What is Mestizo?

Naming our church community “Mestizo” is very intentional.

Mestizo is a Spanish word, and its most basic translation is “mixed”, referring to a mixture of Indigenous and European blood. The word was used by the Spanish Conquistadors to keep their children who were born from Indigenous women from having full rights in the new land. Latinos have wrestled with this word’s complicated history.

Many scholars, poets, and pastors now realize that “mestizo” is who the global church has always been: a beautiful, complicated mixture. Mestizo also reflects our reality. This church is a mixture of religious upbringings, ages, cultures, and ethnicities. We embrace that diversity and seek to empower those who have been forgotten and oppressed due to economics, education, age, gender or skin color. 

Mestizo Community Church invites you to embrace our mixed identity and live in between cultures with us, to move forward in confidence, building a new future together, unified in God’s love. There is a seat for you, there is time for your voice, and there is space for you at the table.

In the words of Virgilio Elizondo, The Future is Mestizo.

Note Much of this Mestizo framework is inspired and borrowed from the works of art and theology of people including Gloria Anzaldua and Virgilio Elizondo, along with Emmanuel Padilla. Padilla runs World Outspoken, a non-profit that helps churches and companies embrace their Mestizo multicultural identity in their day to day realities.