Aida – martyr in the struggle - Cinquera, Cabanas

part of a wall mural in Cinquera

I can never get over the violence that people can so casually inflict on others.  Today we were in Cinquera, an area that was very active during the war.  The area was totally destroyed and while there is a thriving hamlet here now, it is a fraction of the population that lived here before the armed insurrection.

Many community members and insurgents were killed here during the struggle against the army but one story stands out for me.

During our tour of the town center, we heard the story of a 17-year-old pastoral worker named Aida.

She was from Cinquera and was an active member of the church here.  She was not a combatant; not involved with the FMLN or any of its associate groups, she was a parish organizer, and she was just 17 years old.

Being a parish worker in El Salvador in the 1970’s and 80’s was much more dangerous than you would think.  In the 1970’s, a popular bumper sticker read ‘Be a patriot, kill a priest’.

This was the political climate where priests and even archbishops were assassinated with impunity, where carrying a bible could get you tortured and killed.

Aida was taken from her home in front of her mother.  She was put into a potato sack and was sat on by the Guardia as they took her back to Suchitoto for questioning.  She was tortured and raped by the soldiers at the base.

Her fingernails were cut off along with one of her ears.  Her breasts were cut off and  stakes were driven into her body.  Even when she was dead they continued by burning the body with acid.

Aida’s body was found with another community worker on a road outside of Cinquera.  Her family and friends quickly buried her in the cemetery in town.  This too was dangerous work.  The Guardia used to wait for bodies to be picked up off the street so they could identify new people to pick up.

The manner of Aida’s death was very typical during this period. Hard to believe that anything so horrible could ever be seen as typical. The military believed that they could intimidate the people and thereby cease opposition to the brutal regime in San  Salvador.

The murals of Aida and other Salvadorans in Cinquera are a testament to the bravery of these great people.  

I am glad we had a chance to witness their stories.

Aida from another wall mural in Cinquera 

Education in San Jose las Flores: the reconstruction continues

This is an installment in a whole series of posts I have written over the years on my trips to El Salvador.  We bring down students and teachers and try as much as possible to focus on education.

For North Americans, it is difficult to imagine the poverty and struggles that people in Latin America face every day to make ends meet and live what we would consider a normal life.  Education and health care are two keys areas where the struggle is most poignant.

While here in Canada, we have areas of great poverty, we also have the infrastructure that can support people and we do have excellent health and education services.  Students and educators really need to visit countries like El Salvador and immerse themselves for awhile in these daily struggles.

Travel means entering into solidarity with our sisters and brothers in other countries and I really believe it is essential education.

Education is the key.  I have written about the destruction of this town and its resettlement six years later during the war.  The reconstruction continues today through the education of the children of San Jose las Flores and surrounding communities.

Every time we come to this community, we spend most of our time at the school.  In the education of the children, you can see the long-term response to the massacres of the 1930's and the 1980's.  You can not keep down the creative human spirit.  If you try to crush it, it will spring up again revitalized and recommitted to finding a better way and a brighter future.

we meet the kindergarten class

There are 280 students from kindergarten to grade 9 at the school.  Some of the students walk for over an hour to reach the school every day.  They have a computer lab, a music room, a kitchen that serves meals to the kids throughout the day, a beautiful kindergarten room and an amazing garden!

The school is linked to  schools in the Ottawa area.  Both these schools provide funding each year for projects of importance to the San Jose las Flores community.  The high school also sends students and teachers to the community each year.

There are so many other schools that needs partnerships like this.  The partnerships are really important and there is important learning on both sides.

Nelson is the principal of the school, having been elected by the teachers for this role five years ago. Can you imagine if we could elect our school leaders?  This is a process unique to this community where all important decisions are taken by the entire community.

The school is always innovating.  There are at least twenty projects that students can volunteer to work on.  We spent most of our time going through the huge garden that has morphed into several long-term projects including an irrigation system, a poultry farm, a large-scale composting system, a future fish pond and  wide variety of fruits and vegetables grown to feed the school children.

