BEANS AND RICE DINNER, MARCH 19, 2010The national White Dove award at the annual beans and rice dinner of the Rochester Committee on Latin America will be presented to Sister Dianna Ortiz, O.S.U., a person of exceptional courage, determination, achievement and humility. Sister Ortiz was born in Colorado, grew up in New Mexico, received a degree in education from Brecia College, and joined the Order of St. Ursula in Maple Mount, Kentucky. She was happily teaching young children, whom she loves, when she felt that God was calling her to serve the oppressed Maya of Guatemala; and so in 1987 she journeyed to San Miguel Acatan in the western highlands of that war-torn nation to teach Mayan children. Unaccountably, she received increasingly violent threats, but she determined to stay for the Maya, whom she now considered her people. On November 2, 1989, she was kidnapped and horribly tortured until the next morning when she seized an opportunity to escape. Tellingly, U.S. officials became furious and revictimized her when she insisted that the man in charge of her torturers was an American. There followed painful years of seeking rehabilitation for herself, an end to the violence against her people, and justice for herself and for them. She joined the staff of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA in Washington in 1994 and in 1998 became the founding director of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International. (www.tassc.org) In 2002 she published "The Blindfold's Eyes: My Journey from Torture to Truth" (Orbis Books), which cannot be read without expanding one's view of what torture really means. Sister Dianna has spoken out repeatedly against torture though she still relives her horror each time she relates it. She has pioneered creative ways for survivors of torture to support each other. Hers in a voice too seldom heard in the ongoing debate over torture: the voice of a survivor. (bio from Malcolm Bell, author of "The Turkey Shoot") The Beans and Rice dinner will be held at the Downtown Presbyterian Church121Fitzhugh St., RochesterMarch 19th, 2010Registration begins at 5:30 p.m.Contact Bob Kaiser, ROCLA convener, at 293-3194 for further information. |
