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22. Two Pastoral Workers Evolve
- University Press of Florida
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22 Two Pastoral Workers Evolve This chapter describes the Guatemalan experiences of two Americans of the Maryknoll congregation, shown in the introductory photograph. Their personal histories trace their evolutions through all three types of commitment. The Dynamo Nun Sister Marian Peter’s autobiography is dedicated to Bishop Helder Cámara of Brazil, a model of Latin American Liberation bishops; to the guerrilla priest Camilo Torres; and to three leaders of the Guatemalan insurgency mentioned in chapter 17: Luis Turcios, César Montes, and Yon Sosa (Melville and Melville 1971). The dedication indicates the end-point of her evolution. 316 · Part VII. The Impact of the Maya Crisis on the Worldviews of Pastoral Workers Born in Mexico of American parents, Marian Peter’s religious formation in Catholic schools and Maryknoll had been Tridentine. In 1953, Sister Marian arrived in Guatemala, and in spite of her desire to work with the poor, she was assigned to teach in a Maryknoll high school for upperclass girls in Guatemala City (Behrens 2004). The director of the school explained its purpose. “We were asked to establish in Guatemala a school where English would be taught so the daughters of the so-called ‘better families’ who would not be sent away to the States to study. Our purpose in founding and continuing the school is to educate apostolic Christians with a sense of social responsibility. It is hoped that a large percentage of our graduates will become active leaders in the community” (204). In 1956, Sister Marian founded a Girl Scout troop at the high school. One girl refused to join when informed she would have to make her own bed while on scouting trips. During two vacation periods, the Sister worked among the Maya in Jacaltenango , Huehuetenango, learning the realities of the Maya crisis, so different from her experiences among the elite in Guatemala City. Before returning to Guatemala City, she told the pastor, “You’ve given me a new reason to return to the City and work there. You can encourage the Indians and help educate them. Yet, if the politicians and plantation owners who Figure 22.1. The dynamo nun in uniform. [34.230.35.103] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 21:32 GMT) Two Pastoral Workers Evolve · 317 live down in the capital don’t see the need and begin to help, the Indians will always be exploited and held down. I’m going to work for them from the other end . . . with the young girls who are the future wives of politicians and wealthy landowners” (Behrens 2004: 201). This was her movement to Catholic Action, and it set her agenda for the next thirteen years of working for social justice on behalf of the Guatemalan Maya. In 1960, she helped found a teacher-training program that prepared students for school administration. Student teachers did internships in a school for the poor that was opened next to the high school, and in Maryknoll schools in Huehuetenango. One student in the program was Yolanda Colom, later an EGP guerrillera, who discovered the Maya crisis while doing her student teaching in Cuilco, Huehuetenango. Marian Peter also started a group to prepare catechists for teaching in the public schools of Guatemala City, and she herself began teaching in them and learning more about Guatemala’s poverty. She also helped initiate an adult education program in a slum area of the city. Expanding the Social Consciousness of Students In 1962, a Venezuelan Jesuit visited Guatemala to give a series of lectures —Cursillos de Capacitación Social (Short Courses about Social Empowerment ). Their purpose was to develop the social consciousness of students whose social position and opportunities for education would enable them to take political, economic, and social leadership roles in their countries . Hopefully, they would work to bring about a process of reforms and social changes based on a Christian ethic that at the same time would have erected a barrier against Communism (Porras Castejón 2009: 30). Sister Marian attended, then was invited to Venezuela to learn more about the Cursillos. She returned to Guatemala, and in 1962–63 helped arrange five Cursillos by the Jesuits for high school and university students. Most of the participants came from Catholic high schools for the elite. Later, in the town of Huehuetenango and in Maya communities of that department, the Cursillos were given by the students themselves. Student Cursillos were conducted over an eight-day period. Cursillos conducted for Mayas were one-, two-, or five-day adaptations...