke on a portrait,
or the last floor on the Freedom Tower
jutting into a sky that yields to our resilience.

One sky, toward which we sometimes lift our eyes
tired from work: some days guessing at the weather
of our lives, some days giving thanks for a love
that loves you back, sometimes praising a mother
who knew how to give, or forgiving a father
who couldn’t give what you wanted.

We head home: through the gloss of rain or weight
of snow, or the plum blush of dusk, but always—home,
always under one sky, our sky. And always one moon
like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop
and every window, of one country—all of us—
facing the stars
hope—a new constellation
waiting for us to map it,
waiting for us to name it—together.

A youtube video of Richard Blanco reading his poem at Obama’s second Inauguration

Two Inaugural poets, Elizabeth Alexander and Richard Blanco, talk about their experience in reciting their poems at a Presidential inauguration in Yale University

Thank you George for this interview. I’m not very familiar with the Greek Orthodox Church. What is the Greek Orthodox Church?

The Greek Orthodox Church has its origins in the ancient church before the schism in 1054 c.e. between what we think of today as the western church and eastern church; and, it’s one of the catalysts to every other Christian denomination in the world (along with Catholicism). Today the Greek Orthodox Church is one branch of a larger Eastern Orthodox tree, which includes Serbia, Slovenia, Russia, Ethiopia and here in the States and so on. Here in the [United] states at least, the Eastern Orthodox Church has become predominately obscured by the western church’s (Catholic and Protestantism, as well as their offshoots) influence and practices. More people seem to know about Catholicism than they do about Eastern Orthodox Christianity–even though the Eastern Orthodox Church makes up the second largest Christian denomination in the world. And unlike Catholicism with it’s Protestant schism, there has never been (according to the old priest of the Greek Orthodox church here in Indianapolis) a split in the Eastern Orthodox Church, so it has remained generally the same since the beginning of its inception in ancient times. The Catholic church being seen as founded by Peter, the Orthodox church is seen to have been founded by Paul. I think that’s most interesting.

Orthodox Christianity tends to become overshadowed due to the negative baggage often associated with the word ‘orthodox’. The word ‘orthodox’ which can be translated as ‘straight-thinking’, ‘right thought’ or ‘right opinion’ has become synonymous with a certain kind of fundamentalism: institutionalized Christianity, organized religion, inflexible doctrines, and negative theological dogmas. However, I have come to see orthodoxy in a similar comparison to Buddhism’s eight noble path’s notion of ‘right thinking’–it’s not about rigid rules of behavior, but about having our being in alignment with God’s being so there is no distinction between the two because they are united as one extension.

Catholic and Orthodox Christianity share many similarities to their liturgy, observation of saints, and sacraments. It was explained at a church tour I attended one, Catholicism and Orthodoxy are like twin children born to the same parents but the parents divorce. In the divorce each parent gets custody of one child and each child grows up in different environments. So while there is a common origin and similarities (they look very similar) there are a lot of differences. Orthodox Christians are generally not as literal in their reading of scripture, ideas about the sacraments and purity, and where salvation in Catholicism is about penal atonement of sins–the Orthodox Christians believe in ‘theosis’ or God-actualization. The Eastern Orthodox Church also operates as more of a network, where as everyone in the Catholic faith is headed by one POPE, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a network with a main communion and many autocephalous (self-headed) churches all over the world. Independent from one another, but also in communion with each other.

Now, in my experience the Greek Church has its flaws. It suffers from exclusivism like many churches, as well as its misogynistic views towards women, but on the flip-side Eastern Orthodoxy is based on a strong monastic experience and retains its mystical aspect through Eastern Orthodox mysticism, though it seems lost to the average church-goer. Several times I’ve been up to the Greek Church for anything, they always have a neat selection of books on Christian mysticism such as the “Philokalia” and other writings from the monks on Mount Athos in Greece.

Because most Eastern Orthodox churches observe the Gregorian liturgical calendar, they observe holy days differently than western Christianity does. For example, this year Christmas was celebrated on January 7th and Easter on May 5th. Growing up in a American-Greek family we’ve always celebrated ‘Greek Easter’ and ‘American Easter’. Now that I’m older it’s nice because all of the commercialization (the Easter bunny, Santa Clause, candy and all the hoopla) is done by the time of Eastern Orthodox observances. As least that’s my experience living here in the States. So I’ve come to refer to western observances as ‘outward’ and eastern observances as ‘inward’. We can do both as Christians in contemporary life.

What was your religious upbringing?

I didn’t have a formal religious upbringing. Both of my parents have their own innate sense of spirituality (although they’ve never been expressive about it). I’m not speaking in a theological sense–more as in an aboriginal, organic way they both have had a spiritual grounding. If that’s what one wants to call it. I remember growing up anytime I went anywhere with my dad, before we drove off he would always make the sign of the cross (we all have crosses hanging from our rear-view-mirrors). And even today I will find my dad in the kitchen, early in the morning, praying to this icon of Jesus we have hanging with a huge set of “worry beads”. I guess that’s something of a religious practice that he got growing up as a kid in Greece. My mom on the other hand has never talked about religion, except on the rare occasion, but even then she’s shy’d away from debates or conflicts like the plague. I do know as a young girl she attended a generic kind of Christian church with her grandmother–and today she dabbles with certain authors such as Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, and often times Wayne Dyer if I have him on television. But as far as their theological education goes, they’re both very primitive in what they know about the Christian faith, Jesus, the Bible and so forth. What my dad knows is the typical stories we’ve all heard in Sunday school, because it’s what he was taught in school in Greece.

That being said… both my younger sister and I were baptized (Christened) as toddlers in the Greek Orthodox Church. For the better part of my early childhood we attended church regularly on Sundays and for observed holy days and weddings. But neither of my parents indoctrinated us with any specific theological ideologies; and eventually we fell away from the church because of finances and my parents worked quite a bit. Within that context I can’t say I’ve had a formal religious upbringing beyond ‘before-dinner’ prayer and things like that. Because of that, however, I’ve never developed the negative stigma associated with the Church and I’ve been free to explore my religious side unhindered.

What inspired you to study other religious traditions?

Before I came back to Christianity I had dipped into many other religions. Initially I’d like to think God inspired me. It was God that put the ‘bug’ into my ear; it was a calling of sorts. I guess. But I got into studying religions in the later portion of the 90′s–’96, ’97, and ’98–and it just snowballed. My family and I had fallen away from the Orthodox church. We’d go there if a relative invited us to a wedding or sometimes we’d go to church dances, but other than that we rarely attended. Religion was very far from my mind, I really didn’t think much about God or the big questions in life. I’ve always been spiritually sensitive though, psychically intuitive. I’m big lucid dreamer. And I was generally a D and F student all through school. I hated school and couldn’t wait to be done; now I’d love to go back. Here I am now reading works of theologians, philosophers, and the writings of other respected thinkers. I can’t get enough of it.

I used to have a job where I worked on Sundays. We had zero activity on Sundays so I would bring my notebooks and sketchbooks to draw in, and a book or two to read. At that time I was writing superhero stories and I was researching a story I was writing loosely based on the lore of angels and the war in heaven, the fall of satan, etc. One day when I was reading this angel encyclopedia I got a strange phone call, because I kept saying hello and no one would respond. But before I hung up, I heard a feint voice on the other end say very sharp “God is coming”. There still was no one on the phone responding and I hung up. After that experience I didn’t really know what it meant or if I had just made it up in my head: but for me God has come into my life. A lot of times it’s all I think about.

