UN Tribute to Monsignor Romero Highlighted in El Salvador

SAN SALVADOR - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador highlighted a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly that pays a fitting tribute to Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero.

In a communiqué sent to reporters, the Foreign Ministry reported the declaration of March 24 as International Day of the Right to Truth in relation to serious violations of Human Rights and Dignity of Victims.

The Foreign Ministry added that in this a way the UN pays a fitting tribute to Archbishop Romero, a tireless defender of human rights until his assassination on March 24, 1980.

This initiative recognizes the need to promote historical memory and the importance of the right to truth and justice, the Alternate Permanent Representative to the UN, Carlos Garcia, said.

The resolution, proposed by El Salvador, was cosponsored by 45 countries, including Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Cuba, Denmark, Finland, France, Guatemala, Hungary, Nicaragua, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico.

On March 24, President Mauricio Funes acknowledged Romero's legacy and on behalf of the Salvadoran state apologized for the assassination perpetrated 30 years ago, the Foreign Ministry said in the memo.


http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2010/november/14/centralamerica10111402.htm

Papaturro, El Salvador, 10 August 2010

Dear Family and Friends:

A week ago Monday I got up at 4:45 am to catch the 5:10 am bus (one of three buses daily that makes it down to Papaturro). Destination: Suchitoto for our Annual Evaluation of our Microlending Projects. The 20-minute ride up to the main road was routine, making it easy to daydream as I looked out the window bouncing along the sometime cobblestone road with short stretches of cement (the rest of the time: dirt, mud, and one-foot deep ruts), the dawn breaking on the eastern horizon—cloud-capped mountains and long-dormant volcanoes in the distance, and corn fields for miles around. El Salvador makes me a morning person (not my normal state in the US), one of her many gifts to me.

The morning bus ride ended up being the first and last thing that was normal about this day. We got to the main road to find out that there was a transportation strike on the route that runs from the capital of San Salvador to the colonial pueblo of Suchitoto where we were headed. Not exactly music to my ears in light of the fact that we were planning to bring together 100 women for our annual evaluation in two hours. So, I got on my pre-paid Salvadoran cell phone and started calling around. There were other people waiting up the road, including one of the project coordinators. We made a couple more calls and found out that the buses were running from the western part of the province, and that (hopefully) the only folks stranded were our three groups out on the eastern highway. Our only option was to get one of the drivers from Papaturro to round up the women who were attending from our community and come in his truck and pick up all of us waiting on the highway. Twenty minutes later it was all set up, and a half hour after that, we were on our way to town!

Amazingly, 90 women made it to the meeting, transportation strike and all. And we had a very fruitful morning of reflection and sharing on this important work of empowerment of women. In the words of Candelaria, one of the project coordinators, “These funds are not a donation, they are a tool for organization. We must claim each project as our own and make it work for our community, providing women with the opportunity for economic independence AND strengthening the organization of women throughout our zone. Through Project Salvador we are becoming creators of our own future.” From our humble beginnings in 2003 with a $1000 donation that I brought to the Women’s Committee in Papaturro, we now have microlending funds in 19 communities in north central El Salvador, available to 2400 families. In the past six years over 600 women have received almost 1300 loans of $50-$300. And our board decided this year to expand to five more, bringing the total number of communities to twenty-four. It is quite inspiring!

Juxtapose the euphoria of this day, with the reality that the transportation strike was in response to the latest extortion demand of one of the Salvadoran gangs who are charging monthly payments from the bus owners. The co-op of buses that do the San Salvador-Suchitoto Route 129 were paying $300 per month. They were told by the gang leaders that they had to start paying twice that amount. The Coop board met and decided to call the transportation strike in protest! A very bold move, likely to result in more than one death--the way the gangs pressure businesspeople into paying up is by killing those who don’t. My ride back home on the back of the truck was tempered by this sobering reality, as we watched the streets emptied of the primary source of transportation for the poor majority in El Salvador.

A driver on a different route was actually killed the morning of the strike, for not paying the fee. The death toll for the year just in the transportation sector was already at 71 when I was here earlier in May. It is likely well over 100 by now. The Route 129 drivers were to be spared this time, as the Coop board paid the $600 extortion fee and the buses were up and running again the next day.

