Father Pedro Poveda was ahead of his time. When education was neither seen as important nor a priority, he was the one to realize that it's the key to human progress.
'Our fellow cave dwellers do not have much and it's time to confront the underdog, the hungry, the naked, the uneducated children.'
He began his mission by serving those in the outskirts, the disinherited people who inhabited the caves of the city of Guadix, Spain.
RAÚL ESCUDERO
Actor, 'Poveda'
'Priest, teacher, humanist and innovative.'
This is how Raul Escudero describes Fr. Poveda. He is the actor who plays him on the big screen in the movie 'Poveda.' Throughout his life, he demonstrated that his important personal interest was womens' access to education and, above all, his role as an educator. So he founded the Teresian Association, now present in over 30 countries.
PAUL MORENO
Director, 'Poveda'
'Poveda fascinated me from the start. I love it. I thought he had a great presence. I wondered: 'How could you not know this man, as important as he was?' He is, one might say, one of the first modern feminists from Spain. It is a pedagogue from head to toe.'
The film also narrates how he revolutionizes the concept of school with his collaborator, young Josefa Segovia, one of the first women graduates in Education.
ELENA FURIASE
Actress, 'Poveda'
'I think she was a very modern woman, despite everything. I think that she is a woman who faced her family, society, and the culture of their time.'
Both of them expanded the institution to several Spanish cities in the 30s, while the political and social tension was increasing.
'Violence is not the way.'
'The atmosphere is thinning.'
It was then that the religious persecution, that ended up costing him his life, ensued. On the night of July 28, 1936, he was shot out of hatred for the faith. His last words were: 'I am a priest of Christ.'
In 1974, UNESCO recognized him as a humanist and pedagogue. He was beatified in 1993 and canonized in a ceremony in Spain by John Paul II in 2004.
