Sunday, May 13, 2012

Hi, its Gloria, Sunday, May 13th, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, Ada Maria passed away.  She continued in the deep sleep in which she was for the last 48 hours, and her breathing simply became less frequent until it stopped at 1:40 a.m.  There was no struggle, agony nor any signs of discomfort.  She has now moved on to her eternal life, having left behind a remarkable legacy.  The lives of all who knew her and loved her were immensely enriched by her presence.  She walked un Buen Camino and triumphed in La Lucha for compassion and solidarity.

It is time to celebrate her life and honor her memory.

We are taking Ada Maria's body to be buried in Miami.  Once all the arrangements have been completed, I will post her obituary, which includes the information on her services in Miami.  For those of you that can and want to join us for these services, please know that Ada Maria's family will welcome you.

In addition, later in the year, we will be conducting memorial services for her in New York city.  I will keep the blog updated with that information.

My heart is sad and the word that keeps going through my mind, is what pilgrims on El Camino tell each other when things get difficult, Animó.

40 comments:

  1. Luis Rivera-PaganMay 13, 2012 at 8:29 AM

    Sorry to hear these very sad news. But we can and should feel proud and grateful for Ada María’s life and achievements. She always made her presence felt, indeed! As the time has arrived to mourn her absence, we will celebrate her life and deeds in joyful memory.

    Let us also keep Otto Maduro in our hearts and prayers, who is undergoing his new cancerous via crucis. Also Rubén Rosario-Rodríguez’s son, Rafe, who spent his fourth birthday in a hospital. Rafe is suffering from a serious cancer that has weakened his young and small body and deeply saddened the hearts of his father and mother.

    May God bless Otto and Rafe, and greet Ada María in the divine kindom (as Ada would write)!

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  2. Querida Gloria,

    Mil gracias for allowing us, Ada's amig@s, colleagues and students to accompany your familia on el Camino con Ada.

    With heavy hearts we release her to the company of l@s sant@s, where she may be freed of las luchas that challenged her last days. May she experience la paz of the kin-dom of God that she so yearned for--and wrote about so eloquently. May she celebrate this day con su madre, in the embrace of a loving God.

    May you and your family be warmed by your memories, take comfort in the arms of loved ones, and find hope in the promise of that day when there will be no more tears, and all will meet again.

    In solidarity, con cariño.
    Carmen
    (Nanko-Fernandez)

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  3. Dear Gloria and dear other members of Ada Maria's family,

    Our deepest condolences to you all. May all of you be comforted in your grief by the memories of your powerful hermana, hija, tia Ada Maria. The messages and prayers of the last few weeks have made the connections around the world more tangible and showed her impact on so many of us.
    May the peace of God that passes all understanding be with you and us all!

    In solidarity,
    Angela y Irma

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  4. Dear Gloria:
    Thank you for writing to let us all know in such tender moment for you and your family. I celebrate Ada Maria's life and I am thanful for it, as I also deeply mourn her loss. She has been surrounded by so much love, that she co-created. She will keep being with us in spirit.
    Much love to you and your family in this time of loss.
    Blessings,
    Gabriella Lettini, Berkeley/Italy

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  5. Dear Gloria, it is hard to find the words to write so for now I will affirm Gabriella's message. It expresses my feelings, also.

    Grace and peace,
    Pam (Brubaker), Thousand Oaks, California

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  6. From San Antonio, Texas where Ada Maria came and left words of wisdom. where she befriended the Chicanas because she was one of us ... where she came to record our voices and lift them in her work...where she left us the message of living life as La Lucha como mujeres dignas y poderosas que cada dia dan vida a este mundo. To Ada Maria's familia in Florida and throughout we express our deepest condolences. !
    !Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, Presente!

    Maria Antonietta Berriozabal

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  7. Thank you for sharing this news. Ada has been in my heart these past days and I am glad to know that she is at peace. Blessings to all her family and friends who have been caring for her in these last days. Her legacy lives on!

    Toddie Peters

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  8. Grief and thanksgiving walking hand in hand ... thank you for all the wisdom, and challenge, querida Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz.

    Tammerie

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  9. Desacansa en paz, querida Ada. Buena decision llevarla a Miami a enterrarla, esta mas cerca de la mayoria de su familia y de "su Isla adorada". Desde Quito y Guayaquil, rezamos por tu eterno descanso y porque la resignacion llene de energia a toda la familia. Llegaste al final del Camino dejando esa "estela" que termina en EL CAMPO DE LAS ESTRELLAS "Compostela". Fue tu viaje deseado y que marcó mucho en tu vida.
    Hermoso dia para ir de la mano de la Virgen de Fatima al lado de El. Un besote para todos, Blanca

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  10. Thank you, dear Professor, for the ways in which your writing inspired so many students. I will always remember having the chance to read one of your books in Dr. James Cone's theology class at Union Theological Seminary.

