Narcomar. Chapter 53. The Forgotten Theology of Liberation

Home visits to El manglar became the most pleasant visit to his patients in his community.

For Maxima El It had the best beach of all, but many plastics and other pollutants that came from the island of San Miguel were dragged towards that extensive palm where in the 80s there were many coconut palms, but now there were cabin pools.

In that town, her father was remembered when he was a doctor, as he was one of the strongest communities in the Peasant Organization.

In this little town the first children's center and the first first aid kit of the Peasant Organization began and at a town party, her father arrived with the residents of El Faro.

As was frequent, the best friends and the worst enemies were in the neighboring town and after the mass that was at that time given by the liberation theology fathers who converted the church, which was the center of the town together with the school and the soccer field, the parents turned the religious ceremony into a moment of political, social, economic, health, educational meditation, that is, people gave their opinion on daily life

After reading a passage from the Bible, which was done by a peasant, who read it stopping on difficult words, and stuttering at times, the discussion was ignited by the parents' questions.

They used a method proposed by a Brazilian pedagogue who wrote a book called Liberating Equation called Paulo Freire.

The method consisted of finding the so-called liberating word, which was the word or sentence that sparked the discussion.

Father Gracia, dressed only in a white tunic tied with a rope around his waist and leather sandals, began to walk down the corridor, among the pews where the peasants were, with his children, even newborns, with his seat Italian began the interrogation of the assistants, who were usually the entire town.

Our colleague Ermenegildo has read us that beautiful passage from the Good Samaritan Bible, who wants to tell me what Christ tells us when he uses history to make us understand, because he used stories or parables to awaken the conscience of the Jews that it was his people, to whom he spoke, it was a people that was conquered and enslaved by the Romans who were originally from the country that I come from, from Italy.

Then something extraordinary happened, according to what her father told Máxima. The peasants were no longer the silent people who came to church to listen for a long time to a priest, and obey him by standing up, sitting down, receiving the host, and giving alms or hugging each other, that is, following a ritual of obedience. blind

- Without these rituals being repeated at each mass, the novelty was that the peasants raised their hands and without anyone forcing them to speak, and explained what they understood, believed, thought, and even recommended to their neighbors.

-Father- said Dona Mercedes, one of the oldest neighbors in the town- Christ teaches us that even if he is our enemy we have to be compassionate and supportive

- I believe father-that what Christ and the Bible teach us is that we peasants are separated by stories, envy, lies, and that we must unite and organize ourselves. That our strength depends on our union.-said another of the attendees.

-I agree, the owners of the shrimp pools have come to town here. They have appropriated the mangroves, which used to belong to everyone. They burn it, and make those pools that only benefit them, the mangrove benefited us all because we get our shells, crabs, guariche, pangoras from there and the mangrove stops the sea that now in the aguajes goes up to the houses .

-We have to complain to the authorities- said another neighbor- The law says that the mangroves cannot be burned, and that it does not belong to this or that person, it belongs to all Ecuadorians, but the rich come, they say they have bought from some from us, and there are people who come armed, with machetes, with back-scalers, in a few days the mangrove is destroyed, they build their pools and now no one can walk along those paths between the pools, because they have armed men. If they have a worker to feed the shrimp, they have 5 armed men who bring them from El Mani, they are criminals fleeing the law, and who work for them.

So we must strengthen our organization and make a document to present to the authorities, which we must go to see, making a large group, so that they will attend to us and respect us, right? - Father Gracia said.

A chorus of attendees enthusiastically answered Yes.!

 Now let's give each other a hug and we are going to wish peace and love to the people who are by our side before praying the Our Father.

After that mass the peasants met in the canteens. and dance halls