My time in El Salvador is full of these kinds of dichotomies: the artisans we work with continue to seek ways to earn a just wage, as they have been for 20 years now with Project Salvador; the youth ecology committee in Papaturro is organically developing a community-wide social consciousness around the environment, appropriate technology and conservation—with resounding success; the Project Salvador board has decided to walk with Sr. Isabel in metro San Salvador supporting her dreams of a youth center to address the gang violence in the parish of Plan del Pino; and the PICO Central America leaders from El Salvador and now Guatemala are seeing the results of effective community organizing as they celebrate the significant gains in creating a public dialogue around community safety in this violence-ridden land. I am deeply blessed and privileged to witness all this work firsthand and I could go on for a long time, telling stories of ordinary (“marginalized, poor, uneducated”) people doing extraordinary things. I am constantly learning, and in awe.

Meanwhile, at a national level, things are grim. Much like the rest of the world, the economy here has gone completely down the tubes. Most things cost as much here as in the states—food items, clothing, shoes. Rent is somewhat cheaper, gasoline is more expensive, medical care is pretty low-cost if you are willing to wait, but medicines are not easy to come by in the public health care system and not cheap in the provate sector. The minimum wage here is about $200 per month in the city and less than $150 in rural areas. Unemployment is 30%, underemployment another 30-40% (unless you can call selling candies or fruit or pupusas or hair accessories on the bus a real job.) Most of the people I know are subsistence farmers. They would keel over and think they had gone to heaven if they saw $150 a month. A struggling economy, rampant gang violence, surely it is not a wonder that Salvadorans, especially the youth, continue to head to the States. The going rate now is $7000 for a long (15- to 30-day) exhausting, dangerous trip al norte.

I was blessed during a morning of visits to microlending projects to learn Candelaria’s story. It came out slowly; as I drove, she spoke: A victim of sexual abuse at a young age, she left her mother’s home when she was nine to escape the abuse. She remembers sitting out in the cold, by the side of the cowpath that lead to her now-abandoned home, ready to kill herself by taking rat poison (she had heard on the radio that someone had killed himself that way); her brother, who had followed her when she snuck out of the house, talked her out of it. (Her eyes welled with tears as she recounted his own suicide a few years later, by the same means, with no one there to help him see the value in living as he had for her.) She ended up being taken in by her older sister where she was again victimized. She fled at 17 by moving in with her boyfriend and was a mother within a year. Now, at 25, she and her partner have both gone through a transformation, as she has come to understand her power as a woman, to name and stop the abuse, to believe in herself and her capacity to shape her own future. Much of this has come about because of her involvement with women’s organizing in her community and now at a regional level as a young leader. Her partner has benefited from similar work with men that looks at oppression and machismo and how to relate to women—in public and in personal relationships— in a way that is mutually respectful and empowering. Candelaria would like to continue her education (she finished high school a few years ago) and be able to model for her daughter the endless possibilities that exist for women in El Salvador today. I believe she will!

There are the comical/dramatic moments as well—The winner this year was definitely the ride home on the back of the 8-ton farming truck with 3 newly acquired cows, one of whom decided to pee and then poo right next to one of our visitors, Michelle, who had “won” a week-stay at our house at a silent auction fundraiser in Denver. She was not a happy camper to say the least. Driving a truck over the washed out bridge at Agua Caliente was a close second, and then making it up an incline that was clearly not ever meant to be a road (Marleni reminded me after we arrived that last year the driver had left the car down at the main road…); we somehow made it to our meeting with the microlending group in Pepeishtenango, and back to Suchitoto, gracias a dios.

And there’s been plenty of play time, too: With two sets of visitors here (all silent auction winners!), I got to do two more tours through the Mayan ruins at Joya de Ceren and I am as in love with them as ever. Buried under volcanic ash over 1500 years ago, they are the only ruins in Mesoamerica of peasant dwellings-a unique window into the daily life of the native people who farmed this land so long ago; they are now on the not-to-be-missed list for visitors here. Wish I had discovered them sooner, but sie la vie.

Tom was here for ten days, and fit right in to life in the campo. We spent our first three days in the eastern part of the country seeing firsthand the flood recovery efforts in Tierra Blanca where my dear friend Elena Jaramillo has lived since 1988. We spent the rest of the time in Papaturro, which gave me a chance to relax in my hammock, catch up with friends and enjoy our incredible garden—including a new (volunteer) papaya tree by the compost pile and zinnias galore (thanks to my daughter Silvia)—which means the butterflies are back in full force—beautiful beyond words.

