May 12, 2006
Dear Friends,
I (Bob) write you in the midst of packing for a trip to join
Julie in Oregon where she has been helping her Mom "come
in for a soft landing" as Mary herself has put it. Her doctors
and the hospice folk Julie arranged for her agree that Mary has
a week or so left of her amazing life as a good and faithful witness
of the good news.
As you know, Bolivia is a happening place. We have been happily
busy accompanying the exciting work of the Joining Hands for Life
(Uniendo Manos por la Vida) network throughout this beautiful
land.
UMAVIDA has recently supported indigenous leaders in summit councils
seeking how to restore, as much as possible, the original culture
and governance of the Kollasullo, as Bolivia was known before
the conquest. The majority of the population here does not recognize
Spanish Bolivia as a legitimate state, as it was imposed by terrible
force and resulted in the enslavement and death of millions for
the profit of the conquerors. Estimates of the number of Aymara
and Quechua Native Americans who lost their lives mining silver
and gold alone, range from five to eight million.
The network has sponsored youth who gathered recently at the
first national summit of “Youth Towards the Constitutional
Assembly” so that they, the majority of Bolivia's population,
could draft proposals for the refounding of their country. They
are calling for an end to obligatory military service, with provisions
for conscientious objectors, an end to child labor, rights for
the handicapped, the right to land, potable water, productive
labor, and the end of state religion.
UMAVIDA has been at the forefront of several national ecumenical
gatherings to help overcome the divisions between the Christian
churches themselves and between them and the churches that incorporate
the native religious rituals that also recognize one Creator God.
It was a real privilege to represent the network on national
television this week to speak for the closing of the School of
the Americas in Columbus, Georgia, which has trained thousands
of Bolivians over the years in the art of warfare and, as we now
know, torture. Having stood at the entrance to the School of the
Assassins, as it is more popularly known, I was proud to share
with Bolivians that Evo Morales' government will be reducing its
numbers attending the school and eventually sending none, joining
Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Venezuela who have declared no
students would attend.
Luis Perez, UMAVIDA's national coordinator, and I have traveled
across some of the highest roads in the world, as high as 15,000
feet, climbing and descending 11,000 feet in hours to visit the
network's institutions in Santa Cruz, Potosí, and Oruro.
We are winding up the complicated bureaucratic process of obtaining
non-profit status for the network and mapping the strengths and
weaknesses of the institutions that form the network in order
to better coordinate our work.
These institutions have all prioritized the preparation of Bolivia's
citizenry, especially its rural peoples, for the upcoming Constitutional
Assembly, which will last one year after delegates are elected
in July. We have spoken to rural populations that are not even
aware of the Assembly's convocation, a triumph of Evo's government.
Throughout the country, the institutions in the UMAVIDA network,
sometimes in cooperation with other NGOs, are carrying out public
workshops to take citizens' proposals to the Assembly. We have
focused on the right to land (a cow here is entitled to some 50
acres per head; a person, none), the right to clean water, and
the national right of Bolivia to own its natural resources (which
were recently nationalized, giving the nation the hope some of
its earnings can be reinvested in industrialization, infrastructure,
and education).
The Presbytery of Elizabeth in New Jersey is joining with the
Presbytery of Newark to consider partnering with UMAVIDA to support
the strengthening of the network. At the end of June, a delegation
from the Presbytery of Elizabeth will be visiting La Paz and learning
of UMAVIDA's work. A Bolivian representative of UMAVIDA and I
will visit them just before they leave the United States, speaking
in the church my father grew up in, in Summit, New Jersey. Then
we will visit the Newark Presbytery to support the growing interest
in the Joining Hands Against Hunger program and its challenge
that we, as North Americans, transform our own country into a
land celebrating the good news, life and liberty.
As a follower of the teachings of Jesus, I have come to believe
what I see being attempted here in Bolivia is a manifestation
of the good news of which Jesus spoke. There is celebration in
the streets, the chains are falling away and new vision is proclaimed.
There is a sense of liberation, of hope. A taxi driver yesterday
said the people here are "super" happy. Maybe their
children will see better days.
And so we work for a better day, in hope,
Bob
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
46 |
