Transforming the Personal, Political, Historical, and Sacred Faces of the Latino Male

Abstract

This article takes on the challenge of what it means to be a Latino man in the United States today. The traditional cultural stories of the macho, the patriarch, the man of gallantry have become unbearable, unfruitful, and untenable for both men and women. In this time of cultural upheaval, caught between two cultures, too many Latino men continue not to know how to respond to the changes around them. Some practice manipulation, power plays, or violence against themselves and others. There is another choice, though. From the perspective of a theory of transformation the article uses the power of story; it invites us together with Latino men to participate in the most important story of our lives, the journey of transformation through the core drama of life. On our journey each of us by the very nature of our humanity has four faces by which to encounter life: a personal, political, historical, and sacred face that we practice in the service of four fundamentally different ways of life. But only in the service of transformation as a way of life are the four faces of our being fully present so that we can participate in creating new and more loving alternative ways to be a Latino man. The article offers specific characteristics that identify how in daily practice the Latino male enacts his masculinity in the service of transformation.

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