My two-and-a-half-year-old grandson Angelito was here for most of the month of May as my daughter, Susana & son-in-law, Neris, and I played tag team so we could all spend time with 88-year-old Teresa, my kids’ Salvadoran grandmother, who fell at the end of April and broke her leg at the hip. She is recovering as well as could be expected and we are hopeful she will walk again someday. Meanwhile, Angelito is very comfortable in Papaturro. He enjoys all the animals, the freedom to run and play, being with all his friends and relatives—especially his grandparents, aunt Silvia and cousin Tatiana. It is truly a gift to be able to share this life with him, and all my grandkids—number seven, Anthony Rodrigo, is due in November (to Tony and Isabel)!

Silvia got her nose pierced (the first in Papaturro!), her daughter Tatiana lost both her front teeth this summer, Lidia and Regina each had a baby, we did two HARD jigsaw puzzles this year (we usually just do one), made it to the Children’s Museum, the bookstore at the Jesuit University and the Shicali ceramics co-op (providing dignified employment to disabled people in San Salvador), saw two movies and had lunch at Pizza Hut (three times!), did an overnight excursion to the beach— jumping to our heart’s content in the warm Salvadoran surf, and I read five books— The Life of Pi, Three Cups of Tea, Isabel Allende, Ursula Hegli and Tony Hillerman—yes, some parts of life are universal, wherever you are.

I found countless images running through my mind this year as I traipsed through the countryside—all the years I have been coming to El Salvador, the hundreds of stories I have heard, the people I have known, the experiences that marked me and my children’s lives forever. I wish I had the time to start to write it all down. Could be an interesting tale…Maybe during my sabbatical in 2011!?!

My time here is drawing quickly to a close. I leave on Sunday, August 15, a quick 3-day stop in Denver, and then I am off with Tom for a 9-day trip up to southwestern Idaho for five days of rafting on the Lower Salmon River. My summer break ends on August 29 and then it’s back to reality? Or is it? Something to ponder.

Off this goes, then, into the cyber waves, with warmest greetings to each of you and blessings always, patty

Yesterday's Press Conf & Rally Report Back! & ACTION ALERT: VETO SB 1070!

The American Friends Service Committee, Faith and Immigrant Rights Groups to Decry Arizona Bill and Draconian ICE Action
Say to President Obama Stop Separating Our Families
The Arizona state legislature recently passed Senate Bill 1070 which would institutionalize racial profiling and the division of families. Thursday, around 1,000 law enforcement agents aggressively descended upon Arizona communities from Phoenix to Tucson, creating extreme panic. On the heels of a yet to be signed SB 1070, this raid further terrorized community members and left them wondering if they are now living in a police state. ICE claimed to be targeting a smuggling ring. While only 47 people were arrested, the impacts were felt throughout Tucson, Phoenix, Nogales as ICE vehicles and masked agents roamed the streets.
As part of a national response to these brutal actions, the American Friends Service Committee held a press conference in Denver today at El Centro Humanitario para Los Trabajadores in solidarity with the communities of Arizona resisting fear and repression.
Dr. Phil Campbell from the Iliff School of Theology, led the crowd in prayer to open the conference, while more than 60 people listened with head bowed.
People traveled from Boulder, Longmont and Greeley to the rally. “This bill is so hateful. I can’t believe I live in a time where people are asked for their papers based on what they look like, like Nazi Germany. I had to come out and show my support for Arizona communities and to stand against this kind of bill” stated Bob Norris.
Jennifer Piper, from the American Friends Service Committee spoke next, “The actions by the Arizona senate and ICE this past week do not recognize the contributions of immigrants and divide our communities. The truth is that immigrants are intricately part of our community, anything you do to them; you do to all of us. We reject this bill. We reject the raids and heightened enforcement of the Obama administration, which deported more people last year than the Bush administration did. We call on President Obama to stop the raids and put energy into passing just and humane immigration reform this year”.
Jenny, a mom and leader with Rights for All People, spoke about how dangerous legislation like this is saying “This legislation forces law enforcement to spend more time acting as ICE agents and spend less time on community safety. Victims and witnesses of crime will be even more afraid to call the police for help.” Jenny called for people to contact Arizona Governor Brewer and ask her to veto the bill.
“Already, pastors across Arizona are receiving panicked and fearful calls from their communities asking what will happen to them now” said Jeff Johnsen of Mile High Ministries “This type of legislation divides our community and puts families under greater threat. I believe in the rule of law, but I also believe as Christians we have to advocate for just laws.”
Alec, of Centro Humanitario added that workers rights are impacted by raids and enforcement resulting in bad actor employers being able to take further advantage of their employees. “We need immigration reform, not the enforcement of broken laws. I challenge the community to do more than just come to this press conference, more than just march on May 1st, get involved with a group and make your voice heard”, said Alec.
In addition to the humanitarian and community safety reasons for opposing the bill, many law enforcement groups in Arizona opposed the bill based on cost. According to the Arizona newspaper Phoenix New Times, Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden said “that his county would have to pick up the tab for training costs related to the legislation, and the cost of holding more inmates on state charges in his facilities. "We don't have enough people to be doing what we're supposed to be doing anyway. But you have to prioritize. And if you start spending less time on property crimes and personal crimes, you don't want to do that." Secretary Napolitano, in response to letters from law enforcement opposing SB1070, came out against the bill in March saying it took away law enforcement’s ability to prioritize.
Adding insult to injury, ICE conducted massive visible raids on Thursday in Tucson and Phoenix in “Operation Plain Sight”. More than 1,000 heavily armed law enforcement officials descended into local communities, many of them wearing masks. In a press release from an Arizona, Kat Rodriguez of Derechos Humanos described ICE's chaos, "There was a massive show of force, with helicopters, dozens of agents, police vehicles, and weapons, assaulting our community in a fashion never seen before." She continued, "This raid marks a new low in the Obama Administration's lack of accountability".
Reverend Woodliff-Stanley, board member of the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado closed asking “Who is important in our community?” The crowd answered “Everyone!” Rev. Woodliff-Stanley ended by saying “The timing and scope of these raids almost seem designed to maximize fear in the community. We are all one community, one human family, and we all deserve respect and to have our inherent dignity recognized”.
For Immediate Release: Monday, April 19, 2010
Contact: Jennifer Piper, jpiper@afsc.org , 720-301-1858 or Jordan Garcia, jgarcia@afsc.org 303.919.8798

