Project Summary

This project, executed by the Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America, seeks to strengthen peace building in Meso- and North America by reinforcing, broadening and connecting the principles and values for peace present in the traditions, spirituality, and theology of the region's different peoples.

Guatemalan delegates participating in a peace workshop in Ciudad Romero, El Salvador.

This project will produce a regional network of peacemakers, a manual to be used by grassroots associations of Mesoamerica, and leadership development for participants to facilitate their work promoting the principles, values, and praxis of peace. The process will generate ideas, understandings, insights, language and methodology which will strengthen and sustain both peace building projects in the different regions, and a new theological orientation which can be taken up across the different religions/spiritual traditions. At the end, the project will produce a corps of peacemakers practicing the Theology of Peace in their work for justice and solidarity.

Peace Workshops, October - December 2002

Eusebio Ortiz, a Salvadoran farmer and grassroots leader, explains the spiritual and religious elements of the earth and ecology.

Beginning in October 2002, FSSCA Executive Director José "Chencho" Alas began conducting workshops in Mesoamerican and the United States to introduce participants to the Culture, Spirituality, and Theology of Peace, to initiate discussion of the themes of Earth and Ecology, and to prepare participants for participation in the January 2003 Peace Conference in Guatemala.

Workshop participants included grassroots peace activists, non-profit staff, academics, and clergy from the eight following countries:

*Please note that US participants outnumber any other country in the workshops because of strong preexisting interest in the United States and because the FSSCA has identified US workshops as a donor-cultivation activity.

The workshops produced better results than had been anticipated. Not only did participants see a clear connection between their faith, spirituality, or culture with the earth and ecology, but they were also able to associate them with their life, work, and environment.

Participants in the New York peace workshop, Ilana and Naomi, with Chencho Alas.

Jewish participants presented their religious principals of tikkun olam and seddakah, Mayas from Guatemala shared their spirituality through experiences and rituals associated with the earth and agriculture, Nicaraguan participants contributed the Miskito legend The Invisible Hunters (which was immediately incorporated into all the workshops that followed), and participants from many Central American countries shared their concern that Plan Puebla-Panama and free trade agreements currently under negotiation could have a serious and negative impact on the earth and ecology. In every group, participants identified the need for themselves and their own people to live more in accord with their principles and values.

See also the full workshop report for details on the results of the workshops in Mesoamerica.

Peace Conference, January 26-29, 2003

The Peace Conference in Guatemala City gathered, united, and distilled the energy and experiences of the workshops into a more concrete product. It represented the collaboration of diverse peoples, creating a South-North dialog across the boundaries of 13 countries. Mayas, Christians, and Jews contributed from a variety of different backgrounds, including peasants, professionals, and clergy.

The Peace Conference opened with a Mayan ceremony. Photo by David Telleen-Lawton.

Participant Nationalities

Participant Religions & Spiritual Affiliations

Participant Occupations

Participant Ages

Participant Genders

The fruits of the conference can be summarized as knowledge, solidarity, and responsibility. In the experiences of organizations like Esperanza Cooperative (Panama) and in Mayan spirituality, participants found models that would allow them to better live and promote local values that protect the earth and ecology. By interacting with and listening to the diversity of voices - including peasant farmers, indigenous people, professionals, NGO staff, and Bishop Barahona, Episcopal Primate for Central America - participants drew strength from each other to face challenges.

Antonio Amaya, a grassroots leader from El Salvador, shares his hidden talent: singing. In the evenings after the day's conference business has been done, Don Antonio sang about his community's exodus during El Salvador's civil war, its exile in Panama, and its return shortly before the signing of the peace accords in 1992. Photo by Richard Salem.

Buoyed by their new knowledge and sense of solidarity, many participants committed themselves to increase their efforts as peacemakers and apply what they had learned to their own work in their communities.

Immediately following the closing ceremony, the leadership of the peasant-run network of 400 community stores, Red COMAL, met independently to discuss the results of the conference. Trinidad Sanchez, the peasant-born Executive Director, related that the organization intends to systematically apply principles and values for the earth and ecology to their work and training. The participating rabbis have pledged to increase their time and financial commitment to the project, that a rabbi will participate in all future workshops in Mesoamerica, and they will bring representatives from Mesoamerica to their synagogues in the United States to share their experiences. Participants from Guatemala are already making plans to hold additional workshops for other communities and organizations.

Jacinto Peña (Panama) and Jaime Zapata (Nicaragua) preparing their presentation on how organizations firmly based in principles and values are more successful in their work and in using the earth and enviroment. Photo by Richard Salem.

Upcoming Activities

At the request of participants, a peace workshop will be held in the Petén, Guatemala in February to include more people in the process.

In June 2003, the FSSCA will hold a Peace Institute in Ciudad Romero, El Salvador, as the capstone activity for the theme of earth and ecology. Fifteen participants will receive training in holding peace workshops, address the question of strengthening local principles and values for peace, and begin the analysis and documentation necessary for writing the first chapter of the Culture, Spirituality, and Theology of Peace Manual for Grassroots Peacemakers.

In Fall 2003, FSSCA Executive Director José "Chencho" Alas will begin holding new peace workshops in Mesoamerican and the United States, this time focused on the theme of the Self and the Other. These workshops will lay the groundwork for a peace conference and institute on the same theme.

Episcopal delegates from California, El Salvador, and Guatemala, including Bishop Martín Barahona, the head of the Episcopal Church for Central America. Photo by David Telleen-Lawton.

Financial Support and Costs

These activities were made possible through the financial support of the JM Kaplan Fund, the Shefa Fund, the Foundation for Self-Sufficiency, and two private donors.