Sallie B. King

What memories stand out from the Peace Council's trip to Chiapas? Barefoot children. Women cradling babies in over-shoulder slings. Rain and mud. Army roadblocks. Unforgettable lessons of hope, faith and courage.

Sallie King (Valley Friends Meeting, Harrisonburg, VA) and Joe Elder (Madison, WI Friends Meeting) traveled in October-November 1998 to Chiapas, Mexico with the Peace Council. The Peace Council is an international, interfaith organization formed after the World's Parliament of Religions meeting in 1993. The Peace Council is a non-government organization (NGO) that gives an interfaith response to specific problems at the invitation of one of its Peace Councilors.

Much like Friends' organizations, it brings a diverse, but nevertheless focused, spirituality to bear on practical issues. It is an experiment on an international, interfaith basis to "Let Us See What Love Can Do." The Peace Council has been and is involved in the international movement to ban landmines, the Home of Peace and Love for women and children in Bangkok, the effort to build communication between North and South Korea, the effort to build peace in the Middle East and the struggle of the indigenous people in Chiapas, Mexico, to give a few examples.

Elise Boulding, one of the Peace Councilors, was part of the first Peace Council visit to Chiapas, and published an article in Friends Journal (June, 1997) giving detailed background of the situation in Chiapas and describing the Peace Council's visit. Elise Boulding was unable to make the journey this time, but the present author, who (along with Joe Elder and a half-dozen others of all religions) is a Trustee of the Peace Council, was able to go and has provided this account, picking up the thread of the Chiapas story from the time of the first visit until now.

Much of the current struggle in Chiapas can be understood as a response to the work of the Peace Councilor, Bishop Ruiz. He began his term as bishop as a conservative supporter of the Church establishment, campaigning against what he perceived as the threat of communist infiltration in Chiapas. But in the course of visiting all the communities in his diocese on muleback, seeing their entrenched poverty, their stark suffering, and the apparently immovable institutions that kept them there, he changed. As he often says, "the people converted me." He visited a village "where all the children had come down with measles and diarrhea and died. 'It's the will of God,' grieving mothers and fathers had told him, angering him."¹ But what else could they say? It had been so for hundreds of years.

Vatican II and his close relationship with the poor helped give Bishop Ruiz a language and a direction: liberation theology and the option for the poor. Bishop Ruiz began to discover with the indigenous people that poverty and oppression are not the will of God, they are injustice; it is the will of God that the people be freed of misery and oppression. At that time, the "conscientization" of the indigenous people of Chiapas began: they began to throw off their mental and spiritual oppression. Struggle against political, economic and social oppression had to follow.

We saw striking evidence of this conscientization in the talks given to us by the indigenous people of Chiapas. As one man said, "The root of our organization is the word of God. Our work for human rights for our people surges up from this source." The words of many others echoed this view. "The word of God moved the hearts of many to work for justice. And the Spirit of God has opened the door to find answers to many problems. It has become a struggle to have the autonomy of the indigenous people recognized," said one. Another said, "As indigenous, our struggle is rooted in the word of God. We feel a lot of pain in our hearts, but we will not stop struggling." And another, "In the 1960s the word of God first came to our communities. Now we see that the big brother is the word of God, and the little brother is the community, and they work together."

And another, "Every Sunday, all Catholics gather and reflect on the word of God. This is what unites us, beyond the differences of our organizations. That maintains our strength and makes us continue without ceasing." And finally, "Our commitment springs from our faith. The strength of God gives us strength. Every day we pray to God that the Kingdom of God will come here. We know that God wants us to live well and be happy."² This is a deeply spiritual struggle. It powerfully demonstrates the unity of religious faith and human rights work.

The Peace Council met in Chiapas for the second time from October 30 through November 3, 1998. The agenda included celebrating the opening of Bishop Ruiz's Jubilee Year as Bishop of Chiapas (i.e., his final year, as he was required to retire the following year) and seeking ways to support the indigeous people in a time of great suffering and oppression. We heard from many delegations of indigenous villages, from church groups and from NGOs and human rights groups working in the area.

We visited two villages of indigenous people, and on the last day held a press conference and celebrated the Bishop's birthday and the opening of the Jubilee Year with a joyous interfaith service in the beautiful cathedral of San Cristobal. No doubt for all of us, the core of the visit was our visit to Acteal, a visit in which the Spirit unmistakably spoke to us in the voices, faces and stories of the indigenous people.