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March 25, 2021 / 0 Comments

A conversation with Fr. Chepe Idiaquez, S.J., president of the UCA

On this occasion we had the opportunity to talk with the president of the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Nicaragua, Fr. José Idiáquez, S.J., about the relevance of education and the commitment of Jesuit universities.

During the conversation, Fr. Idiáquez, S.J., commented that the horizon of Jesuit universities has to be the commitment to the oppressed majorities, with the objective of transforming society stating: “A university cannot be at the service of the status quo. It is not about being rebels without a cause, it is about the university forming professionals who are truly humanized; to not enter into the mercantilism of knowledge; that the institution can unite social commitment with academic rigor.”

For him this implies that the university must opt for the poor and the marginalized; the university cannot be impartial. In that direction, Fr. Idiáquez, S.J.  mentioned that the Jesuit institution he leads has suffered the consequences of this option for justice and social commitment, “The UCA is living in its own experience that the option for the poor in an oppressive regime like that of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo one does not have the right to think and a university in which one thinks is a danger. The government takes advantage of hunger and the poorest people to beat universities and young students who protest for the rights of society.”

It is important to remember that the Jesuit university in Nicaragua has publicized various attacks and threats by the government of Daniel Ortega towards the University. Denunciations that have been supported and joined by the Conference of Jesuit Provincials in Latin America (CPAL), the Association of Jesuit Universities in Latin America (AUSJAL), and other institutions of the Society of Jesus.

The rector remarked during this conversation that: “The UCA is being hit in its university autonomy because the government has taken financial resources from us and continues with intimidation processes so that the university stops being a critical voice in the country. However, the UCA has a clear option for refugees, migrants, abused and harassed women, political prisoners, because the Jesuit university cannot reproduce social inequalities.”

Fr. Idiáquez, S.J., invited the students to continue their formation through reading and critical thinking,  to contribute significantly to society and fight against oppression, racism, classism, and social exclusion.

Likewise, he pointed out that current students do not feel capable of studying or with the possibilities of doing so, with the purpose of being cornered into being cheap labor for companies. In view of this, universities must offer opportunities (scholarships and support) to young people; this is part of the commitment to social justice to which they must commit.

Short Bio by CPAL:

Fr. José Alberto Idiáquez Guevara SJ is currently president of the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA). In 2001, he was Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus in Central America. In 2001, he received an honorary doctorate from Seattle University for his humanistic work.

Born in Nicaragua in 1958, Fr. Idiáquez holds a degree in Philosophy and Social Sciences from the Free Institute of Philosophy and Sciences of the Society of Jesus in Mexico. He also has two master’s degrees, one in Theology from the UCA in El Salvador and another in Social Anthropology from the University of Austin, Texas.

February 26, 2021 / 0 Comments

Being Contemplatives in Action: I-LEADers create Social Justice posters.

We live in a hurried world, and because of COVID, it has become isolated as well. Many of us are currently cut from our communities and feeling a sense of powerlessness in the face of so much injustice and pain going on around us.

In times like these, we turn to Ignatian spirituality, specifically to the idea of being  “contemplatives in action”.  The Ignatian way asks us to Stop, Rest and Reflect, Go Back to Work, and Repeat! Being a “contemplative in action” means that your active life feeds your contemplative life and your contemplative life feeds your active life.

We found that I-LEADers were engaging with their reality through social media, following social justice issues closely through Instagram, Youtube, and TikTok, but they rarely took time to stop, rest, and reflect so challenged them to take time to create their own social justice poster, creating visual artwork combining various images to convey diversity or social justice issues, concerns, or themes related to their interest and preoccupations.

We invite the USF community, friends, and partners to join in on our activity to take a breather from our busy lives and to take time to create your own Social Justice poster, you can upload it to Social Media and tag us (@ArrupeUSFCA) as well as Favianna Rodriguez (@Favianna1) and the SF Museum of Modern Art (@SFMoMa).

If you want you can follow Favianna Rodriguez’s tutorial, and using her art (you can download it here)

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Favianna Rodriguez (@favianna1)

February 11, 2021 / 0 Comments

Social Media and Social Justice: engaging the world while sheltering in place

We are about to reach a year since the first shelter in place was ordered in San Francisco, a year since the hilltop campus closed its classrooms, and since we met in person with our peers at USF. 

Many of us are disconnected from our communities and dealing with COVID-19 restrictions and physical distancing rules, we have turned to social media and become even more reliant on digital tools for connection and communication.

Social Media has been used as a tool for community organizing and advocacy. Activists create content and educate all who want to learn and engage with social justice issues.  We’re seeing how, across multiple issues, young people are becoming active participants in driving dialogues with policy-makers, on a state and federal level. In addition, they are empowering the citizens of the communities in which they reside, taking an active role in shaping the future we hold.

Priyanka Jaisinghani, World Economic Forum

In our last meeting, the I-LEADers reflected on the ways that they read their reality and how they engage in activism and social justice through social media while sheltering in place.

Here is a list of resources I-LEADers curated by topic:

Education disparities and justice:

Internal Armed Conflict in Colombia:

Environmental Justice in LatAm:

Black Liberation:

USF Students cooking "Causa Limeña" in Casa Generación group home in Peru during their immersion.

February 11, 2021 / 0 Comments

Food for Thought. How focusing on food can help us find community and reflect on social injustices.

