Lesson from Fr. Brito

Note: This is fifth in a series about my visit with a group of U.S. deacons to the Dominican Republic in spring 2011.

In the most recent installment of the story of my “Latin Experience” in the Dominican Republic last spring, I gave an overview of the classroom instruction we received for the first couple days at the Bishop Kellog Conference Center in San Pedro de Macoris. This month I want to focus on just one of those classroom sessions, the one that spoke most powerfully to me.

The session called “A Social Analysis of the Latin American Family” was conducted by Fr. Napoleon Brito, Dean of Epiphany Cathedral in Santo Domingo. What impressed me so much about this presentation was that Fr. Brito had the courage to share with us—the outsiders from the U.S.—some of the problems of Latino culture.

Fr. Brito listens to Deacon Maureen Hagan's question.

Fr. Brito identified several phenomena that have powerfully influenced Latino families in various ways, such as the rural to urban transition, the growing gap between rich and poor, and the other pressures of modernism—all experienced by many societies, including our own. Thus the construction of affordable housing in urban areas has not kept pace with population growth, 80% of youth work to supplement inadequate family incomes instead of study, and consumer goods ranging from food to culture and media are unequally distributed.

In Latino society, however, these phenomena and their consequences interact with another cultural characteristic—machismo—in a way that produces especially negative outcomes. Machismo can be defined as exaggerated masculinity stressing attributes such as physical courage, virility, and aggressiveness. These attributes are typically expressed through domination of women.

The combination of poverty and machismo is lethal to families and thus highly disruptive of society as a whole. The consequences Fr. Brito enumerated include:

• A low rate of marriage and high rate of co-habitation.
• Men with two or three families who can barely support one.
• Alcoholism, sexual promiscuity and a general cultural emphasis on hedonism.
• Many children born to single mothers or into families in which the father is dividing time between more than one family and job.

 The Episcopal Church in the Dominican Republic is responding to the state of Latino families with a strong focus on family ministry in urban areas. These devastating challenges, Fr. Brito explained, can best be dealt with by strengthening families. And although “family values” often get cited but rarely defined in the U.S., the Church in the Dominican Republic has had to be much more purposeful in ministering to families holistically, especially by countering machismo and promoting the full-time presence of men in one family.

A mother and her sons walk the dirt streets of a poor barrio in San Pedro de Macoris, DR.

It is our natural tendency as humans to put on a good front, brag about our accomplishments and foreground the most enticing, enjoyable aspects of our culture. Likewise, it is our tendency to hide our shortcomings and unite to keep problems hidden from outsiders. I have heard these tendencies with startling clarity in our own political dialogue of late, when those who dare to admit that we as a society also have problems are labeled unpatriotic.

Fr. Brito’s talk was compelling and informative. But I was most impressed with the courage it took for him to speak to outsiders so openly and frankly. Latino culture has much to offer that is wonderful: spirit, color, music, warmth. But I particularly appreciate that our hosts trusted us enough to share their challenges with us as well. Would that we should be so humble.