This past Holy Week, during Semana Santa in Spain, I watched processions of men, women, and children moving silently through the streets beneath the steady pulse of drums, their faces hidden beneath capirotes. As an American, the sight was deeply unsettling. Too close to the symbols of white supremacy. It was odd to see so many people - and people of color - celebrating them. I later learned that the pointed hoods symbolize humility before God, long predating their appropriation by white Christian nationalists.. The dissonance only deepened as a Palestinian protest charged onto the stage directly across from penitents posed in solemn grief for cameras, only to smile and laugh the moment the shutters stopped clicking. 

It’s hard to untangle a deep-seated symbol’s meaning from your brain, and more difficult to make room for another interpretation. I know this tradition is not about what the symbol represents in the U.S., but I can’t entirely erase the meaning I’ve always known, nor do I think that it should. I understand the world doesn't revolve around my perspective.