Nelson with one of the school chickens

There is so much going on here, this really needs to be taken in over a few days. During our last trip, we spent eight days at the school and we were still discovering new projects and ideas. 

I love coming here, there is so much joy, so much promise.  The key in the future will be to find ways to keep these students here in their community.  While the children can go to high school in San Jose las Flores and university in San Salvador, will there be jobs for them when they finish?  

This is certainly a challenge for the new FMLN Government, but at least it is a challenge they are willing to address.  


More on this in the next post.

The kindergarten classroom 

On to San Jose las Flores

We moved from La Palma on Sunday morning and drove to San Jose las Flores, one of the great highlights to any Compadres trip to El Salvador.  There is so much to write about this community it is hard to know where to start.

San Jose las Flores is a community of around 1500 people in Chalatenango.  It is a very hilly area, close to the Sumpul River.  We always go to San Jose las Flores because it is one of the best examples of well organized, repopulated communities in El salvador.

The community was decimated at the beginning of the war, many of the original inhabitants were killed during the Sumpul River Massacre.

Troops attacked the hamlet with artillery and fire from two helicopters. The villagers and other people displaced by the operation attempted to cross the Sumpul river to take refuge in Honduras. Honduran troops deployed on the opposite bank of the river barred their way. They were then killed by Salvadorian troops who fired on them in cold blood.

Sumpul River Massacre noted on the memorial
in Cuscatlan Park 

 For six years after the massacre the village remained empty.   Many of the homes were destroyed during the fighting.  People either lived in the hills or in one of the refugee camps in Honduras or San Salvador.

In 1986, with the help of CRIPDES, the Church and international organizations, the people reoccupied the town. People were not necessarily from San Jose las Flores, but this is where resettlement started so this is where the people in exile came to.

The original group of 28 families celebrated mass when they returned.  While the church was still standing, it was not safe to go inside - one of its walls had been destroyed by the army.  The small community started to rebuild the houses and cultivate the land. 

Within six months, people were able to celebrate their first corn harvest.  Film taken at the time shows people transformed from war worn refugees to proud and healthy (especially the children) community members.

The community has been growing and developing ever since.  Its strength is in its organization and commitment.  They now have two schools, a co-operative community kitchen, a bakery, grocery store, community recreation center, artisans center and much more.

This community was not defeated by the military oppression of the civil war years.  It thrives and is considered a model community for the rest of the country.

The new enemy are the Canadian mining companies, but more on this later.

Sunday morning in La Palma

It is Sunday morning, 6:15 am in La Palma, El Salvador. This is a beautiful town in the mountains. We are surrounded by pine trees and bamboo and the guest house we are staying at is serene and beautiful.

We arrived here yesterday afternoon after a long drive from the Mayan ruins at San Andreas. Before that we visited the Joya de Cerén Mayan ruins (a UNESCO World Heritage Site).  The ruins are incredible.  Joya de Cerén was a small Mayan village that was covered with volcanic ash and debris, eventually covering the entire site in 10 metres of sediment.  The site is perfectly preserved, right down to the fingerprints in the food the inhabitants were eating before the eruption.

San Andreas - it is thought that there is a path that links the two sites

Close by is San Andreas, a spiritual and economic center for the Mayans.  Only 5% of this huge site has been uncovered.  To date there doesn't seem to be the money of the political will be start more excavations.

Both sites show the power and complexity of Mayan society in this part of Mesoamerica.  Just like our Romero tour, our Mayan tour was an essential part of setting the historical context for our tour.

One of the excavations at Joya de Cerén

Today, we will be visiting an artisans co-op in this area and then we are off to Miramundo near La Palma.  This will be a first visit for me, so I can't write anything about this, but if it is these mountains, it will be beautiful.

Later this afternoon, we will set out for San Jose las Flores, a community that is very close to my heart.  Holy Trinity High School and St. Gregory School in Ottawa are both linked up to this community.  We will have two days here and this will be a great experience for the group.

