This is the sixth in my series, Warriors for Peace: Veterans Speak. It is an amazing story about a man who has dedicated his life to peace, social justice, and human rights after serving as a fighter pilot at the end of WWII in Japan. He was my Science teacher at the Carmelite Junior Seminary in Hamilton, MA in 1959 having recently returned from three years in Wolfnitz, Austria living a contemplative life. He later became involved in the Civil Rights Movement while in Washington, D.C., where he befriended Stokley Carmichael. He later went to the Carmelite missions in Sicuani, Peru, high in the Andes mountains. While there, he met and worked with Sister Betty Campbell, a Mercy nun and a nurse.
Peter left Peru because he became a threat to the status quo, embracing Liberation Theology and the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. He and Betty founded Tabor House, at first in Washington, D.C. and then moving to San Antonio, TX, and then to Juarez, Mexico where they have been for the past 20 years working with the poor and living in the barrio.
I traveled to Juarez in March of 2015 to spend a few days with Peter and Betty. Three videos resulted from this visit: 1) this Veterans for Peace profile, 2) a 2 hr video of the Life and Times of Peter Hinde, and 3) the history of Tabor House.
Peter is a member of Veterans for Peace, and protests against war every Friday across the border in El Paso, TX. He and Betty have made numerous trips to Central and South America to bring back first-hand, eye witness testimony about the horrible effects of U.S. foreign policy in so many of those countries.
Some of the video is a bit out of focus because some of my equipment, including a tripod and lights did not arrive. I had to balance the camera on several books which made it difficult to focus. Nevertheless, the story more than makes up for this slight imperfection.
I plan to return in the springtime to make another film about their work in Juarez and the impact U.S. foreign policy and NAFTA have had on this poor Mexican community which was once called “the murder capital of the world.”