At that time the girl I was involved with (my first girlfriend) was friends with some women, one of them owned a New Age store and the other was a psychic reader there. So we’d go over there and I’d read up all their books. I spent a small fortune I didn’t have, there. There I was introduced to Paganism and various other types of nature based religions. Wicca. And then one day while at a funeral out of the blue I just got an impression to read a Sylvia Browne book. She was a psychic medium on Montel, although I’d never really watched her. So I read her books, study groups, attended a lecture, and was guided to study soul consciousness/survival, spiritism, and that’s where I first came upon the terms ‘gnostic’, ‘gnosis’, ‘Gnostic Christian’. So that got my interest. I’d gotten into Buddhism and eastern philosophies while studying Togakure Ninjutsu, we had a wonderful mediation teacher. And then I got more into esoteric Buddhism when I was studying ReiKi healing. At the same time I was still into Gnosticism (before it became more known and popular in the media) and that lead me into Spiritualism, religious science, and New Thought, Unity. Throughout that time everything I was reading kept linking back to Christianity, Christian symbolism and Christian mysticism (and Christian Gnosticism); and that got me more into studying Christian scholarship, historical/textual criticism and where I am today.

I see religion as a valid field of study. For me, even more than simply studying what different religions believes, but why? When we deconstruct it further, what everyday things motivated Augustine’s formulation of his theology? Or Anselm? Or Origen? When we study Buddhism, what connections is there with Christianity and vice versa? And then what insights can we come to in our own faith tradition from reading and immersing ourselves in other religious traditions, or even other Christian denominations that are different from what we’re in or have grown up with?

What are some activities that bring people of different religions together?

Especially here in the States we’re generally discouraged from talking about certain topics: sex, religion, politics, and how much one makes financially. Four things that affect our every day lives more than anything else. Underlying these in importance is religion because our religious (or non-religious) beliefs influence what we believe about sex, politics, and how we get paid for our labor. So programs that promote religious awareness are enormously important. We can no longer be ignorant in an age of information. Some activities that help to promote religious awareness are cultural festivals. Here in Indiana we have German Fest, Greek Fest, Italian Fest and Gay Pride and so on. All to help promote diversity and awareness. My place of employment at their Memphis headquarters has hosted a religious diversity seminar for two or three years in a row. Employees are put together from various types of religions to represent and explain what their religious tradition is about, as well as hear a talk by a professor of religion.

But it’s my experience that if you want to get down to the nitty-gritty and see people when they’re their most normal, it has to be done in every day situations of mundane activities. Going to the grocery store, gathering at your child’s school for different activities, sitting in traffic, if you work a job. These are all activities where our religious beliefs and practices play out in real life. No one is watching. No one is on their best behavior. Because life is all about bringing differences together and their relationship to one another. I can only fully experience myself when it is in relationship to something or someone in contrast.

We look at tragedies such as the Boston bombing and all the people of diverse backgrounds who clung to one another, helped each other, and without any thought of religious difference. That is another activity, or event, that brings people of different religions together. But we don’t HAVE to have tragedy for that. Not always.

How did you get onto the path of Progressive Christianity?

In a round-about way this path has found me. Everything I’ve fallen into I can say that I’ve done so because of God. And I feel as if I’ve been moving in full circle. As I said before, both my younger sister and I were baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church. Yet neither of my parents are particularly religious, so we’ve never been indoctrinated in one specific theological point of view. But I’ve always been more progressive minded, with an innate sense of curiosity and inquisitiveness. I’m also a geek with a love of geeky things such as science fiction/fantasy, video games, comic books, films and books. Religion and geek culture both revolve around cultural narratives, so there’s that connection that appealed to me as I transitioned, or included religion into my list of interests I became passionate about. I came to the Progressive Christian path through further studies in Gnosticism, gnostic Christianity, and Christian mysticism, as I came back into the Christian faith and found academic scholarship, historical/textual criticism, and so forth. On this path I’ve been exposed also to philosophy and critical theory, of which I’m grateful for.

Was there a theologian, priest, saint, or Christian hero who had a strong influence on you?

Conventionally we’ve been taught that Christianity has been only one thing. And so we have a limited number of voices contributing to the Christian dialogue. But as we explore further we realize this isn’t true at all. And we begin to see all of the other voices and thinkers and what they had to say. There are simply too many to list, here, but a few are Thomas Merton, the Desert Fathers and Mothers, Meister Ekhart, Teresa of Avila and so many others who showed us a different side of Christianity that has remained hidden.

Then there was a chaplain who gave the eulogy at my grandma’s funeral. I was surprised that he spoke about her near death experiences–here was a minister who wasn’t speaking the typical Christian cue card things. And I was impressed by that.

Antisemitism is on the rise in Europe. Incidences of harassment of Muslim Americans and Sikhs have occurred in the U.S. What can ordinary Christians do to stem the growing tide of antisemitism and Islamaphobia?

Education and religious awareness is key here. Because so much of what we know about Islam is misinformation that is propagated by a Christian fundamentalist bias. As progressive Christians it’s important we be that voice of reason and help to not only educate people about our own faith, but also, about the faiths of others through the Christian lens. What I mean by ‘through the Christian lens’ is, we can show connections between Christianity and other faith traditions. And then what are some differences and why those differences exist. In my experience, the monastic traditions of many religions look a great deal a like. They come to many of the same truths about life. By showing that (the similarities between Christian monasticism and Sufism for example) we educate people and let them decide for themselves.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, progressive religious people played important roles in the civil rights protests, anti-war movement and other social justice movements of the era. One thinks of religious leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Malcolm X, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Bayard Rustin, Dorothy Height, Pauli Murray, Daniel Berrigan, William Sloane Coffin, Dorothy Day. Since that time, however, Christian conservatives have been the dominant voices in the national dialogue on religion. What are some ways in which the Christian Left can regain their voice and push for social justice and radical gender, and sexual equality

What I see with the Christian Left and liberal Christianity in general, is the potential to become a kind of “Social Pharisee”. And in many ways we’re seeing that already. We need to get back to the fruit of the spirit and what scripture teaches about Christian behavior–kindness, gentleness, self-control and so on. Christians become people who are slow to anger and actually listen and think and consider things before they react. That’s the difference between an aggressive Christian and a progressive Christian. Aggressive Christianity puts one behind and creates more problems than solutions. It antagonizes and creates an enemy where no enemy exists. We need to get away from that.

You recently wrote a great post recently in the Progressive Christian facebook page about the importance of prayer and contemplation. What advice would you give on prayer?

The key in understanding prayer is there is no system or structure to prayer. Prayer is an emptying of self so that we can be in alignment with God, everything is prayer. When we become Social Pharisee, we try to create prayer laws with long lists of things one cannot pray for. And yet, who are we to say what one can or can’t talk to God about? Prayer is to be very simple where just a ‘thank you’ is sufficient.

Are there any practices or rituals that you go through to reach a state of contemplation

A. No. I find that, for me, I tend to slip into contemplations quite regularly and quite often. In the Jesus narratives he’s reported to going off by himself a lot to pray and think about things. It’s not a complicated thing where he has an elaborate altar or a bunch of necklaces or Tarot cards–it’s just him. When I’m driving to and from work I will find that I slip into contemplation, often times tuning out the radio even or the whole trip altogether. Trying will halt the experience.

How does one fight for social justice while loving one’s enemy?

A. Stop fighting. Social justice is not subversive, it is built into the system itself. Feeding the poor and homeless will go on forever until the system that creates these conditions is negated. It’s like broken hose: one will always have to patch the leaks until one replaces the broken hose altogether. But secretly activists don’t want the system to be repaired or negated, because activists are addicted to the emotional high they get from being activists. The thrill of being arrested. The high of being validated by the poor and homeless they’re helping, by social media. And yet there’s more poor and homeless being created every day. Stop fighting and enabling the system. Tackle the system itself, that we all created.

Many Christian progressives have championed LGBT rights within their churches. From my own experience in speaking out for LGBT rights within church, I know how divisive this issue is and know how it can lead to painful conflicts. Why do you think it is important for Christians to fight for LGBT rights?

I believe everyone deserves to be loved and to be able to express love to others. In life we see this demonstrated in a variety of ways and configurations. But I think the language of ‘rights’ is the wrong approach. Because we use ‘rights’ as a way to justify violence and negate our ability to empathize with those we hurt in the name of our ‘rights’. How many hide behind their ‘right’ to free speech here in the STATES, as they make harmful comments towards another human being? Then they seek asylum under the same ‘rights’ in order to avoid retaliation. “Rights” were created to protect identity, nothing more. And so, we need new language of ‘responsibility’. Not ‘rights’.

What has been the most gratifying thing for you in your work with other religious groups and your work for progressive Christian causes?

Working with other religious groups and progressive Christian causes helps me to actualize myself more fully. In my own work to help educate people by giving information, I’m exposed to other thinkers and that allows me to grow. And the more I grow the better equipped I am to help others. Through connecting with the Progressive Christian Alliance, for example, I’ve been exposed to philosophy and critical theory, psychoanalysis and so on. Something I’d never have come into had I not made these connections. It’s all synchronistic.

What would be your advice to someone who is visiting Indiana for the first time?

Not everything is as it seems, here. Indianapolis is a small city that tries to be like the bigger cities we read about. But it really is a smaller city with more laid back, humble people. However, if you look carefully you will find a lot of places that are fun. I’m not much for excitement so I don’t go too many places.

What are some places that you could recommend?

Indiana is famous for a few things. Two of them are college basketball and racing. So I’d definitely encourage going to the Indianapolis 500 and catching a basketball game, if you can. But we also have a nice zoo (Indianapolis Zoo) and a Children’s Museum, Native American Fest, Greek Fest, and several other ethnic festivals. Or you can walk the canal downtown. Like I said, if you look carefully there are things to do here.

Here are more interviews that I did for Everyday Citizen

An Interview With Cartoonist Gustavo Rodriguez
An Interview With Children’s Book Illustrator Lea Lyon
An Interview With Democrat Nancy Hirstein Smith
An Interview With Cartoonist Ann Cleaves
An Interview With Muslim American Activist Zahra Billoo
An Interview With Peace Activist and Lay Pastor Jim Ramelis
An Interview With Cartoonist Monte Wolverton
An Interview With Cartoonist Adam Zyglis
An Interview With Reverand Gerald Britt
An Interview With Cartoonist Tjeerd Royaards
An Interview With Poet, Activist, and Teacher Diane Wahto
An Interview With Cartoonist Jesse Springer
An Interview With Cartoonist Steve Greenberg
An Interview With Eric Wilks
An Interview With Cartoonist Greg Beda
An Interview With Poet Melissa Tuckey
An Interview With Cartoonist Andy Singer
An Interview With Author Robert Balmanno
An Interview With Cartoonist J.P. Jasper
An Interview With Cartoonist David Cohen
An Interview that Everyday blogger Diane Wahto kindly did of me

When I attended the Association of American Editorial Cartoonist convention last year in Washington D.C. I met many great cartoonists. One of the best cartoonists in the country is Gustavo Rodriquez, who is based in Florida. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1962, Rodriquez has been a cartoonist his entire life. In 2005, Gustavo entered the United States and has been a proud citizen ever since. He is a regular contributor to El Nuevo Herald newspaper, Martí Noticias and Yahoo! Noticias.

Thank you very much Gustavo for doing this interview. You grew up in Cuba. What was it like growing up with the Castro government? How did that shape your political views?

Well, I guess that growing up in Cuba was OK for quite some time. When you don’t know what is going on outside your country because the only source of information and/or opinion is the government propaganda, you tend to think everything’s alright. Until something big happens when you are in your teens, like the 1980 Mariel boat lift. Sudden strife and mob violence ensued in those days. When you go through events like those, ideology hits you hard and square, and you start to feel detached. Getting older and seeing many other episodes of intolerance and sheer stupidity, it kind of undermines your respect for many things around you.

The irony of it all is that I eventually pursued my passion in cartooning and comics, and went on to work as a staff member of a couple of publications in my last years in the island, which like all the state run media, were the arm and mouth of the Castro’s propaganda.

Let’s just say it was not the best of times.

Your pen name is Garrincha, the nickname of the great Brazilian soccer player of the 1950′s and 1960′s. How did you get that nickname?

It was all by mistake actually.

I have always been a huge fan of soccer ( I loved those Brazilian teams) and football. Garrincha died a few months after the 1982 World Cup, and a friend who happened to be working in Radio Habana Cuba gave me copies of the long telex printouts with the news of Garrincha’s death and the massive funeral at Maracaná stadium.

It also happened that the wife of one of my father’s coworkers at the time was working at dedeté magazine, a humor publication in the island. And you know how parents are, they all think their kids are the best at what they do. So this man told my dad that it would be a good idea if I took my drawings to the dedeté and showed them to the staff cartoonists there and see what happened. The long telex printouts with Garrincha’s death news were in that envelope I dropped at the publication.

I kept calling every other day to see if they would use any of my cartoons but I got always the same reply from the receptionist, who may have been the wife of my father’s coworker. I never found out. I was always told that there weren’t any cartoons by me.

After a couple of weeks of me calling, the lady grew tired and told me that for the last time, there were no cartoons by any Gustavo. The only thing she had there was an envelope with the works by some “Garrincha”.

Oh, boy. All my friends who knew about the anecdote had lots of jokes on me for quite some time. So I decided to take that new pen name, to never forget my first disastrous encounter with a publication and also to honor and remember that poor soccer player, an idol for many.

Since coming to the United States in 2005, what has been the most surprising thing to you about the American political scene?

The polarization, the egos, the money.

You have one of the most unique cartooning styles that I know. What have been the big influences on your style? Who have been the big cartoonist or artist heroes for you?

There have been many, many artists I have always admired and that at some point I just wanted to draw like them.

