Our History
The Chiapas Project : A Catholic Worker Community
The history of the Chiapas Project, clouded in a haze of selective memory, probably starts with Richard Flamer and his disillusionment after his time in Vietnam with the U.S. Army. The need to atone combined with intellectual pride sent Richard Flammer along a path of violence, arrogance and academia.
Heading to Central America during the 1980`s, Flamer discovered a theology of liberation. He eventually converted to Catholicism after having witnessed the martyrdom of lay and frocked followers of the Catholic Church within which he could find faith and hope. After years of photographically documenting the stark realities of war and poverty in Central America and southern Mexico, he returned to the Midwest. There, Flamer lived and worked in a Catholic Worker Community helping with carpentry and construction.
He returned to Mexico to start the Chiapas Project in San Cristobal de Las Casas. There, he worked with Bishop Samuel Ruiz and various clergy to start a community center with the acronym of SYJAC (Service to our people in Tzol Tzil). The following seven years were spent supporting and building the community center which includes a day care center, a modest kitchen, and classrooms for adult literacy, sewing and carpentry.
