MONSIGNOR LEONIDAS PROAÑO: BIOGRAPHY - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Monsignor Leonidas Proaño (1910-1988) was an Ecuadorian priest who dedicated his life and work to the defense and education of indigenous rights. In this sense, he was deeply involved with the communities most in need to understand their problems and fight to find a solution.

Proaño was recognized by Pope John Paul II as the "bishop of the poor" for his excellent management in the defense of their rights and, particularly, for the creation of an educational system through the foundation of the Popular Radio Schools of Ecuador (ERPE), through which more than 20 thousand people became literate.

He was also one of the great representatives of Liberation Theology in Ecuador, thanks to his particular way of exercising the priesthood by being closely linked with the peoples, living like them.

All his work in defense of the rights of those most in need earned him the nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, a candidacy that was strongly criticized by the traditional wing of the Church as a "communist bishop."

In 2008, the Constituent Assembly of Ecuador named Monsignor Leonidas Proaño as an emblematic figure of the nation, considering him an example of the struggle for the defense of indigenous peoples and those most in need, by opposing oppression, exclusion and discrimination. marginality, fighting them through education.

Proaño's legacy is maintained -particularly in the Riobamba region, where he was bishop for more than 30 years-, since the defense of the indigenous cause continues; Furthermore, the government has undertaken various educational initiatives to continue combating illiteracy and poverty, following the example of the "bishop of the Indians."

Biography

On January 29, 1910, Leonidas Eduardo Proaño Villalba was born in San Antonio de Ibarra, the result of a marriage between two peasants dedicated to making woven straw hats: Agustín Proaño Recalde and Zoila Villalba Ponce.

The poor peasant couple dedicated themselves to hats to educate Leonidas, the only one who managed to survive, as their three eldest children died.

In her early years, she supported her parents in the exhausting work of weaving toquilla hats in the family workshop.

Interest in painting

At the end of primary education, he was 12 years old and had the dream of being a painter and enrolling in the San Antonio Artistic School founded by Daniel Reyes, who had studied in Quito.

However, the dream of art stopped before the call of God. At the suggestion of a parish priest to his parents, in 1925 he was enrolled as an external student at the San Diego de Ibarra seminary, from which he graduated as a bachelor.

Studies

At the age of 20, he entered the Major Seminary of Quito and was ordained a priest in 1936. Since his ecclesiastical formation, he was interested in the doctrine of the Church and its different tendencies.

In his native Ibarra, he began his apostolate taking care of the situation of young workers, for which he founded the Catholic Worker Youth movement.

Riobamba: concern for the Indians

In 1954 he was appointed by Pius XII -the then Pope- bishop of Riobamba, where he began his fight for the defense of indigenous rights.

He was always concerned about the precarious situation of the Indians, in general the poor, so he decided that the best way to exercise the priesthood was by abandoning privileges and living like his parishioners.

He dressed like the poor, with a poncho, and went into the moors to find out his situation. Thus, he saw firsthand how the landowners exploited the indigenous people, whom they kept in extreme misery and with a complete loss of their human dignity.

Due to the closeness he had with the peasants, they called him the “Taita Obispo”, since in Quechua (indigenous language) Taita means “father”.

Lead by example

His concern about the situation of the Chimborazo Indians began as soon as he was appointed bishop, as is demonstrated in a letter he wrote to Professor Morales in 1954, which represents a glimpse of what his pastoral plan was: “(…) I would like to give to the Indian: awareness of his human personality, lands, freedom, culture, religion… "

Realizing that the Church was a large landowner, in 1956 it began to distribute the lands that belonged to the diocese, marking a milestone in the history of Ecuador almost a decade before the enactment of the first agrarian reform.

With this act - controversial in the eyes of the most traditional wing of the Church - the poncho revolution began, in which the indigenous people of Riobamba demanded from the landowners their rights to the lands they worked, a situation that spread to other localities of the Ecuador and that they also followed in other parts of the continent.

The uncomfortable bishop

Within the framework of his educational ministry, he founded the Popular Radio Schools of Ecuador (ERPE) in 1962, as a system through which indigenous people could be educated to make them literate, since approximately 80% of this population could not read or write.. Programs were broadcast daily in Spanish and also in Quechua.

