SALINAS, Calif. — The way to Steinbeck Country winds down the Pacific Coast past fishing villages, past fat sea lions lounging on weathered docks, past brightly painted shacks promising the local delicacy, deep-fried artichokes.
A sharp turn inland reveals the vast furrowed earth that gives birth in the California sun to rows of lettuce, artichokes, strawberries, cauliflower and other crops that come to rest on America’s dinner tables. It is not uncommon to see men and women dressed in sweatshirts, hats and other work clothes, advancing down field in waves as they pick crops. Large tractors weave in and out of traffic on residential and commercial streets. Outside local stores, objects depict the Virgin Mary as well as the revolutionary Che Guevara. Signs for Castroville, the next town over, proclaim it to be the artichoke capitol of the world.
This valley where novelist John Steinbeck lived, the land he wrote about, has been home to Sister Lydia Schneider for 40 years. She belongs to the order Sisters of Charity of the Infant Mary. Gray-haired, blue-eyed, and fair-skinned, Sister Lydia tends to the needs of a mobile and ever changing Hispanic community.
“If we recognize one another as having God present in each other, why should it matter where this other person’s come from?” she said. “We share a very basic bond of belonging to the human race.”
In a world in which immigrants of all nationalities struggle with clashing cultures, language barriers, paperwork, housing and jobs, people of faith like Sister Lydia, the director of Hispanic ministries for the Monterey Catholic Diocese, provide everything from spiritual guidance to help with practical life.
Some 80 percent of the people her ministry serves are immigrants, mostly from Mexico and other points south of the border. They work in the fields or in local shops or businesses. Some support families back home or try to get ahead by working hard during the day and sleeping in an apartment, garage or house with 10 or 15 other people. Some have brought their families with them. They live in apartments or migrant camps, their children attending local schools.
Sister Lydia isn’t entirely sure how many of the families she serves have the required documentation necessary to be in this country legally. She doesn’t always ask.
“Whenever we’re reaching out to the people, especially if the person’s hungry, or is looking for work or a place to live, or trying to serve their family, the first question I never ask is show me your papers. I already know they’re a human being,” she said over Mexican coffee, served at a friend’s house in a subdivision carved out of the hills. “They’re standing in front of me.”
Most farm workers are immigrants and the majority are undocumented immigrants, said Virginia Nesmith, Director of the National Farm Workers Ministry, an interfaith organization that supports farm workers.
In a country steeped in the American Dream and founded by immigrants who came seeking better economic opportunities for themselves and their families or shelter from religious or political persecution, the issues surrounding today's immigrants are complex and often contentious.
How should the nation address its literal and figurative borderlands – the physical boundaries between countries, the cultural boundaries between peoples, the religious boundaries between denominations, and the societal boundaries between classes? What would happen if everyone was allowed into the country? Who, if anyone, should be kept out? Who should provide health care, schools, and other basic services for those who cannot pay? If all immigrants are deported or prevented from coming into this country, will others step up to do the intense physical work necessary to support food production? And what rights should people have as human beings, regardless of laws or boundaries?
For the most part, people of faith tend to support the rights of immigrants in this country, said Nesmith. “Denominationally, I don’t see any church rejecting the rights of immigrants.”
That doesn’t mean all churches have the same view toward immigration. Some remain silent on the issue, she said. And individuals who consider themselves people of faith also oppose immigration.
But for many Christians there is a moral imperative to help the stranger, to help those in need, she said.
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Comments (9)
TO ARMINIUS:
You wrote."Good Samaritan, anybody?", I didn't know until not all that long ago and I was wondering if you knew?
In the story of the "Good Samaritan" not only did someone besides the "religious" of the day do something to help someone in need but the Samaritan's were despised by the Jews of the day and so the story of the "Good Samaritan" takes on even more meaning.
This, if one thinks about it, probably really upset some of the people not only for the fact that helping someone in need was more important than outward shows of piety and/or following all of the rules, but that Jesus would not only hold someone as a role model, so to speak, but someone that some thought should be avoided at all costs.
Hang in there, He hung in there for us.
Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.
March 24, 2008 10:26 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on March 24, 2008 10:26
Thomas Baum,
You said, about Sister Lydia Schneider:
"Isn't it something how in not very many words someone can say so much, if one has ears to hear that is, don't you think?"
I have ears. I heard. That woman is an inspiration, doing the true work of the Lord.
I cannot believe some of the incredibly cold, inhuman remarks by others that I have read here.
If a person, a child of God, is hungry, thirsty, cold, tired, sick... does it matter where that person came from? Good Samaritan, anybody?
Arminius
March 20, 2008 8:04 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on March 20, 2008 20:04
TO CHRISTY McKERNEY:
In your post where you quoted Sister Lydia Schneider, “If we recognize one another as having God present in each other, why should it matter where this other person’s come from?” she said. “We share a very basic bond of belonging to the human race.”
Isn't it something how in not very many words someone can say so much, if one has ears to hear that is, don't you think?
By the way, thank you for the post, Christy.
Right now there is so much talk going on about race in the present election cycle, when in reality there is one race, the HUMAN RACE.
