Samuel Ruiz Garcia

Samuel Ruiz García (Irapuato, Guanajuato, November 3, 1924 - Mexico City, January 24, 2011) was a Mexican religious, Catholic bishop, defender of the rights of indigenous peoples from Mexico and Latin America. He was called by the indigenous peoples "Tatik" or walker.

Biography

Childhood

The son of migrants, he lived his childhood in Irapuato, and at the age of 13 he went to the Diocesan Seminary of León. In 1947 he was sent to the Gregorian University, to study theology. There he is ordained a priest. In 1954 he returned to León, Guanajuato, and shortly after he was appointed rector of the seminary.

Trajectory

In 1959 he was appointed Bishop of Chiapas, in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. This diocese is characterized by its extreme poverty and by having a majority indigenous population. For years he established a system of aid from the diocese towards the indigenous population. He learned some indigenous languages such as Chuj, Tzotzil, Chol or Tojolabal and began to celebrate masses using them. He also promoted the translation of the Bible and evangelization in border areas, creating communities that worked on health and education issues.He worked with other religious in liberation theology.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Ruiz's social ministry formed some of the first non-governmental organizations dedicated to the protection of human rights in Mexico, for example the Fray Bartolomé de las Human Rights Center Houses (1989).

In 1994 his candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize was promoted.

Ruíz García collaborated as a mediator in various Latin American conflicts. In particular, he served as a mediator in the Chiapas conflict between the indigenous Zapatista Army of National Liberation and the Mexican federal government. He served as bishop in San Cristóbal de las Casas until 1999.

He died on January 24, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. at Hospital Ángeles del Pedregal, in Mexico City.

Acknowledgments

In the year 2000 he was distinguished with the UNESCO Simón Bolívar Prize for his special personal commitment and his role as a mediator, thus contributing to peace and respect for the dignity of minorities. His last parish seat was the Holy Family of Nazareth in the city of Santiago de Querétaro.

In 2001, he received the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award for his tireless defense of the human rights of the indigenous peoples of Chiapas, Mexico, for more than two decades.

He received an honorary doctorate on October 12, 2005 from the Universidad Iberoamericana León, in 1997 from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and in 2001 from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa.

In April 2008, he was appointed by the Popular Revolutionary Army as mediator, along with other Mexican intellectuals before the federal government of President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa.

In 2017, during Pope Francis' visit to Mexico, the pontiff visited and prayed at Ruiz's tomb in the Cathedral of San Cristóbal.