Father Luis Olivares is an insight into the life and the works of a Catholic priest, Luis Olivares written by Mario Garcia and published by the University of North Carolina Press. It is about the life of a priest who at the same time championed for the rights of refugees through the famous Los Angeles sanctuary movement. He is a faith-driven leader who advocated for social justice through fellow civil rights leaders such as Cesar Chavez who led the United neighborhoods organization as well participating actively in the championing of the rights and freedom of refugees through Olivares’s sanctuary movement.
Father Luis Olivares did what many men of the cloth could not dare do. He turned the oldest church in Los Angeles into a sanctuary and a political asylum for Central American refugees. That was an act of defying the law by a man of the cloth. La Placita being the oldest church in Los Angeles had a significance in the religion of the States. Olivares defied all odds and made it an asylum. This made him turn the country into the plight of all refugees of Latino origin escaping there for help. It is a mixture of both politics and religion that Father Olivares demonstrates in his priesthood and leadership.
In the book, the author has proved beyond reasonable doubt that indeed political asylum seeking for refugees from neighboring countries to the United States is something that has a date with history for some long time. The current US president, Donald Trump, carried out his campaigns by way of reprimanding migrants from Mexico. His authoritarian and chest-thumping campaign to have a wall erected between the US and Mexican border and have Mexico pay for it. The author is trying to show the root cause of refugees and how the involved governments treat them with inhuman policies and regulations. The move to deport the 11 million said undocumented immigrants whose mainly are of Latino origin coincides with the same case that happened during Father Olivares time.
To become the know, Father Luis Olivares, it takes a heart of iron and several factors that are motivating. Olivares motivating factor was human rights and to see refugees have solace and comfort after being fled from their country by the instability of the rule of the Mexican dictator, Porfirio Diaz after being evicted from power in 1917. The turning against each other by various revolutionary groups is what the author terms as the root cause of refugees from Mexico.
The author in that instance depicts that the people have the power to decide who will rule them or not. It this search for freedom and free will in self-rule that caught many Mexicans unaware and forced them to seek asylum in Los Angeles.
History has its place put clearly as what would become the home of Luis Olivares. In Compton California seats two seminaries, the Del Amo Seminary and the Dominguez seminary, with the first being a school and the later being a college being operated by a Claretian order. These buildings are iconic in the history of the making of Olivares.
Olivares left his people, family, and siblings to serve in Los Angeles as a priest. His siblings wanted him not to go, but because of his passion for serving the people, he left his home in 1952. He left home to go and study priesthood fully and concurrently leading the novation and training of new learners into the priesthood. I see this a positive energy and depiction of a game changer of a priest who is ready to sacrifice his personal life for the service of humanity. It is a sign of Olivares being a selfless leader and it this selflessness that geared him to organize and lead the Los Angeles sanctuary movement to save the Salvadoran and the Guatemala refugees in Central America.
Olivares persistence and clear vision can be attributed to what led to his successful completion of his priesthood and hence his ordination to become a full and real priest. The author has shown Olivares persistence throughout his works, a thing which I also hold the same idea about. It was not a short process as it took him long considering the young age in which he joined the priesthood. The author is undisputedly showing that age is just a number and it should not bar one from reaching the destined and admired goals in life. It took Olivares courage and persistence to make it through the seminary considering that many who had joined alongside him did quit. He committed his energy and focused on his strength as it is said he was not excelling in academics. The certainty of his goals and purpose made him overcome the huddles on the way and finally made it through.
The author, just like myself, finds it difficult to figure out what motivated Olivares to change his mind from the human right activists back to the priesthood in the mid-1970s. He had the greatness of power to chose where he wanted to serve, showing that in his priesthood, Olivares had gained much stronger grounds. It is documented that, ha chosen to be assigned Our Lady of Solitude-La Soledad – In East of Los Angeles. It is a figurative depiction of his great connection with Los Angeles and the famous Los Angeles sanctuary movement. It is this connection that made him chose this parish as he wanted to reconnect with his Mexican Americans people he had helped in the sanctuary movement. He worked with these group of people mostly immigrants from Mexico, the poor and the less advantaged. This reconnecting with the poor is a thing perpetrated by his old friend Cesar Chavez with whom they had successfully spearheaded the sanctuary movement and the United neighbor’s organization by Olivares and Cesar respectively.
The author, Mario Garcia has shown the political and religious mixture kind of life that Father Luis Olivares lived. He had to defy the odds of the priesthood and stand for truth, freedom, and justice for the Mexican refugees. He gave them sanctuary in the churches. It is an excellent book to read and learn from.It has a broad wide of themes that can shape and mold society to be a better one. I would, therefore, recommend this book for the interested and any other reader out there who is in much of a mixture of politics and religious faith.