I find it interesting and sad that some people that seem to think that they are so enlightened and free-thinking and unencumbered by religious this and religious that and then can spew out such rancid garbage about a fellow human being reaching out to other fellow human beings.
God Bless you Christy McKerney for writing this article and God Bless you Sister Lydia Schneider for trying to help in the real world.
The thing that I am most thankful to God for, is that He has a Plan and that His Plan is for ALL OF HUMANITY to be with Him in His Kingdom.
By the way God is a Trinity and He is a
Being of Love, Pure Love.
Take care, be ready, see you and the rest of humanity in the Kingdom.
Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.
March 20, 2008 5:15 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on March 20, 2008 17:15
This will sound critical because there's no other way to say it I can think of. I believe Sister Lydia is a true servant of whatever it is she serves. That determination I make based upon what she doesn't get from it unlike most all great ministries who I see as self serving. Of course she is recruiting and holding in check Latin Americans that were infected with Christianity by the Conquistadors. Sound critical?
Sister Lydia said, “If we recognize one another as having God present in each other, why should it matter where this other person’s come from?” she said. “We share a very basic bond of belonging to the human race.”
I wonder if she has ever truly pondered the notion of "God present in each other"? Where did idea that come from? How far back in time do we need to go to find the first ever person to say that? Let me help. Way before Moses the ancient Egyptians, and others no doubt said that we are all children of the fertility God. Can Sister Lydia or anyone else point to the change from the fertility God to the one we are left to conclude she means and give it some legs? Otherwise we should discount that 100%.
As far as the R-Catholic church helping Latinos maybe she could support a petition for the return of looted wealth, gold and silver in particular taken from Latin America by the Spanish known as Conquistadors. A lot, the bulk even eventually fell into the rat hole known as "gifts to God." Of course that raises the question which is impolite to ask -is she inadvertently continuing the looting by trying to save her own soul doing what the church says? That is the same church that now has the loot.
Sorry I have to sound so negative. I don't think she or any nun consciously does anything to hurt people. Even the Irish nuns that beat slow learners do it for their own good.
I'm not even going to suggest Sister Lydia examine a certain web site.
March 20, 2008 1:43 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on March 20, 2008 13:43
This will sound critical because there's no other way to say it I can think of. I believe Sister Lydia is a true servant of whatever it is she serves. That determination I make based upon what she doesn't get from it unlike most all great ministries who I see as self serving. Of course she is recruiting and holding in check Latin Americans that were infected with Christianity by the Conquistadors. Sound critical?
Sister Lydia said, “If we recognize one another as having God present in each other, why should it matter where this other person’s come from?” she said. “We share a very basic bond of belonging to the human race.”
I wonder if she has ever truly pondered the notion of "God present in each other"? Where did idea that come from? How far back in time do we need to go to find the first ever person to say that? Let me help. Way before Moses the ancient Egyptians, and others no doubt said that we are all children of the fertility God. Can Sister Lydia or anyone else point to the change from the fertility God to the one we are left to conclude she means and give it some legs? Otherwise we should discount that 100%.
As far as the R-Catholic church helping Latinos maybe she could support a petition for the return of looted wealth, gold and silver in particular taken from Latin America by the Spanish known as Conquistadors. A lot, the bulk even eventually fell into the rat hole known as "gifts to God." Of course that raises the question which is impolite to ask -is she inadvertently continuing the looting by trying to save her own soul doing what the church says? That is the same church that now has the loot.
Sorry I have to sound so negative. I don't think she or any nun consciously does anything to hurt people. Even the Irish nuns that beat slow learners do it for their own good.
I'm not even going to suggest Sister Lydia examine a certain web site.
March 20, 2008 1:43 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on March 20, 2008 13:43
Norrie Hoyt;
Legalshmeigal. If a guy has God present in him we must treat him as we would treat God Himself. And in he comes.
But first he would have to PROVE he's got God present in him. They have tests for this sort of thing I believe.
March 19, 2008 8:54 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on March 19, 2008 20:54
“If we recognize one another as having God present in each other, why should it matter where this other person’s come from?” - - - The premise is not correct. God is present in an individual when the Holy Spirit indwells the person who has called Jesus "Lord and Savior". Thus God is in true Christian believers, not in everyone. And it doesn't matter where a person comes from, but it does matter how he got here and whether he is a responsible, legal resident.
“We share a very basic bond of belonging to the human race.” - which means we share the very basic bond of being subject to law.
March 19, 2008 8:47 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on March 19, 2008 20:47
It does not! However, that is not germaine to the implied question whether or not illegal immigration is therefore not relevant to the issue. I came to the USA with my parents and three sibblings. We waited for four year for a visa, where given a medical examination in the American Embassy, had to have a sponsor who would assume responsibility for us for five years. We were welcome to enter and we did so legally. Others can do the same and should. We did not have the priviledge of going on welfare, receive all the perks now given. We worked hard, learned the English languare, three of us attended College and one of us earned three additional degrees. Go for it, do it legally and proudly.
March 19, 2008 7:11 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on March 19, 2008 19:11
'“If we recognize one another as having God present in each other, why should it matter where this other person’s come from?” she said.'
It doesn't matter where this other person came from.
However, that the person came here illegally does matter. A lot.
March 19, 2008 5:12 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on March 19, 2008 17:12