{"id":20943,"date":"2014-07-16T09:02:34","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T13:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=20943"},"modified":"2014-08-01T14:14:27","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T18:14:27","slug":"our-man-in-mexico-howard-zehr-gets-mistaken-for-a-famous-mexican-poet-so-they-decide-to-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/our-man-in-mexico-howard-zehr-gets-mistaken-for-a-famous-mexican-poet-so-they-decide-to-meet\/","title":{"rendered":"Our man in Mexico \u2013 Howard Zehr \u2013 gets mistaken for a famous Mexican poet, so they decide to meet …"},"content":{"rendered":"

Settling in before a major public appearance in Mexico, restorative justice<\/a> expert Howard Zehr<\/a> was strolling through the market in Victoria, Tamaulipas. It was July 2, a day before he was to be the keynote speaker at the First National Conference of Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms organized by Mexico\u2019s national organization of state courts.<\/p>\n

Zehr was with two friends \u2013 Katia\u00a0Cecilia\u00a0Ornelas-N\u00fa\u00f1ez, a 2013 MA graduate of EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding<\/a>, and Nuri Nusrat. Suddenly the threesome noticed two men staring intently at Zehr. “We ignored them and began to walk away but they approached us, identifying themselves as journalists,” Zehr recalled in a July 15 posting on his blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the journalists, Marco Esquivel, explained that someone had phoned their newspaper office to say that the famous writer and human rights activist Javier Sicilia had been spotted in their city. As any good journalist would, Esquivel acted on the news tip. “I brought my camera and my cell phone with me, ready in recording mode, and I start walking the three blocks from where I am to the capitol of Tamaulipas,” he wrote in an article published on July 2 in his newspaper, Hoy Tamaulipas<\/em>. He continued (translated from Spanish):
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

From behind I see the Javier Sicilia that I was told\u2026 beard, hat, glasses, and I wondered once more, what is he doing in Ciudad Victoria?<\/em><\/p>\n

I get closer and I suddenly stop.<\/em><\/p>\n

I think that is not him \u2013 I say to my self \u2013 and I walk a little more\u2026 he looks a lot similar, they could even be siblings\u2026 but I think that is not him.<\/em><\/p>\n

Once next to him, his accent and the language he speaks confirm it to me ‘it is not him.’<\/em><\/p>\n

The other Sicilia is Dr. Howard Zehr, distinguished professor in restorative justice from Eastern Mennonite University located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA.<\/em><\/p>\n

As Zehr explained in his July 15 blog:<\/p>\n

Sicilia is a poet, novelist and journalist who became an outspoken human rights activist after\u00a0his son, along with six other people, was murdered by gang members. In 2011, he was Time Magazine\u2019s Person of the Year<\/a> as a representative of protestors. A friend of philosopher Ivan Illich, according to Wikipedia<\/a> he has been a major promoter of Illich\u2019s thought in Mexico. He is also well-grounded in the Catholic social justice tradition and widely-known not only for his protests but for kissing his enemies as well as his friends.<\/em><\/p>\n

Esquivel’s article\u00a0 in the local<\/a> paper had this opening line, \u201cWhat the heck is Javier Sicilia doing in Ciudad Victoria?\u201d The lead went like this: \u201cHoward Zehr and Javier Sicilia not only share a similar physical appearance. They also \u2013 in their own ways \u2013 are victims\u2019 advocates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ornelas-N\u00fa\u00f1ez got in touch with a friend of hers, Javier Hern\u00e1ndez Valencia, Mexico’s representative to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, who knows Sicilia. Valencia helped her arrange a meeting between Zehr and Sicilia on July 7 at the home of Ivan Illich in a village where Sicilia lives outside Mexico City. Ornelas-N\u00fa\u00f1ez served as translator and the meeting was video-recorded.<\/p>\n

“By the time we said goodbye on the porch overlooking Illich\u2019s garden, even though we don\u2019t speak each other\u2019s language, I felt I had found a kindred spirit and friend,” wrote Zehr in his blog. “I\u2019ve sent him a Spanish version of Changing Lenses<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em> and I wonder what he will think of it, especially the chapter on biblical justice.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Settling in before a major public appearance in Mexico, restorative justice expert Howard Zehr was strolling through the market in Victoria, Tamaulipas. 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