"I did know that the people were poor. What I didn't know were the causes of poverty and exploitation, or that the poverty was in great part due to the years of colonialism," he recalled. "From the vantage point of today, I can see that there was a certain culpability, not only from the Spanish kingdom, but a certain moral responsibility on the part of the church." Instead of meeting that responsibility, "the church allied itself with those in power who subjugated or enslaved the peoples of the Americas. That realization was a surprise or an awakening to me."

"The awakening inspired change. "I had no other alternative than to figure out how I was going to rearrange my ideas," he observed. "That meant to bring about a radical change in my mind-set and therefore find the way to aid people in changing their conditions." Within the diocese of El Quiche, others had already arrived at similar conclusions by the late 1960s. Luis found a strong movement in which the missionaries felt that preaching the gospel to a "poor, exploited, oppressed, ignorant population" was not enough.

The movement was, in effect, telling people to "wait for the kingdom of heaven and to continue being subjected to the current situation." Instead, these priests increasingly viewed the gospel as the path for people to guide themselves to liberation. Concientizar- to elevate their consciousness- meant to aid people in organising themselves. As Luis remembered his own transformation, "I came to evangelize the Maya of Guatemala, but in the process of getting to know them they evangelized me." [p.52]