Career
Alas founded the Foundation for Self Sufficiency in Central America, and is currently the director of the Foundation for Sustainability and Peacemaking in Mesoamerica. Following study of theology and philosophy in El Salvador, Canada, Rome, and Belgium, he began working as a priest in his native country in 1961. While working in the Mejicanos slum of San Salvador, he founded the Cursillos de Cristiandad movement in El Salvador.
During the 1980s, Chencho continued working on behalf of the poor of Central America through a variety of different institutions, including the Inter American Development Bank and Capp Street Foundation.
The signing of the Peace Accords in 1992 brought an end to El Salvador"s civil war. Chencho returned to El Salvador to help found ITAMA, the Institute of Technology, Environment, and Self-Sufficiency.
As that organization"s international representative, he relocated to the United States to facilitate fundraising in this country. In 1996, in order to better work for social justice and economic development, he helped to found the Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America as an independent United States-based non-profit.
In 2000, the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding awarded Alas its Peace Activist Award "in recognition of his dedication to human rights, and notably for his efforts to preserve peace in El Salvador during the violent aftermath of its civil war.".