At Coloradans For Immigrant Rights, we KNOW that the immigrant communities of Arizona are often a testing ground for anti immigrant legislation that will then permeate the rest of the nation. As neighbors to Arizona, let’s stand in solidarity with communities resisting repression!
Sabemos que las comunidades inmigrantes de Arizona muchas veces son usadas como lugar de prueba para legislación anti-inmigrante que después inponen por el resto del país. Siendo vecino de Arizona, penémonos en solidaridad con las comunidades resistiendo represión.
Para leer esta mensaje en español, clic aquí
We Are All Arizona/Todas y Todos Somos Arizona
Stop the Criminalization of Immigrants, End Racial Profiling!
Demand that Governor Brewer Veto SB 1070
This week, Arizona could make history and protect human rights by VETOING one of the worst anti-immigrant and racially targeted laws our nation has seen in decades.
SB 1070 was passed by the Arizona state legislature and awaits the signature of Governor Jan Brewer.
Raise your voice now for justice & equality: We are all Arizona
Click here to read and sign the petition to tell Governor Brewer to VETO SB 1070.
In no small coincidence, on Thursday, April 15,the Department of Homeland Security carried out multiple massive raids in Arizona, terrorizing hundreds of workers, families, and children. Over 800 ICE agents were joined by U.S. Marshals and local law enforcement, causing fear and panic across several Arizona communities while the state legislature passed SB 1070, which permanently criminalizes the immigrant community.
With one click, help our sister communities in Arizona to stop DHS attacks on our rights and the new Arizona law. Click here to tell Gov. Brewer to veto SB 1070, the anti-immigrant racial profiling law.
If signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer, SB 1070 would:
• Criminalize all undocumented immigrants as "trespassers" in the state of Arizona. SB 1070 would subject all undocumented workers and their families to arrest and conviction for misdemeanors, and in some cases felony charges for the new crime of "trespass" (reminiscent of HR 4437, the 2005 'Sensenbrenner bill').
• Legalize unchecked racial profiling by police of anyone they "suspect" is undocumented.
• Give police the authority to enforce federal immigration law and arrest people who cannot produce identification proving their legal residency in the U.S.
• Give police the power to investigate and entrap employers for hiring undocumented workers.
• Make seeking work illegal for day laborers and force all individuals, regardless of immigration status or citizenship, to carry identification papers or be subjected to detention and even deportation. Public agencies and service providers would have authority to demand identification documents from any person.
We are ALL Arizona
The repercussions of such a law will be devastating for immigrants and all communities of color in Arizona. Moreover, SB 1070 will have dangerous consequences, setting a national precedent for states and federal law, permanently criminalizing immigrants.
The DHS raid and SB 1070 law in Arizona are a turning point in our fight for socially just immigration reforms. The "immigration blueprint" announced by Senators Schumer and Graham last month is a proposal that allows such criminalization of immigrants. It promises to "fill gaps in apprehension capabilities" that will likely lead to the use of local police nationally to terrorize immigrant communities.
The VETO of SB 1070 will send a historic signal to Congress, the Obama Administration and the country that the further criminalization of immigrant workers, families and communities will not solve the problem.
Tell Gov. Brewer to VETO SB 1070 and raise your voice for socially just immigration reforms that uplift human rights and dignity.
Thanks to folks at presente.org for their support of the petition process.
________________________________________
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Monseñor Romero’s Legacy Lives On

