Adolfo Perez Esquivel
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Buenos Aires, November 26, 1931) is an Argentine activist, teacher, sculptor and painter, noted as a defender of human rights and the right to free self-determination of peoples., defender of the resistance proponent of liberation theology.
In 1980 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to the defense of Democracy and Human Rights by non-violent means against the military dictatorships in Latin America. In his acceptance speech, he told the world that he did not assume it in a personal capacity, but "in the name of the peoples of Latin America, and in a very particular way of my brothers, the poorest and smallest, because they are the most loved Oh my God; In their name, my indigenous brothers, the peasants, the workers, the youth, the thousands of religious and men of good will who, renouncing their privileges, share the life and path of the poor and fight to build a new society”.
He was president of the Honorary Council of the Latin American Peace and Justice Service, executive president of the Argentine Peace and Justice Service, of the Provincial Commission for the Memory of Buenos Aires, of the International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples, from the International Academy of Environmental Sciences, from the Fundación Universitat Internacional de la Pau de San Cugat del Vallés (Barcelona, Spain), and from the Academic Council of the University of Namur, Belgium. He is also a member of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, of the Honorary Committee of the International Coordination for the Decade of Nonviolence and Peace, of the International Jury of the Nuremberg Human Rights Prize, of the Jury of the Prize for the Promotion of Peace “Felix Houphouet Boigny” of UNESCO, of the international education program "Peacejam", of the World Council of the José Martí Project of World Solidarity, of the Advisory Council of Canal Telesur and of the Board of Directors of the Space for Memory Institute (IEM) and currently teaches a seminar on Peace at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the UBA.
Biography
Childhood and youth
He was born on November 26, 1931 in Defensa and Humberto Primo, in the heart of the San Telmo neighborhood of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. His father, Cándido Pérez González, born on September 30, 1877, was a Spanish immigrant who worked as a fisherman in Combarro, province of Pontevedra, so like many Argentines, he has Galician ancestry. Adolfo will have stated that: his mother He was of Basque origin.
"My father always spoke of Galicia, of Pontevedra. I knew he was from a small place of Pontevedra, and he had been a sailor, but he was always a fairly reserved man and I had few references about this part of the family. My father, despite living there, had his heart and mind here. Over the years I began to remember that we were always going to a bar there, in Argentina, which had a painting... a painting he said over and over again: "That's Combarro". On the other hand, this search is the result of the conviction that we all have to return to our origins"
Unable to keep the family together, his father decided to find placement for his four children. A good part of her childhood was spent as a pupil in the Spanish School Board (Buenos Aires city) after her father returned to Spain. It was at that moment that she began her love for sculpture and also there she learned to carve wood. She likewise lived for a time with her grandmother Eugenia de ella, who spoke Guarani but hardly any Spanish, in Haedo, Province of Buenos Aires. From her he learned a lot about the history and tradition of the native peoples of America. She then reunited with her family and they all went to live in a house in the San Telmo neighborhood where she completed the fundamental section of her primary education with the Franciscans, in the school that the order ran in the Buenos aires city.
Esquivel comments that over time he began to understand his religious formation in a new way: "I had to do a whole rereading of the Gospel, rediscovering the spiritual dimension through readings and conversations. But we cannot live our faith sectarianism, we have to share it".
Started working at age eleven:
"We were very poor, so I often slept without eating. Others, the boliche had to buy us a coffee with milk. To avoid sleeping with the empty belly, we had to work. I sold newspapers in the tram, then I was office cadet, gardening pawn, and later, I was dedicated to business installation projects until I was able to sell a little box."Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
He studied at the Manuel Belgrano National School of Fine Arts, which at the time was on Cerrito Street, near Retiro. School in which he later he would be a teacher.
The adolescent stage was particularly active in youth groups concerned with inserting their cultural inclination into reality. He himself remembers: "We tried to put on exhibitions, go to the neighborhoods, get the kids to participate. We did shows in factories and we tried to get the workers to begin to express themselves, to make their own works".
He met his wife, Amanda Guerreño, when he was 15, because he was a friend of his brother. Together they studied at the National University of La Plata, where she graduated as a professor of piano and composition and he as a painter and sculptor.