    Thank you for your life and inspiration...

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  11. Miguel A. De La TorreMay 13, 2012 at 12:29 PM

    Vaya con Dios hermana

    Miguel

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  12. Dear Ada, we scheduled to have coffee and chat in New York last year, in fact May it was. We never did. And now you have passed on to eternal rest. I will forever cherish memories of you as a mentor and friend, en la lucha. Vaya con Dios amiga y hermana.

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  13. Many thanks to all who have already said so well what Ada meant to so many of us. There is much to honor (and to grieve) in her life en la lucha in service of the kin-dom of God. Blessings and peace to all who loved her, but especially to you, Gloria, and the rest of Ada's family who kept faith with her through it all -- especially through these last days. Know that many will be holding you close in their hearts and minds.

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  14. I too am terribly sad, and also grateful to you for keeping us updated at this difficult time. How powerful is the community of struggle and hope.

    Jane Redmont

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  15. So very grateful to have been blessed by Ada's courage, joy and wisdom - her legacy continues in all who work for justice.

    Sharon Welch

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  16. Que descanse en Paz nuestra hermana. Le damos gracias a Dios por su caminar, lucha y presencia por su pueblo y por Los necesitados.
    Alberto L. Garcia

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  17. Muy estimada familia,
    Oraremos por ustedes pidiendole a Dios que le llene de consuelo y paz. Oraremos por Ada, para que su vida este plenamente escondida y cuidada por Dios en la eternidad.

    Le damos gracias a Dios por la vida de Ada Maria; por su tenacidad y dedicacion a esta vocacion de educadores y activistas por la justicia y la paz. Me puedo imaginar una gran fiesta en el cielo... aunque nosotros aca estemos tristes y pesadumbrados.

    Me uno a Luis en las oraciones por nuestros colegas y sus familiares en medio de situacines dificiles y complicadas.

    Paz al pueblo,

    Carlos Cardoza

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  18. As I said yesterday, this is so hard to believe. Ada was the energy and spirit behind an incredibly wonderful project about justice up until her very last moment. Blessings to her family...please know how many many people love her and miss her!
    mary mcclintock fulkerson

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  19. Paz a su tumba... que cante ahorita con los ángeles....

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  20. Dear Ada,
    I want you be happy, peaceful, and full of hope wherever you are. You have been my soul sister and a great comrad in the struggle for justice. I will always cherish what you have given to me: your love, your sisterhood, and steadfast friendship. You were my "Rock of Gibralta" in my life. I will miss you so much. I will always teach "Mujerista Theoloy" in my feminist theology class remembering you. Ada, I am so thankful that we could spend some time together in your last day of this life. All the things I said to you yesterday was truth from my soul of soul. I hope you are now surrounded by Light being saturated by Love of God. Dear Ada, please remember what I said to you yesterday. Please keep walking, sister, with faith, courage, and full of curiosity as you have been in this life. I love you so much, Ada. May you be free from all kinds of suffering. May you be peaceful. May you be full of Joy! Ada Maria presente!
    La vida es la lucha. Gracias a la vida!

    Dear Ada's family
    Marie, Gloria, Jose and madre.....and many other sisters and brothers and nieces and nephews,
    Thank you so much for your great love and support for Ada. Ada was so proud of all of you and loved you very much. I share your sadness of letting go of Ada. I am also very sad losing one of my very best friends. Please let me know what you need for Ada's memorial service. I would like to be fully present for the preparation and performance of Ada's memorial service. Ada made a great contribution to theology and women's life all around the world with her creation of "Mujerista Theology." I am sure you are very much proud of Ada and will miss her very much. May you be peaceful and grateful in this time of loss and sadness.
    I will pray for your family. Thank you so much for your accompanying Ada with such deep love to the last moment of her life on this earth.
    with much love and respect,
    Hyun Kyung (New York/Korea)

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  21. Dear Gloria and family,
    Thank you for sharing with us the sad news of Ada's passing. So many of us have been walking with her from so many parts of the country and beyond the U.S.. Your family has made it possible for us to be on this journey...en este caminar...and I am so grateful. Please know that I am present to all of you and accompany you in this difficult part of the Camino with profound carino, heart-felt prayers and gratitude.

