Ignacio Martin-Baro

Ignacio Martín-Baró was born on November 7, 1942 in Valladolid of Spain, and he died on November 16, 1989 in “El Salvador”. He was a Jesuit priest from Spain and a great social psychologist who investigated the difficult social and political reality of a small Latin American country: “El Salvador”, where he was teacher at American University "Jose Simeon Cañas” and he founded a prestigious institute of public opinion: the IUDOP. He has published 11 books and a long list of cultural and scientific articles in various journals.

He worked hard for the human rights, the equality and the social justice in “El Salvador”. He criticized the negative impact of United States politics on his country too. He was a follower of the Liberation Theology, he was the father of social psychology of the liberation and he was the main figure of Latin American social psychology, especially in community psychology and political psychology. These are examples about his important work.

I admire him a lot because I think the hegemony of the psychology is only an instrument of the dominant power of the government, and persons like Martín-Baró help to the liberation and emancipation of the popular sector of the society, and they work really important psychosocial aspects of the people.