I wanted to be a comic strip artist, like Charles Schulz, or Bob Thaves, or Quino, from Argentina. Or like Roberto Fontanarrosa, from Argentina too. Then I found the works of Oliphant, T. S. Sullivant, Ronald Searle, Waterson, Sempé, Angeli. Dalcio Machado, Dilmar, Jean Galvao, Mignola, Aragonés, Richard Thompson…

The fact that I came across their body of work a bit late in my life has given me a bit of awareness, a sense of being on my toes when it comes to explore and change. Many times change comes with discovery.

Most veteran artists have an established style and method of work, even a set of materials with what they are comfortable working with.

Not me. I’m still learning and experimenting. Maybe that’s not what the editors expect, but I find it exhilarating.

In several of your cartoons, you are very critical of Venezuela and its close relationship with Cuba. I’m guessing that you’re not a big fan of Hugo Chavez. What are some of the things that you see as wrong with Venezuela and its relationship with Cuba?

I lived in Venezuela. I had relatives and very good friends there. When I came to States I started working for a production company where in I was the only Cuban. The rest were Venezuelans. I’m familiar with many aspects of the Venezuelan community in the States. I’m not an expert, but I have learned about many, many things. I came to know of personal stories, historical facts.

I have seen the “cubanization” of Venezuela day after day. It was deja vú. Lots and lots of honest and hard workers and middle class members fleeing to the States because of the hostile political environment, the great divide encouraged by Chávez: Us vs. Them, Poor vs. Rich ( no inbetweens), Revolutionary vs. Pro Yankees. It was unfair, inaccurate and manipulative. And as it sort of happened in Cuba in the 60s, Chávez (who grew louder and louder when bragging about Castro’s guidance) demonized everybody who opposed him and picked the United States as the source of everybody’s miseries, while a lot of the Left embraced him and started repeating his lies and half trues by the pound.

The cherry on top of the cake happened when I worked for almost two years in a couple of campaigns for Citgo, the oil company. At least at that time, it was all a screen for the Venezuelan government to do proselytism in many aspects. I met many “Chavistas” and I saw the true colors of many of them.

Fidel used Chávez (or his money, you decide) and Chávez in turn radicalized his ideology in such a way that the country is now parted in half. Venezuela is for Cuba what the Soviets were before Gorbachev.

You have done several cartoons that are critical of the Republican Party’s motives in attempting to woo Hispanic voters since the 2012 elections. I especially like your cartoons on April 21 and January 30. How would you describe the politics of the Cuban American community? Is the Cuban American community more liberal or more conservative?

The Cuban American community has been definitely changing. Generally speaking, older Cuban Americans in Miami vote Republican, think Republican and they are usually very conservative.

Cubans don’t face the same immigration problems than many of the other Latin American individuals who come to the States, so they don’t see (and sometimes treat) the other Latinos the same way. They have differences in some aspects.

It means different priorities and different concepts of leadership. Again, this is generally speaking.

I believe that GOP has been a bit arrogant in dealing with Latinos in general. But demographics are changing, I guess.

And it shows.

You’ve made some of the best cartoons on gun control that I’ve seen. Many of your cartoons really take on the NRA. You’ve criticized the proliferation of guns on April 28, April 22, April 19, January 23, and January 18. My favorite is a cartoon you did on January 12. What has led to this passion for gun control?

Some people just holler and wave the flags of freedom to bear arms in a frantic way. And it’s their right to do so. But then the discourse shifts to other areas and arguments then it just makes it difficult not to poke fun at or criticize the whole thing.

This is a guns loving country, which I’m not.

When someone tells me that this country is going on the path to Communism or Socialism because of gun control legislation attempts, I just roll my eyes and tune them out. The weird thing is that the same theory of going towards Communism is told by some Cubans who are much in love with their guns. They do know the difference between this and Communism, and they should realize the stupidity of their opinion, because they lived in Cuba. But their conservatism is too strong.

Another aspect of the problem is that they are so sure that they can defend their families (for some reason, their families are always under attack) if they had lots of guns, it just make me chuckle. If they were honest and tell me that they defend the right to bear and own arms just because they love them, I would see their point. But don’t come to me with all those phony arguments about safety.

If you take the NRA and all the money involved out of the discussion, the national conversation about gun control is between people who love guns and people who don’t. It’s like a play. The scenery and music might change, but the story is intact, in my opinion.

You create wonderful caricatures of the important political figure of the age. What do you look to do when you make these caricatures? What artists have influenced your cartoon portraits?

I started drawing caricatures a couple of years ago.

I drew one or two in Cuba but I was never comfortable with the results and I just quit trying.

When I came to the States that was one of the things that I decided I needed to get into. I’m still trying to figure it out though.

Sometimes you can choose your character, the person you are going to draw. You can offer your own version of his anatomic features or personality. It’s like working in a laboratory if you have time.

But many times, and it usually happens in an editorial cartoon, you don’t have much time to explore and you just want the caricature to look like the original character, with varied results.

The timing also sets the type of caricature you are drawing. Even if I use the same colors or digital technique to compose a caricature, it would come out very different depending on the news and the developing stories at the time. I’m sure there would be one rendering of Romney before his “47%” quote in video, and a slightly different one after that.

I have loved the works of Pablo Lobato, Dan Day, Luiz Carlos Fernandes, Searle… and so many others.

Political cartoonists often debate about whether their cartoons have any effect on the general public. Do you think your cartoons have any influence on the readers of El Nuevo or on viewers of your work on the internet?

Sometimes it’s hard to tell.

The lack of a daily exchange with readers makes it difficult to assess that. But there is definitely a connection and a feedback. Readers that were longing to see this or that particular subject dealt with in a cartoon tend to let you know.

Sometimes they want a good laugh out of a certain theme or story, and if they agree with your cartoon you might hear about them.

But it’s hard to know which cartoon will have the success you expect in getting your point across. I have received emails with my own cartoons someone downloaded from some site and decided to send them out.

I have friends in Cuba who don’t have internet access themselves, but someone send them one of those emails and they get to see my cartoons.

So there is an effect, an impact. How deep or effective, I just don’t know. But I suspect it’s pretty strong.

In the past few years, I’ve listened to many editorial cartoonists worry about the future of the editorial cartooning profession, as newspapers have lost readers to the internet and have cut cartoonists from their staff. What do you think is the future of editorial cartoonists? You have a wonderful website and blogsite and your cartoons appear on various internet sites. Can political cartoonists eventually earn a living on the internet?

The news industry is struggling to adapt. They try to adjust, but it seems that corporate America and Journalism will never get along.

I’m surprised at how slow is the whole process happening.

Will digital publications be able to come up with solutions, sponsors and qualified personnel to provide content for an ever changing mass of readers? Maybe.

Will editors function under the new dynamics? We hope. Will cartoonists learn the trade? They’d better, because political cartoonists (and cartoonists in general) are already struggling to make a living.

What do you most enjoy about doing editorial cartooning?

Poking fun at the powerful. Deflating their pomp, bringing them down to earth, showing what (in my opinion) are their flaws and true colors.

The chance to connect with readers, the satisfaction of pointing at what I believe is wrong, of airing my opinion or being able to comment about something.

And drawing. Cartooning is not a job because I enjoy it immensely.

What would you advise a person who visits Florida for the first time? What are some great places to visit in your area?

I don’t know. Peruvian, Cuban, Colombian restaurants.

