Instituto de Estudios e Investigación Intercultural (INESIN)

Last night I met Martin Ernesto Guerrero in the Tuxtla bus station at midnight, completely by coincidence. Ricardo and I arrived with neither a plan nor a place to stay. As we huddled to discuss where best to sleep for the night, Martin, proudly wearing an INESIN t-shirt, called out a greeting of welcome to Ricardo from across the people filled bus station. On the day of their anniversary, which I found out later, Martin was waiting with his wife who was traveling to Oaxaca to visit family.

We had planned to meet Martin this morning in San Cristobal at INESIN (Instituto de Estudios e Investigación Intercultural), where he is the director, and MCC worker Eliesio Soares works. After an exhausting day and wanting nothing more than to fall asleep, our chance meeting was as welcome as his invitation to sleep at his house. A man of unending energy, he happily chatted as we piled into the old beat up car with his daughter and her boyfriend, as we ate tamales and tacos at a road side stand at 1am, and as we finally decided where everyone, including his three twenty something children and friends, would sleep in his house.

The five hours of sleep did nothing to rejuvenate me and did nothing to drain Martin’s unending reserve of joy and energy. Through my half open eyes, I was amazed at the hop in his step as we walked to the combi (public transportation van) that would take us to San Cristobal, 45 minutes away.

Martin’s energy and enthusiasm serve him well as the director of INESIN as well as his work with the Nazarene churches in Tuxtla, one of which he has been interim pastor for about a year. Martin has been in leadership at INESIN for the last five years, after two MCC workers who were part of the initial work of the organization left. INESIN was established in San Cristobal in 2002 in attempt to create a space for study, dialogue and mediation among the highly contentious groups of Catholics, Evangelicals and indigenous in Chiapas.

For years, communities have been in conflict as evangelicals have made small inroads in traditionally Catholic communities. Due to the integrated Catholic traditions in community life, it is not so simple to separate community life and Catholic customs, which has led to conflict within the community. Families have had to flee communities and in extreme cases have been killed. However the situation is much more complex than religious conflict due to political, economic and international pressures that have muddled the picture. It is within this context, INESIN, under the leadership of a positive and active director, work to find peaceful solutions and initiate forums for dialogue.