The Margins of Freedom in a Theology of the In-Between: Mestizo Trauma and Mestizo Healing

When a traumatic event occurs, there is a shattering of one’s reality alongside the shattering of one’s own identity. In Shelly Rambo’s article, “How Christian Theology Practices are Being Shaped by Trauma Studies” (2019), she states that “trauma refers to an experience in which the process of integration becomes stuck.” In Judith Herman’s Trauma and Recovery (2015), she asserts that “trauma repeatedly interrupts” (Herman, 37). Kathleen O’Connor in Jeremiah: Pain and Promise (2011) suggests that trauma “comes as a shocking blow… distorting reality, even as it becomes the only reality” (O’Connor, 3). This feeling of being “stuck,” of being “interrupted,” of experiencing a “shocking blow,”  forces the victim to come to terms with a new and perverted version of reality, one where their agency and freedom are not valued, one where they lack trust in any system. Trauma tends to be ignored, to be further buried and unnamed, leading to the perpetuation of that trauma. It is important to dive deeper into understanding the history and implications of trauma as it helps one to ultimately better understand the depths of human agency. Herman additionally claims that “traumatic events destroy the victim’s fundamental assumptions about the safety of the world, the positive value of the self, and the meaningful order of creation” (Herman, 51). Therefore, trauma leads to the shattering of identity, systems, and reality. In the search of healing in the midst of trauma, in understanding the margins of freedom that are at play, healing is seen as the telos for what each person longs – a healing that calls for responsible and just-driven practices in distrusting systems.

There is no single formula to heal. Each trauma is as specific as a snowflake – different than anyone’s else – and requires a snowflake type of healing process. Trauma is intrusive and, according to Herman, “arrests the course of normal development” in the victim’s life, stealing their agency and any sense of control that they had, shattering one’s identity and thus their grasp of their freedom (Herman, 37). However, what happens when traumatic events involve someone whose identity is already shattered? When there is already an experience of a sense of incompleteness in who one is, in already lacking an awareness in confidence and dignity? Regarding these peoples who find themselves in between two or multiple realities (and identities), it is this theology of the in-between, a theology that highlights those who do not fit a binary and who constantly internalize questions of identity, that leads us to this conversation involving a mestizo type of healing process, to a mestizo understanding of the margins of freedom and liberation.

Willie James Jennings in his exegetical work in Acts (2017), Justo González in The Mestizo Augustine (2016), and Virgilio Elizondo in Galilean Journey (2000) discuss three different holy figures who have walked before us and found healing in their multifaceted identities in the midst of traumatic events. Jennings uses the term “mulatto” to describe the character of Timothy in the Book of Acts; González utilizes “mestizo” to look at the person of Augustine; Elizondo uses the word “mestizaje” to interpret the historical identity of Christ. These three terms – “mulatto,” “mestizo,” and “mestizaje” – refer to identities that challenge the traditional binaries of societal norms. However, the identities of these three figures had already and had always been shattered, due to their surrounding socio-political-cultural context.

In considering these three figures, I seek to decipher a potential pathway forward in the healing process that offers room for affirming identities outside the traditional binaries. In Spirit and Trauma (2010), Rambo challenges her readers “to witness trauma in all of its complexities – to account for the ongoing experience of death in life. The challenge… is to forge a path of healing amid all of the complexities” (Rambo, 3). I wish to attend to the danger of a singular narrative and to offer room for the ramification of multifaceted identities. In investigating the nuances of the healing process, what is it that hinders one’s freedom? Rambo suggests, “the challenge of trauma is the challenge of witnessing to a phenomenon that exceeds the categories by which we make sense of the world” (Rambo, 31). Jennings, Gonzalez, and Elizondo offer space for exploring this anti-dichotomist phenomenon by examining the hybridity of identity and paving a path forward for the hybridity of healing. Thus, mestizo trauma requires mestizo healing, which involves a de-centering of the binary.

In Rambo’s Spirit and Trauma (2010), she offers the concept of “the Middle,” which she defines as the following: “the figurative site in which death and life are no longer bounded” (Rambo, 7). This Middle refers to a theological space that meets the sufferer where they are at in their suffering. This Middle necessitates a posture of listening and humility, as it does not force or attempt to solve a type of trauma, but rather sits in the trauma through a “crisis of remaining” (Rambo, 26). Therefore, a culture of witness is essential in this practice of the Middle, and I argue that Jennings, González, and Elizondo operate from this theology of the Middle, from this culture of witnesses, in attending to the hybridity of experiences and identities. Rambo states that “structural realities render some communities more vulnerable to harm because of the markers of race, gender, and sexual orientation. The term trauma provides a different way of voicing the impact of systemic and structural injustice” (Rambo: 2019). Thus, Jennings, González, and Elizondo use their theology to affirm the identities of each of their respective holy figures - figures who are persons in marginalized communities and who yearn to survive in the midst of structural injustices. It is in affirming one’s identity - in an encounter in the Middle - where freedom follows and flourishes. Therefore, Jennings, González, and Elizondo practice this theology of the in-between as a mechanism to facilitate a culture of witness, operating in the Middle in order to restore a dignified reality and for freedom thus to flourish.