The beach.

The South Beach Area.

The keys.

The Everglades.

The Vizcaya museum.

If you are into casinos, they have a couple of those around here.

Disney parks in Orlando seem to be another hot destination.

Here are more interviews that I did for Everyday Citizen

An Interview With Children’s Book Illustrator Lea Lyon
An Interview With Democrat Nancy Hirstein Smith
An Interview With Cartoonist Ann Cleaves
An Interview With Muslim American Activist Zahra Billoo
An Interview With Peace Activist and Lay Pastor Jim Ramelis
An Interview With Cartoonist Monte Wolverton
An Interview With Cartoonist Adam Zyglis
An Interview With Reverand Gerald Britt
An Interview With Cartoonist Tjeerd Royaards
An Interview With Poet, Activist, and Teacher Diane Wahto
An Interview With Cartoonist Jesse Springer
An Interview With Cartoonist Steve Greenberg
An Interview With Eric Wilks
An Interview With Cartoonist Greg Beda
An Interview With Poet Melissa Tuckey
An Interview With Cartoonist Andy Singer
An Interview With Author Robert Balmanno
An Interview With Cartoonist J.P. Jasper
An Interview With Cartoonist David Cohen
An Interview that Everyday blogger Diane Wahto kindly did of me

A talk Gustavo Rodriguez gave to the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists in Washington D.C. in 2012

On May 1, 2013, I dropped by San Jose’s City Hall after my work to attend a rally for immigration reform. The crowd was mostly Hispanic, but it also included white, Asian-American and African American individuals who are passionate about the issue. It was a very friendly and hopeful crowd, and when I asked if I could photograph individuals, they were always very happy to oblige. The speakers at the rally told the crowd that this is their time, that the recent elections in 2012 have given the Hispanic American population the political clout to pressure Congress to pass fair and meaningful immigration reform. I’ll put on this blog some of the photos that I took of the event.
I’ve been following the immigration reform debate for a long while. This issue is important not just for Hispanic Americans, but also for the Asian American community. There are many illegal immigrants who are Asian American, and many families are divided because of a backlog of immigration lists. The Filipino American community has especially been involved in lobbying for these issues. If you look at history, the Asian American community has faced similar discrimination that the Hispanic community is currently facing, from being segregated into Chinatowns, Japantowns and Manilatowns, to being denied access to American citizenship through laws such as the 1790 Naturalization Laws, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, and the 1924 Natural Origins Act, to having Japanese Americans being forced into internment camps during World War II. Historian Ronald Takaki wrote a good book titled Strangers From A Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans that chronicles the history of immigration of Asian Americans.

The Catholic Church has also been strongly involved in this issue, especially since many of the 11 million illegal immigrants are Catholic. The San Jose Catholic Church was heavily involved in organizing the rally on May 1. The rally started at 3 p.m. in Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, 2020 E San Antonio St, San Jose and the crowd began to march to San Jose’s City Hall at 4 p.m. Father Jon Pedigo, a Catholic priest who is a longtime supporter of immigrant rights, was one of the featured speakers at the rally. Some members of Catholic Charities held a sign to let their presence known.
If you want to follow the immigration reform debate, you can visit these facebook pages:

Catholic Legal Immigration Network
Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Interfaith Immigration Coalition
Asian Pacific American Legal Center
National Council of La Raza
United We Dream
Campaign for an American Dream
The Gang of Eight Senators have crafted a bipartisan immigration reform package that many political analysts feel has a good chance of passing through a contentious Congress. Here is a link to the basic outline of the Gang of Eight proposals.
Here is a youtube video of the Gang of Eight talking about their proposals.

In order for immigration reform to take place, your Senators and Representatives need to hear from you. To find out how to contact your Representative, you can go to this link and to contact your Senator, you can go to this link.

I end this blog with two Biblical verses:

You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
Exodus 22:21

The alien who resides among you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:34

Nostra Aetate was one of the seminal documents that came out of the Vatican II Council that changed the relationship between the Catholic Church and other religions. This document was the result of several decades of work of Catholic reformers. John Connelly, a professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote the book From Enemy to Brother: the Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews, 1933-1965 talked about how Catholic converts from Judaism in Switzerland and Austria had tried to form Catholic arguments against antisemitism during the Nazi era. One of the most important Catholic reformers was Johannes Oesterreicher, who spoke out against the Nazis and worked to change antisemitic teachings within the Church. Connelly wrote an article for the Jewish Daily Forward website talked about the fruits of these Catholic reformers efforts in the 1965 document Nostra Aetate:

Part four of this declaration, a statement on the Jews, proved most controversial, several times almost failing because of the opposition of conservative bishops.
Nostra Aetate confirmed that Christ, his mother and the apostles were Jews, and that the church had its origin in the Old Testament. It denied that the Jews may be held collectively responsible for Jesus Christ’s death, and decried all forms of hatred, including anti-Semitism. Citing the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, Nostra Aetate called the Jews “most beloved” by God. These words seem commonsensical today, but they staged a revolution in Catholic teaching.

Despite opposition from within their ranks, the bishops knew that they could not be silent on the Jews. When the document stalled in May 1965, one of them explained why they must push on: “The historical context: 6 million Jewish dead. If the council, taking place 20 years after these facts, remains silent about them, then it would inevitably evoke the reaction expressed by Hochhuth in ‘The Deputy.’” This bishop was referring to German playwright Rolf Hochhuth’s depiction of a silent and uncaring Pius XII in the face of the Holocaust. That was no longer the church these bishops wished to live in.

As well as change the Church’s relationship with Jews, Nostra Aetate also changed the Catholic Church’s relationship with Muslims. Since the Crusades, the Catholic Church had several hostile encounters with believers of Islam and held hostile teachings towards Islam that were similar to its teachings towards Judaism. The Catholic reformers wanted a Church that would reach out and have friendlier and more respectful relationships with Islam. In Nostra Aetate is a section on the Church’s relationship with Islam:

The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.

Since in the course of centuries not a few quarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christians and Moslems, this sacred synod urges all to forget the past and to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom.

As the sacred synod searches into the mystery of the Church, it remembers the bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham’s stock.

Since Nostra Aetate, Catholics have worked in interfaith meetings with Jews and Muslims to work for peace and social justice issues. Pope John Paul II, who lost several Jewish friends to the Holocaust, was especially important in improving the Church’s relationship with Muslims and Jews. In the year 2000, John Paul II extended an apology by the Catholic Church for its sins of violence and intolerance against Jews and Muslims, especially for the Church’s actions during the Inquisition and the Crusades.

The new Pope Francis is looked upon with optimism from the Muslim and Jewish community to continue the legacy of Nostra Aetate. Almudena Calatrava and Damian Pachter wrote an article for the March 18, 2013 Associated Press about Pope Francis’s interfaith work:

Bergoglio brought leaders of the Jewish, Muslim, evangelical and Orthodox Christian faiths into the Metropolitan Cathedral to pray for peace in the Middle East last November. “Everything is lost with war, everything is gained through peace,” Bergoglio said then. “With peace wins victory and respect.”

The archbishop also welcomed Jews for a joint service on the 74th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night in 1938 when nearly 200 synagogues were destroyed, Jewish shops were looted and tens of thousands of Jews were sent to be exterminated in Adolf Hitler’s Germany.