Regarding the social context, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel highlighted:
"...there was intense youth participation, and we tried to take advantage of what seemed better to us. What we didn't like also was said, but we weren't guided by an ideological question. We didn't have time because we worked all day and studied at night."Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Trajectory as an activist
In the 1960s, he began work with Latin American Christian grassroots organizations and movements. Later he participated as a leader in nonviolence movements and in 1973 he founded the newspaper & # 34; Paz y Justicia & # 34; to disseminate this philosophy and continue supporting the organization of grassroots groups with popular sectors.
The violence unleashed throughout the Ibero-American continent and the serious violations of human rights led him to assume commitments and responsibilities with other Christian groups and movements in other parts of the continent.
In 1974, in Medellín, Colombia, he was appointed general coordinator of the Peace and Justice Service for Latin America, made up of groups and movements that worked to achieve liberation through non-violent means. These groups, ecumenically made up of religious, secular, peasant, indigenous, popular sectors, grassroots organizations, and intellectuals, concerned about the situation in their countries, sought to articulate common actions and policies against violence and oppression, generating alternatives and responses within the increasingly restricted and repressed spaces of society. In most Ibero-American countries, military dictatorships were increasingly imposed and political crimes of kidnapping and forced disappearance of people were committed.
In 1975, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel was arrested and imprisoned by the Brazilian military police at the São Paulo airport, along with Dr. Hildegard Goss-Mayr, of the International Reconciliation Movement. He was imprisoned in 1976 in Ecuador along with Latin American and American bishops and religious.
With the military coup d'état of Jorge Rafael Videla in Argentina, in 1976, and with the subsequent systematic repression, he contributed to the formation and financing of links between popular organizations to defend Human Rights and support the relatives of the victims. victims of the dictatorship. The Peace and Justice Service, which he co-founded, evolved in this context and served as an instrument for the defense of human rights promoting an international campaign to denounce the atrocities committed by the Military Dictatorship. In 1975 he helped found the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights and the Ecumenical Movement for Human Rights. Later he collaborated in the constitution of human rights organizations of relatives of the victims of the repression such as Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, and Relatives of Detainees and Disappeared for Political Reasons.
In August 1977, he was arrested in Buenos Aires, in the Central Department of the Argentine Federal Police. He was imprisoned and tortured, without any judicial process having been filed, and was placed at the disposal of the Executive Branch. Later he would declare having survived a death flight. The violent repression, kidnappings and murders carried out by the dictatorships of Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, together with the actions of para-police and paramilitary groups, They generated a state of anguish and anxiety in the towns, as in other countries of the continent.
He remained in prison for 14 months and on probation for another 14 months. During her imprisonment, she received the John XXIII Peace Memorial, awarded by Pax Christi International, among other international recognitions. The Peace and Justice Service, among other organizations, was an organization for the support and defense of Human Rights, and developed a strong international campaign to denounce the atrocities of the military dictatorships on the continent and in the country. This activity results in the repression of the Peace and Justice Service, both in Argentina and in other countries.
In 1980, Esquivel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in defense of Human Rights in Latin America. Upon receiving this distinction, he declared that he did not receive it as a personal title but & # 34;… on behalf of the peoples of Latin America, and in a very particular way of my brothers, the poorest and smallest, because they are the most loved Oh my God; in their name, my indigenous brothers, the peasants, the workers, the youth, the thousands of religious and men of good will who, renouncing their privileges, share the life and path of the poor and fight to build a new society" . Esquivel has clearly expressed that his work is by no means individual, but that there are many unknown people who have been working for justice and freedom, in a collective way.
After the award, Esquivel toured all the Ibero-American countries afflicted by their dictatorships and continued his work in Argentina and various countries. His work continues to this day in defense of life, Education for Peace, Human Rights, peasants, the needy and the Latin American Peoples.
Currently, in addition to being President of the Honorary Council of the Latin American Peace and Justice Service and of the Provincial Commission for Memory, he is President of the International League for Human Rights and the Liberation of Peoples, based in Milan, Italy, and member of the Permanent Tribunal of the Peoples. He is a member of the Honorary Committee of the International Coordination for the Decade of Nonviolence and Peace. He is also honorary president of the Sant Cugat del Vallés International University of Peace Foundation (Barcelona). And since 2004, he has been part of the International Jury of the Nuremberg Human Rights Prize, which every two years awards an award to organizations or individuals who stand out in the promotion and defense of human rights in the world, even at the risk of their destruction. own life.