    I have been moved by the tender and loving care that all of you gave Ada during these days. She was blessed by such a loving family, and we have been blessed by her presence among us. Ada will be terribly missed, but I also give thanks for having known her and for the legacy that she leaves behind.

    I hope to be able to present in Miami for Ada's services and look forward to receiving the information of her services.

    Con mi carino,
    Ana Maria Pineda
    (San Jose, California)

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  22. Dear Gloria, Mari, Alex and all sisters and brothers of Ada Maria:

    I can hardly find the words to express my sorrow. I am grateful for Ada Maria for her friendship and teachings. I will always remember the braveness and adventure spirit in our trips around the world. My loving prayers for her, may she rest in a beautiful place enjoying the admirable God´s criation, from another dimension.
    Thank you, Gloria and family, for letting us follow her last trip along with you.
    Love,
    Luiza Tomita
    São Paulo, Brazil

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  23. May her life continue on, being an inspiration to so many of us!! La Lucha will continue as long as there are women who, like Ada Maria, dared to write and express the feelings of so many of us!! Gracias Ada Maria for setting the example and opening paths for us to continue! Will miss you.

    To Gloria and her family, my deepest sympathy and care...un abrazo!!

    Mary Silva
    San Antonio, TX

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  24. Tanto que agradecer, tanto que recordar, tanto para hacera. Y su memoria honrar...
    Laura Ayala

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  25. A warrior has fallen...

    Our family holds your family in prayer. We thank the Lord for the witness that Ada Maria left in her wake, for her fierce faith and her desire always to fight on behalf of the vulnerable and weak. I pray that she can now enter in the rest of the One who called and loves her even beyond this life, into life eternal.

    My students, who know about her, also want you to know that they are praying for each of you. May the Lord pour out consolation and peace that passes all understanding, and envelope all of you in God's abiding love.

    Loida Martell and family
    Palmer Seminary, "Theology and a Movie" class of 2012

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  26. Nancy Pineda-MadridMay 14, 2012 at 11:47 AM

    Dear Gloria and family members: I like so many others am heartbroken and without words in this time of loss. Ada Maria was a mentor and a friend over the course of many, many years. She was always so down to earth and loving yet such a scholar and profound thinker. She pushed me to be my best always. I miss her so much already. Her spirit lives and will live on always in the numerous lives that she touched so deeply. Nancy Pineda-Madrid

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  27. It was an honor to be her student at Drew. I can say she is one of the people who changed my thinking and attitudes. It was a blessing to know her and study under her.
    Rob Huttmeyer
    Forth Worth, TX

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  28. Querida familia de Ada,

    Con mucha tristeza siento la muerte de Ada- el silencio es profundo. Le doy gracias a Dios por su vida sencilla y espectacular. Su sentido de amor, paz y justicia serán su legado. Estos atributos seguirán dándole vueltas a mundo, animado un recuerdo y un cargo a seguir adelante. Siempre la recordaremos, Elsie Miranda

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  29. I can hardly believe it, having glimpsed the force and fire of her passion burning brightly less than a year ago. I feel blessed to have experienced her gifts before she passed.

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  30. Querida familia de Ada María

    Los acompaño en sentimiento. Se que es un dolor muy grande el que ahora estan experimentado con la perdida de una querida mujer, hermana y tia.
    Sus hermanos y hermanas en ACHTUS deseamos expresar nuestras mas sinceras condolencias. Her death a great loss to Latina and Latino theology and we will miss her retos y desafios, her kindness and humor, and most especially her sentido de lucha.
    Enfrentados con su muerte we are left with questions of ¿porque?, why?
    Ada herself comforts and reminds us in La Lucha Continues, that for us Latino/as "Jesucristo is not the one who gives us answers but who sustains us when there are no answers" and that Jesucristo "helps us to go deeper in the questions about God and the divine presence in our lives" (263). These words comfort us as we accompany her and you with our prayers in this moment of her ultimo peregrinaje. Que en paz descanse y que Diosito los tenga a ustedes en sus brazos consoladores.

    Paz y Bien
    Fray Gilberto Cavazos-González, OFM
    Presidente de la Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States.

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  31. Siento mucho la partida de la profesora Isasi-Diaz. Tuve el privilegio de conocerla y recibir su instrucción en Barry University, cuando nos compartió su teologia Mujerista como profesora visitante. Hoy celebro su vida y su contribución a la teologia desde la experiencia de nosotras las latinas. Reciban nuestro mas sentido pésame.
    Lucia Luzondo

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  32. Dear Gloria and Alex,
    My heart goes out to you and the rest of the family. You've been so incredible in your care for Ada and those of us in her wider circle of friends, colleagues, students, peers... Thank you! I hope that you and your extended family will receive the care and love you need in the days ahead.