And he also sponsored interfaith prayers after Pope Benedict XVI offended Muslims in 2006 by quoting a Byzantine emperor as saying some of the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings were “evil and inhuman.”

That time, rather than criticize Benedict directly, Bergoglio let a lower-ranking priest lead a service in which he himself did not participate. But leaders of other religions were impressed nonetheless.

This dialogue between religions “isn’t just a photo op,” Omar Abboud of the Islamic Center of the Argentine Republic said then. “It’s a genuine and well-reasoned commitment under construction, because we know that we cannot get by without this dialogue.”

Maha Elgenaidi of the Islamic Networks Group wrote an article for the Huffington Post about her optimism of Pope Francis:

What was heartening to learn recently that I didn’t know then, was the respectful rebuttal to Pope Benedict XVI’s comment of an Argentine Cardinal not well known outside the region. He shared, “Pope Benedict’s statement don’t reflect my own opinions. These statements will serve to destroy in 20 seconds the careful construction of a relationship with Islam that Pope John Paul II built over the last twenty years.” While mild in tone, they represent a rare and bold stand for pluralism.

Perspectives of the new pope provide a fertile new context for increasing our efforts with the Catholic community. In the past when we’ve called on regional bishops to endorse our statements condemning Islamophobia such as the one relating to attacks against Park51 the bishops have, but not without going through a third party to reach the bishops. However, in response to our outreach efforts more recently, ING hosted Bishop Patrick Joseph McGrath of the San Jose Diocese in a meeting with Muslim leaders in 2012 where we committed to working together. One of the outcomes of that meeting is an effort that is underway to collaborate with the Catholic and Jewish communities on five interfaith service days where we meet to volunteer for a local service organization, break bread, and have a conversation around a shared value. Through these we hope to build relations with the Catholic communities from the ground up. We thank Pope Francis for being a crucial part of that.

Here is a youtube video of the response of Muslim and Jewish groups towards the election of Pope Francis

A youtube video of Muslim thinkers talking about their hopes of the new pope

A youtube video of Bishop Matthew and the Diocese of Rochester, New York, and their work of interfaith dialogue

If you enjoy this cartoon, take a look at these links for more of my political cartoons at Everyday Citizen. You could also join my Jasper the Cat facebook page. If you’d like to email me, you can write a comment at alopezcartoons@yahoo.com

Two Cartoons on the Economy
Two Cartoons on the Church
Jasper and the Church
Jasper and the Tea Partier
Jasper Writes A Blog
Conversations During The Holidays
Jasper and the Cop
The Parents Visit the Occupation
Cartoons About Occupy Wall Street
Jasper and the Moderate Republican
Obama and the Republicans
Jasper And the Homeless Veteran
Jasper Celebrates the 4th of July
Jasper Meets Howard Zinn
Jasper and the Nature Poem
The Reunion
Government and the Market Economy
Jasper Joins Two Protests
Bob the Nerd Vampire
Jasper Debates War
Jasper Finds His Way Home
Jasper Escapes the Detention Center
Jasper At A Detention Center
Jasper Meets a Poet
Jasper’s Day
Jasper Tackles Health Care
Jasper Protests the War
Jasper and the Economy
Jasper Sings a Protest Song
The Road To Health Care Reform Cartoon
A Cartoon about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
A Cartoon about My Experience in an Evangelical Church
A Cartoon about Political Debate
A Cartoon On Gay Marriage

I haven’t had much of a chance to do any Jasper the cat cartoons this year, but I have done a few quick color cartoons for the Cartoon Movement website that criticize the economic system. I’ve been influenced on my views on the capitalist system by the Papal encyclicals and by the writings of Charles Dickens. Both the Popes and Charles Dickens give a moral critique of the economic system, and both believe the flaws of the economic system lie somewhere in the root of the system. In their view, the flaws of the capitalist system are just a magnification of the flaws of human nature. I agree with that view. Any system based on competition and the pursuit of self interest will always be vulnerable to selfishness and greed.

I personally believe that the capitalist system has great benefits and great flaws. If left unchecked, the flaws of the capitalist system will eventually overcome any benefits that the system provides.

One saw this in the economic collapse of 2008. Looking at American history, you can see the tendency of the economic system to self-destruct in the Panic of 1839, the Panic of 1857, the Panic of 1873, the Panic of 1893, the Panic of 1907, and the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Almost all of these crisis were the result of overspeculation, a groupthink mentality, and greed. The resulting economic damage wrought by these crisis was more than most of the middle class and poor could cope with.

I did this cartoon based on a project that the Cartoon Movement website was doing. They wanted cartoonists to depict the idea that it is in the interest of busines to help the poor. Since I agree with this, I did this cartoon. In this, I was influenced by my recent readings of Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens was often critical of the attitudes of the rich in his society. In Great Expectations and Little Dorrit, Dickens was critical of the way Pip and the Dorrit family were corrupted by status and money as they moved up the social ladder. In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens noted how centuries of oppression by the French aristocracy sowed deep resentment among the poor that made the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror inevitable. In A Christmas Carol, Dickens criticized Ebenezar Scrooge for being so obsessed with the pursuit of money, he lacked compassion for the plight of the poor.

I relate to this because of my own experiences in Silicon Valley. Though I am firmly middle class, compared to many of the engineers, my income is relatively small. I’ve often experienced instances where I was looked down upon because my financial resources were not up to those of the engineers and managers around me. This was not true of all wealthy people I know, but I’ve encountered this enough times to relate to Charles Dickens’ criticisms of Pip and Scrooge for valuing people based only on their economic status.

Though Dickens is critical of the wealthy, he does not want to destroy them or to take away their wealth. In A Tale of Two Cities, he shows how the Reign of Terror destroys the innocent as well as the guilty, and it makes the revolutionaries just as oppressive as the aristocrats that they have overthrown. What Dickens wants is for the wealthy to have greater empathy for the poor and to get out of their sheltered lives and engage in the community. The best example of this is in The Christmas Carol, where Ebenezar Scrooge befriends Bob Cratchit and his family and helps out Tiny Tim.

Though I’ve met some status-driven wealthy people, I’ve also met rich people who care about their community and are concerned about the plight of those less fortunate. In the food kitchens that I’ve volunteered at, I’ve met rich individuals who regularly volunteered to serve food to the homeless. Many of the wealthy have organization skills and managerial skills that would be of great benefit to the many charities and homeless shelters that serve the poor.

Sometime in the near future I’d like to do another Jasper the Cat cartoon. Since the Occupy Wall Street protests, I’ve checked out some library books on economic inequality and they gave me some ideas for Jasper cartoons. Below are some books that you could check out at the local library or buy at a local bookstore.

