The Future is Mestizo!

This spring, 8 year old Steve brought up the rumor his classmate told him: Barack Obama is in for it because the blacks don't like Obama for being part white and the whites don't like him for being part black. There was the chance to tell Steve, who is bi-racial himself, that someone like Obama, who had a hard time fitting in, gets forced to search himself to embrace an identity that affirms both parts of his heritage, and when he does, becomes uniquely equipped to be leader and mediator between the two groups of which he is part. I was able to affirm Steve's special identity as a bi-racial Mexican-American by pointing to the enthusiastic response American citizens are having to Obama's candidacy for President.

Every since I read Virgilio Elizondo's The Future is Mestizo a few years ago, I have been keeping my eye out for "between-person" type of people to be my teachers and leaders. If they survive and overcome their formative experience of fitting in no-where, they find a capacity to make that No-where the new Somewhere we all need to go.

As a lover of words and the power of words, I love it that Obama is skilled with words in his writing and oratory. As a self-introspective person, I love it that Obama has done the work of reflecting on his own story and publishing a few books to let others read to find out what the past and the future mean to him.

A lawyer, at his best, is a professional at using the power of words and wit to expose injustice and pursue truth-telling. Words well spoken and timely said have more power to confront and heal than the most impressive use of military force.