Jose "Chencho" Alas, Founder of the FSSCA, has been the subject of various articles and reports because of his work on behalf of the poor in El Salvador. Here are just two examples from books on El Salvador.

Witness to War An American Doctor in El Salvador, by Charles Clements, M.D. Bantam Books, July 1984, pp 99-101

"From the late 1960's through the mid-1970's, Copapayo came under the influence of Father Jose Alas, a Catholic priest who introduced liberation theology to parishes in much of north and northeast Guazapa. Along with Father Rutilio Grande, since murdered by uniformed assassins, Alas awakened the campesinos to the power of unity and the possibility of this-world relief from their suffering.

"His ministry provoked retaliation: Alas was repeatedly threatened by the death squads and was once beaten nearly to death. In 1977, he was finally driven from the region, but his teachings and the example of his courage left their mark on the people. Copapayo remained a spiritual legacy of the Christian base communities he founded. . . .

"There was no revolutionary rhetoric heard at Fredrico's table (This family's commitment to the revolution was total.). Rather there were stories. He told me how proud he was the time Father Alas had asked his opinion on some question. No one except another campesino had ever asked Fredrico's view on anything. He recalled how in 1969 the National Guard had surrounded the church in Suchitoto, demanding that Alas leave town. Peasants from all the surrounding base communities converged on Suchitoto, shouting for the soldiers, not the priest, to go away. **

"To Father Alas, my most welcome recollection was of Fredrico saying the priest armed the people of Copapayo with courage, not weapons. The guns came after Alas was driven away. His legacy was the campesinos' dignity and self-esteem."

The Hour of the Poor, The Hour of Women - Salvadoran Women Speak by Renny Golden, The Crossroads Publishing Company, 1991.

"That year, when a conference was held on land reform, the archdiocese of San Salvador (then under the the leadership of a moderate, Archbishop Luis Chavez Gonzales) sent a young priest to present the church's position. Father Jose Inocencio Alas, one of the first priests to work with Base Christian community groups in Suchitoto, delivered a talk that affirmed land reform as a moral imperative and requirement of justice.

"In the oligarchy's mind, land reform was blasphemy and communist inspired. Father Alas was abducted as he walked to the parking lot after his talk. He was stripped, tortured, drugged, and (only because of an international outcry) abandoned still alive on a mountain outside the city. *

In June 1970, two hundred clergy and lay people met for a Pastoral Week and declared that Alas and his campesino pastoral team would no longer stand alone. The church, too long afraid or protective of its privileges, would support the formation of base communities (cumunidades de base) and would support the campesinos' struggle to unionize." (Page 30)

"The peasants of Suchitoto answered when Padre Alas brought the message of Medellin to his parish of forty-five thousand in 1969. Alas describes a training session for peasant leaders who then formed Bible reflection groups. All the groups gathered in a closing plenary session for common sharing. To break the customary sacerdotal privilege and affirm the emerging authority of the peasants, Alas was not the liturgical officiator. Instead, the community elected a secretary who presided. The people's authority was authenticated in the comunidad and established the basis for new organizational forms that were radically democratic.

Alas describes an early reflection of the children of the communities, a force that pulled their parents deeper and deeper toward communal solidarity:

The children, who were always present, came and said to me, 'We have also studied the text of the Bible, and we think that here in our village, it's not like it was in the first Christian communities. . .' I asked them why: 'Because our parents continue fighting over their things, my mother says the chickens are hers, and my father says the cows are his; all this means that they don't own things collectively. We would like . . .to put things together, own them collectively, and we would help [our parents] with it, too.'"

*This incident of the beating and drugging is also discussed in:

1. Weakness and Deceit - U.S. Policy and El Salvador by Raymond Bonner, Times Book, 1984, page 66n.
2. Cry of the People - The Struggle for Human Rights in Latin America - The Catholic Church in Conflict with U.S. Policy by Penny Lernoux, Penguin Books, 1982, p. 65.
3. El Salvador The Face of Revolution by Robert Armstrong and Janet Shenk, South End Press, 1982, page 61.

Incident of the peasants causing the army to leave was also reported in:

El Salvador The Face of Revolution by Robert Armstrong and Janet Shenk, South End Press, 1982, page 78-79.