Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
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Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (born 26 November 1931) is an Argentine activist, community organizer, painter, writer and sculptor. He was the recipient of the 1980
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
for his opposition to Argentina's last civil-military dictatorship (1976–1983), during which he was detained, tortured, and held without trial for 14 months. He also received, among other distinctions, the
Pacem in Terris Award The ''Pacem in Terris'' Peace and Freedom Award is a Catholic peace award which has been given annually since 1964, in commemoration of the 1963 encyclical letter '' Pacem in terris'' (Peace on Earth) of Pope John XXIII. It is awarded "to honor a ...
.


Early life

Pérez Esquivel was born in
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
on 26 November 1931 to a Spanish fisherman from
Poio Poio is a municipality in Galicia, Spain in the province of Pontevedra. Poio is located in the North shore of the Ría de Pontevedra, between Sanxenxo and the provincial capital, Pontevedra. The municipality is adjacent with Meaño, Meis, Ponteve ...
, Galicia, who emigrated to Argentina. His mother died when he was three, and despite his poverty, he attended the
Manuel Belgrano Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano y González (3 June 1770 – 20 June 1820), usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano (), was an Argentine public servant, economist, lawyer, politician, journalist, and military leader. He ...
School of Fine Arts and the
National University of La Plata The La Plata National University ( es, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, UNLP) is one of the most important Argentine national universities and the biggest one situated in the city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires Province. It has over 90 ...
, where he was trained as a painter and sculptor. He was appointed professor of architecture and worked with a variety of
sculptural Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
media, and for 25 years taught in all levels from primary to university. Pérez Esquivel began working with popularly based Latin American
Christian pacifist Christian pacifism is the theological and ethical position according to which pacifism and non-violence have both a scriptural and rational basis for Christians, and affirms that any form of violence is incompatible with the Christian faith. Chri ...
groups during the 1960s. He relinquished his teaching post in 1974, when he was chosen as coordinator general for a network of Latin America-based communities promoting liberation of the poor through
non-violence Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...
.


Plight for human rights

When systematic repression followed the
March 1976 coup March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of Marc ...
, which brought the dictatorship of General
Jorge Videla Jorge Rafael Videla (; ; 2 August 1925 – 17 May 2013) was an Argentine military officer and dictator, Commander in Chief of the Army, member of the Military Junta, and ''de facto'' President of Argentina from 29 March 1976 to 29 March 1981. ...
to power, Pérez Esquivel contributed to the formation and financing of the linkages between popularly based organizations to defend
human rights in Argentina The history of human rights in Argentina is affected by the Dirty War and its aftermath. The Dirty War, a civic-military dictatorship comprising state-sponsored violence against Argentine citizenry from roughly 1976 to 1983, carried out primaril ...
and support the families of the victims of the
Dirty War The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 a ...
. The
NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
''
Servicio Paz y Justicia ''Servicio Paz y Justicia'' (SERPAJ, Service Peace and Justice) is a Human Rights Non Governmental Organisation in Latin America, founded in 1974. It is a Christian based and nonviolent organization, and is committed for the defense of political ...
'' ("Service, Peace and Justice Foundation", or SERPAJ), which he co-founded in 1974, and served as an instrument for the defense of human rights by promoting an international campaign to denounce the atrocities committed by the military regime. SERPAJ is a member of the
International Fellowship of Reconciliation The International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) is a non-governmental organization founded in 1914 in response to the horrors of war in Europe. Today IFOR counts 71 branches, groups and affiliates in 48 countries on all continents. IFOR me ...
(IFOR), which supported Esquivel's work from the beginning. Pérez Esquivel was detained by the
Brazilian Military Police Military Police ( pt, Polícia Militar, , also known as ''PM'', ) are the preventive state police of the states and of the Federal District of Brazil. The Military Police units are the main ostensive police force at the state level and are respo ...
in 1975. He was jailed in 1976 in Ecuador, along with Latin American and North American bishops. He was detained in Buenos Aires in 1977 by the
Argentine Federal Police The Argentine Federal Police ( es, Policía Federal Argentina or PFA) is the national civil police force of the Argentine federal government. The PFA has detachments throughout the country. Until January 1, 2017, it also acted as the local la ...
, tortured, and held without trial for 14 months; during that, he received, among other distinctions, the
Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII ( la, Ioannes XXIII; it, Giovanni XXIII; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, ; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death in June 19 ...
Peace Memorial.