THE PRICE OF INEQUALITY: HOW TODAY’S DIVIDED SOCIETY ENDANGERS OUT FUTURE by Joseph Stiglitz talks about how the growing economic inequalities of the past few decades have led to slower economic growth, less economic mobility for the poor and middle class, and a growing concentration of economic and political power in a tiny percentage of our population. I liked this book because Stiglitz gave an understandable explanation as to why economic inequality is so bad to the economy and offers some solutions to remedy the growing problem. Here is a youtube video of a lecture that Joseph Stiglitz gave on economic inequality

COMING APART: THE STATE OF WHITE AMERICA 1960-2010 by Charles Murray talks about the growing cultural divide between the white wealthy class and the white middle and lower classes. Murray focuses on white America to show that the growing divide among Americans has less to do with race or ethnicity and has more to do with class and wealth. Murray believes that since the 1960s, the values and culture of the upper and lower classes have diverged so much that these groups have little in common to bind them to a common American community. Murray is a libertarian, so I do not agree with all of his observations, but I agree with his idea that the wealthy have to get out of their gated communities and engage in the community to help the middle class and the poor to help regain some social cohesion. He also points out some of the flaws of a meritocracy. Here is a youtube video of Charles Murray talking about his book.

INEQUALITY AND INSTABILITY: A STUDY OF THE WORLD ECONOMY JUST BEFORE THE GREAT CRISIS by James Galbraith emphasizes how the rise in the financial industry paralleled the rise in economic inequality. This has led to greater instability in the economy. Here is a youtube video of James Galbraith talking about “Inequality and Instability”

If you enjoy this cartoon, take a look at these links for more of my political cartoons at Everyday Citizen. You could also join my Jasper the Cat facebook page. If you’d like to email me, you can write a comment at alopezcartoons@yahoo.com

Two Cartoons on the Church
Jasper and the Church
Jasper and the Tea Partier
Jasper Writes A Blog
Conversations During The Holidays
Jasper and the Cop
The Parents Visit the Occupation
Cartoons About Occupy Wall Street
Jasper and the Moderate Republican
Obama and the Republicans
Jasper And the Homeless Veteran
Jasper Celebrates the 4th of July
Jasper Meets Howard Zinn
Jasper and the Nature Poem
The Reunion
Government and the Market Economy
Jasper Joins Two Protests
Bob the Nerd Vampire
Jasper Debates War
Jasper Finds His Way Home
Jasper Escapes the Detention Center
Jasper At A Detention Center
Jasper Meets a Poet
Jasper’s Day
Jasper Tackles Health Care
Jasper Protests the War
Jasper and the Economy
Jasper Sings a Protest Song
The Road To Health Care Reform Cartoon
A Cartoon about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
A Cartoon about My Experience in an Evangelical Church
A Cartoon about Political Debate
A Cartoon On Gay Marriage

Among my facebook friends, there has been a lot of talk about the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and their hopes for the next Pope. Many of my progressive friends dislike Benedict for his conservative views. If I met Pope Benedict, I’m sure I’d like him as a person. I deeply disagree, though, with his attempts to squash dissenting voices in his church and his push to make the Catholic Church smaller and more conservative. From my perspective, Pope Benedict seems like this shy bookwormy scholar who seems more comfortable talking about theology than in dealing with the pastoral needs of his flock. Unlike Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII, Pope Benedict had almost no pastoral experience, in taking care of the diverse needs of people in a church. Almost his entire experience has been in academia. In my cartoon, I’m hoping the next Pope reaches out to both Catholics and nonCatholics and offers a helping hand to the poor and the marginalized, like Jesus did 2,000 years ago.

There are a lot of suffering people in the world who need the Church to speak out for those who can not speak for themselves. Though I am no longer Catholic, one of the things that I most admire about the Catholic Church is their history of fighting for social justice. When I grew up during the 1980s, I deeply admired the Catholics who were integral parts of three important struggles for the poor: the Catholic Church was deeply involved in the People Power revolution in the Philippines and helped insure that it remained largely nonviolent; Catholic priests, nuns, and lay people risked their lives to fight for the poor in Latin America; and the Catholic Church supported the Solidarity movement in Poland that helped lead to the downfall of communism in Poland.

A few years ago I read The Hidden Encyclical of Pope Pius XI by George Passelecq and Bernard Suchecky that talked about a secret encyclical that Pope Pius XI commissioned that would explicitly condemn the Nazi policies against the Jews. Pope Pius XI was pope during the 1930s and he grew increasingly dismayed at Hitler’s totalitarian regime and the Nazi attacks on Jews and religious people in general. In 1937 the Pope had his German secretary of state smuggle to the German churches the encyclical, Mit Brennender Sorge or “With Burning Dismay” , which denounced the Nazi intimidation of Catholic schools, the hostility of the Nazis towards free religious activity, and indirectly condemned Nazi racism. In a 1938 address to Belgian pilgrims, the pope said that “we are the spiritual offspring of Abraham… We are spiritually Semites.” That same year, Pope Pius XI commissioned an American priest named John LeFarge to write an encyclical titled Humani Generis Unitas to more explicitly denounce the Nazi policy against the Jews. Before LeFarge could finish the encyclical, however, Pope Pius XI died in 1939 and his successor, Pope Pius XII shelved the project. George Passelecq and Bernard Suchecky’s book asks: if Pope Pius the Eleventh was willing to explicitly condemn the Nazi’s policies towards the Jews in 1939, why couldn’t Pope Pius the Twelfth make an explicit condemnation of Nazi anti-Jewish policies during World War II?

It would be unfair to say that Pope Pius XII did nothing. Pope Pius XII hated the Nazis just as much at his predecessor, but Pius XII was trained as a diplomat, and he couched his criticisms of the Nazis in vague diplomatic terms. Pope Pius XII made vague criticisms against totalitarianism and racism in encyclicals like Summi Pontificatus, while he secretly allowed Jewish refugees to be sheltered in monasteries and convents while arranging for thousands to escaped to safer countries. The Nazis though, could easily ignore vague criticisms of totalitarianism and racism that could easily apply to the Soviet Union or any countless countries. They would not have been able to ignore a direct criticism of Nazi anti-Jewish laws from the Catholic Church, as Pope Pius XI had wanted to do with his encylical Humani Generis Unitas. This is one example on why the Pope must speak out on social justice issues.

I’m hoping for a reformer Pope, like Pope John XXIII was in the 1950s and 1960s, when he began Vatican II. That’s probably not going to happen, but a recent New York Times survey of American Catholics found that a majority of American Catholics hope for a more modern pope to be elected. Here are some good books on the papacy and on the Catholic Church:

Lives of the Popes by Richard P. McBrien

A Church In Search of Itself: Benedict XVI and the Battle for the Future by Robert Blair Kaiser

The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World by David Gibson

Benedict XVI: An Intimate Portrait by Peter Seewald

The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II- The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy by George Weigel

Pope John XXIII by Thomas Cahill

The Good Pope: The Making of a Saint and the Remaking of a Church- The Story of John XXIII and Vatican II by Greg Tobin

The Hidden Encyclical of Pope Pius XI by George Passelecq and Bernard Suchecky

A Special Mission: Hitler’s Secret Plot to Seize the Vatican and Kidnap Pope Pius XII by Dan Kurzman

From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews, 1933-1965 by John Connelly

My next cartoon is about the sad situation in Uganda, where conservative Evangelical Christians have been promoting an anti-gay agenda that has led to laws against the LGBT community and a proposed death penalty for anyone who is homosexual. Thirteen years ago, when I attended a more evangelical Christian Church, I learned that underneath the surface, there was more diversity of opinions on LGBT issues among Evangelicals than is generally realized. Many Evangelical Christians thought homosexuality was a sin and hated gays and lesbians. Some Evangelicals were either gay or supported gay rights and didn’t think homosexuality was a sin. A large number of Evangelical Christians thought homosexuality was a sin, but they also had gay friends and family members and were bothered by the way their fellow churchgoers treated their gay friends and relatives. I witnessed a few times a group of Evangelicals harass or shun a gay or lesbian individual in their church. The trouble was that the Evangelicals who didn’t approve of the harassment or the shunning didn’t speak out against it and remained silent. They only spoke about it later, in private. Everyone got caught up in groupthink.

