Presenters at the conference

José María Castillo
Spanish Catholic priest, member of the Society of Jesus until 2007. Degrees in Philosophy and Theology from the School of Theology in Granada and doctorate from the Gregorian University in Rome. He has been a professor of Dogmatic Theology in Granada since 1968. He has also been a guest professor at the Gregorian University in Rome, at the Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid and at the “José Simeon Cañas” University of Central America in El Salvador. In 2011 he received a doctorate honoris causa from the University of Granada. He has been vice-president of the John XXIII Association of Theologians. He is the autor of many books and articles in research journals, public journals, and newspapers, among them the Latin American Theology Journal of the Center for Theological Reflection at the UCA in El Salvador.
Martha Zechmeister C.J.
Martha was born in Austria in the year 1956. Since 1978 she has been a religious sister of the Congragation of Jesus (founded by Mary Ward). She studied theology at the University of Vienna, in Austria. She received her doctoral degree in 1984 and in 1997 became a member of the faculty at the same unviersity. Between 1999 and 2008 she was a professor of Fundamental Theology in Passau, Germany. Currently, she is a Professor of Systematic Theology and the director of the Master's in Latin American Theology at the "José Simeón Cañas" University of Central America in El Salvador. She is responsible for an exchange program with scholarship students at the university: Casa Dean Brackley.
José Luis Sicre, S.J.
José Luis Sicre Díaz (b. Cádiz, 1940), Jesuit, holds his doctorate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He is a Professor Emeritus at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and with the Theology School in Granada. He is the director of the literary and biblical commentary in the Nueva Biblia Española (New Spanish Bible). From 1998 to 2004 he was Director of the Spanish Biblical Association.
He was a guest professor for the Theology School of San Miguel (Buenos Aires) and at the University of Valparaiso (Chile). He has also taught at the “José Simeon Cañas” University of Central America in El Salvador.
Ricardo Falla, S.J.
Jesuit priest and anthropologist born in Guatemala in 1932. Earned his undergraduate degree in Classic Humanities and Philosophy at the Catholic University in Quito (Ecuador). Completed his theology studies in Innsbruck (Austria). He holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Texas. He has been a professor in the public university in Guatemala and at the Jesuit universities in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.
He lived for twelve years with the “Communities of Peoples in Resistance” (CPRs) in Guatemala during the armed conflict. He is, possibly, who has most permanently documented and analyzed the genocide of indigenous communities and one of the first to denounce the massacres committed by state forces, in the most repressive years of military governments in Guatemala. He now lives and works in Santa María Chiquimula, Totonicapán.
Javier Vitoria
Presbyter of the diocese of Bilbao, where he was born in 1941. He holds his doctorate in Theology from the Theology School of Catalonia, he is a member of the Theological and Pastoral Diocesan Institute of Bilbao, Christology professor for the Theology Department at the University of Deusto, and professor for the Theology School of Northern Spain.
Member of the drafting council for “Iglesia Viva” and of the theological area of “Christianity and Justice” in Barcelona. He has been a guest professor at the “José Simeon Cañas” University of Central America (UCA) in El Salvador, and many of his articles are published in the Latin American Theology Journal of the Center for Theological Reflection of this university.
Melinda Roper, M.M.
Entered the Maryknoll Congregation as a religious sister after attending Michigan State University (1955-1957). Has a continuous history of service in Central America that began in 1963 when she began teaching at the Monte María school in Guatemala. In 1966 she joined the Pastoral Center in Mérida, Yucatán, México, where she participated in the catechetical work; as preparation, she spent a year in Chiapas, México, studying the dialect of the indigenous peoples.
After receiving her B.A. in theology in 1971 from the University of Loyola in Chicago, she returned to Guatemala to participate with the Apostolic Center in Huehuetenango. She presided from 1978 until 1984 over the Congregation of Maryknoll Sisters, when Sisters in her congregation, Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, were assassinated in El Salvador, together with two other North American women, Dorothy Kazel, an Ursuline sister, and a lay missionary, Jean Donovan.
Since 1985, she has been assigned to the Vicariate of Darién, Panamá, and together with a team of Maryknoll sisters lives and works with the indigenous, Afro-American, and mestizo populations.
Rodolfo Cardenal, S.J.Jesuit priest. Studied Philosophy and Theology at the University of Central America (UCA) in El Salvador, History at the University of Texas at Austin and Theology at the San Francisco de Borja de Sant Cugat del Vallés Theology School (Barcelona). He received his undergraduate degree in Philosophy from the UCA in San Salvador, Master of Arts (History) in Austin, Texas, and Ecclesial Bachiller in Theology in Sant Cugat (Barcelona).
Since 1980 he has been a professor with the Department of Human and Natural Sciences at the “José Simeón Cañas” University of Central America. He has given courses at the Specialized Institute for Higher Education for the diplomatic formation of the Minister for Foreign Affairs for the Republic of El Salvador and at the Institute for the History of Nicaragua and Central America (IHNCA-UCA). He was the director of the Central American Studies journal (ECA) and of UCA Editores (University Press). He has been Vice-President for Social Projection and Vice-President for Academics at the “José Simeón Cañas” University of Central America. Currently, he is the sub-director and researcher at the Institute for the History of Nicaragua and Central America, University of Central America (IHNCA-UCA) in Managua, Nicaragua, and professor for the Master’s in Latin American Theology of the “José Simeón Cañas” University of Central America. He frequently gives conferences around issues of history, politics, and theology in Latin America, the United States, and Europe.
Mons. José Raúl Vera López, O.P.
Began his religious formation in 1968, as a novitiate with the Order of Preachers (Dominican fathers) in León, Guanajuato, in which he professed vows in 1969. He continued his philosophical studies in México D.F. and his theological studies in Bologna (Italy). His undergraduate degree in Theology is from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He was ordained a priest on June 29, 1975 by Pope Paul VI.
As bishop of Ciudad Altamirano, he founded the “Juan Navarro” Social Center to attend to the poor population of the diocese. He worked together with Don Samuel Ruiz as a member of the Council of Directors at the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center in Chiapas, where he currently presides.
He has been the bishop of Saltillo, Coahuila, since 1999. His pastoral work stands out for: his defense of human rights with the creation of the Fray Juan de Larios Diocesan Center for Human Rights, his support of mine workers’ and other regional labor struggles for better working conditions, helping immigrants by way of the Project “Borders with Justice”, and the creation of the “San Elredo” community, which looks to not only give pastoral accompaniment to young people who are members of the sexual diversity (LGBTI) collective but also promotes and defends the dignity and human rights of the community and their full integration into society and the church.