For the past year, we’ve been looking for ways to build community, and we kept coming back to the power of food as the place where community, culture, values, and family meet. At Arrupe Initiatives, we’ve chosen food as an overarching topic for the semester as it allows us to dig deeper into a conversation about injustice, healing, and reconciliation while fostering a sense of solidarity.

The following is an excerpt of the Joy of Food by National geographic which exemplifies the historical power of food as a tool for community building:

Food is more than survival. With it, we make friends, court lovers, and count our blessings. The sharing of food has always been part of the human story. From Qesem Cave near Tel Aviv comes evidence of ancient meals prepared at a 300,000-year-old hearth, the oldest ever found, where diners gathered to eat together. Retrieved from the ashes of Vesuvius: a circular loaf of bread with scoring marks, baked to be divided. “To break bread together,” a phrase as old as the Bible, captures the power of a meal to forge relationships, bury anger, provoke laughter. Children make mud pies, have tea parties, trade snacks to make friends, and mimic the rituals of adults. They celebrate with sweets from the time of their first birthday, and the association of food with love will continue throughout life—and in some belief systems, into the afterlife. Consider the cultures that leave delicacies graveside to let the departed know they are not forgotten. And even when times are tough, the urge to celebrate endures. In the Antarctic in 1902, during Robert Falcon Scott’s Discovery expedition, the men prepared a fancy meal for Midwinter Day, the shortest day and longest night of the year. Hefty provisions had been brought on board. Forty-five live sheep were slaughtered and hung from the rigging, frozen by the elements until it was time to feast. The cold, the darkness, and the isolation were forgotten for a while. “With such a dinner,” Scott wrote, “we agreed that life in the Antarctic Regions was worth living.” — Victoria Pope

  • USF Students cooking "Causa Limeña" in Casa Generación group home in Peru during their immersion.
November 12, 2020 / 0 Comments

Mexican observers in a historic election in the United States 

by Ana Karen Barragán
The elections in the United States of America have brought the world’s attention to the country. Approximately 93 million U.S. citizens cast their votes before November 3, others had the opportunity to vote until Election Day, and many others chose not to. However, there are thousands of others who participated as mere observers, among them are those in the bench labeled as international students, visa workers, undocumented migrants, and many other figures who live in this country today. Together we hope to hear results that place human dignity, reconciliation, and justice first.
Looking out the window at what is happening in a country that is not one’s own has a different flavor, my insides (feelings, emotions, thoughts) do not move as they do when I am in Mexico. Nevertheless, we do not cease to feel a sense of anxiety because of the consequences that we have to face as Mexicans, as Latin Americans, as foreigners, and as citizens of the world. Again and again, I find myself listening to podcasts, reading what’s on social media, and checking the news on tv and digital newspapers.
From my privileged place, as a Mexican international student with a visa, I can also perform superficial analyses that show my concern for continuing my studies here. And so, from the comfort and guarantee of a university dormitory, with food access, wifi and computer, and all the basic services I need to continue this life project, I look and judge the choice.
It is true that I hear Mr. Trump’s insults against my country and my people, and my skin is bristling. Sometimes I even laugh to avoid anger. At other times, I self-censure myself from speaking Spanish to avoid any unpleasant incidents in public. And yet, I always have the comfortable option of returning to my country and going on with my life. But this is not the case for everyone; there are millions who live in expectation of a decision that, while no longer aspiring to unrestricted respect for their human rights, at least hopes that the levels of discrimination and harassment will stop.
Therefore, it is time to pause and think… what does this election mean for the thousands of Mexicans living in the United States? what does it mean for the children put in cages and separated from their mothers and fathers? who recovers that lost childhood for them? who recovers that warmth from their mother that they could not obtain in the midst of the nightmares brought by the enemies of equity, justice, and human dignity? who watches over the fair wages of Mexicans who are in the fields cultivating and harvesting what American families will taste during Thanksgiving?
Is there really hope for them? I have my suspicions that whoever the winner is, the historical debt is far from settled. And Mexicans will continue to occupy the workspaces that Americans are unwilling to take on or pay for.
It is clear to us that one of the candidates despises the Mexican population, but will the other really be watching over the rights of these people who day in and day out produce, care for, cook, clean, and educate for a precarious wage that has suited the US government so well? Let us not forget the numbers of the Obama administration. Let’s not be naive.
Who do these two white men represent?
What are the interests that are at the heart of their election campaign? Will they really respect the ideas of a woman of color as vice president? Who does Kamala Harris represent and why did Biden choose her? In our hope are the ideals of citizenship that seek to start from diversity and equity, but we also dream with our feet on the ground and with a critical conscience that tells us that in politics not everything is what it seems. Let us hope that the future reality will prove right the hunch of ideals that our continued disillusionment with the precarious leadership that prevails in the world.
How do we, as global citizens, impact the construction of a more integrated, just, united, and reconciled citizenship? How do we respect the processes that do not correspond to us but that impacts all of us who cannot cast a vote?

____________________________________________

This is a personal perspective, and the author wanted to acknowledge that she is speaking from a particular Mexican immigrant point of view, that many might empathize with, but that shouldn’t be read as a universal Latinx perspective. At Arrupe Community Perspectives we invite all to share their own ideas and worldview. 

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Ignatian Leaders Engaging in Action and Discernment

Leadership program based on the Ignatian Pedagogy for undergraduate students from Jesuit Universities hosted at USF.

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