Father Virgilio Elizondo gives an introduction to Hispanic culture in a 1981 interview with U.S. Catholic about Hispanic Catholics.

The Statue of Liberty invites all the tired, the poor, and the wretched of the world to enter through the "golden door" and enjoy life in the land of the free. But what happens when a group of immigrants comes in and doesn't want to blend in? Should the country force these people to Americanize or should "American" be broadened to include the Hispanic culture?

Father Virgil Elizondo, president of the Mexican-American Cultural Center in San Antonio, Tex., votes for the latter. He says that "bilingualism offers more to all of us," Anglos and Hispanics alike. "It's an enrichment."

Elizondo thinks that Anglos who try to understand the Hispanics in this country might discover some new ways of looking at Catholic faith, family life, and tradition. A winning recipe, but not a melting pot.

Hispanics are the first immigrant group in American history who seem to be getting away with not learning English. And the English language has always been at the center of the idea of America as a melting pot. Why aren't Hispanics fitting in?

I think that we need to reformulate the question. It is not that we are not learning English but that we are re-teaching the Spanish. The Hispanic world vision as expressed through the Spanish language is a treasure we do not want to give up.

I don't see America as a melting pot, but a stew pot. In a stew pot, everybody starts out different but they don't lose their characteristics. A carrot is still a carrot; a potato is still a potato. They'll give up something and receive something.

As a Hispanic, I bring something to the United States and I receive a lot. We don't want to see Spanish in place of English but rather to show that people can easily handle both languages and feel it's an enrichment. Rather than being apologetic about it, we're very proud of it. This mixture of the Anglo American tradition and the Latin American tradition is what is giving the Hispanics in the United States today a uniqueness all their own.

Isn't there a lot of resentment from Americans when they see that this country may be headed towards bilingualism?

Yes, but there doesn't have to be. I think that bilingualism offers more for all of us. I feel that the church, for example, needs to provide that old dream of all nations working toward a united America. I don't mean that it has to be united politically and economically, but I don't think that national boundaries have to be religious boundaries. I would really love to be able to see the church make real unity among Americans, from the tip of South America to the tip of North America.

What if you were riding on a bus which had a bilingual sign and someone said to you, "Why can't you guys learn English?" What would you say?

This is a complex question because language is very emotional. Americans have convinced themselves that they are a one-language people. It's a cultural characteristic to hear Americans say, "Gee, I can't learn another language. I'm very bad at languages." I think that's an impoverishment of the people. The whole idea of a liberal education is to pick up at least two languages besides your own.

I think it would be important for Americans to understand that there's been a three-stage Hispanic awakening. In the first stage, they were just not accepted. The Hispanics were kept out, and they were told that even though they may have been in the present-day United States long before the U.S. immigrated to them, they don't belong here.

Then came the second stage, which I call the development stage. Our people wanted to become Americans, the all-Americanization process. They wanted to forget Spanish, change their names, change their religion. Even though some people pretty well succeeded in Americanization, they were still not fully accepted. No matter how well they made it, they were still considered "the other," and that was the beginning of the third stage. Now we realize the images of U.S. pluralism: E pluribus unum. We know that we can be fully American without losing our heritage, our religion, or our language. We can continue using our language as the most concrete and deep way of expressing our being.

Suppose you are the pastor of a parish that's always been German or Polish and suddenly Hispanics start moving in. What should you do?

An immediate solution would be to try to understand them, and I don't just mean linguistically. Each group of people has a way of doing things that's unique to them. This doesn't mean that it's dumb or stupid. It's not dumb to them. It's really hard for someone to see what's precious to the heart of other people, so a pastor should try to be a listening pastor.

When pastors listen, they begin to speak in such a way that even though they don't speak the language, the people can understand them. The gestures of going out to the people are sometimes more important than the language itself. It would be ideal to also try to learn the language too, but good listening is the all-important beginning.

I know a bishop in a Hispanic area who really gives the people the feeling of being welcome. He doesn't keep a private telephone number and the people know that they can call him when they need him. He gets calls at 2 and 3 in the morning. The other day he drove somebody to the post office because this person didn't know how to buy stamps, didn't know how to ask for them. The people who need help the most are the ones who cannot come at regular office hours. The ones who are afraid to go anywhere else feel somewhat at home in wanting to use the church. When people don't have the door shut in their faces, they have the feeling that they're welcome. And that speaks a lot.

What kinds of things bring the Hispanic peoples together?

Family and faith. The people love family. I once met a beautiful young couple with a newborn baby and asked if this was their first one. They said, "Oh yes, Father. We really hope to have many more." It's not "We're supposed to have another one," but "We really want to have many more." Maybe our families aren't as big as they used to be--a lot of people are not having 15--but they still have more than one or two.

I think that the main religious educator for us is the family, too. It isn't so much that we have family discussions about religion, but I think it's the whole atmosphere in the home. For example, almost every house has its home altar where the statues and pictures are kept. Almost always they have a picture of the Blessed Mother, a statue of the crucified Christ, the Sacred Heart, and somewhere in the home you'll find the pictures of the Last Supper and the Agony in the Garden.

Most Americans threw out those devotions after Vatican II. Why are they still important to the Hispanics?

Vatican II is interpreted in various ways by different people. It certainly was not against the popular expression of the faith of the common folks. Popular devotions speak to the reality of the people and make religion a very personal thing.

As an example, the Agony in the Garden speaks to the people of that loneliness they feel when no one understands them. The Sacred Heart is popular because Hispanics speak very much to the level of the heart. You notice when we speak Spanish, we use the word heart in conversation in a much more ordinary way than you would in English. In fact, it's very ordinary for us to refer to someone we love as mi corazon, my heart. We often say, "my heart cries; my heart feels," and that's why the devotion to the Sacred Heart makes Christ so humanly present today. We see the heart as the center of the personality.

We also see the saints as family. They are the ones who personalize doctrine for us, and we like to have many statues of the saints in our churches. If new priests, for example, come in and take all the statues out of the church, it is like taking away familia, our family and friends. When they are thrown out, it leaves a very empty church.

How important is Sunday Mass to the Hispanics?

We may not necessarily be a Sunday-church-going people, but the festive element of religion is very important. People may not show up for Sunday Mass, but when there's a feast day, they come. And when Sunday Mass is a festive occasion, they come. If it is not festive, they tell you very honestly, "Why should I waste my time joining in the boredom of the priest?"

When the church becomes a place where it's exciting to go to Mass, when the parish really makes the people feel at home, then the Mass is a festive occasion, a real celebration of the Eucharist. When a parish is very much loved by the people, they go because they want to go. You meet friends, and you visit and have coffee, and the kids play in the yard. When the church is merely a place to go to Mass on Sundays, then it doesn't have any meaning to it.