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News
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Volume
16, Number 7 |
Also in this
section: One
day like today 39 years ago, they disappeared Father Héctor Gallego. Among the
things he left behind he wrote the following statement: "If I disappear don't
look for me, keep up the fight." The truth is that many of us have
disobeyed and are still searching, but the more difficult thing is following
the second part, keeping up the fight for which he gave his life in the fields
of Santa Fe, Veraguas. What
was his fight? For that I go back today to look at the pieces of paper on which
I took some notes on the conclusions of a seminar held in the mountains of
Veraguas, a few weeks before the kidnapping. With blue ink and hasty notes I
wrote down some of the ideas that the campesinos and Father Héctor Gallego
discussed. And I quote: "The objective of our struggle is to raise a
person's consciousness so that person recognizes his or her rights. We must be
conscious to thus help others to be so. We must use dialogue to raise
consciousness, and thus change the situation and mentality of men and
women." What
was the reason for proposing this consciousness raising? "Because we feel
the needs in how we live. To make change in society, and so that people can
live like human beings. Because we have considered the problems and we see the
need to end the abuses, to lend a hand so that we can develop as human beings.
Men and women are people, not instruments, and the present society doesn't
allow us to fully develop ourselves. Why change this mentality? To get to a
social order that considers people to be human for what they are and not for
what they have, one in which money is a means and not an end. We need to
recognize our rights and fight against injustices, so that our values and
equality among mankind are recognized." For
the campesinos and for Héctor, what was money to that day's society? "It
is an end. The God of money is used to enslave, humiliate and subjugate us.
What should money be? A means to develop us ourselves as people, not to exploit
us, a means to live properly." How
do we make people aware, in which ways? "By talking at every moment when
the opportunity is presented, so that our rights are recognized. By knowing and
analyzing the current situation and its causes. By seeing how we want to be. By
seeking a commitment. By making a plan of action. By evaluating our
actions." Is
there something false in these ideas? Or are they not, better stated, the
application of the evangelical message, the universal statement of human
rights, of all the advances in human dignity that have been made in the face of
the campesinos' harsh realities? Hector
Gallego was the bearer of a humanizing proposal of Christian, social, humanist
and inclusive inspiration, not only viable through the deep commitment to the
poor people in the fields, but also for
other excluded social actors. It touched me to accompany him in his final trip
to the capital, in the search of this idea's articulation among the workers,
students and urban communities. His
commitment cost him his life, as it was seen as a danger for the great
established political and economic interests. But the message that he embodied
lives in many ideas, proposals and commitments, as nearly 40 years later Panama
continues to be a country of enormous inequalities and endless injustices. Also in this
section: News
| Economy
| Culture
| Opinion
| Lifestyle
| Nature
Panama Vacations |
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©
2010 by Eric Jackson email: editor@thepanamanews.com or phone: (507) 6-632-6343 Mailing
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