After years of serving the most deprived in Paraguay and Brazil, the Cabildo of La Palma, birth place of Fernando López sj, has named him favourite son, last October. Since, at present, the Jesuit is working for native rights in the field, the distinction was collected by his brother, Lucas López, Radio Ecca director, who read a letter from Fernando.

In his letter, Fernando spoke about La Palma in his childhood and youth, stressing the multicultural character of the Canary Island´s inhabitants. "Our history as part of the Canary Islands is between cultures". A geographical situation between three continents, which forces us Canarians to understand each other between shores, between three shores".

The understanding among three types of societies and ways of life and the respect for each of them, are the pillars of Fernando´s current work in the Amazonian Itinerant Team. The team is made up of religious and lay men, financed by Entreculturas and works to strengthen native communities to be active in the defense of their rights and in the sustainable development of their environment.

The Jesuit, after years of working with the most deprived of South America, warned the audience in his letter:" the jungle in which I am has no solution until the solution comes from the jungle you are in" thus saying that to change the reality of the impoverished countries, we need to change the attitude of the richer ones.

“I want to complicate my life with those who have nothing" is Fernando´s motto. Fernando was born in Santa Cruz de La Palma in 1960. After studying Physics in Sevilla, he went to Paraguay as a volunteer and joined the Society of Jesus. He studied Philosophy in Asunción, where he joined the Non Active Violence Groups against the military dictatorship, the beginning of the Latin American Human Rights Organization "Servicio de Paz y Justicia-Paraguay".

The Society of Jesus sent him to study in Bellohorizonte, en the department of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. He finished his studies there, whilst getting to know the situation of street children, accompanying them in a solidarity group, until he joined the current Amazonian Itinerant Team.