I have a feeling this situation is similar in Uganda. In the U.S., more and more Evangelical Christians are speaking out against homophobia in their churches. Several Evangelical groups now, like Soulforce, Faith In America and the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists are dedicated to fighting religious based bigotry. I think that’s why conservative Evangelicals are going to places like Uganda to spread their ideas. Gay and lesbian Ugandans are a minority and they need allies. Christians who support gay rights or who have gay friends and family members have to speak out loudly in Uganda, or their silence will make them complicit in the harassment and murders.

Here are some magazine articles on the situation in Uganda:

Americans’ Role Seen in Uganda Anti-gay Push by Jeffrey Gettleman for the January 3, 2010 edition of the New York Times

Out In Africa: A Gay Rights Struggle With Deadly Stakes by Alexis Okeowo for the December 24, 2012 edition of the New Yorker

The Ugandan Anti-Gay Movement: An Analysis of Evangelical Christian Ethics by J. Langford for Ezinearticles.com

If you enjoy this cartoon, take a look at these links for more of my political cartoons at Everyday Citizen. You could also join my Jasper the Cat facebook page. If you’d like to email me, you can write a comment at alopezcartoons@yahoo.com

Jasper and the Church
Jasper and the Tea Partier
Jasper Writes A Blog
Conversations During The Holidays
Jasper and the Cop
The Parents Visit the Occupation
Cartoons About Occupy Wall Street
Jasper and the Moderate Republican
Obama and the Republicans
Jasper And the Homeless Veteran
Jasper Celebrates the 4th of July
Jasper Meets Howard Zinn
Jasper and the Nature Poem
The Reunion
Government and the Market Economy
Jasper Joins Two Protests
Bob the Nerd Vampire
Jasper Debates War
Jasper Finds His Way Home
Jasper Escapes the Detention Center
Jasper At A Detention Center
Jasper Meets a Poet
Jasper’s Day
Jasper Tackles Health Care
Jasper Protests the War
Jasper and the Economy
Jasper Sings a Protest Song
The Road To Health Care Reform Cartoon
A Cartoon about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
A Cartoon about My Experience in an Evangelical Church
A Cartoon about Political Debate
A Cartoon On Gay Marriage

Throughout the history of the civil rights movement for African Americans, the leaders held diverse viewpoints and they frequently clashed. Think of the names of the various leaders, individuals like Pauli Murray, Ella Baker, Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin, Malcolm X, Dorothy Height, Stokeley Carmichael, Thurgood Marshall, Angela Davis. All of these people were working for full freedom and equality for African Americans, yet all had very different philosophies and tactics. Some activists, like Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Jones were lawyers that worked to break down legal barriers to equal rights for African Americans. Activists from the Christian tradition, like Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Pauli Murray, and James Farmer, used nonviolent civil disobedience campaigns to bring out the injustices for the whole country to see and to act upon. Malcolm X, and later the Black Panther Party, thought that the African American community must fight for equal rights by any means necessary, that it cannot limit itself to nonviolent means if the oppressors are using violent means.

Within these diverse viewpoints were many clashes and debates. Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent methods were questioned by Malcolm X and later Stokley Carmichael. Bayard Rustin’s conviction that the African American community must join in a broad coalition with unions and progressive churches clashed with the Black Panther ideology that the African American community must look inward and learn to help themselves. Leaders who wanted the movement to focus on legal and political gains clashed with activists who wanted the movement to focus on street protests and mass demonstrations. These differences tactics and philosophies appealed to different segments of the African American population, and it gave the civil rights movement a broader base of participants than if everyone had to follow one philosophy and one set of tactics.

A grassroots social movement does not depend on everyone in the movement being in agreement on philosophy. Reformers need radicals because the radicals are the ones who are out in the streets, organizing protests and making the arguments that slowly change public opinion to their cause. Radicals have historically been the canaries in the mine, who are the first to point out the problems of society before the mainstream society is aware that there is any problems. The radical’s constant prodding for change and the outside pressure that radicals put on the political system helps give the reformer something that they can bargain with to give their reforms some teeth. Radicals make reformers accountable so that reformers do not compromise too much and constantly prod reformers for ever stronger actions.

Radicals need reformers because it is the reformers who work within the political system and make the necessary compromises to enact legislation that addresses the problems that the radicals are fighting. Reformers frame the arguments for change in a way that persuades moderates to join in their cause. Reformers allow middle-of-the-road people to participate who may be scared of the radical’s ideology but are sympathetic to the radical’s cause. Without the reformers bringing in the mainstream audience to the social movement, the radicals’ messsage winds up marginalized and radicals end up preaching to the choir.

Radicals and reformers frequently argue with each other about tactics and philosophy. Whether they like it or not, though, significant social change cannot happen without both of them working for a common goal. Radicals and reformers act as a check and balance to the others worst weaknesses and one group can reach out to segments of the population that the other group cannot reach.

This diversity is why the civil rights movement had the participation of such a broad reach of people. Students, teachers, lawyers, housewives, wealthy patrons, celebrities, blue-collar workers, artists and young professionals all took part. This diversity of philosophies that we see in the civil rights movement can also be seen in the feminist movement, the LGBT movement, the labor movement and almost all other social movements. The most successful grassroots movements are those that have the broadest participation of different types of people. Such a broad coalition of people insures that justice is fought for in several fronts.

Here are some famous African American speeches and articles that represent different philosophies within the African American civil rights movement.

The Letter From A Birmingham Jail was written by Martin Luther King Jr. on April 16, 1963. In this letter, King gave a defense on nonviolent civil disobedience as a means for the oppressed to demand justice against their oppressors.

From Protest to Politics is an essay by Bayard Rustin for the February 1965 issue of Commentary magazine. In this essay, Bayard Rustin stated that the civil rights movement needed to transition from street protests to coalition building. Rustin argued that since African Americans are a minority of the American population, they need to join in a coalition with labor unions and other progressives to achieve their goals of economic and political equality.

The Ballot or the Bullet is a speech Malcolm X delivered on April 3, 1964. Malcolm warns that if African Americans are not granted civil rights after voting a Democrat to power, then that shows the inefficacy of the electoral system for African Americans to achieving their just rights and may have to resort to more violent means to achieve their ends.

The Liberation of Our People is a speech that Angela Davis gave at a Black Panthers rally on November 12, 1969. Davis argues that black activists must join with Hispanic activists and antiwar activists to fight several fronts against American imperialism.

Below are some youtube videos of debates of different civil rights leaders.

Excerpts of a debate between Bayard Rustin and Malcolm X

A debate between James Farmer, Wyatt T. Walker and Malcolm X