Religious Perspectives

Excerpted from Veritas, September 2007

Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado is an assistant professor of religious studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. A native Miamian, she earned her bachelor’s degree in French Literature from Georgetown University and her doctoral degree in Systematic and Philosophical Theology from Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Her teaching and research interests include Afro-Cuban studies; U.S. minority, Third World, and feminist theologies; Latin American religion; constructive and cultural theologies; as well as theological anthropology and theological method. She is the author of three books, including Afro-Cuban Theology: Religion, Race, Culture, and Identity (University Press of Florida, 2006).

This year she became the youngest winner ever of the Virgilio Elizondo Award, presented by the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians in the United States, an association of scholars dedicated to promoting research and critical theological reflection within the context of the U.S. Hispanic experience.

Q. What is your current area of inquiry and what drives your research efforts?

A. My current research focuses on Afro-Caribbean religion, with a special emphasis on Cuban religion. I am currently working on a history of religion in the Caribbean, which will focus on a broad introduction to the diversity of Caribbean religion, including Santería, Palo Monte, Voodoo, Christianity, and Spiritism, among other faith traditions. Following this book, I will be moving in a slightly different direction, looking at contemporary Mayan Catholicism in Guatemala. If I were to summarize my research projects and the impulse that underlies them, it is the desire to tell the story of marginalized religious traditions in Latin America, especially in the Caribbean. My desire to focus on these traditions is motivated by my commitment to bring forth the voices and religious expressions of the poor and disenfranchised, whose stories are often forgotten or ignored in the great narratives of religious history.

Q. What motivated you to go into your area of expertise?

A. My motivation is purely personal and comes directly from my parents. They raised me with a strong sense of Cuban identity and a strong sense of pride in all things Cuban. Intellectually, as an undergrad, I was very influenced by black liberation theology, which looks at religion as an empowering force for black communities struggling against racism here in the United States. I realized that the one missing piece of my Cuban upbringing, something that the entire Cuban and Cuban-American community continues to struggle with, is the issue of race. That was my entry point for my research. It is very personal for me, and not just an abstract, detached endeavor. For me, to emphasize race in Cuban studies is an ethical choice, especially here in the United States, where Cubans so readily identify as white.

Q. How does the environment at UM complement your work?

A. UM is the most appropriate environment for my research. Miami is the gateway to Latin America, and UM is at an exciting moment where it could become one of the leading research institutions in the Americas on Caribbean religion, culture, and identity through an interdisciplinary program that draws from a variety of faculty. Our location in Miami is ideal. In my field, I am living in perhaps the only city in the United States where I find the Caribbean religions I study widely represented here in the United States. UM also has an opportunity to fill a significant void in the academy, which lacks a strong research program in the southeastern United States that emphasizes Caribbean communities in the U.S. I also believe the student body at UM is vital. Last semester I taught a course on Latin American and Latino/a religion and it was so exciting to have students from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Jamaica, Chile, and Peru gathered together to learn about their histories and consequently their own identity.

Q. How do you balance research and teaching?

A. While nothing compares to the energy and excitement I feel when I begin a research project, teaching is my primary passion. I love spending time in the classroom with students and relishing the privilege of reading texts together as a community of scholars.

Q. What future directions in your research do you currently envision?

A. I would like to continue focusing on Cuba, with some more localized research on the ways in which Cuban religion has been transformed in the United States among Cuban Americans. I also want to look at how specifically my generation, the children of Cuban exiles, has a different vision of our relationship with Cuba.