By: Gabriela Flora, AFSC
Today Salvadorans and people across the world will commemorate the life and legacy of Monseñor Romero on the 30th anniversary of his assassination as we did last night during a snow storm here in Denver.

Many priests (in addition to thousands of civilians) were murdered in El Salvador by the military government funded and trained by the United States. Romero stands out because he was part of the oligarchy, entrenched in the power of the church and state. He was chosen as archbishop of San Salvador in 1977 because it was believed that he would tout the conservative government line, rein in the priests supportive of the working class, and turn a blind eye to the violence in the name of “fighting communism”. Romero’s career was taking off in the conservative hierarchy of the church. But the injustice of what he witnessed led him to risk it all to the point of death to speak out against inequality, exploitation, injustice and extreme violence.

I had the privilege this past January to spend eleven days in El Salvador with students from the Romero House at Regis University. The trip was a pilgrimage exploring the life and legacy of Archbishop Romero, the reality of military rule and support of the U.S. in the devastation and the current reality of an FMLN president and hope for a better future. Woven into all of this was the underlying current of immigration.

Beginning with a visit to Divina Providencia, Archbishop Romero’s home and church where he was assassinated to the site of his tomb, Romero’s spirit accompanied us as we met the Salvadoran people and learned of their experiences in the war and have they have coped since the peace accords.

Monseñor Romero’s spirit is a transformative one. The final act that led Archbishop Romero to no longer accept the justification and rhetoric of the government and military was the assassination of his dear friend Father Rutilio Grande, a priest who lived amongst the people and supported them in their daily struggles against violence, both economic and physical (as the two were intimately tied together). After Father Grande’s murder, Romero refused to turn a blind eyeto the violent realities in Salvadoran poor communities; he refused to officiate at any government sanctioned event and became a spokesperson of what the people were witnessing in their communities. On his weekly radio program he described the atrocities experienced by his parishioners and name the murderers; a powerful act in a country where all media was controlled by the economic elite.

Romero’s transformation is central to his legacy. He was a man whose eyes were opened and vowed to give voice to what he saw. The elite tried to dismiss his voice, but the people strengthened their power through his radio programs and outreach to communities and he supported their organizing through communidades de base. While trained and inducted into a very hierarchical perspective on the church, he was transformed by the Salvadoran people and their struggle and came to believe in the walking church- that God rests not in a vested few, but rather in the actions, beliefs and struggles of the common people, that God’s work is not in preparing for heaven, but in ending poverty and working for justice in this life.

During my time in El Salvador I saw Romero’s compassion and grace in the eyes of Jonathan, Rogelio and Angélica among many others. Jonathan went to the mountains at the age of 12 to join the guerillas after his brother was disappeared. He shared how, after the peace accords he worked with all those who disarmed (FMLN and military) to obtain training and access to services. When I asked him if it was hard to work with the former rank and file military men, he said it was at first, but then he realized they were poor like him and in the same situation (although the former military were given prime land and easier access to credit than former FMLN).
Rogelio was nine years old when his whole community was massacre. We sat at the site of his former community and Rogelio shared the horrors he experienced and saw when the Atalcatl brigade trained at the School of the Americas killed 150 people including all his immediate family in front of his eyes. His humble expression of the atrocities was beyond words. Our time at the site ended by holding hands in a circle and praying for peace.

Angelica, our host at the home we stayed at in Papaturro told of why she and her community had to flee to refugee camps in Honduras. She told of the fear they lived in… how a military soldier chased her when she was eight months pregnant, how that same soldier later came to her house and demanded to know if she was feeding the guerrillas. “Yes, I feed the guerrillas” she responded. Continuing she said, “and I feed the soldiers too, God said feed the hungry, cloth the naked, house the homeless, he did not say kill and slaughter your neighbor.”

