“Hablemos en Arroz y Habichuela”

It’s been a busy last few years. The substance or patterns of busy-ness continue, even in new seasons. It is no surprise that this season we are experiencing in our daily lives, our country, and the world is tumultuous to say the least, and I want express some things hablando en arroz y habichuela (a Puerto Rican phrase, literally meaning, “let’s talk in rice and beans,” or properly translated, “talking in layman’s terms”). There is a perspective or lens of faith by which we approach all things. Whether intentional or implicitly, we hold beliefs and judgements about the world that we may have even accepted as fact. During this season of Lent, since many fast from certain foods, the theme of food itself has helped me remember the necessity we all share for sustenance. All human creatures have the need to eat to survive and thrive, and my faith lens began to reckon with the theme of food as it relates to the incoming recession, economic decay, and deprivation of the most important sustenance of all for a healthy world: justice.

If you dig the Bible and find value in it, like I do, you’ll notice a lots of references to food. Food is inseparable from our human experience, and when the writer of Deuteronomy 28:4 mentions how God will bless the crops and livestock of the people of the Israel upon their obedience, I cannot help but think those rights of all which we believe to be Divinely given, or “natural” even (define that how you will), that are daily denied and attacked. I have zero shame in calling out what must be the absolutely worst U.S. President this country has ever had.

“In just one week, President Donald Trump has launched the most systemic and aggressive assault on human rights in U.S. presidential history” (Jamil Dakwar, American Civil Liberties Union, February 13, 2025, https://www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/the-targeted-chaos-of-trumps-attacks-against-international-human-rights-law-and-justice).

We don’t need to imagine the very real nightmare of what has already taken place after one hundred days. Gutting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion departments, policies, and efforts all from as many U.S. Government agencies as much as possible is one of many attacks on the right to equal access for well-qualified but minoritized persons that would otherwise not have the opportunity in the same workforce or professions. If ‘opportunity’ were the table upon which others could also be fed, more and more folks are being kept away from being seated there.

I am hungry. Matthew 5 reads about some “beatitudes,” one being hungry and thirsty for justice. Do your homework, leave your denial elsewhere–or better yet–get rid of it, and see how others are hungry and deprived of sustenance, too. This is isn’t about Karl Marx, Communism, Socialism, the Left or the Right. At the end of the day, this is about the Good News of this guy named Jesus who told the rich to share or even give away what they had for the sake of the poor. We must feed each other. While the elites and diabolically egotistical oligarchies take take take, somehow can we reclaim our ability to make ways for ourselves. Use what you have and share it. If all we can eat now is rice and beans, may we be sustained now with what we already possess–those inner resources, innovation, and strengthening unity–to stand against the forces of greed and evil.

I remember days in which there was no meat on my table, but I consumed what we had and fought like hell to get to a better place, only made possible with help, cooperation, and community. When the people around Jesus were hungry, someone gave up what they had (loaves of bread and fish) to share with the rest; but we must learn to share the little if we are to learn to share much of what we can get back. I am hungry, and I can even hear some of your stomachs growling, too. Be hungry for justice so none have to hunger for their dignity and what they deserve. Be hangry; it’s time to look for some food, it’s time to get back what is being taken away from us. That’s the Jesus thing to do.