In the early 1990s, the town of La Florida, in the central jungle of Peru, was not the verdant paradise one might imagine. It was a “graveyard town.” The silence was not one of peace, but of fear. Shining Path ruled the shadows, recruiting children and leaving corpses in the town squares. In this nightmarish setting, where even the bravest fled, a group of women decided to stay. Among them was Sister  Agustina Rivas , known to everyone as  Aguchita .

A life of service amidst toffees and bullets

Aguchita was neither a military strategist nor a political leader. She was a nun of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd who, at 68, fulfilled her lifelong dream: to be a missionary in the jungle. Her “weapon” against violence was everyday life. While terrorism tried to divide the people, she united the women by teaching them baking and caring for the children.

“She never denied anyone a glass of water or food,” the villagers recall. For Aguchita, there were no sides; there were only children of God. Even when violence came knocking, she answered with coffee candies and freshly baked bread.

September 27: The final sacrifice

The tragedy occurred one afternoon in 1990. Aguchita was teaching a group of girls how to make toffees when a terrorist column stormed into the village. With superhuman composure, the nun even tried to persuade one of the young attackers to lay down her weapons and learn to cook with them:  “Don’t be like that, my child… learn to do this instead, come with us . “

The response was insults and an execution order. Aguchita was taken to the main square along with five other local leaders. She was the last to die. A wall in La Florida still bears the bullet holes, silent witnesses to a bullet that pierced her brain but could not extinguish her legacy.

More than a martyr, a beacon of hope

Today, Aguchita’s tomb is a place of pilgrimage. In 2021, she was beatified, becoming a symbol of peaceful resistance. But her impact is not only religious. Her death became a “seed of hope” that has multiplied social work in the area.

The Sisters of the Good Shepherd continue their work in native communities like Alto Yurinaki, empowering women through workshops and education. As those who knew her say,  “Love was stronger than terror .” Aguchita demonstrated that, although the roses of evil try to cover everything, the “roses of good”—as she called her acts of charity—always end up blooming through the cracks of history.

Did you know that…?  Alongside her memorial, the lay people who died with her are also remembered, such as the sisters Efigenia and Jesús Marín, who died embraced by the same gunshot, reminding us that in the Peruvian jungle, faith and solidarity were the only light in the darkness of terrorism.