In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

C H A P T E R 3 The Women of El Agustino A Personal Look at the Women In the beginning, I wasn’t anyone. I was an average, normal person. With much effort I’m able to do the work that I’m responsible for today. My main challenge has been reading and writing because I left school after the fifth grade. My faith, sense of solidarity, and the desire to help other[s] has served me greatly, despite the fact that I wasn’t educated. Before, I didn’t give much importance to my faith or spiritual support from the church. But now I understand that without this work, the work of God, we wouldn’t be able to have a good foundation as human beings. Martha Vera Belleza General Manager Panadería La Virgen de Nazaret In their lives, work, words, and faith, the women of El Agustino reveal the dialectic between God’s salvific covenant and the necessity of human effort to work toward this promise. There exists no sense of merely waiting patiently for God to improve miraculously (or otherwise) their human state of affairs. Rather, they demonstrate a deep, abiding sense of their partnership with God. They have committed themselves to be agents of change—agents of their own change—which necessitates stepping into unconventional roles often frowned upon by the government and by the church. They tackle their tasks with courage, fortitude, and perseverance. In the process, they experience profound growth in their faith and support for their work. 43 These women challenge the role of men in their lives, the ineptitude of government agencies, and the policies of their church. Their work for the good of God’s people emanates from their reflections on the word of God and their response to God’s call. Repeatedly I heard the women speak of la llamada de Dios (the call of God) as something that is not only anticipated but as urgent a response as the need to breathe or eat. These are not pious responses enshrouded in devout language. Rather they are practical reflections born of this historical moment—a moment when they answer the problems of the day as they struggle to build the reign of God in their own context. What is witnessed and heard is realism combined with hope—the women’s cognizance of their many and great needs that are sustained by the realization that God is on their side and promises to complete the work already begun. The women’s commitment to the poor by the poor provides a paradigm of communitarian culture that contrasts with the individualistic culture so valued in the United States and Europe, a phenomenon that has made itself felt in Peru. Essential to understanding this new paradigm is the fact that these women are Christians responding to Gospel values. Without the benefits (or restrictions) of a formal theological education, they succeed in providing sophisticated theological analysis of their social context and God’s presence therein. As they think out their faith in these particular historical circumstances, they pose the questions of a people who have not been previously heard. Their reflections are intertwined with the manner in which the word of God is proclaimed and lived in their community. Gloria Bravo Palomeque, sales coordinator for the SEA bakery, recalled a homilist who quoted the admonition of Thomas Aquinas that we know more about what God is not than what God is. She expanded upon this by stating, “we know that God is not poverty or oppression, hunger or homelessness . But we do learn a lot about God when we respond to what God is not.”1 In this response lies a succinct example of the El Agustino women’s understanding of God’s plan for humanity, their reflection on God, and the role God calls them to fulfill. Sra. Bravo, like many others, also embodies in her personal life the understanding that this participation in SEA—participation that is her response to the call of God—in no way leads to any erroneous hope of self-realization. Her participation in charitable work began in 1970 when she was the volunteer treasurer for a neighborhood organization. She began assisting in a comedor popular (communal dining room) in 1979 and participated in the founding of the panadería as an income-producing function of SEA in 1989. Today, with the skills she acquired from her volunteer and paid work, she could easily move on...

Share