Noted human rights defender Sister Dianna Ortiz passed away on Feb. 19 at 62.
Her life was one of untold bravery. She arrived in Guatemala in 1987 against a backdrop of devastating violence: a decades-long civil war, pitting Marxist guerrillas against the U.S.-backed military, that would ultimately claim 200,000 lives and put her own life at tremendous risk.
As RFK Human Rights’ Kerry Kennedy noted in her statement and interview with the Washington Post, Sister Dianna exuded “a combination of absolute, angelic innocence and this indescribable inner strength to stand up again and again every time she was brutalized.”
Sister Dianna and her life’s work is a focus of our Speak Truth To Power human rights education curriculum. By sharing her story, tens of thousands of young people around the world have been inspired to transform their own pain into action, and ultimately, healing for the world.
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