Here they will learn about the struggles of the people during the war and the incredible community spirit that is now working to counter the threat from Canadian mining companies, certainly the pirates of the 21st century.

More on this later.

a painting in San Jose las Flores that became the logo for Compadres y Comadres

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With Oscar Romero

This day of the tour always sets the stage for the remainder of the tour.  Today we spent the morning learning the history of El Salvador with Equipo Maiz, an amazing session that answered some questions but left us with many more.  Our presenter was Carlos, and we were very fortunate to have him with us.

He started with the earliest history of the Pipils  and moved on to the revolt of 1932.  Such an incredible story.  He referenced Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America during his talk and it was easy to imagine Galeano right there presenting with him.  This is a book that I recommend you read if you want to understand the Latin American condition.

My background is history and I don't believe you can really understand a country unless you understand the story of its people.  We now have some of the background that we will need for the remainder of our journey.

A graphic from an earlier presentation by Equipo Maiz

His presentation was terrific.  We then spent the rest of the day visiting some of the key sites from the war.  We started with the tomb of Oscar Romero then visited the memorial to civilian war dead in Cuscatlan Park.

Here you see history.  A tragic history.  Here are recorded the names of all civilians who were killed or disappeared during the war.  I photographed the etched names of Oscar Romero, Rutillio Grande, Ita Ford and Jean Donovan - two of the American nuns murdered in 1980.  I saw the records of massacres in Mozote, the Sumpul River and the Cathedral of San Salvador.  

It really is a tragic history.  

We finished off with a tour of the Jesuit University - UCA.  Here, in 1989 six Jesuits, including the president of the university along with their housekeeper and her daughter were murdered by government soldiers. Another terrible, horrible tragedy in a war that never should have happened.

This time I focussed on the drawings of torture victims from the war.  They sketches are truly horrible, but they are accurate drawings of what was done to civilians during the war.  I think it is important to reflect on these drawings so one can see something of the horror of what was done to these people.  I hope you take a look at these last two photos.  This is what happens in countries like El Salvador.  We can only stop these tragedies if we educate ourselves about the extreme injustice that exists in the world.

This is why we are here - to learn and never forget.

Related articles

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Starting today with Equipo Maiz

We are starting today with Equipo Maiz an amazing popular education NGO.  I will transcribe their presentation here later, but we will all be wi-fi free until later today.

Next we will visit the sites connected with Oscar romero.  It will be a full day!  We will be learning a great deal.

More this afternoon.

First Day in San Salvador - CRIPDES, CORDES, Volcanoes

Looking down into the mouth of the Boqueroncito cinder cone

Our first day in San Salvador is done and I am writing while the rain comes pounding down around us. This has been a great first day.  We have been introduced to the work of CRIPDES and CORDES and we visited the mighty Boqueron Volcano.

The volcano was really impressive.  You can't miss it when you are in San Salvador, it dominates the landscape and the city creeps up the western bank of the volcano.  It last erupted in 1917 but the structure surrounding the volcano goes back at least 40,000 years.  We didn't actually go down into the cinder cone - that is at least a 1.5 hour hike down and another 3 hours back up.  We were happy to watch other hikers at the bottom of the cone.  The flowers here were beautiful and the climate cool, a really nice beak from the heat, noise and bustle of the city.

We nestled this visit between meetings with CRIPDES and CORDES, sister organizations involved in social, political and economic development in over half of the departments of El Salvador.  This is where our trips always start, with the work of these two great organizations.  They have both been so important to the reconstruction of this country.  At one point, before the FMLN came to power they were the only agency that provided the necessary support for communities to rebuild during and after the war.

This is the beginning of the narrative of this trip.  Tomorrow it continues with a visit to Equipo Maiz, an organization that specializes in popular education and then on to visit the sites connected with Archbishop Oscar Romero.  This second day of our orientation will set the context for everything else we do on this trip.  Tomorrow will be another full day, it will be very emotional for the group members as they learn more about the struggle that flamed into civil war with the death of Oscar Romero.

It will be a great day!

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