“Gallo” and “Morita”, the Jesuits who gave their lives for the Tarahumara

Joaquin Cesar Mora Salazar “El Morita”

Joaquín César Mora Salazar “El Morita” had been in the town where he died for less time than his partner Javier Campos. Born in Monterrey, Nuevo León, on August 28, 1941, he entered the Society of Jesus on July 30, 1958, a year before “El Gallo”, and was ordained a priest on May 1, 1971 in his hometown. .

Since 2007 he served as Cooperating Vicar in Cerocahui, where he died. Before he did his Third Probation also in the mountains and served as Parochial Vicar in Chínipas. “Mora, 81 years old and born in Monterrey, had been in the area for 23 years and was dressed in blue jeans and a plaid shirt. He was calmer than Campos and spoke worse Rarámuri, but he is also remembered as a great missionary”, reviews The country.

The writer Martín Solares recounted that Father Joaquín Mora explicitly asked to serve in this type of colony or community in the states where he lived in Tamaulipas or Chihuahua and that is why he earned the respect of anyone, including himself, who was a student. Also, one of his favorite books was the autobiography of Christy Brown.

Through his Twitter account, he recalled that those who knew him saw only a “handful” of shirts and two “always worn” pants, and he dreamed of returning to Tamaulipas. “Their stories of him highlighted how isolated that community was, how urgent it was to routinely order medicine for it, and above all, their way of living the sacred, which is only appreciated in that place,” he wrote.