Samuel Ruiz Garcia's Liberation Theology

Liberation theology and images that immediately come to mind are those of 1960s-style antiwar, anti- establishment priests like the Berrigan brothers or, more recently, Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia and his obvious sympathy with the downtrodden Indians and Zapatista rebels in Chiapas.
Liberation theology didn't begin with the Berrigan brothers or Bishop Ruiz. As far back as the l5th and l6th centuries, a remarkable man devoted the greater part of his 92 years on earth to ameliorating the lot of non-Caucasian people who lived in the vast Spanish empire. First known as a protector of Indians, he also became an advocate of black Africans who had been brought over by the Spaniards as slaves.
Las Casas was born at Seville in 1474. His father, of humble origin, could accurately be described as a nouveau riche. A common soldier under Columbus in his first voyage to the New World, he acquired enough wealth in the Indies to send his son to the prestigious University of Salamanca. For one who attained such prominence as a cleric, Bartolome was rather tardy in taking religious orders. Though he studied both divinity and law, he took only a law degree when he completed his studies in 1498. In 1502 he accompanied the conquistador Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo to the New World in what was then the

In 1510, at age 36, Las Casas finally entered the priesthood. Ordained at Santo Domingo, capital of
Hispaniola, he was the first priest ever to be consecrated in the colonies. The following year he accompanied the expedition that set forth from Hispaniola to occupy