23 Facts About Samuel Ruiz

Samuel Ruiz Garcia was a Mexican Catholic prelate who served as bishop of the Diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, from 1959 until 1999.

Samuel Ruiz Garcia was the first of five children, born on 3 November 1924 in Guanajuato, Mexico, to Guadalupe Garcia, who worked as a maid for upper-class families, and Maclovio Ruiz Mejia, an agricultural worker.

Samuel Ruiz grew up as a Catholic in a modest family during the Cristero War, a time in which the Church was being persecuted and many were killed or assassinated in Mexico by the anti-Catholic ruling government.

At the age of fifteen, Samuel Ruiz completed high school and seminary at Leon in Guanajuato.

Samuel Ruiz continued his studies at the Jesuit Gregorian University in Rome where he focused on Sacred Scripture, earning his doctorate in 1952.

In 1960, Samuel Ruiz was consecrated bishop of the Diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas of Chiapas Mexico, where he remained until he retired in 2000.

Not long after arriving in San Cristobal, Samuel Ruiz set out on a mule to tour his diocese, visiting every town and village over which he held jurisdiction.

Samuel Ruiz began to slowly identify and challenge the structures of oppression, questioning the structure of the government and military, as well as figures within the church who were furthering these systems.

Samuel Ruiz encouraged indigenous communities to take charge of their own lives, and openly voiced that the poor of Chiapas were victims of structural oppression and institutionalized violence.

In 1967, Bishop Samuel Ruiz became the president of the Mexican Bishop's Committee on Indigenous Peoples, and in 1968 he was named the president of the Department of Missions of The Conference of Latin American Bishops, called the Medellin Conference.

The diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas, under Samuel Ruiz's direction, began to redefine evangelization methods and to abandon the traditional approach of Europeanizing indigenous peoples, instead incarnating the gospel in the local culture of each community.

In 1989, Bishop Samuel Ruiz founded the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Rights Center to push back against increasing violence against indigenous and campesino activists in his diocese.

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation attracted national and international attention as negotiations with government authorities were underway, for which Samuel Ruiz was elected mediator and during which the guerrillas demanded not only constitutional recognition, but reformation of the state and systemic structures which were the root of their oppression.

Samuel Ruiz championed to reach a peacefully negotiated solution to the 1995 Zapatista Crisis betting it all on a creative strategy to reestablish the Mexican Government Zapatista Army of National Liberation dialog to search for peace by demonstrating Marcos' natural peace vocation and the terrible consequences of a military solution.

Samuel Ruiz demonstrated that contrary to the accusations announced by President Ernesto Zedillo, Rafael Guillen was no terrorist.

Samuel Ruiz confirmed that he had no doubt that Marcos was his friend Rafael Guillen, a pacifist.

Samuel Ruiz continued to act as a protector and supporter of Chiapas and to advocate for human rights for the indigenous until his death in 2011.

On 24 January 2011, at the age of 86, Samuel Ruiz Garcia died at Hospital Angeles del Pedregal in Mexico City, due to respiratory failure and other complications, including high blood pressure and diabetes.

Don Samuel Ruiz, known as jTatic Samuel Ruiz, was buried in San Cristobal de las Casas, in the cathedral, after a heartfelt and jubilant celebration of his life and ministry.

In 1996, Samuel Ruiz received the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award for his fight against injustice and institutionalized violence inflicted on the poor and oppressed of his diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas.

In 1997, Samuel Ruiz received the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.

Samuel Ruiz was awarded the Simon Bolivar International Prize by UNESCO in 2000 for his work to defend the indigenous peoples of Chiapas, for his role as mediator between the government and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, and for his commitment to the promotion of human rights and social justice for Latin America peoples.

Samuel Ruiz was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994,1995, and 1996 by, among others, Rigoberta Menchu and Adolfo Perez Esquivel.