Being the "Other"

If you couldn't tell from my pictures, I went to a Spanish Catholic Church for Mass one evening this week. I was excited about the idea of going to something where the culture would be extremely different to me. For one thing, I can't speak Spanish, and another thing is that I'm LDS and have never been to a Catholic Mass before. As it was time to walk in, though, I was very worried about it and almost scared for the Hispanic people to see me. I was worried that some people might try to talk to me or ask me why I was there and I wouldn't be able to communicate back. No one spoke to me as I walked in, though, and I saw that surprisingly no one else was talking to each other either. Everyone who came in at different times, came in silently and focused and very reverent and sat down.

To start the mass, the priest entered the room from the back and everyone stood up as he got water from the pool (the 2nd picture) and walked up to the front. Everyone stayed standing throughout the meeting when the priest stood, or they would sit down when he told them to. I think this was a way they were showing respect for him, and the water he dipped his hand in was symbolic of sanctifying himself to be worthy to be there. This seemed really nice to me, although I was sort of tired of having to stand up and sit down so often, because I'm not used to that. In a Sacrament Meeting at my church, we get to sit down the whole time, with the exception of maybe standing up for an intermediate hymn. Another observation that I noticed that was very different to what I'm used to in Sacrament Meeting, is that their worship was very involved and had a lot of participation. The preacher would chant things and the congregation would chant certain things in unison back to him. They also sang songs quite a bit, and sometimes did hand actions with the songs or chants. I feel like they did these chants and songs because maybe they were reciting prayers or scriptures together. I felt a little confused when they did them, because I couldn't understand anything they were saying, but I tried to be involved by doing the hand actions they did.

Their communion was very different than my church's version of partaking of the sacrament. Instead of the priesthood holders saying prayers to bless the bread and water and then passing it out to everyone, the priest at the front had a whole series of things he did and said before people were able to partake. The congregation had to kneel down quite a bit, which was sort of uncomfortable to me, but I thought it taught a good message of being humble and respectful. Then, the priest chanted things as he prepared the bread and wine, but he only put them in one cup, instead of many. Then, something really confusing happened. Everyone got up and walked around for a couple minutes shaking people's hands. I had two people who came up to me and shook my hand and smiled at me, and I didn't know if I had to then talk to them, but they turned away and just shook hands with others. I felt relieved I didn't have to talk, and also happy because I thought that was a really nice thing for them to do. I'm not sure of what the purpose of this ritual is, but I felt like it had to do with loving others and being accepting as we are all brothers and sisters. Then, to finish communion, everyone went up at different times and got in a line to receive the bread and wine from the priest and his assistant. I was worried that I had to go up there too, but then realized they were drinking wine and I can't drink wine, so I just stayed seated and tried looking normal.

Overall, my experience of being the "other" went better than I expected. I feel like if I had to be more involved or talk to people during the service, I would have been really stressed out as to what I could say and explain why I was there, when I obviously wasn't Hispanic or Catholic. From this event, I realized that those who feel like the "other" must be worried and confused quite a bit of the time, like I was. They maybe can recognize or guess what is going on around them, but it is still hard for them to fully fit in and feel welcomed and normal. For students in a classroom who are the "other", there needs to be an inclusive pedagogy and environment for children to cope with being different and hopefully they will eventually feel accepted and not singled out.