Thanks to his initiative, criminal proceedings were initiated against the Argentine military dictatorship in Italy, Spain and Germany. After the Law No. to the dictator Jorge Rafael Videla and other repressors in Argentina itself: "We have to strengthen the legal instances so that this never happens again. This trial in Córdoba is very emblematic. Argentina advanced perhaps more than any country at the international level. The Nuremberg trial was an ad hoc tribunal, not here. Here it is in operation, and that is what must be valued, it is Argentine justice through the rule of law".
Throughout his career, Adolfo has fasted several times to pray for peace and for help on various social issues.
In 2013, together with Natty Petrosino, he attended a meeting in front of more than 500 people, on the occasion of the first "Street Congress for Peace", in Mar de Plata.
In 2017, he accompanied a delegation of swimmers to the Malvinas Islands, together with the "Don't forget me" Foundation, with the aim of recognizing the bodies of ex-combatants lying in Puerto Darwin, since the graves only say: "Fallen soldier, only known by God". The mission indicated that all the fallen have the right to identity and their families deserve to know where their children are buried.
In April 2017, he signed a letter supporting the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro in the face of international pressure, calling it an "irrational and irresponsible attack" against Venezuela.
Teaching career
For more than 25 years he taught at the primary, secondary and university levels, as well as at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the National University of La Plata, at the National School of Fine Arts Manuel Belgrano.
He also taught classes at the National School of Fine Arts in Azul; at the Teachers Institute of Azul, Province of Buenos Aires and at the Normal School and National College of Azul, until he was laid off during the last military dictatorship in Argentina.
He later returned to teaching with the advent of democracy.
Since September 1998, he has been Head of the Chair of "Culture for Peace and Human Rights", at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA).
In 2006, the UBA awarded him an Honoris Causa Doctorate in recognition of his career and commitment to education.
The Peace and Justice Service also carries out the educational project "Youth Village for Peace", whose objective is to work with children in a state of social risk.
He permanently writes public letters on the situation and collaborates with articles and prologues in various publications on the socio-political situation in Latin America and the world.
Artistic career
The sculptural work of Adolfo Pérez Esquivel has deeply Ibero-American, chromatic, morphological impressions, but it is considered especially from a political perspective.
Pérez received a scholarship from the National Endowment for the Arts to carry out his studies at the National School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires and at the National University of La Plata.
He was a Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the National University of La Plata, at the Manuel Belgrano National School of Fine Arts and at the Azul Teachers Institute.
As an artist, he developed an intense activity both in exhibitions and murals as well as in monuments, among which we can mention the Latin American Via Crucis and Lenten Cloth made in 1992 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the conquest from America; the Monument to Refugees, located at the Headquarters of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Switzerland; the Mural of the Latin American Peoples in the Cathedral of Riobamba, Ecuador, dedicated to Monsignor Proaño and the Indigenous Peoples; and the location of his bronze sculpture homage to Mahatma Gandhi in Plaza Gandhi, in Barcelona (Spain), among numerous other works.
He has recently inaugurated a Memory Park in the town of Combarro, Galicia, built around a sculpture of his own. Just as he has also finished a new mural in the Church of the Holy Cross (San Cristóbal) for the commitment to fight of this institution during the dictatorial period.
Many of his works are in Argentine museums, such as the Castagnino, the Rosario Museum of Contemporary Art, the Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art, but they are also located abroad. His aesthetic achievements are known mainly in Latin America, Europe and Canada.
In his artistic work the Simple Verses of José Martí can be reflected when they say: with the poor of the earth I want to cast my luck, since his aesthetic sensibility, their colors and their shapes have been and are committed to them.
