Aug 4

Today we attended about three masses so to speak! After a breakfast of chorizo (sausage), cereal, and bread, we headed out to the Parque Cuscaltlan memorial wall where the four churchwomen, Bishop Romero, and the Jesuit priests, among about 30,000 other murdered victims or disappeared are remembered. Here we saw 43 panesl with not even half of the names of the murdered and disappeared during the civil war of the 1980's. Among the panels is a historical mural that, through stone relief images, articulates the history of El Salvador and much of the oppression its people endured. Additionally, the park had many military tents set up today. These weeks that we are here in El Salvador are considered their holidays or vacation time. There are numerous events going on and parades and such. The military were showing off some of their gear and tactical outfits. I didn't see anyone visiting the tents, so I'm uncertain as to how impressed the average Salvadoran is with its military. After the memorial wall, we took a thrilling ride through the downtown streets of El Salvador to 9:30 a.m. mass at El Rosario Church. Mario, our daily van driver, showed us some of his defensive driving techniques as we dodged several precarious traffic situations. It seems that most Salvadoran drivers don't follow any particular driving laws other than perhaps yielding at sporadic stop signs. They pass when they want, especially it seems in the face of oncoming traffic, make their own lanes at stop signs, and just basically peel out in front of one another. No driver wants to give up owning his/her own road...so no one really yields until they are about 2 inches from their opponent. We even burned a little rubber today to avoid a merging crash with another stubburn bus. We've dubbed our driver Mario Andretti. He likes it. The Rosario Church is very impressive. It looks like a warehouse on the outside. You wouldn't even know it was a church. But the inside is very contemporary with its seating arrangement, natural lighting, stained glass windows, and contemporary stations of the cross. The mass was said by a priest with a thick Spanish accent, meaning - he was from Spain. Definitely challenged my comprehension of the Spanish language. The Rosario Church is also famous for the massacre that occured across the street in the plaza La Libertad during the war. During the civil war, campesinos (country people) were protesting the oppression of the government. The military open fired on the people and they ran for cover across the street at the church. Those that made it to the church ran back to grab and drag the bodies of those who fell during their attempt to seek refuge there. At this time, the government would not send the military inside of a church. It was considered a sacred place that could be used for refuge. The people bolted themselves in the church while the military still fired shots at the doors. The bullets can still be seen in the doors today. Twenty-one people died trying to get in the church, so the people inside who survived the massacre and were inside with the bodies for several days decided to remove the flooring and bury the people under the church. Bishop Romero finally lobbied for the survivors to the government and the survivors were able to leave the church unharmed. Then we headed through the streets of downtown El Salvador to visit the cathedral. Under the cathedral in the crypt is the tomb of Archbishop Romero, a very controversial bishop in the eyes of Rome because he defended the poor during the civil war. He was martyred while saying mass and is now buried in this crypt. Mass is said in the crypt every Sunday and mostly the poorer people attend the mass in the crypt as the wealthier class attends mass upstairs at the same time in the cathedral. The Catholics are very divided over their allegiance to Romero. Some believe he was radical and should not have gotten involved with the civil war by protesting the oppression of the poor, and some believe he should be hailed as a true savior of the people. Rome is now finally considering Bishop Romero for sainthood, although, Rome has never complained to the Salvadoran government about Romero's murder. They just swept it under the rug. As the Catholics are divided over the casualties and blame for the war, so is the rest of El Salvador. Lunch at the retreat house consisted of fried chicken and french fries, so Max was certainly happy about that! We had lunch with a few Maryknoll sisters and several Maryknoll lay missioners working in the field and who we will visit this week. During the afternoon, we were able to get into small groups to learn about the work of each missioner. It gave us a chance to learn their ministry and continue dialogue about the current political status of El Salvador and the role of the church, which has always been quite controversial. Additionally, one lay missioner gave a short presentation on the realities of El Salvador today. These are some of the facts that we learned: El Salvador is in the middle in terms of world poverty. At least 1/2 of the world lives with less than the people of El Salvador and at least 1/2 of the world lives with more. There are 2.5 million Salvadorans in the United States. Four billion dollars annually goes into El Salvador from these people in the U.S. El Salvador is very tied economically to the U.S. So, the stock market crash in 2008 also deeply affected Salvadorans. Service workers earn about $220 per month. Factory/sweatshop workers earn about $190. Farmers - $97. So, a family of four would need about $170 per month to feed itself. Not much left after that. Even professionals with degrees earn only about $600-$700 per month. They too struggle. However, when Salvadorans in the US send money to their families in El Salvador, about they 80% of their money goes to commercial products, while only %20 is dedicated to education, health, and nutrition. They don't spend their money on the things really needed. They invest the money in commercial things because they want to be like people in the US who have things. We learned that gangs and violence are a major disruption in Salvadoran life. The MS-13 is the largest gang that mainly came from immigrants in LA in the US who could not fit into white gangs or Mexican gangs or black gangs. So, the Salvadoran youth formed their own gangs and their own power structures. As they got arrested for crimes and then deported from the US, they brought the gang life with them to El Salvador. The gangs are part of a long history of violence in the country. With so many fathers gone working in the US, it is easy to recruit gang members from even the smallest rural villages. The gangs promise them protection in exchange for their full fidelity. From 2004-2009, El Salvador had more deaths than Iraq due to gang violence. In 2011, it had the highest crime rate in the world. In 2012 the government attempted a truce between the two gangs, the government, and the Catholic Church. They negotiated with the gangs and some say that the murders were cut in 1/2. Others believe that this is a made up statistic. El Salvador is still among the top 20 countries in the world with the most violene. The gangs don't think that they are evil. They truly believe that they are protecting their own. Even the police are paid off by the gangs. They are very, very powerful. Later in the afternoon, we took a walk again to El Mirador (the lookout) where we could see a fantastic view of San Salvador from a high point. There is a cultural arts center there, so people were watching a youth dance troupe and browsing the many venders who tried to sell trinkets, souveniers, etc. There was also an art display and several street performers who dress in various costumes, strike a pose, and stand still for several hours for tips. After a short walk back and then around the beautiful gardens at the retreat center, we had a dinner of soup and pupusas. During our dinner, one of the infamous rainy season storms brewed up and we enjoyed a few minutes of eating in total darnkness while the wind howled and the rain pounded the tin roofs of the retreat center. We bolted back to our rooms and changed our soggy clothes into something drier and finished the evening off with reflection time in the auditorium where everyone shared something that impacted them about the day's events.