Thread: Detroit bishop shares front-porch stories at Tyson event

By Malea Hargett
Editor

SPPRINGDALE -- Tyson Foods, the world's largest chicken, beef and pork processor, continues to show its employees and the community that it is a "faith-friendly" employer by inviting an Hispanic auxiliary bishop from the Archdiocese of Detroit to be a speaker for Latino Heritage Month.


Bishop Daniel E. Flores spent the evening of Sept. 4 and all day Sept. 5 meeting with Tyson executives, Catholic Charities employees, Hispanic leaders and local Catholics in Springdale. The main event open to the public was Bishop Flores' address on faith, culture and hospitality at the company's world headquarters in Springdale where 4,000 people work.


Justo Gonzalez II, one of the company's full-time chaplains, invited Bishop Flores to speak after another chaplain recommended him. Gonzalez, a Catholic, said the company is focused on being inclusive of all religions, races and backgrounds. Each month, Tyson Foods hosts a speaker series for its corporate employees on various topics, including black history, Native Americans and disabilities.


"The right thing to do is if people feel comfortable on Monday talking about who won the football game, they should also feel comfortable talking about how God, the Holy Spirit, Allah, Buddha, however they understand the sacred, has spoken to them on Monday also," Gonzalez said. "People shouldn't have to hide their spiritual, religious selves."


Honoring Latino heritage is important to the company because 38 percent of its 107,000 employees worldwide are Spanish-speaking.


Overall, employees represent 125 different countries, said Ken Kimbro, senior vice president for human resources.


"That's a lot of diversity," he said. "We respect the differences. We encourage people to bring their faith to work. We think it is important to honor those differences."


Gonzalez said instead of thinking of Tyson as melting pot, he refers to it as a "stir fry."


Kimbro added, "I like stir fry. It's good."


About 70 people attended Bishop Flores' presentation at Tyson's corporate auditorium.


At 46, he is the youngest bishop in the United States. Before his ordination in November 2006, he was the chancellor of the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Texas, and vice rector of St. Mary Seminary in Houston.


Growing up in south Texas, the bishop said he learned lessons of faith and hospitality from his parents and older relatives while sitting on the front porch. Living on the U.S.-Mexico border, he observed the differences between Latin American and U.S. cultures. He said he knew what were important conversations in his house because they were spoken in Spanish.


From his family he learned about the "family reality."


"It encompasses more than a sense of who your relations are, more even than an understood preference for their concerns over those of friends and neighbors," he said. "It encompasses a sense of place and a way of relating the past to the future."


He said "respect for elders" and "hospitality" to visitors were demanded.


In his house, "'Ni nos ofrecieron un vaso de agua' (They did not even offer us a glass of water) was a particularly scathing criticism," he said.


He said religion was practiced daily in his home.


"Religion touched everything because it touched what was deepest in the experience of the family," he said. "It marked and put a word on the ebb and flow of life. ... I do not think I became a priest because my family was more religious than others. I became a priest because the big questions of life had a seat on the front porch."


Bishop Flores said the way Mexicans and Americans look at culture is different.


"Latins try to tell their stories hoping that in the telling we are adding to a living tradition and communicating a heritage," he said. "We Americans speak of culture as if it were something over which we have little or no control. It has almost taken on the face of a mythic power. ... That is why we speak of parental controls on television sets and blocked sites on the Internet."


"In the midst of this, the Church has a formidable task," he said. "I am not complaining, only noting that we are living in a profoundly altered culture of time."


He noted that Latin-American communities today are questioning how they will maintain their heritage while living in the United States.


"It is an open question whether the third and fourth generations of Latin Americans will melt into the so-called melting pot in the same way others have," he said. "Something new may develop here."


One of Bishop Flores' final engagements was celebrating Mass for about 100 people at St. Raphael Church in Springdale. Pastor Father John Antony welcomed him with a bit of humor.


"I hope you enjoy your visit here in Arkansas so much you will want to stay because we need a bishop," he said.


While he has visited Arkansas several times, he told the congregation this visit "was in some little way to let you know that your fidelity to the faith -- to be strong and holy in your faith -- is important. There are lots of reasons to stay close to your faith, but the most important reason is Jesus in the Eucharist -- the heart of the Church. Whether as Catholics we are many or few -- wherever we are, we are witnesses for Christ."


"Life is a journey. We will not be judged on how fast we get to heaven but rather who we helped to get there."


Bishop Flores donated his $1,500 speaker fee from Tyson to Catholic Charities Immigration Services in Springdale, said Sister Mary Lou Stubbs, DC, director of Catholic Charities of Arkansas.

Marilyn Lanford contributed to this article

http://www.arkansascatholic.org/article.php?id=991

Honoring Latino heritage is important to the company because 38 percent of its 107,000 employees worldwide are Spanish-speaking.

my taxes better not be paying for tysons slaves. that 38% better be in mexico.... ohhh gross i think i need to become vegitarian.....