By Carlos Mendoza-\u00c1lvarez<\/p>\n
Between postwar Europe and the Latin America and Caribbean of the modern mirage, there were flows of life and thought that went back and forth between both shores of the Atlantic. What was once the frontier of conquest, colonization, and evangelization\u2014with the Creole and mestizo creations that reinvented the West during the colonial period\u2014became in modern times an ocean of whispers of new worlds, sailing against the current of progress and industrialization.<\/p>\n
The 1960s saw the emergence in Cuernavaca, Mexico, of a river of thought flowing "north of the future," as Ivan Illich liked to describe the future arriving to us here and now, quoting the poem by Paul Celan, that Romanian-Jewish author who fascinated him so much:<\/p>\n
In the rivers, to the north of the future,
\nI lay the net that you
\nhesitant loads
\nwriting on stones,
\nshades.<\/p>\n
In my hand autumn eats its leaf: we are friends.
\nWe extract time from nuts and teach it to walk:
\ntime returns to the nut.<\/p>\n
It's Sunday in the mirror,
\nIn sleep one sleeps,
\nThe mouth speaks the truth.<\/p>\n
My eye ascends to the sex of my beloved:
\nWe looked at each other,
\nWe say dark words to each other,
\nWe love each other as poppies and memory love each other,
\nwe fell asleep like wine in bowls,
\nlike the sea in the bloody ray of the moon.<\/p>\n
We stand embraced at the window, they can see us from the street:
\nIt's time this was known.,
\nIt is time for the stone to bloom,
\nthat a heart beats in the restlessness.
\nIt's time for it to be time.<\/p>\n
It's time.<\/p>\n
\u2202<\/p>\n
Austrian researcher Isabella Bruckner, a young professor at the Benedictine Athenaeum of Saint Anselm in Rome, who is now moving to Freiburg im Breisgau, organized a European colloquium to delve into the theological legacy of Ivan Illich, tracing the genealogy of his deepest intuitions about the crisis of instrumental modernity, which arose from what he called the perversion of Christianity.<\/p>\n
Together with Professor Martin Kirschner of the Catholic University of Eichst\u00e4tt in Bavaria, I was invited to give a joint presentation comparing the political theology emerging in certain parts of Germany and Mexico, inspired by Illich's intuitions and ideas. The challenge was twofold: to find common ground and an appropriate language to account for experiences of proximity<\/em> \u00a0and conviviality<\/em> in countries so disparate in their political cultures: the German people currently grappling with the European Union's complicity as an ally of Israel and the United States in their geopolitical war in the Middle East, and the Mexican people seduced by the siren song of the Fourth Transformation and the roar of the World Cup, which silences the tragedy of the disappeared and the corruption of the narco-government<\/em> in a large part of the country's territory.<\/p>\n When I was invited to participate, I suggested to the organizer that she invite people who for years have been inspired by Illich's thought, particularly Javier Sicilia, Sylvia Marcos, Roberto Ochoa, and Rafael Mondrag\u00f3n, who are little known in European academia. So I undertook the task of presenting in my paper the central ideas of this critical dialogue on what Humberto Beck called the Cuernavaca School, with the Hebrew and Christian thinker of proximity and conviviality. I emphasized the new paths emerging in Mexico and other parts of the world. world below and of the peripheries<\/em> From the centers of hegemonic power, where resistances flow as other ways of eating, healing and educating \u2014as the late Gustavo Esteva said speaking of revolutionary verbs\u2014 to promote territorial, epistemic and spiritual autonomies that sustain communities and peoples who face the many-headed hydra that devours the world.<\/p>\n One of the Illichan themes that most impacted colleagues in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic was his critique of the pharmaceutical industry, promoted by Western democratic governments that imposed public health policies without considering the autonomy of individuals and communities in choosing the most appropriate ways to confront the pandemic. My German colleagues, Martin Kirschner and Markus Riedenauer, emphasized the continued relevance of this critique of the state's power to impose mandatory vaccination programs, disregarding the serious scientific objections to the indiscriminate use of vaccines and the effects they caused in the population.