Beyond Jovieliz Vega’s High-heels: The Voice of a Powerful Church Leader

[Editor’s Note: This post is the fourth and final installation in our weekly Black History Month series, which have appeared on Thursdays in February in addition to our normal Tuesday and Saturday blogs.]

In the context of Black History Month, we want to talk about the experiences of African-descendant Latinas. This time we want to highlight Jovieliz Vega, a 37-year-old Puerto Rican woman who is currently a pastor in her church. We had the opportunity to interview Jovieliz and learn about her experience as a leader of her church. Her testimony is incredibly inspiring. It shows the power of representation and the constant challenges black women face in their spiritual journeys and in pursuing their call for ministry. Most importantly, Jovieliz reminds us of how freedom and faith coexist in a patriarchal world where more often than not, women’s opinions are left aside. She gives us a message of perseverance and love through her own relation with God and the scriptures. This is a message that every woman who believes in Christ should hear.  

Jovieliz was raised in a matriarchal family of survivors of gender-based violence. She has dedicated her career to encourage and empower women to think freely by conducting annual workshops called “Beyond the High-Heels” (Más allá de los tacones). At the age of 13, she began writing hundreds of poems and she actually published some of them in her book Leerte (To read yourself) (2018). She is an educator, educational therapist and a pastor of a non-traditional church in Puerto Rico. Her setbacks within her religious community have inspired her second book Pastora y feminista (Pastor and feminist); which she is expecting to publish in 2021. 

Here is our short interview with Joveliz. We hope you enjoy it.  

***Interview in Spanish translated to English*** 

Q1.  What do you do within your church?  

J. I am a pastor of my church and leader of the women’s ministry “Beyond the high-heels.” That is our name because we are actively breaking the stereotypes of what people want to see in a woman inside of a Christian church. I’m also an educator in the church. 

Q2. Tell us about your experience as an Afro-descendant woman within your church? 

J. Being an Afro-descendant woman within my church has been quite bitter. But my experience started transforming just about four or five years ago, when I decided to challenge all that cultural baggage.  

Since I was very young, I was forced to straighten my hair because my mother was embarrassed of my afro. So, during my childhood, youth and great part of my adulthood, I was ashamed of my own hair. We also believed in the religious idea that women’s hair should be long almost to the floor. And for the most part, in Pentecostal religion that is still a mandate that takes out of context the scriptures. Therefore, I was constantly worried about my appearance because I wanted to meet the standards, which severely affected my self-esteem, because when I was not able to pay for the treatments to keep my hair straightened, I got frustrated and depressed. 

Q3. What are the obstacles that you have faced as a woman within your church? 

J. Growing up it was very hard because in the Pentecostal Church, when men see that a woman becomes as a leader and that God gives her the tools to established her leadership, they always rise against that. They take out of context the word of God. Like when Apostol Paul talks in Corinthians 1, 14. He is talking about other religions getting involved in Christianity, but the men of the church take those words to call out and reject women’s leadership within the church.  

Sadly, I have met a male pastor who is against my leadership in the church. He has mistreated me and used the altar to publicly criticize my work. He has also yelled at me in front of others and punched his desk so that people could hear him. So, the moment came when I didn’t fear him or respect him anymore. I could not stay quiet so we would end up having big arguments. 

Also, they would not let me lead the ministry by myself. So I had to do it with my partner, who is now my husband and a pastor of the church. 

I had a very unpleasant experience with another man of the church. He once touched my breast and although I wanted to press charges, the teachings of the church say that we cannot take our brothers to court and that any problems should be resolved within the church. Time went by and nothing happened. The sad thing is that they do that also misusing the scriptures to make everything work the way they want it and to their own benefit of course. This has hurt many lives and it lacerated my own life and mind at that moment. 

Q4. What message would you give to women who go through similar challenges in their churches? 

J. What I can tell you is that even after all that happened to me, I knew I had a mission. Both my husband and I knew it. I had a call for ministry and I was sure about it. Those challenges lead us to find a way to challenge all that. So, we decided to take our church to the streets! We had to be critical because we know that if we continued to lead with traditional religious teachings it was going to be another disaster. So we asked ourselves what kind of church would truly represent and carry the message of Jesus? Then we realized that Jesus was moved by love, and we see a Jesus that constantly attacks religious leaders but also shows love to everyone.  

So, what I have to tell women that are going through a similar situation than mine is that we will always face difficulties, but we must hold still to that divine essence that is within us. Because, for those of us who believe that we were created by God, we know that His essence lives within us. And I understood this, and it helped me to empower myself. I think I took all those negative experiences and use them as tools to empower myself. And thank God I am not alone in this process, but I know there are many women who are. So, let us leave behind all those false teachings that churches have used for so long. Those that display a God that wants us women humiliated; one that rejects us. That is a fantasy of God, not the real God! the God that wants to control your life, that is the God I was told to believe in. But when I realized that God was not like that, I was called to tell other women about it. Women who realized this, should teach other women as well.  

Do not let them tell you what to do or who you are. I discovered that being a Christian woman was far from being a follower of men’s rules, and that Jesus’ love for me is unconditional. His love was not contingent on my mistakes or what people think about me. Jesus’ love is not subjected to what people say I must be. I am already loved and have a divine essence within me just like all of you. I understood that my mission was beyond the four walls of my church, and I think that is the mission of all women. We cannot lock ourselves; we cannot forget who we are. And when we discover that we must transmit it to other women so that they get out of those walls that want to lock their minds, emotions, ideals. Do not let anyone lock who you are within four walls. That is not our mission, that is not our purpose! 

We encourage you to learn more about Jovieliz and her work by reading her Op-ed Fuera de Manual (Out of manual) in Feminopraxis. You will find her amazing poetry and other writings in Spanish. You can also listen to her podcast El Placer de Escribir (The pleasure of writing) on Spotify.