With all his educational program, he managed to combat illiteracy as a key factor for indigenous peoples to emerge from the unworthy conditions in which they lived.

Thanks to his apostolate in defense of the needy, he participated in the Second Vatican Council. Before this event ended, in 1965 he signed with 40 other bishops the Pact of the Catacomb, in which they promised to live under conditions of poverty and found a Church for the poor.

His influence spread throughout Latin America, which is why in 1969 he was appointed by the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) as president of the institution on pastoral care in the continent, whose headquarters was in Quito.

Vatican surveillance

Given that his action was within the parameters of Liberation Theology and that his commitment was for the poor, the conservative wing of the Church was openly opposed to him, to such an extent that in 1973 the Vatican sent an emissary to investigate his alleged communist actions.

When Proaño learned of this visit, he spoke with his parishioners, who organized a reception for the apostolic visitor. Thus, the indigenous people showed the envoy of the Holy See the conditions in which they lived and how the management of the so-called bishop of the Indians had had a positive influence.

All this allowed that emissary to verify first-hand that, thanks to the pastoral work of Proaño, the communities had a very close relationship with the Gospel, so the Holy Father should not worry.

Another act that revealed that Monsignor Proaño was an uncomfortable bishop for certain elites was that in 1976 he was arrested along with other priests who were gathered in Riobamba, since the triumvirate of the military dictatorship accused them of conspiring to overthrow him.

Recognitions

All of Proaño's life was oriented towards this option for the poor, which is clearly evidenced in his four publications: Rupito (1953), Conscientización, evangelización y politica (1974), Evangelio subversivo (1977) and Creo en el hombre y en the community (1977). These works collect her thinking about the poor from a different perspective.

Proaño was a priest who always worked for the defense of the marginalized fighting for their inclusion, which won him certain adversaries even within the Church itself.

However, the affection of the poor earned him with his close management, which earned him that in 1985, during a visit by Pope John Paul II, he recognized him as the "bishop of the Indians."

That same year he resigned from the episcopate in Riobamba but did not retire from pastoral life. In 1987 he was honored with an honorary doctorate by the University of Saarbureken in Germany. In addition, he was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Just a month after his death, in July 1988 he was honored with the Bruno Kreisky Prize for the defense of human rights, an award given in Austria.

Death

At the age of 78, Monsignor Leonidas Proaño died in Quito on August 31, 1988 in conditions of poverty. In faithful fulfillment of his last will, they buried him in Ibarra, specifically in the community of Pucahuaico.

In 2008, the Constituent Assembly designated him as a national symbol and an example for generations by exalting his fight for the defense of the rights of the poor, in which he fought exclusion, marginalization and misery with faith and education of indigenous peoples.

Monsignor Proaño was a pioneer in the struggle for the demands of the indigenous people in Ecuador, it can even be said that in the entire American continent. Today his legacy remains valid while the indigenous peoples continue to demand their rights.

References

1. "26 years after the death of Leonidas Proaño, the country still remembers him" (August 31, 2014) in El Comercio. Retrieved on January 25, 2019 in El Comercio: elcomercio.com
2. "Biography of Monsignor Leonidas Proaño - Summary of his life and works" (March 2018) in Foros Ecuador. Retrieved on January 25, 2019 from Foros Ecuador: forosecuador.ec
3. Lamport, M. (2018) Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global South, Volume 2 at Google Books. Retrieved on January 25, 2019 from Google Books: books.google.co.ve
4. "Legacy of Leonidas Proaño, the 'priest of the Indians', struggles to remain in force in Ecuador" (September 2, 2018) in El Universo. Retrieved on January 25, 2019 from El Universo: eluniverso.com
5. "Leonidas Proaño, National Symbol Character and permanent example for all generations" (July 25, 2008) in Christian Networks. Retrieved on January 25, 2019 from Christian Networks: redescristianas.net
6. "Monsignor Leonidas Proaño is the fifth emblematic character" (April 9, 2018) in the Ministry of Education. Retrieved on January 25, 2019 from the Ministry of Education: educacion.gob.ec
7. Romero, M. (December 2017) «The taita of the poncho revolution» in Periferia. Retrieved on January 25, 2019 in Periferia: periferiaprensa.com