Aug. 8

Today began with a nice dish of scrambled eggs, beans, bread, and cereal. We boarded Mario's bus and headed to the UCA - The University of Central America where the 6 Jesuit priests were murdered during El Salvador's 12 year civil war. We heard a presentation given by Gene Polumbo, a free lance journalist, who was actively working during the civil war. He was able to provide us with some interesting perspectives on the causes of the war and the very controversial involvement of the US in supporting El Salvador's military troups, those responsible for the slaughter of many Salvadorans. This presentation was given in the Center for Oscar Romero. An interesting point that Polumbo made is that people in El Salvador have never had an opportunity to reconcile with one another. The war was essentially swept under the rug. Nothing has been put into place to let the people deal with things psychologically. They have not even had the opportunity to have funerals for the disappeared. When people can tell their stories, they can begin somewhat of a healing process. We also learned about what it really takes for a peaceful people to take up arms and fight againist the injustices by which they are repressed. Polumbo reminded us that it takes a serious repression to begin a war, and this particular war could have been avoided had people been given some voice and some stake in their own lives. The people in El Salvador had to be at their lowest point to resort to violence. So many people had to go back on their convictions regarding peaceful solutions to conflict. People just got to the Basta Ya - Enough! We can't take it anymore! We also learned that El Salvador's very small elite class got wealthy with the production of indigo, but as the world become more technologically advanced, they had to look for something else. That something else was coffee. They ran people off their lands to the mountains to produce inidigo, and when that went south, they ran the people out of the mountains to grow coffee. The campesino was forever at the mercy of the oligarchy. When people coule only find work picking coffee beans for three months of the year, the rest of the year for them was a scramble to live. After a tour of the campus grounds where the 6 Jesuits and their housekeeper and her daughter were murdered, we visted the chapel where they are buried. Here we saw much of Fernando Llort's artwork displayed in the form of a large crucifix, murals, and stations of the cross, all symbolically representing some of El Salvador's history and the repression. After the visit to the UCA, we went on to the Soy Project where lay missioner Ann Greig has engineered a food supply operation where she makes soy products to aid in providing better nutrition to the poor. When we arrived, they served us a soy lunch. We had tempe (a soy based meat), cilantro rice, boiled eggs, vegetables, tortillas and jamaica juice. For a sweet treat, she served us soy banana bread and coffee from the cooperative we will visit tomorrow. Around 25 families visit the soy project daily to get milk, bread, oatmeal and rice, etc. They bring their own containers for the foods. They pay about six dollars per month to do this daily. Most pay $1.50 weekly to be able to make ends meet and still buy the products. The soy helps to increase the height and weight of the children, but making the products is very labor intensive. Other parish communities have become interested in Anne's work at the soy project, which depends on funding from outside sources for her to be able to buy equipment, beans, bananas, and pay her workers. She buys about 50-100 pounds of beans per year, which are not readily available in El Salvador. So they must be shipped in from elsewhere. After lunch we saw how soy milk was made in her back room facility. Then we visited a base community, San Ramon, which is a few blocks away and serves about 40 families. We walked through littered streets to get there. Ann Beatriz, one of the leaders of the base community, told us how the community supports one another at their building by working together to find resources for things people need. They've also formed an association with 9 other base communities that do different activities together in parks and plazas. They go to the Parque Cazquetlan where the wall of memory is each 1st Saturday of the month. They promote activities to remember the things from the war to give memory to the people who died. Above our heads was a map of El Salvador depicting the 227 massacres that took place between 1974 and 1991. The groups often travel around the country to these sites to remember what happened. The idea here is to give the people some time to tell their stories and heal, something that neither the government nor the Catholic Church has done for them. As mentioned before, the Catholics in El Salvador are very divided over the war. Thanks to the Bishop there, this will continue because there has never been a directive from the Church to provide healing for the people. They've never been given a public apology for the war by anyone. Even though the people in the base community call themselves Catholic, they are not supported by their local pastor at the local parish because of their efforts to bring healing to the people. They have communion services, but the bread is not consecrated. Not even Rome (under the former Popes) recognizes the need for base communities. The official church in El Salvador does not celebrate Romero or any martyrs. The present archbishop says to forgive and forget, but this does not legitimize what happened for these people. The priests even paint over any images drawn on church property of the martyrs. The San Ramon base community sells arts and crafts created by its community members, students at UCA, and other artists in other base communities. We shopped here to support their work. So many beautiful things made by the hands of so many people who have suffered for so long. It's amazing that they can even create beauty given their horrid and detestable history. The store there has to be discreet about selling the items as gangs are very prevalent in the area and often times rob those who shop there or extort money from some of the artists who have their own shops around El Salvador. So, if it wasn't already bad enough for them, things can be worse.