    I will miss Ada's calls and emails to commiserate on the latest injustices in the world and her invitations to engage together in some rejoinders to them. And yet, I celebrate that Ada is finally free from her earthly body and that her spirit is free.

    I won't be able to attend the service in Miami, but very much hope that I may be able to attend the memorial for her in New York City.

    With gratitude for all that Ada was, and her spirit which remains alive with us,

    Pam (Sparr)
    Takoma Park, Maryland

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  33. Victoria Rue and Kathryn PoethigMay 14, 2012 at 12:41 PM

    Dear Friends of Ada,
    Our hearts are so sad... and the world has been illumined by Ada's life and will continue to be as she has left such a passionate legacy. It is from Ada that we first heard about the Camino de Compostela. And as we walk it in June, we will walk with Ada, for she is on the Camino now.
    Buen Camino!!
    Victoria Rue and Kathryn Poethig

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  34. Joy Bussert, graduate school friendMay 14, 2012 at 12:51 PM

    I was in graduate school at Union Theological Seminary, New York, with Ada 1985-1988. I valued her work as a scholar and respected her expertise in mujerista/feminist theology from the beginning of our graduate school years. I often told and re-told her story of the woman from her country who refused to pray to Jehovah because "Jehovah didn't understand women's problems." I will miss our conversations on FaceBook. Joy Bussert, Minnesota, USA

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  35. Ada, ¡te vamos a extrañar mucho! Damos gracias por tu vida.

    Nancy Bedford, Evanston/Buenos Aires

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  36. Dear Ada, your professionalism that seeks to address real life issues has had great impact felt far and wide. I came to learn about your mujerista theology back in 2004 as I was doing my studies in Theology at St. Paul's University, Kenya. Your work finding relevance in Kenya is a testimony of your value to the world. You have fought a good fight, you have won the race.

    To Gloria and other family members, Shalom!

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    1. Dear Ada, your professionalism that seeks to address real life issues has had great impact felt far and wide. I came to learn about your mujerista theology back in 2004 as I was doing my studies in Theology at St. Paul's University, Kenya. Your work finding relevance in Kenya is a testimony of your value to the world. You have fought a good fight, you have won the race.

      To Gloria and other family members, Shalom!

      Douglas T. Ncebere

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  37. To all of Ada's family and extended family of friends, my deepest solidarity in this hard, hard time. It was too fast, too soon, and I am struggling to process the news.

    To Gloria and Ada's wonderful family-- you must know that she spoke of you all the time. That we knew of each of you, of the sobrinos, of your achievements and your lives. She was so connected to you, so proud of you-- you were so much the sustenance of her life. Thank you for sharing these final days with us, and for your loving presence and accompaniment with Ada.

    Ada was a mentor to me, who reached out to me to be part of a collaborative effort on women's economic literacy in the late 1980's, and hired me to be part of Church Women United. Together we'd grieve the loss of another great sister, Sr.Margie Tuite, and sing "Oh Margie don't you weep, don't you moan," when things got rough. She was working on her Mujerista dissertation, rising before dawn to write chapters and then putting in a full day at work. She invested in me, seeing something in me that she helped to birth. Over the years we have been neighbors, sharing pieces of our lives. She told her story to my son for a school project. Recently we compared notes for an article she was writing on migration. We had the privilege of having her lead bible study at the United Methodist Women National Seminar last August. And I broke bread with her in her home last summer and heard the wonderful story of her journey, with nephews, on el Camino-- one of the great achievements of her life! Most recently I was incensed when a Catholic university banned her from speaking because she had participated in her nephew's gay wedding-- and she said such attacks were a badge of honor.

    I will so deeply miss Ada-- this wonderful soul who combined a deep commitment to justice, to feminism, to racial justice and deep theological insights with a wonderful sense of humor and very personal relationships. She knew and cared about each one of us-- about our families and our lives. She was feisty and rebellious and powerful and loving.

    Gloria, please let me know how I can help in plans for a New York memorial. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all this week in Miami as you say good-bye.

    Ada Maria, presente!

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  39. I thanks the Divinity for the passionate life of Ada María. She was a truly Caribbean Yemayá! Now she became for us another spiritual ancestor! Ibaé Ada María! You as our main Ancestors Jesus the Christ and la Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, live in our memories and hearts!

    Héctor E. López Sierra, Ph.D.

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