The project was called, Spiritual and Struggle, and it started because a woman from Chicago's west side, Mabel Manning, was found dead in a ditch in the summer of 1990. Ed had worked with Mabel for 3 years, organizing against the building of a Bears' Football Stadium. The stadium, if had been built, would have displaced hundreds of people from their west side community. Mabel was probably murdered because of her involvement in the struggle, but no one was ever accused of this crime because there were no witnesses, and Mabel was just a poor Black, elderly, woman living in a poor neighborhood.

Although Ed had to help identify Mabel's body at the County morgue, he never believed that the person he identified was Mabel. Ridiculous as it may sound, Mabel used to say that she came to this country on a slave ship in the early 1600's. If something of that was remotely true, was it possible that her spirit still lived in other people who were involved in struggles against oppression. Did the struggle actually transform people, and through this transformation, did they become better people?

Ed found some believers in this project. They agreed to fund his trip to South Africa and Central America in support of his quest to see if Mabel was alive in other parts of the world where people were struggling for justice. In the summer of 1993 Ed went to talk to Juancho about this project. He told Juancho about Mabel and about the connection between struggle and spirituality. On that Friday afternoon in August, Juancho joined the project. Ed did the first group of interviews in South Africa by himself, talking to people about their struggles against apartheid. Ed and Juancho then journeyed together to Central America.

THE PROJECT: SPIRITUALITY AND STRUGGLE OR ORGANIZNG HOPE

The purpose of the project was to talk to people in South Africa and Central America about their experiences in the struggle against oppression. In each interview there were 4 questions asked:

1. How did you get involved in the struggle?
2. When the struggle was the most difficult, where did you get strength to continue?
3. How do you celebrate?
4. Are we going to win the struggle?

Each interview began with the story of Mabel. The story of Mabel was the story of a struggle that began when slaves from Africa first set foot on American soil. It was Mabel's story, but it was every struggler's story.

RESULTS OF THE PROJECT

The title for the project began because Ed recognized the connection between spirituality and struggle. He recognized something very special in Mabel Manning, a woman who had been struggling all of her life, struggling against racism and sexism and against the "haves." Mabel had a quality that somehow carried her above the struggle. She never seemed to be too tired or worn out by the struggle. Rather, Mabel seemed to rise above the struggle. She never lost sight of what the struggle was all about. It was a struggle to be recognized as a human being, not as a piece of property that could be bought and sold for a price. By joining in the struggle, each person stepped forward and said they were worthwhile. Hope for a better life propelled them to join the struggle. The struggle produced and expressed hope. Mabel's life from the 1600's to the present is a story of hope.

The stories from South Africa and Central America are stories of Hope. What Juancho and Ed learned in their travels is that Hope is what organizing is all about. Hope is the spirit that propels people to act. In U.S. schools of organizing, the emphasis in organizer training is on "power". Power is defined by organizers as "the ability to act." Hope is the motivator that moved people to action. Each action is an expression of hope.

Power is necessary for change, but the people that were interviewed never talked about power and the need for power. They talked about their hope. Their vision was much larger. They hoped for a better world for everyone, not just a bigger share of the pie for a small constituency.

When Juancho and Ed returned to Chicago to continue their work at the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless they had learned an important lesson. Actually, if truth be told, Juancho learned the lesson before Ed. Ed was on a mission to find Mabel, to see if there was a spirit of struggle and if somehow people involved in struggles were changed by the struggle. He had seen something special in Mabel, and he wanted to understand Mabel's secret. He wanted to discover how Mabel rose above her struggles, to find out how she was able to overcome the struggle.

Juancho and Ed returned to Chicago and Juancho began to talk about organizing hope. He used to say that the only thing that poor people had was hope so therefore the Coalition for the Homeless needed to organize hope. Juancho understood this from hearing about Mabel and from hearing the stories of other Mabels in other countries.

It wasn't until Juancho died that Ed began to understand what Juancho meant by "organizing hope." You see, the struggle is a struggle for or against life. In life one has to take a side. Are you going to struggle so that everyone might have life? If you are going to get involved in this struggle, then you need hope, because hope is the only motivator that can provide the energy and drive to win this struggle.

Mabel knew hope. Juancho knew Mabel because he knew hope. The Coalition for the Homeless organizes hope because hope is all that homeless people have. Ed is beginning to understand this lesson. Maybe Juancho and Mabel want everyone who is involved in struggles to understand what the struggle is all about. It doesn't matter if you are struggling in Chicago, South Africa or Central America. The struggle is the same everywhere. There really is only one struggle. There really is only one spirit that motivates that struggle. It is hope.

Juancho was a trusted friend and advisor to the Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America. He served as our board secretary for many years, and played an important role in the Culture, Spirituality, and Theology of Peace Project.

Juancho passed away November 17th, 2003. He is survived by his wife of 24 years, Icela, and their five children, Belen, Maricela, Lisa, Daniel, and Megan.

Hope, as Ed Shurna notes above, was an important theme in Juancho's life. He is quoted in Studs Terkel's Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Troubled Times (October 2003) "Some people who are better off have the luxury of losing hope. But poor people never lose hope. They can't afford to. That's the only thing they can hold on to, and that's where hope springs eternal. Some people say, 'How can you continue to work with the homeless and the poor?' That's where I get my energy because they never lose hope…"

"I'm not practicing as a priest, but my ministry, remember, is organizing. My job is organizing hope. There are people in the community who still have hope. That's the last thing they lose. I'm organizing hope for change."