Beliefs
According to Catholic lawyer Emilio Mignone:
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel is a committed Catholic Christian and a man of good. [...] It is inspired by Christian principles, with contributions from Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. It proposes action for the dispossessed through active non-violence and in all countries where it acts is at the forefront in the defence of human rights.Emilio Mignone
Anyway, in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Pérez Esquivel received the distinction identifying himself only as "the concrete Latin American man, and as a Christian":
I am convinced that the option of the evangelical force of non-violence is opened as a challenge and new and radical perspectives. An option that prioritizes an essential and inherently Christian value: the dignity of man, the transcendent and irrenunciable dignity of man that comes from the primordial fact of being the son of God and brother in Christ and therefore our brother.Adolfo Pérez Esquivel,
speech of acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize (13 October 1980)
The mention of the evangelical force of nonviolence —Protestant churches are also called evangelical churches— led an anonymous journalist from the Spanish newspaper El País to confuse Esquivel's religion:
Perez Esquivel, of Protestant religion, said his movement was on the line of the defense of human rights advocated by Lutero King [sic], Gandhi and the Brazilian Archbishop Helder Cámara.Anonymous journalist in newspaper article El País (Madrid).
Criticism
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel has been denounced by Pablo Salum, a survivor of sectarian organizations and promoter of the Anti-Sect Law, of having protected the Bs As Yoga School sect, according to documents prepared on March 1, 2002, in which, Under their own signature, they cite:
"In the case of Escuela de Yoga de Buenos Aires, the Human Rights Agencies have repeatedly denounced the very serious abuses of the members of the School during the nine years in which the process of this irregular process was prolonged, which culminated in the dismissal of all the judicial bodies of the accused.It is my duty to inform the authorities, for the sake of our country.
He greets you very carefully.
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Fundación Servicio Paz y Justicia"
Regarding the arrest of the leader of said organization Juan Percowicz, at the 33rd police station, according to said documents. The Center for Legal and Social Studies, Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, the American Association of Jurists, H.I.J.O.S, Eugenio Zaffaroni and Osvaldo Bayer, among others, also intervened in the same police event. human rights organizations and personalities.
After what happened, the Fundación Servicio Paz y Justicia, chaired by Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, issued a statement clarifying what happened and expressing its interest in justice and reparation for the victims:
Communiqué of the Peace and Justice ServiceIn the face of complaints linked to the actions of the Yoga School of Buenos Aires, we would like to point out that we repudiate any criminal acts linked to trafficking networks as has been historical in our entity.
At the same time we express concern and rejection of the attacks against our Honorary President, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, as well as other human rights bodies based on lies and defamation.
In 2002, SERPAJ, together with other HRD agencies, expressed good faith in requesting information regarding situations of physical aggression that were carried out by members of that organization. According to the information with which we counted, these were people whom the justice had dismissed several accusations and determined the lack of merit in the case.
Members of the organization in question today are prosecuted for a number of serious crimes, and it is our interest that justice will continue its course and that the victims of such abuses will have the right redress.
We have dedicated our lives to the rule of law. In the face of the related complaints, we wish to express our commitment to Truth and Justice and to the impunity of any crime committed to persons or peoples.
August 17 of 2022
SERVICE PEACE AND JUSTICE (SERPAJ)
Works
Esquivel is the author of six books:
- The Christ of the Poncho (1981).
- Via Crucis Latinoamericano y Paño de Cuaresma (1992).
- Walk with the villages. Nonviolent Experiences in Latin America (1995).
- A drop of time. Chronicle between distress and hope (1996) - (Autobiography)
- We cultivate peace. Conversations with Philippe de Dinechin (2000)
In 2011 he published Resist in Hope with a compilation of his most outstanding letters and articles from the last 40 years on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the Nobel Prize. And also The Strength of Hope, a book of philosophical conversations with Daisaku Ikeda, the president of the international Buddhist institution, Soka Gakkai.
At the movies
In 2010 the film Adolfo Pérez Esquivel. Another world is possible , directed by Miguel Mirra, recounting his life and his struggle.
In addition, Pérez Esquivel appeared in numerous films and documentaries.
Awards
Honoris Causa Doctorates
- Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina.
- University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Universidad Nacional de Salta, Argentina.
- Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina.
- Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Bolivia.
- Universidad Nacional "Siglo XX", Potosí, Bolivia.
- University of San Cristobal de Huamanga, Ayacucho, Peru. (1984)
- Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru.
- Universidad del Estado Paulista, Brazil.
- Saint Joseph University, Philadelphia, USA.
- University of Vilanova, Pennsylvania, United States.
- Christian Brothers College, Memphis, United States.
- Georgetown University, Washington, United States.
- University of Rockhurst, Missouri, United States.
- Soka Gakkai University, Japan, gives the same distinction together with that of Professor Emeritus.
- International University of Peace, Barcelona, Spain.
- Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina.