On January 2-, San Cristobal de las Casas received the lawyer and human rights defender Vidulfo Rosales Sierra, to give him the 2018 JTatic Samuel Jcanan Lum Recognition Award.This seeks to spread and encourage the work of women and men, organizations and collectives that have been characterized by their contribution to the creation of community and/or regional alternatives, as well as work aimed at unity and peaceful social transformation.

Vidulfo Rosales Sierra at the event organized for the jTatic Samuel Jcanan Lum Recognition Award, Chiapas, January 2018 © SIPAZ

Vidulfo was born in the Totomixtlahuaca community, in the municipality of Tlacoapa, La Montaña region, Guerrero. La Montaña is, in several aspects, one of the most marginalized zones of Mexico, and in the municipality of Tlacoapa, 49.23% of the population lives in extreme poverty (according to the Annual Report on the situation of poverty and social underdevelopment of the Secretariat of Social Development). Guerrero, is also one of the most conflictive states in the country.

As a firstborn, Vidulfo was trained as the families of the countryside are accustomed; “Since he was little he walked among the furrows to plant corn. He learned to use the ax and the machete to cut wood. He had to get used to eating cold tortilla on the spine of the mountain.” During this period he developed a strong bond with his region, his land and his people. Despite this, he went to Tlapa de Comonfort where he finished his baccalaureate and then studied law at the Autonomous University of Guerrero, in Chilpancingo.

During his years as a student at the university, he trained as a social activist and after graduation, he did not choose to seek his own economic well-being but decided to defend his peasant and indigenous sisters and brothers whom he never forgot as a lawyer in the Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon Human Rights Center. He did this work from his heart and he continues to do it. For more than 17 years, Vidulfo has worked at the La Montaña Tlachinollan Human Rights Center where he continues to give his service. Despite his interest in resuming his academic career, he has never been able to leave his people from the mountains and other affected communities in Guerrero, and he is convinced that more is learned on the road with the people than in a classroom and that a diploma means little in the system in which we live.

Vidulfo Rosales Sierra at the event organized for the jTatic Samuel Jcanan Lum Recognition Award, Chiapas, January 2018 © SIPAZ

The work of Vidulfo in Guerrero is not easy since there is a permanent security crisis in the state due to the high presence of criminal organizations. Along his path he has encountered many obstacles and setbacks. In 2011, he had to leave the country for a time after receiving death threats arising from his accompaniment of victims of human rights violations.

In 2014, Vidulfo began to take charge of the case of the 43 students of the Normal Rural School of Ayotzinapa who disappeared in Guerrero, with no solution to the case to date. The situation in the state means that, on occasion, Vidulfo’s work space is limited to specific actions and does not always guarantee obtaining justice. This is the sad reality in Guerrero and perhaps in Mexico in general.

But despite the national situation the voices seeking justice should not be silenced and Vidulfo continues to accompany them on their way with the hope of a better Mexico. What Tlachinollan expressed in the following quote about the case of Ayotzinapa gives an idea of this: “it has marked us forever in our lives as defenders, because it has implied for Tlachinollan that compañero Vidulfo and other members of the team have to leave the institutional space to be next to parents. They are today the light of hope that calls us so that from this trench, we struggle hand to hand to fight the lie and find the whereabouts of their children. They are our inspiration and our strength. They are the example of those who have given everything to build a country grounded in justice and truth. It is the fathers and mothers of the 43 who forge a world of justice, equality and respect for human rights. They are the future of a country without victims that is born of pain and hope.”

Vidulfo Rosales Sierra at the event organized for the jTatic Samuel Jcanan Lum Recognition Award, Chiapas, January 2018 © SIPAZ

When Vidulfo visited San Cristobal de las Casas on January 2-, he had the opportunity to witness a pilgrimage of Pueblo Creyente (People of Faith) of the diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas, in which thousands of people from different regions of the state of Chiapas participated. He was astounded by the immense number and diversity of people, and also by the presence of the new bishop, Rodrigo Aguilar Martinez and several priests from the region.

Pueblo Creyente was founded in 1991, as a result of a constant search for the awakening of conscience in the absence of justice and respect for the most basic rights. They held a pilgrimage on January 2- to remember the seventh anniversary of the death of Samuel Ruiz Garcia (jTatic Samuel), who was Bishop of the Diocese of San Cristobal for more than 40 years and defender of the rights of indigenous peoples. He also walked with the people and was a symbol of hope and resistance for many believers and defenders of human rights in Mexico and Latin America.

The pilgrims held their pilgrimage without knowing that they did it not only for Don Samuel but also to strengthen the struggle and the heart of another hero who was among them: Vidulfo, fighter from of the mountains of Guerrero who hours later received the jTatic Samuel Jcanan Lum Recognition Award, which in Tzeltal means Father Samuel, Guardian of Mother Earth and of the Peoples. Since 2010, this award has been given every two years to those who have germinated the seeds that each person has in their hearts to work and fight for the good of the community and the peoples. A recognition that Vidulfo deserved and that is even more deserved if we take into account the last sentence of his speech on January 2-: “we will be those below, compañeras, compañeros, those who will build a better tomorrow.”