Chencho hears the confession of a young girl in Suchitoto
in the early 70s. Photo by Cornell Capa.
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Jose "Chencho" Alas
was born in Chalatenango, El Salvador in 1934.
Following study of theology
and philosophy in El Salvador, Canada, Rome, and Belgium,
he began working as a priest in his native country in 1961.
While working in the Mejicanos slum of San Salvador, he founded
the Cursillos de Cristiandad movement in El Salvador.
"Cursillos is
an international movement within the Catholic Church. In El
Salvador, as in the rest of Latin America, most of the participants
are wealthy. For these six years I worked closely with the
very rich of El Salvador. This exposed me to their life style,
their economic and political power, and the use that they
make of religion."
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In 1968, he became parish
priest of Suchitoto.
"I am known in El Salvador
and elsewhere due to my work in Suchitoto, a parish of 45,000
peasants living in poor and isolated villages. Here, I was
the founder of the first Christian Base Communities of El
Salvador."
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Chencho's agricultural school in Suchitoto, 1970s.
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| The Christian Base Communities
grew out of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in 1965
and the Medellin Conference of Latin American Bishops in 1968.
For the first time, the Catholic Church began actively engaging
the common people, encouraging them to read the Bible and apply
it to their lives. As they grew in their understanding of the
scripture, many found that the injustices that they regularly
suffered contradicted the Bible's message. |
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Chencho speaking to a gathering in Suchitoto in the early
70s. Photo by Cornell Capa
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"In 1969, Father Jose Inocencio
Alas had been giving two months of intensive training to a group
of nineteen peasant leaders of the area of Suchitoto, following
the lines of the recently published Medellin documents. The peasants
decided to apply what they were studying to a concrete local case
involving what they saw as injustices practiced by landholders
who were buying and reselling land. When the peasants organized
a demonstration, the case became national news and Alas was denounced
by representatives in the assembly and in the newspapers. Twice
Suchitoto was occupied by troops under the command of General
Medrano, the founder of ORDEN and President Sanchez Hernandez
himself even showed up at the occupation."
-----(Berryman, Religious Roots of Rebellion, p101).
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El Salvador in the late 60s
and early 70s was coming to a boiling point. A totalitarian
government used the military and US support to maintain the
wealth and privilege of a small clique while keeping hundreds
of thousands of Salvadorans in extreme poverty. As discontentment
with the status quo grew, the ruling oligarchs resorted more
and more to violence to maintain their power at any cost.
Alas's work to bring dignity
and justice to the lives of the poor did not go unpunished.
On January 8th, 1970 he was kidnapped, drugged, stripped naked,
and left for dead on a mountain top. Fortunately, he survived.
Despite continuing death threats and attacks, he continued
his pastoral mission in Suchitoto.
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Boys living in the Mejicanos slum. Photo by Cornell Capa.
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Fr. Higinio Alas, Chencho's brother, holding the death
threat that they received from the White Guard in 1977.
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By
1977, the threats against Alas had increased along with repression
throughout the country. On March 12th, unidentified assassins
killed Father Rutilio Grande. A few days before, at the request
of Monsignor Oscar Romero, Chencho and his brother Higinio -
another "rebel" priest - had gone into hiding. On
May 25th they began their exile which would last for 15 years. |
Three years later, the assassination
of Archbishop Romero on March 24th, 1980, demonstrated to El Salvador
and the world that the powerful of that country would not open the
door to peace and justice. A 12-year civil war began that left an
estimated 80,000 dead and hundreds of thousands in exile.
| During the 80s, Chencho continued
working on behalf of the poor of Central America through a variety
of different institutions, including the Inter American Development
Bank and Capp Street Foundation. His tireless work led Peace
Abbey to award him the Courage of Conscience Award in 1991 (other
recipients include Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama). |
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Chencho in Nicaragua, 1980s.
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The signing of the Peace Accords
in 1992 brought an end to El Salvador's civil war. Chencho returned
to El Salvador to help found ITAMA, the Institute of Technology,
Environment, and Self-Sufficiency. As that organization's international
representative, he relocated to the United States to facilitate
fundraising in this country. In 1996, in order to better work for
social justice and economic development, he helped to found the
Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America as an independent
US-based non-profit.
A Coordinadora Salt Project in the Bajo Lempa, 1998.
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In 2000, the Tanenbaum Center
for Interreligious Understanding awarded Alas its Peace Activist
Award "in recognition of his dedication to human rights,
and notably for his efforts to preserve peace in El Salvador
during the violent aftermath of its civil war."
Chencho's work continues today,
perhaps with more urgency than ever. In many respects, the
social and economic conditions in El Salvador are worse today
than during the civil war.
"Something has to be
done. We cannot fold our arms and hope that these problems
resolve themselves. Everyone can contribute, either a little
or a lot, but definitely something, towards the creation of
humane living conditions. In my case, I believe that my duty
is to accompany the Coordinadora del Bajo Lempa in their Local
Zone of Peace Project."
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