RAMÓN ZUBIETA: A PROPHET IN THE MIDST OF THE PEOPLE

As a Congregation, we are celebrating the centenary of the life of dedication of Ramon Zubieta, father and true prophet among his people. We cannot hide the treasure that he is, we have to preach it to the four winds, also because, today as yesterday, our world lacks models of life and committed sanctity..

I must confess that I only “discovered” Ramon Zubieta in the Latin American Juniorate, through our dear sister Cecilia Valbuena, because until then it was Ascension Nicol who had captivated me and contributed to the awakening of my vocation with the books Flori and A Woman Who Makes History. It was only in the juniorate that I became truly aware that Ramon was not a secondary figure in the history of the Dominican Missionary Sisters of the Rosary, and since then I have been “in love” with his life and mission..

To be a missionary was his life project from the beginning of his vocation. For this reason, although he carried out and participated in many actions, he always identified himself as a missionary. From this central experience emerged the principles and causes that guided his existence and the driving force of his relationships with others. Ramón Zubieta is on a par with the great missionaries of America, including the Dominicans, pioneers of a prophetic evangelization incarnated in reality, such as Antonio de Montesinos, Bartolomé de Las Casas and more recently Gustavo Gutiérrez.

He was part of the first group of Dominican missionaries of the Vicariate of Santo Domingo de Urubamba and Madre de Dios in Peru. Anthropology was still in its infancy and the evangelization of the jungle population was done from the outside culture, but Ramón, although with scarce and rudimentary means, undertook his mission seeking above all to study the geography and cultures of the peoples of the Amazon jungle. Although he was a man of his time, he had such a vision of the future that today we are surprised by his modernity in the way he responded to the needs of the world in which he lived. He took advantage of the technical advances of the industrial revolution and brought them to the heart of the Amazon rainforest. He directed the installation of telephone lines, improved roads, built bridges, made maps of unknown territories and navigable river areas, studied the language of the natives, created dictionaries, designed schools to teach the children of the rich rubber tappers and the natives born in the interior tribes together, all because love is always creative and Ramon had an open heart and mind.

When the missionaries arrived, they became defenders of the natives and for this reason they harvested the enmity of the “civilized”. The main source of income of the Urubamba was the rubber trade, the rubber tappers exploited the area far from civilization and the authorities and supported by the force of their firearms, they chased the natives arresting them to turn them into slaves in their rubber plantations. The women were great victims of these raids, in addition to being kidnapped many of them were taken for prostitution. Many of the local authorities allowed themselves to be corrupted and bribed by the rubber tappers or traders, receiving as gifts some of the natives as slaves. But he did not let himself be defeated and defended the rights of the natives and repeatedly went to the authorities, both local and national, to denounce the abuses. He wrote: “The missions with their respective schools can be the best base and principle for the peoples of these regions… the natives know very well that the missionary will not be their chief or master, but their loving father, who will protect them against all the abuses to which they are subjected in many places, where there is no other authority or law than that of brute force”. Ramón did not limit himself to denouncing and exposing the complaints of the natives, but also proposed solutions to the problem.

A missionary with an incarnated spirituality, he nourished it in his missionary experiences, which were marked not only by difficulties and pain, but also by great joy and profound happiness. He was an explorer and an illustrious scientist; but the driving force of all his actions was love for God and for human beings. He knew how to discover the constant and loving presence of God in events and in people. For him, therefore, organizing the Church in the jungle implied a new way of understanding, acting and evangelizing. His wit and love for the people made him approach them as a friend, revealing an enormous humaneness and respect for the human person. It is not surprising that Ramón Zubieta, like other pioneering missionaries, was a pioneer of a new evangelization, which starts from the concrete reality of the people and tries to respond to it.

The urgency of the mission, the need of the people of the jungle and the willingness of the religious to leave, contributed to his becoming the leader and animator of a group of women open to the Spirit, who accepted the adventure of being missionaries. Both Ascension and Ramon were people aware of the reality of their time and eager to contribute, with whatever they could, so that the world would truly become the Kingdom of God.

The first MDRs discovered their ability to face the dangers inherent in the commitment they were taking on, which was considered madness for the society and the Church of the time. Their courage and capacity for risk were admired by Msgr. Zubieta, who referred to them as: “these heroines have gone where no woman has gone before”. He also recognized that Mother Ascension Nicol is the soul of the Work: “I see that her Work is of God. I have great faith in her and I hope that she will be the salvation of the missions through the education of women, something that is absolutely necessary and that we cannot do”.

His life culminated with the co-founding, together with Ascension Nicol, of the Congregation of the Dominican Missionary Sisters of the Rosary, on October 7, 1918, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. A work created with love, accompanied by care and carried out with optimism and hope. In the missionaries, faith shone like a luminous ray, confirming that the formation and evangelization of the women of the jungle was the basis for the transformation of the family and society. Ramon Zubieta’s dream was fulfilled and, just three years later, he left for God, in November 1921 in Huacho (Peru), at the age of fifty-seven.

This story of love and dedication did not die with Ramon, the PROJECT, as it was of God, grew and it is with profound joy that today, the MDRs extend to the four corners of the world. In the same line of women disciples who listen to the call of Jesus and joyfully welcome the missionary sending, the Dominican Missionary Sisters of the Rosary are inscribed. We want to place ourselves in the trail of our Founders and of countless women sent to announce the Good News, in the manner of Our Elder Sister. We feel surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, women and men of all peoples, times and cultures, who have made the words of Jesus their own.: ” Go out to the whole world and make disciples of all nations ” (Mt 28,19).

The Dominican Missionary Sisters continue today to feel called to raise the “tent of mercy” and compassion in contexts of need, as in the prisons of Kinshasa or Ayacucho, in the accompaniment of people torn apart by the violence of war and in helping to “rebuild” their lives in Congo and Cameroon. Also in situations of impoverishment and extreme vulnerability, in shelters for children and women in Timor and Angola; committed to networking in the Amazon rainforest, for justice and peace and the human rights of indigenous people. Committed to the fight against discrimination and the promotion of the integration of immigrants and ethnic minorities in the 6 de Mayo Social Center, on the outskirts of Lisbon; works for the promotion and empowerment of women in Mozambique and India.

For us, it does not consist in reproducing actions and lifestyles, but requires us to be in a dynamic search for new ways of living the charism in the world and in the concrete reality in which we live: with authenticity in the daily commitment to the cause of the poor, in the experience of God’s closeness to the marginalized, in the practice of a simple, poor and solidarity life that seeks to build bonds of fraternity and communion with all people.

Porto, 2 February,  2021

Mafalda Moniz