José María Vélaz

José María Vélaz (December 4, 1910 – July 18, 1985) was a Chilean-born Jesuit priest and educator. He is known for founding Fe y Alegría (Faith and Joy), a partnership between Jesuit priests, university students and families that began in 1955 in Caracas, Venezuela, and sought community mobilization and the provision of high-quality education for children from impoverished and marginalized communities. Vélaz's work is regarded as a social movement that was pivotal in Jesuit education's shift from the development of middle- and upper-class youth to the popularization of education for the underprivileged in Latin America.