In Chapter Seven of my work in progress, I tell two stories that played vital roles in shaping my young identity. These involved critical turning points within the Roman Catholic Church and the end days of European colonialism. What an interesting time to witness history in the making!

Beginning on October 11, 1962—after ninety-three years since the convocation of the First Vatican Council on December 8, 1869—between 2,000 and 2,500 Catholic cardinals, patriarchs, and bishops from all over the world, assisted by 460 theological experts, convened in Rome for the Second Vatican Council. For the first time, Protestants, Orthodox, and other non-Catholic observers were invited to assist. In attendance as observers were forty-two lay and religious men and women.

Meanwhile, in what was then British Guiana, our parents and grandparents were embroiled in the struggle for independence from Britain. Our country’s independence in May 1966 went way beyond constitutional change and self-governance. No longer socially inferior subjects of the former Mother Country, we the people also had to undergo the psychological process of “mental emancipation.” As I observed during my adolescence, the Church and State often disagreed on the means to achieve such profound changes of being and doing.

When I first drafted this chapter in 2017—yes, this project is years in the making—the MAGA administration of our 45th president held power in the White House. As I understood then, this rallying cry to “Make America Great Again” meant a return to the 1950s when the white male held power over non-white bodies and the female stayed at home to raise the family and serve her husband. I had visions of a return to life in colonial British Guiana. It meant a return, too, to my mother’s unhappy life as a stay-at-home working mother of five children and an abusive husband.

What a turn of events in the world’s richest and most powerful nation!

I imagine that this is not an easy time to be a young person in the United States. In addition to laws and regulations dictated by the Church and State, they must also contend with bullying and conspiracy theories on ubiquitous Social Media platforms. Added to that is gun violence in schools, colleges, and the public spaces where they socialize. For girls and young women, rights won by their mothers and grandmothers, through years of political activism, are being dismantled.

During my adolescent years, my steadfast faith in the teachings of the Catholic Church grounded me during those transformative years from a colonial country to a cooperative socialist republic. Moreover, as a young woman, I witnessed strong and courageous women lead the way forward. I feature three of these women in Chapters Eight to Ten.

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