Bishop Ruiz

Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia

(Jtatik Samuel is how the Bishop is referred to by the Tzo Tzil - loosely translated as "Esteemed, loved, favorite Uncle Samuel..."--- Richard)

Bishop Ruiz and Richard at Casa de Camillo Torres farm near San Cristobal de las Casas Chiapas, Mexico.

Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia was bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico for forty years. In that time he was a tireless advocate for the indigenous people of the region. He was under constant threat from the wealthy landowners and other powerful people who benefitted from maintaining the status quo. It is because of Bishop Ruiz' concern for the poor of Chiapas that we have chosen to name our project after him.

A Brief Biography from Wikipedia

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Samuel Ruiz García (born 3 November 1924) was a Mexican bishop from San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, from 1959 until 1999. This zone in Mexico is characterized by its poverty and its indigenous population. Some 40,000 indigenous Mexicans received some kind of help from this bishop for over 10 years. Samuel Ruiz offered his help in conflicts in Central America and defended indigenous populations in Mexico and in Central and South America. He contributed largely to calm the difficult situation between the Mexican government and the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation).

In 1996 Ruiz was awarded the Pacem in Terris Award. It was named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations. Pacem in Terris is Latin for 'Peace on Earth.'

He won the Simon Bolívar International Prize from UNESCO in 2000 due to his efforts to fight poverty, exclusion, corruption, violence and for his help in the mutual understanding of Latin Americans.

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