Olivia Russo
Editor-in-Chief
Elaine Padilla shared her research, titled “Being/Not: A Decolonial Option for Authentically Becoming Human,” which covers four different philosophical theories in relation to how humans see themselves and their reality, to an audience of about 30.
Padilla, professor and chair of philosophy and religion and Latin American studies, spoke Wednesday in the Hanawalt House as a part of the Socrates’ Cafe series.
“This is a project that has taken me about 10 years to complete,” Padilla said. “So it has all these layers, it feels segmented in other ways because when you write and stop and write again, you are getting all these new ideas.”
Padilla explained that her research follows the theories of Walter Mignolo, semiotician and professor at Duke University, as a way to explain the colonization that comes with Western Christianity and philosophical theories. She also uses various visual pieces in her research to relate the theories to something, explaining that it helped her understand the theories more than if she were just writing them herself.
“I bring aesthetics because I see things in images, I think in images,” Padilla said. “I can read theory, and I can understand it, but somehow it takes me back to the literary.”
The research presentation was split into four parts, for the four different theories that Padilla chose to research, including: decolonial theory, liberation theology, apophatic theory and feminist theory. She then tied these theories to the concepts brought from Mignolo as well as literature, plays, paintings and journal entries.
Padilla started by sharing some of the history of colonization in relation to philosophy. She explains that the transportation of African people is what began the creation of the colonial wound, as well as the feelings of inferiority and superiority.
This type of thinking directly leads to the entrapment of the colonial lens, which takes the framework of darkness and light, representing both negative and positive attributes, respectively. Padilla then compared this to Plato’s allegory of the cave.
“You’re going to see that the whole of the model is describing the case,” Padilla said. “We are all within the cave. Nobody happens to be outside of the cave. There is no outside of the cave.”
Padilla compared the cave analogy to thinking in Western culture, and how everyone is within the darkness of Western culture. From there, Padilla explained how each of the suggested theories showcase themselves in the case of being human versus not being.
She said that to Liberation thinkers, God can sometimes identify with humanity and what humanity does, so much so that God can become nonexistent. With this line of thinking, God darkens to deeper levels and can actually transcend into the colonial wound and make an impact on the universe.
This relates to the concept of Being/Not, which functions as a boundary line that can be used for emergence within the wound. Padilla then explains that some may have a hard time understanding because of the Western perspective. Instead of the philosophers she is suggesting, Western culture commonly thinks there is an outside of the cave and that there is a need to escape. In reality, there is no need to escape but to create a better world inside the cave.
“So the challenge is how to do that when you are also experiencing injustices,” Padilla said. “We’re experiencing the burden of being human. We would like to be the divine, but we are just humans.”
At the end, the room was opened up for questions and comments about Padilla’s research. Shannon Mathews, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, took the time to offer some well-wishes to the students in the room.
“I want to point out that as an intellectual, you’re constantly growing and the material you’re engaging as you evolve is influencing you also…” Mathews said. “You may be entrenched in one discipline, but learning across the liberal arts creates opportunities.”
Some other staff took the time to comment on some of the points brought up in the research, like the relationship between religion and voodoo.
“Voodoo is such an interesting example for religious syncretism in particular,” Lauren Crossland-Marr, assistant professor of anthropology, said. “The Virgin Mary has completely different symbols that get brought up this way.”
Another guest at the lecture, Jay Jones, emeritus professor of biology, connected the content of the lecture to Earth Day.
“The idea of our behavior and our economics and environmental impact on the world as a whole,” Jones said. “Those of you who have traveled to other parts of the world see the very clear impact that we end.”
Olivia Russo can be reached olivia.russo@laverne.edu.
Olivia Russo is a senior journalism major with a concentration in print/online journalism and a minor in criminology. She is the Editor-in-Chief for the Campus Times for Spring 2026. She has previously served as the News Editor, LV Life Editor, a photographer and a staff writer for the Campus Times, as well as a staff writer and photographer for La Verne Magazine.
