Suyusama Programme
Manuel Ruíz Parra, Suyusama Programme*, Pasto, Nariño, Colombia
In the southern part of Colombian state of Nariño, we have started down the path towards local and regional sustainability, understood as a life choice in harmony with the surrounding environment.
We are inspired by the fact that the region has conserved its great ancestral wisdom, the inheritance of the Pasto and Quillacinga Indians, the ancient inhabitants of this area.
Recently, while collecting the submissions of young candidates in the region for an undergraduate scholarship in agriculture, natural resources and environment studies at the Earth University in Costa Rica, the governor of the Inga tribe in Aponte (Tablón de Gómez municipality) introduced Liliana Armero Guerrero with the following words:
“Because she is a descendent of the Ancestral People, the Great Inca Nation, who have conserved one of the principles of life, “to love nature”, since we are children of the sun and the earth and they are our Father and Mother. In this way, based on this discipline of knowledge, the applicant will be able to acquire new tools of learning to care for, protect and conserve our Land, being productive, without destroying it, so as to leave an inheritance for the endurance and survival of our Ancestral People in time and space”.
This vision of life, also shared by rural communities with whom we work, has helped us understand and value their thought. This worldview becomes a valuable contribution to the efforts we make in helping to strengthen the communities’ environmental culture. The processes of spiritual growth are fostering an inspiring dialogue between Ignatian and Andean spirituality.
On many occasions, in workshops or meetings, we have heard stories which reveal this wonderful way of understanding the world. Once, in a conversation with Ms Rosa Jojoa, a peasant woman in one of the rural communities where we are present, she introduced us to the world of "chagra", the peasants’ life space, something like the microcosm in which life is sustained.
Ms Rosa told us that "in the chagra we are all Beings and we talk to each other ... if this conversation happens, creation happens. It’s this talking that creates, that makes life blossom and flow... this is the world of the chagra. This is why one speaks to the plants, sings to them, dances with them, dresses them, grows them, and the plants in turn grow us men and women".
These are stories full of meaning which allow us to understand the spirituality surrounding the woods, crops, water and the mountains. This understanding means taking another perspective of nature, far from the utilitarian view of resources. It knows that everything possesses life, life that needs to be dignified by all means possible.
Manuel Ruíz ParraFacilitator
Suyusama Programa of the Society of Jesus
Pasto, Nariño DepartamentColombia
* Suyusama: Quechua word meaning "beautiful
region."
