Latina/o Anticolonial Struggles and the Commission on Hispanic Affairs of the Episcopal Church

This paper discusses the work and legacy of the Commission on Hispanic Affairs of the Episcopal Church, especially in Chicago, during the latter half of the 1970s.  The Commission, made up of Puerto Ricans, Chicanos, and Latina/os, emerged from the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement and eventually became an organizing hub for pan-Latina/o activism across the United States.  The Commission was able to mobilize grassroots ecumenical religious support for immigrants’ rights as well as on behalf of Puerto Rican political prisoners, in addition to local struggles against slumlords and educational inequality.   These activities, along with the simultaneous resurgence of clandestine groups demanding independence for Puerto Rico, drew the attention of the FBI and resulted in a series of grand jury investigations.  Several leading members of the Commission spent time in jail for refusing to testify before the grand juries, and anti-repression work became one of the defining aspects of the Commission’s work.

 I argue that the attempted disruption, ironically, accelerated pan-Latina/o political collaboration in the latter half of the 1970s, rather than undermining it.  Using a range of sources, from newspapers and government documents to oral history interviews, I demonstrate the innovative nature of the Commission’s work, with a focus on its local efforts in Chicago.  I also examine several points of tension in the history of the Commission, particularly the public/clandestine dichotomy and the apparent contradiction between religious pacifism and Leninist armed struggle.  The intervention of the Federal government brought these tensions into stark relief but also unexpectedly helped the Commission and its supporters resolve them productively.  The conscious effort to construct pan-Latina/o alliances was, I argue, the pivot on which this outcome turned.