ARTICLE: Strengthening the Heart to Continue Building Peace

A fter 25 years working at the Commission for Support for Community Unity and Reconciliation (CORECO C.A.), Alejandra Rojas Chavez will close this cycle of her life at the end of this year 2024. In an interview, she shared with us her experiences, learnings and the processes she has accompanied during her collaboration with this organization.

25 Years of Accompaniment at CORECO

© CORECO

Alejandra Rojas Chavez has lived in the state of Chiapas for 32 years. While she was part of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba) team, she met CORECO during its formation process. CORECO was founded in 1996 as a civil society organization that accompanies communities and organizations in their efforts and work for unity, reconciliation, and peace-building.

Alejandra joined the CORECO team in 1999 and, since then, has participated in various processes, such as the formation and accompaniment of local reconciliation and human rights commissions in the Highlands, the Positive Conflict Transformation (TCP) diplomas, and in mediation and dialogue facilitation processes where participants have found and built positive solutions to their conflicts. In addition, she has accompanied workshops to strengthen the heart and coordinated meetings of peace and reconciliation builders since 2005. She has also accompanied the journey of the Believing People of the Diocese of San Cristobal and, in recent years, of the Network for Peace and Good Living.

Strengthening the Heart

© CORECO

“The strengthening of the heart was born as part of a personal and collective search to find new ways to accompany communities, servers, men and women who, due to different situations, cannot find solutions to conflicts, feel tired or no longer find hope,” Alejandra shared with us.

The heart strengthening workshops are spaces where people who participate can “listen to their essence, their heart and their concerns, what hurts them and what hurts them because of the reality they live in.” These spaces contribute to finding strength and energy to move forward. Through them, participants have managed to heal their hearts, become aware of their true being and their meaning or mission in life, and have been able to establish new relationships and regain hope to continue building peace and good living in their communities.

These workshops have also changed the participants’ perspective on their conflicts, helping them to listen to and understand others better, recognizing that each person has their own story. Alejandra told us about moments in which people managed to release resentment and desires for revenge by sharing their experiences. “Sometimes you don’t have the opportunity to have a space to listen to yourself in life, so these spaces allow you to stop and listen deeply and to nourish the strengths you have,” she told us.

© CORECO

CORECO has promoted various processes of strengthening the heart. In spaces dedicated exclusively to women, they have been able to recognize and value their identity as such, their qualities, and from that base, support and accompany other women in their own processes. CORECO has also worked with young people who are searching for their own path and how they want to serve or contribute to the community.

“In a meeting with young people on the subject of strengthening the heart where Mayan guides accompanied us, the young people were able to feel and find strength in the community, prayer and the fire ceremony.” In the context of violence, they have found spiritual ways to recognize their ancestors, realize where they come from and that, as a community, they have the strength to continue building life. “Although the outlook may seem difficult and dark, there is also clarity, the strength of the communities that want to care for their territories that connect with life, nature and the strength that comes from their spirituality. There is a lot of hope in the towns, communities and families,” Alejandra told us.

Recognizing Inner Strength

During her time at CORECO, Alejandra has learned from the personal and collective stories of the men and women she has worked with. She has understood that when people have experiences that hurt their hearts and do not heal, it can lead to violent behavior. She has also come to value the capacities and possibilities that people have to resolve and transform their conflicts, “When there is closeness or accompaniment, you can recognize that they have that strength”, she said.

© CORECO

The lessons learned have allowed her to share these experiences with other groups. According to Alejandra, as CORECO we have accompanied “communities and groups that have found that strength to reaffirm their decision not to resolve conflicts through violence but to find new paths. In this sense, the Heart Strengthening workshops are a space to look at and understand conflict in a different way, they open our eyes and hearts to build different solutions. In some cases, which were not resolved at the time, we have heard later that they have been able to resolve and transform their conflicts, they have been able to return to being communities that walk in agreement and unity.”

Faith and Hope in Building Peace

Alejandra tells us that, as CORECO, they have worked with and accompanied people who, even in conflict situations, maintain hope for changes that can occur by “seeing that we are not the only ones in conflict situations, that we can find light and that we can seek to build something different.”

She also shared her personal experience, mentioning that she has always walked with faith and hope, believing that it is possible to live in a different way, to build peace and believe in oneself and in others, establishing more peaceful and harmonious relationships. She recalled a phrase from Gandhi: “There is no way to peace: peace is the way.” She considered that “peace is also built in specific moments where we meet others, where we recognize and value each other and where our experience contributes to others in their lives and work.”