Cooking Together
Posted by: A Reflection by Rev. Alicia Roxanne Forde
Am I a guest here. Here in this House. Are you?
Are we guests here. Here in this House. And, whose House do we inhabit?
In the small world of our lives
the borders between us: easements, fences, gates, hedges – serve to delineate,
to separate us. To remind us of where my property begins and ends.
Where your property begins and ends.
If you cross over: you are a trespasser or a guest in my house.
You’ve worked to own this small plot of land and the house erected on it.
You’ve claimed it. It is now part of your self. Your definition of self. Your identity.
If I cross over your fences: I am a trespasser or a guest in your house.
What does it mean then, that in 1845, the United States crossed over into
Mexico…and took half of that country? Took land, resources, labor?
Was the U.S. trespasser? Guest?
Are there to be no consequences for taking what does not belong to you?
Should we simply forget whose House we inhabit?
To speak of hospitality in immigration often erases historical context.
The actions of the past that have led us step by step into this current predicament.
Professor Miguel De La Torre writes:
Perhaps it might be more accurate to speak of the responsibility of restitution rather than the virtue of hospitality.(1)
Hospitality, in this case, implies that the “house” belongs to us.
That the land, the resources that are a part of this House is ours and we,
who now live here,
are being virtuous in our willingness to share.
It erases the history that would have us remember that those
who cross the border today
those choosing to brave the harsh conditions of the desert
those who face the possibility of death, imprisonment, deportation, criminalization
are doing so because the U.S.
once crossed their borders to extract their resources and…labor.(2)
It is, for them, a matter of survival.
It is, for the U.S., a matter of restitution.
The prospect of restitution is scary.
Where do we begin?
With Mexico?
With Native Americans?
With territories?
With the descendants of those who were enslaved?
How do we acknowledge and address the complexities of
our history, present and – if we’re not conscious – future of dominance?
What would right relationship look like?
What conditions and considerations would make it restitution possible?
And. For us – Unitarian Universalists – engaging in Justice GA and beyond:
(for the conversation ought not end in June 2012)
what would it mean for us to shake off
the idea of hospitality as a central principle that is often attached
to immigration
and delve into the concept of restitution?
Whose House do we inhabit?
For we are not hosts. We are not owners.
Nor are we guests.
What, then, is our responsibility?
(1) Testimony from a Scholar-Activist by Miguel A. De La Torre
(2) Ibid.
The Rev. Alicia Roxanne Forde serves as the Multicultural Congregations, Program Coordinator, MG&W. She understands her ministry as one of Love and Justice in this life. Rev. Alicia is an avid learner and thoroughly enjoys immersing herself in the natural world around her.
Thank you so much, Alicia, for this shift of perspective. I hope we can make use of it without getting bogged down in competing accounts of the details of what actually happened in the mid-19th century. I wonder if you are using restitution and restorative justice more or less as synonyms here. Are there ways in which your understanding of restorative justice might lead you to propose different outcomes than your concepts of restitution? Blessed be, Barnaby Feder, Interim Minister, U.U. Fellowship of the Poconos
Beautiful, Alicia. Thank you for this gift and this reminder.
Poetic. Simple. Stating complexity without jargon. What a beautiful piece.