Commemorating Romero’s assassination and more importantly his life, is not just to remember the terrible injustices in El Salvador and role the US played, but to carry Romero’s spirit with us as we work to change the current policies, beliefs and institutions that maintain countries like El Salvador at levels of inequality similar to pre-war numbers. Part of what draws me to AFSC, is that our work is based in an understanding that economic injustice is at the root of most violence in our world today and that peace is not the absence of war, but rather is rooted in economic justice and the full respect of all people’s human rights. I am proud to be part of an organization that carries on Romero’s spirit.

The Romero Theater Troupe performing scenes from Archbishop Romero's life at the Denver 30th Anniversary Commemoration of Oscar Romero's Life and Death in Denver on March 23. The event was sponsored by: American Friends Service Committee, Denver Catholic Worker, Denver Justice and Peace Committee, Loretto Community, Project Salvador, and Spirit of Christ Catholic Church.

Listen to an interview with Gabriela Flora and Jim Walsh (Gabriela's husband and founder of the Romero Troupe) on KGOAT radio this past Saturday Experiences in El Salvador Shed Light on the Root Causes of Immigration http://www.kygt.org/audio/Jerry/2010/Jerry%203-20-10.mp3
Listen to yesterday's KGNU interview on Romero's life, death and the current situation in El Salvador with Gabriela Flora, Jim Walsh, Arnie Carter (member of Romero Troupe and AFSC's Area Program Committee) and Christina Stimson (program manager for Project Salvador).

Please Join Us: Commemoration of Archbishop Oscar Romero's Life and Death in Denver, March 23

“… may my blood be the seed of liberty and the sign that hope will soon be a reality.”

Archbishop Oscar Romero
Assassinated March 24, 1980


Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador was gunned down as he celebrated the Eucharist. One day before, in an impassioned plea, he called on soldiers and members of the security forces to obey their consciences and the law of God that says, “Do not kill!” and to end the repression.


30th ANNIVERSARY



COMMEMORATION OF OSCAR ROMERO’S LIFE & DEATH

TUESDAY, MARCH 23RD AT 7:30 PM

AT ST. DOMINIC’S CHURCH 29TH and FEDERAL

LITANY PRAYER REMEMBERANCE, SHORT SKIT BY ROMERO TROUPE

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS, CRAFTS FROM EL SALVADOR & MUSIC

Sponsored by: American Friends Service Committee, Denver Catholic Worker, Denver Justice and Peace Committee, Loretto Community, Project Salvador, and Spirit of Christ Catholic Church.

Contact person – Anna Koop 303 296 6390 or akoopsl@juno.com

Jardin de Rosas

The Jardín de Rosas is in a quiet corner of the University of Central America’s (UCA) campus. In the back of a two- story office building turned educational center the garden itself is roped off.

The flowers bloom and sway on stems, reaching up and out as if ready to ask you a question.

It is hard to imagine such a tranquil place filled with the six bodies of Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter. But the photo albums in the building bellow give witness to the horrors that occurred here 20 years ago.

On the last day of a 10-day trip I took to El Salvador with my school we visited the Jardin de Rosas. For several years Regis University has been sending a delegation of students and faculty to El Salvador to learn about the culture and the impact of the civil war. While we had visited massacre sites and heard the stories of guerrillas that had been detained and tortured by the government, this was by far the hardest and most graphic experience of the trip.

During the civil war in El Salvador (1980-1992) the Jesuits, especially those on the UCA campus, were thought to be safe from the violence of the conflict. The students who attended the school were from affluent families and much of the violence, so common everywhere else in the country, had yet to reach these halls.

But thoughts are a dangerous weapon, more so when you speak them aloud and they become down right lethal when you have an audience. The Jesuits who were killed here taught their students to think critically about the war and the role both sides were playing. Who had the power, who was committing war crimes, who was right and what should they, the people of El Salvador, do about it?

When the army came and killed the priests, they cut open their heads and scattered their brains next to their bodies.

The message was clear- don’t think. Don’t question the government. Don’t speak up.

Looking at these pictures was hard. Very hard. I had heard the story of the Jesuit martyrs before and had created pictures in my head, but nothing can compare to a five by seven color photograph of a man with his head beaten in.

My horror towards the event of that day, and the war itself, it compounded and magnified by the fact that many of the soldiers sent to kill these priests were trained in the United States. Our very own Fort Benning, Georgia is home to a training school for Latin American military where they are taught, among other things, how to use torture and intimidation to control the peoples of their home countries.

Last November I also participated in a school trip to protest this school. I have been there several years in a row now and the experience is always a reminder to be conscious and present to what our government is doing with our tax money. We do not support a school for assassins. When we protest the school, we are also protesting the murder of social activists in Latin American countries. At the school I see one half of a violent equation, that of the military. In El Salvador, I see the other half, the people and places where the combat training is used to wreck havoc.

Finding this connection between a school in the US and a school in El Salvador has got me thinking about our government and our role in the world. I start to ask the same questions that were so important 20 years ago to the 6 Jesuit martyrs, and find they are still relevant today. I ask: who has the power, who is committing war crimes, who is right and what should we, the people of the United States, do about it?

Rose Aspholm is a resident of the Romero House at Regis University. She has been interning for the AFSC since September.

Exploring the Root Causes of Migration in El Salvador

I recently participated in a Regis University delegation to El Salvador. We explored the life and legacy of Archbishop Romero, the reality of military rule and support of the U.S. in the devastation and the current reality of an FMLN (former guerrilla forces during the civil war) president and hope for a better future. Woven into all of this was the underlying current of immigration. My trip began with a brief visit with friend and former AFSC colleague Sarah Gill in Atlanta. We visited the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center and it felt appropriate to start my pilgrimage to El Salvador by paying respects to MLK, a man, like Romero who spoke truth to power and was killed for it.

Below are some musings I wrote while on the trip.

In peace,

Gabriela

________________________________________

From: Gabriela Flora

Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 5:10 PM

Subject: Greetings from Suchitoto, El Salvador

Greetings from Suchitoto, El Salvador.

We have been having an amazing trip, learning so much and enjoying the intense exploration of the history and reality of El Salvador and meeting incredible people. The group we are with is wonderful, 6 Romero House Regis students (including Rose who is an intern with us at AFSC) and 6 Regis University faculty/staff and guests (including Jim Walsh, my husband, and myself). Rosa Anaya is our constant accompanier, sharing her own history of her father's murder by the military for his human rights work and her family's carrying on his legacy through their work. Among other things, Rosa does work in the prisons with gang members.

Each day feels like a week, in the good sense that we are learning so much. It is actually hard to believe we have only been here 3 days (plus the day we arrived). We started out at Equipo Maiz, an amazing popular education group going over 500 years of Salvadorian history. We visited Divina Provincia where Romero lived and the church where he was assassinated. A beautiful little old nun showed us around and yesterday we visited his tomb and the church where the military gunned down people attending his funeral. We met with an amazing women's group, where Lucy shared about becoming a guerrilla when she was 15 after experiencing and escaping the massacre near Suchitoto where we now are. In the afternoon, a former FMLN guerrilla, Jonathan, took us to the site where he and 150 other former guerrillas are working to construct the first monument to the FMLN soldiers (there are monuments to civilians but nothing of this scale for FMLN members killed). Jonathan went to the mountains at the age of 12 to join the guerillas after his brother was disappeared. He shared how, after the peace accords he worked with all those who disarmed (FMLN and military) to obtain training and access to services. When I asked him if it was hard to work with the former rank and file military men, he said it was at first, but then he realized they were poor like him and in the same situation (although the former military were given prime land and easier access to credit than former FMLN). Jonathan is now a body guard for Rosa's, our guide, mother who is a supreme court judge.

Today we drove to Suchitoto. We met with the amazing Sister Peggy (she recently game to Regis where we got to meet her) and learned about all her work in creating the Centro de Arte Para la Paz (art center for peace) where young people create all kinds of art as part of a healing process from the war and harshness of life.

Every evening we have reflection where we share how what we are experiencing is impacting us and I need to run off for it now.

love and peace,

Gabriela

Jan. 10, 2010

Since I last wrote much has happened.

In Suchitoto we took a boat to the site of the Copayan massacre accompanied by two members previously from that community. Mercedes happened to be gone the day of the massacre and Rogelio was nine years old when the massacre (now he´s 36). We sat at the site of the former community and Rogelio shared the horrors he experienced and saw when military soldiers (who the U.S. was supporting with arms and training) killed 150 people including all his immediate family. His humble expression of the atrocities was beyond words. Our time at the site ended by holding hands in a circle and praying for peace.

That afternoon we headed to the rural community of Papaturo. There we all stayed with families. Jim and I were hosted by Angelica and her family. The now 80 families of Papaturo were originally from Cabañas were forced to flee to refugee camps in Honduras for 7 years in the 1980s. Life was very difficult in the camps, but the families organized themselves and those skills they learned are seen in the community today. There is an amazing youth leadership that is very rooted in its history. We attempted to go to a vigil with about 18 of the youth leaders from Papaturo in support of the community of Cabañas

that is resisting the gold mining that would destroy their community. Last week the third community organizer against the mines was murdered by death squad-esk murderers likely supported by Pacific Rim gold mining company. I say attempted to go to the vigil, because we drove over two hours and then ended up turning around once we realized we still had an hour and a half to go and we weren´t sure the roads were safe. The bus ride proved a great opportunity to chat with the young leaders. I was blown away by their knowledge and analysis and dedication to working for the good of their community and El Salvador. The end of our bus ride, over 30 of us packed to the gills in a mini bus, we shared songs, switching betwe

en the English and Spanish.

Jim and I woke to the warmth of our hosts and their stories of being refugees, strong organizing and how their hearts ache because they are separated from their daughter and son that are in Miami (two o

f the 2.5 million Salvadorian in the U.S.) helping support the family in a country that has an unemployment rate over 40%.

All for now.

In peace,

Gabriela

January 17, 2009

So we are home from an amazing trip to El Salvador. My memories swirl around the many people we met who graciously shared their story and spirit. Touching just below the surface of most everyone we met, is loss and pain from the civil war years (1980-1992) and yet a strong, determined spirit and so much grace and humility, yes so much grace. From Angelica, our host at the home we stayed at in Papaturo who told of why she and her community had to flee to refugee camps in Honduras. She told of the fear they lived in… how a military soldier chased her when she was 8 months pregnant, how that same soldier later came to her house and demanded to know if she was feeding the guerrillas. “Yes, I feed the guerrillas” she responded. Continuing she said, “and I feed the soldiers too, God said feed the hungry, cloth the naked, house the homeless, he did not say kill and slaughter your neighbor.

” Grace…. Damien shared his story of involvement in the guerrilla movement, his capture and

torture. He is now an FMLN diputado (unicameral Legislator). When we asked him about the challenges of working with people who had been on the other side of the conflict, he told of how he is now negotiates on legislation with the man who directed his torture during his second capture. He has chosen to forgive him, while not forgetting what happened.

At the Wall of Remembrance the names of the 70,000 civilians who had been murdered and disappeared are listed on a wall that makes the Vietnam Memorial look small. The 300 massacres listed by the year they took place beginning with 1970 sent a chill down my spine. The Salvadorian people had to fight hard for this important place to name and remember all those kil

led (many who don’t have any other resting place because their bodies were never found), as the right wing ARENA party who was in power until last year did not wish to have a visual memory of the massacres that many party members were behind.

The reality of El Salvador’s colonial exploitation – inequality that led to the war and continues today- and the civil war itself are interwoven with the United States. U.S. business profited from the exploitative relationships and resource extraction and the military was trained at the School of the Americas and funded by the U.S. tax dollars. El Salvador’s contemporary reality continues to be connected to the United States. With an unemployment rate of over 40%, 2.5 million Salvadorians[1] reside in the U.S. and send money home. Remittances make up the largest import and people are the biggest export of a country that still has inequality at pre-war levels.

Nearly every person I spoke with has a relative in the U.S. The U.S. immigration system that c

riminalizes economic refugees painfully keeps family members across borders from seeing each other for countless years. The people I met spoke of how their often da

ily phone conversations keep them connected with their mother, sister, brother or father. Ana, who as a five year old spent months wandering the mountains with her family trying to escape the conflict zone spoke of how her sister who has been in the U.S. for years, asks her to go to their favorite spots in the city and tell her about the sounds and sights she experiences, a

s a

way to connect long distance to her homeland she isn’t able to visit because of her undocumented status in the U.S. .

Experts on migration in El Salvador that I spoke with highlighted that emigration is nothing new for El Salvador. In the 1960s women were the primary migrants. During the war many people fled as political refugees. Experts predicted that once there was no longer an armed conflict that emigration would decrease, but that was not the case as poverty and inequity persisted. Dollarization and a devastating earthquake both in January of 2001 led to an increase in number emigrating, now primarily men although women are also leaving in large numbers. As one expert told me, “Migration is not the problem, it has always been a part of Salvadorian survival strategies, what is a problem is U.S. policy of militarizing the border, criminalizing immigrants and keeping families from being able to see one another.”

Our last day we had dinner with Susana who studied and lived with Salvadorian migrants in Mexico. Her eyes teared up as she described the realities Salvadorians experience in Mexico as they try to get to the U.S. to work to feed their families. I was deeply moved that a woman who had experienced much suffering and struggle during her early life during the war, was still so deeply able to connect to the struggle of others (perhaps this made it even more possible). The war had not hardened her, but rather connected her to the humanity of life. