[What I learned in Pandemia] Nelly León: "It has been pure learning"

Mientras realizaba su práctica como profesora básica de la Universidad Cardenal Silva Henríquez, un día Nelly León presenció cómo un adulto abusaba de una niña de 10 años. Ese momento “caló tan profundo” en ella que decidió que dedicaría su vida a defender a los más vulnerables. Ahora, 36 años después, forma parte de la Congregación del Buen Pastor, preside el directorio de la fundación Mujer Levántate y es la capellana del Centro Penitenciario Femenino (CPF) de San Joaquín.

With his hair exposed and with a couple of pink glasses that combine with his vest, this 62 -year -old nun says, smiling: "I am very nerd for the photos".León not only works in jail, but night there, along with 460 women deprived of liberty, from Saturday to Thursday.That day he travels an hour and a half by bus to San Felipe and on Saturday night he returns to the penitentiary center.A native of said commune, since December 2020 he assumed the Episcopal Delegation of the Pastoral General of the Diocese of San Felipe.

”La madre Nelly”, como suelen llamarla, decidió acompañar en el encierro a las internas y cuenta que esta experiencia “ha sido puro aprendizaje, pura ganancia” para ella.During the first months of quarantine, I did not even have a personal bath, so he showered in the courtyard, like all the others.Among his many tasks, "I spend my day and I don't realize," he details.Start your morning at 8.00 With a Mass by Zoom next to a virtual community, then serves women prey with their problems and worries that the new inmates receive a silent clothing and cleaning supplies.And when night arrives, he usually reads or studies for the Diploma in Latin American Theology that he is in the University of Valparaíso online.

“On the day it is pure bustle, women in the courtyards are always in activity, or talking, there are noise, music, television. Pero aquí la noche es como salir a escuchar el silencio (…).Little by little I have been knowing what happens.The phones are prohibited here, but more than one has one and lends it to the others, they talk to their children.Anyway, by the pandemic, in the day they were enabled a phone that I managed to call their families, ”he says.

Product of the Coronavirus pandemic, Nelly has had to perform more than five PCR, which have come out negative. Esto, pese al brote que surgió en uno de los 12 patios del centro, el Patio Mandela, el cual está a su cargo. Junto a otras funcionarias, en su momento debieron cuidar de las 51 internas, de mediano y bajo compromiso delictual, contagiadas de Covid-19 recurriendo a limonadas de jengibre con miel y mucho paracetamol. “Ninguna enfermó grave ni fue hospitalizada”, asegura.

Nelly León is the youngest of eight brothers, of which four are still alive.Everyone grew in the heart of a peasant family and attached to religion, where "women were just to marry and have children," says.León lost his mother at age 17, last April to his nephew and last year to his brother -in -law. “Acompañar a las internas en ese proceso es muy duro y doloroso.It's hard, there are no words.Sometimes it's just about hugging, crying with them if you have to do it, contain them. Las palabras quedan cortas”, reflexiona.

The religious work has been highlighted by multiple organizations.His most media moment occurred during the visit to Chile of Pope Francis in 2018.On that occasion, the chaplain pointed out in her welcome speech to the San Joaquín Penitentiary Center that "these women represent the almost 50 thousand poor and vulnerable men and women deprived of liberty, and I say poor because unfortunately in Chile poverty is imprisoned".That fact raised León as a national reference regarding the struggle for women deprived of liberty. Si bien está agradecida de los elogios que ha recibido a lo largo de su vida, dice que para ella lo relevante es que “cuando me muera, me gustaría irme feliz y en paz a la vida eterna por la labor ejercida”.