Good Trouble by Melanie Beikman

As we learn about tricksters I keep coming back to the memory of a talk I heard by theology professor Miguel De La Torre. Rather than tricksters as villains who appear in cautionary tales, Dr. De La Torre draws inspiration from the tricksters in Latino folklore. In the face of overwhelming poverty and injustice across the world and, in particular, in the community he comes from, he proposes a theology that responds to that oppression.  

 

In doing so he is inspired by the tricksters from Latino and Indigenous cultures - Coyote, Pepito, Juan Bobo and Elegua. 

For Dr. De La Torre, tricksters provide examples of how to mess with (he uses a more profane word), the system.  So tricksters show people how to fight back with acts of defiance and even humor that turn the lens back on the authorities who were not acting in the way they publicly profess to act. He cites the example of “The Garbage Offensive” staged by a group of Puerto Rican youth who called themselves The Young Lords. In New York in 1969, they protested the Sanitation Department’s lack of trash pickup in their neighborhood by transferring bags of garbage to block traffic. After many weeks and escalating protest, they were successful in bringing services to their neighborhoods.

 

I can’t claim a connection to the culture but I appreciate his theology with a trickster ethic. I also appreciate the organizations that mess with the powers that be, and I cheer when they win. 

 

Arizona Interfaith Power and Light (AZIPL), with Rev. Doug Bland leading, garnered attention when they protested SRP’s coal-fired power plants by holding a Coal-Ash Wednesday worship service, anointing worshipers’ foreheads with coal ash in front of the SRP Headquarters. And with the Climate Crisis being a touchy topic for many congregations, Doug brought humor and lightheartedness to the topic with “Eco-fessionals”: portable confessional boxes where one could confess their ecological sins.

 

In Georgia, a sister organizations of AZIPL was frustrated that for years the surcharges on tire fees were being diverted from the Solid Waste Trust Fund to the state General fund. Fees were buffering the state’s coffers instead of being used for environmental clean-up in low income communities as required. In protest the activists built a conspicuous tower of old tires in front of the state capitol. Public outrage at the diversion of funds forced the government to start restoring polluted sites in once-neglected neighborhoods. 

 

Sometimes tricksters get into “good trouble”.

 

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View Dr. De La Torre’s talk at the Arizona Faith Network 2022 Annual Gathering here.

The picture at the top of the post shows Doug Bland in his "eco-fessional."