<\/p>\n Another recurring theme in the Rome debates was that of the territorial, epistemic, and cultural autonomies that arise from placing face-to-face proximity at the center of life, or, in Illich's words, the conviviality<\/em> as a mode of existence and the place<\/em> which is inhabited with the strength of the vernacular. Both in Europe and in Latin America and the Caribbean, these autonomies have been gaining ground in recent decades, with the conquest of bodies and territories by women, indigenous peoples and collectives queer\/cuir <\/em>\/queir, among other resistance groups.<\/p>\n European colleagues were surprised by the diverse approaches to the ethical, political, and spiritual implications of the work of the migrant thinker Ivan Illich. From his diaspora from the clerical Church to his return to medieval classics like Hugh of Saint Victor\u2014and through his time living with Puerto Rican communities in New York and later with peasant communities in Cuernavaca\u2014Illich bore witness to these other worlds that intersect. Fabio Milana, editor, along with Giorgio Agamben, of Illich's work in Italian, presented a gem of archival research from the Illich family to recount Ivan's "vocation," as the young son of a Jewish mother and a Christian father, who cultivated from childhood and adolescence a passion for the thought that arose from Christianity as the event of the Incarnation of the Word of God. This core would later remain as an ember in the work of the migrant thinker to this day, in which we now recover Illich's pristine vision of a powerless church.<\/p>\n The proposal to continue exploring Illich's thought from its various perspectives, both European and Latin American, remains open. We hope to organize a meeting in Cuernavaca that will foster these dialogues and new ways of living together in the conviviality of those who resist the era of the system, reclaiming place and vernacular culture as cornerstones of another possible modernity.<\/p>\n \u2202<\/p>\n This week, cultural writing and painting workshops begin in Sots'leb, as part of the preparations for the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Chiapas Revolution, which will take place on Saturday, June 6th in Zinacant\u00e1n.<\/p>\n I have been fortunate to contribute to the organization of these events, led by Ant\u00fan Kojtom, a Tseltal painter from Tenejapa, and Xun Bet\u00e1n, a Tsotsil anthropologist and poet from Venustiano Carranza. These acts of collective memory seek to explore the enduring presence of the cultures of the Chiapas Highlands and their encounter with the Dominican friars in a dialogue that began five hundred years ago.<\/p>\n A mural on the esplanade outside the San Lorenzo M\u00e1rtir temple in Zinacant\u00e1n will depict scenes from the ancestral religion of the Tsotsil people, such as prayers on the hills led by the Jiloletic<\/em>, The blessing of the grandmothers and the importance of traditional roles as a bond within the community are also depicted. As part of this ancestral history, the mural's center features a scene of an imagined encounter between a Jilol, or Tsotsil seer, and Friar Bartolom\u00e9 de Las Casas, accompanied behind him by other friars who safeguarded the legacy of the Gospel linked to the defense of the people's rights, such as Friar Mat\u00edas de C\u00f3rdoba, who contributed to the independence of Chiapas, and, more recently, Friar Ra\u00fal Vera. jTatic<\/em> Samuel Ruiz walking with the Mayan people. And on the far right of the mural, the master Ant\u00fan created a beautiful scene of the dialogue between the sage of Pochutla. Chan ak'abal<\/em> or night serpent, and Friar Pedro Lorenzo de la Nada, both sitting under a ceiba tree, the sacred tree of the Maya of the Lacandon Jungle, listening to each other: the friar speaking with eloquence and respect, the wise Maya pointing to the earth and touching his heart.<\/p>\n Those who can attend on Saturday, June 6th in Zinacant\u00e1n will be able to participate in the unveiling of the mural, accompanied by Tsotsil poetry and traditional music, thus reaffirming the dialogue of knowledge that we seek to continue promoting between friars and Tsotsil communities, and strengthening the life of the people with the vital sap of their ancestral traditions and the prophetic force of the Gospel.<\/p>\n Rome, May 17, 2026<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Account of the colloquium on the work of Ivan Illich as a theologian, held in Rome, where the similarities and differences in approach to the legacy of the thinker of conviviality are narrated.