Distinctions

Nominated by 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureates
Mairead Corrigan Mairead MaguireFairmichael, p. 28: "Mairead Corrigan, now Mairead Maguire, married her former brother-in-law, Jackie Maguire, and they have two children of their own as well as three by Jackie's previous marriage to Ann Maguire." (born 27 Januar ...
and
Betty Williams Elizabeth Williams ( Smyth; 22 May 1943 – 17 March 2020) was a peace activist from Northern Ireland. She was a co-recipient with Mairead Corrigan of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her work as a cofounder of Community of Peace People, a ...
, Pérez Esquivel was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
on 10 December 1980, for his efforts in the defense of human rights. Accepting the prize "in the name of the poorest and smallest of my brothers and sisters," he donated the prize money to charity. He remained active in support of the
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is an Argentine human rights association formed in response to the National Reorganization Process, the military dictatorship by Jorge Rafael Videla, with the goal of finding the '' desaparecidos'', initially, a ...
despite ongoing harassment by the dictatorship, and later joined causes in support of the
indigenous peoples of Argentina Argentina has 35 indigenous groups (often referred to as Argentine Amerindians or Native Argentines) according to the Complementary Survey of the Indigenous Peoples of 2004, the Argentine government's first attempt in nearly 100 years to recogni ...
and
environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seek ...
and against
austerity Austerity is a set of political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three primary types of austerity measures: higher taxes to fund spend ...
policies and the
Free Trade Area of the Americas The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was a proposed agreement to eliminate or reduce the trade barriers among all countries in the Americas, excluding Cuba. Negotiations to establish the FTAA ended in failure, however, with all parties unab ...
. Pérez Esquivel was awarded the
Pacem in Terris Award The ''Pacem in Terris'' Peace and Freedom Award is a Catholic peace award which has been given annually since 1964, in commemoration of the 1963 encyclical letter '' Pacem in terris'' (Peace on Earth) of Pope John XXIII. It is awarded "to honor a ...
in 1999. Pérez Esquivel served as president of the Honorary Council of Service, Latin American Peace and Justice Foundation and of the International League for Human Rights and Liberation of Peoples (based in
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
), and as a member of the
Permanent Peoples' Tribunal The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal is an international human rights organization founded in Bologna, Italy, on June 24, 1979, at the initiative of Senator Lelio Basso. It was formed at the final session of the Russell Tribunal as a vehicle to condemn ...
. He published ''Caminando Junto al Pueblo'' ("Walking Together with the People", 1995), in which he relates his experiences with nonviolence in Latin America, and he was appointed Professor of Peace and Human Rights Studies at the
University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one o ...
in 1998. He campaigned during 2010 against the practice on the part of the
Esquel Esquel is a town in the northwest of Chubut Province in Argentine Patagonia. It is located in Futaleufú Department, of which it is the government seat. The town's name derives from one of two Tehuelche words: one meaning "marsh" and the other ...
Police Department of training children into
paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...
squads, an operation that he compared to the creation of
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
's
Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...
.


Recent years

Pérez Esquivel is a permanent lecturer at the
University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one o ...
Faculty of Social Sciences, where he directs the seminar "Culture for Peace and Human Rights". He opposed the European intervention in the
2011 Libyan Civil War The First Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust his government. It erupted with the Liby ...
and warned against an intervention in the Syrian Civil War.Luis Fleishman
The Gaza Crisis and the Intellectual Left in Latin America: A Dark Picture
The Americas Report:
Center for Security Policy The Center for Security Policy (CSP) is a US far-right, anti-Muslim, Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The organization's founder and current president is Frank Gaffney Jr. who is known for promoting falsehoods about former U.S. President B ...
, 6 December 2012
In the aftermath of the
death of Osama bin Laden On May 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden, the founder and first leader of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was shot several times and killed at his compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, by United States Navy SEALs of the U.S. Nava ...
, he sent a letter to President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
suggesting the United States killed rather than tried bin Laden because he could have revealed unsettling information about
9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
. He argued, "You know that there are people who have investigated the tragic events of 9/11/2001 and claim there is evidence that this was a self-coup (self-inflicted attack)." Later, he added, "this event was the perfect excuse to launch a war against Afghanistan and Iraq and now against Libya," and referred to the United States an "axis of evil." Pérez Esquivel expressed himself regarding the historic, 13 March 2013, election of
Archbishop of Buenos Aires The Archdiocese of Buenos Aires (''Archidioecesis Bonaerensis'') is one of thirteen Latin Metropolitan archdioceses of the Catholic Church in Argentina, South America. The Archbishopric of Buenos Aires is the Primatial see (protocollary first-r ...
Jorge Bergoglio as
Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
, stating that as Provincial superior of
Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...
s "he had lacked the sufficient courage shown by other Bishops to support our cause for human rights during the dictatorship." Pérez Esquivel also said that "Bergoglio did what he could given his age at that time." He, however, clarified that the future Pope "was no accomplice and had no links with the dictatorship" and that while "it is said he did not do enough to get two priests out of jail, I know personally that many bishops called on the military junta for the release of prisoners and priests and that these requests were not granted." In June 2017 he has been defending the government of
Nicolás Maduro Nicolás Maduro Moros (; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician and president of Venezuela since 2013, with his presidency under dispute since 2019. Beginning his working life as a bus driver, Maduro rose to become a trade unio ...
, in Venezuela, claiming that the country is undergoing a
coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
attempt, orchestrated by the United States. He was hospitalized in January 2022 following a stroke.


Works of art

Esquivel's workObra Artística
Official website of Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (in Spanish)
ranges from exhibitions to murals and monuments, including the 15 station Latin American Via Crucis (including a Lenten cloth "A new sky and a new land") made in 1992 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the conquest of America; Monument to Refugees, located in the Headquarters of the
UNHCR The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...
in Switzerland; the Latin American Peoples Mural in the Cathedral of
Riobamba Riobamba (, full name San Pedro de Riobamba; Quechua: ''Rispampa'') is the capital of Chimborazo Province in central Ecuador, and is located in the Chambo River Valley of the Andes. It is south of Ecuador's capital Quito and located at an eleva ...
, Ecuador, dedicated to Monsignor Proaño and the
indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
; and a bronze statue in tribute to
Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
at Gandhi Square, in
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
.


See also

*
World Social Forum The World Social Forum (WSF, pt, Fórum Social Mundial ) is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemoni ...
* '' Adolfo Perez Esquivel: Rivers of Hope''


Notes


References


External links


Esquivel's Art – Stations of the CrossC
(English, French, Spanish, Portuguese)

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Perez Esquivel, Adolfo 1931 births Living people People from Buenos Aires Argentine people of Spanish descent National University of La Plata alumni Argentine activists Argentine Christian pacifists Argentine Nobel laureates Argentine Roman Catholics Argentine sculptors Male sculptors Nobel Peace Prize laureates University of Buenos Aires faculty Torture victims of the Dirty War Nonviolence advocates 20th-century sculptors 20th-century Argentine painters 20th-century male artists Argentine male painters Argentine human rights activists