Samuel Ruiz arrived in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, as its bishop in 1959. Many Indigenous people called him Tatic, “father” in the Tzotzil language.
After the Zapatista uprising of 1994, he was the central mediator in the dialogue between the government and the EZLN. He died in January 2011. Five years later, during his visit to Chiapas, Pope Francis went to his tomb.