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":266113673,"featured_media":1875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"postBodyCss":"","postBodyMargin":[],"postBodyPadding":[],"postBodyBackground":{"backgroundType":"classic","gradient":""},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[780850261,780850280,780850241,780850302],"tags":[780850306,780850303,780850182,780849833,780849832,780850173,780850305,780850308,780850304,780849835,780850307],"class_list":["post-1871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dominicos","category-fe-y-razon","category-proximidad","category-resistencias","tag-antun-kojtom","tag-convivencialidad","tag-escuela-de-cuernavaca","tag-gustavo-esteva","tag-ivan-illich","tag-javier-sicilia","tag-lugar","tag-paul-celan","tag-proximidad","tag-sylvia-marcos","tag-xun-betan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgx1jY-ub","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1858,"url":"https:\/\/carlosmendozaalvarez.blog\/en\/2026\/05\/08\/la-otra-europa\/","url_meta":{"origin":1871,"position":0},"title":"The other Europe","author":"mendocinomx","date":"8 de May de 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A narrative of his stay in Germany and Poland where the author recounts his encounters and reflections on other faces of Europe, especially the Baltic Sea and its current inhabitants, with a memory of their Gothic past and the ancient and new invasions they have faced.","rel":"","context":"In "Alteridad"","block_context":{"text":"Alteridad","link":"https:\/\/carlosmendozaalvarez.blog\/en\/category\/alteridad\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/carlosmendozaalvarez.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Carlos-Mendoza-Castillo-de-Malbork-Pomerania-Polonia-2026.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/carlosmendozaalvarez.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Carlos-Mendoza-Castillo-de-Malbork-Pomerania-Polonia-2026.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/carlosmendozaalvarez.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Carlos-Mendoza-Castillo-de-Malbork-Pomerania-Polonia-2026.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/carlosmendozaalvarez.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Carlos-Mendoza-Castillo-de-Malbork-Pomerania-Polonia-2026.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/carlosmendozaalvarez.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Carlos-Mendoza-Castillo-de-Malbork-Pomerania-Polonia-2026.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2033,"url":"https:\/\/carlosmendozaalvarez.blog\/en\/2026\/07\/12\/vulnerabilis-humanitas\/","url_meta":{"origin":1871,"position":1},"title":"Vulnerabilis Humanitas","author":"mendocinomx","date":"12 de July de 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Cr\u00f3nica del conversatorio sobre diversas lecturas de la Enc\u00edclica \"Magnifica Humanitas\" del Papa Le\u00f3n XIV sobre la Inteligencia artificial realizado en Chiapas esta semana. Se enfatizan las voces diversas desde la academia, el activismo social y el mundo de la cultura, con nuevos retos para \"desarmar el poder\" de la\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cara a cara"","block_context":{"text":"Cara a cara","link":"https:\/\/carlosmendozaalvarez.blog\/en\/category\/cara-a-cara\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/carlosmendozaalvarez.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Rebeca-Morimoto-Lima-2021.jpg?fit=1200%2C848&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/carlosmendozaalvarez.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Rebeca-Morimoto-Lima-2021.jpg?fit=1200%2C848&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/carlosmendozaalvarez.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Rebeca-Morimoto-Lima-2021.jpg?fit=1200%2C848&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/carlosmendozaalvarez.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Rebeca-Morimoto-Lima-2021.jpg?fit=1200%2C848&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/carlosmendozaalvarez.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Rebeca-Morimoto-Lima-2021.jpg?fit=1200%2C848&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1779,"url":"https:\/\/carlosmendozaalvarez.blog\/en\/2026\/04\/02\/trilogia-cuaresmal-en-los-altos-de-chiapas\/","url_meta":{"origin":1871,"position":2},"title":"Lenten Trilogy in the Highlands of Chiapas","author":"mendocinomx","date":"2 de April de 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"By Carlos Mendoza \u00c1lvarez. 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