Dignidad

by Ismael García

This book presents the religious, social, and ethical sources that inform the moral thinking and practice of Hispanic Christians in the United States. It is representative and inclusive of the various ways in which different sectors of the Hispanic-Latino community deal with the moral challenges that confront them. Garcia identifies key experiences that are formative of the ethical point of view of Hispanic people: the experience of migration, the dynamics of social integration with a dominant culture, and the struggle to define a new identity. Beyond the issues of class, race, and gender, Garcia shows how the experience of being defined as a minority "other" has been determinative in shaping the Hispanic moral point of view. The experience of being defined as "other" has led members of the Hispanic-Latino community to recognize how urgent it is for them to work in concert to claim, assert, and defend the basic human dignidad (dignity) that the dominant culture refuses to accord them -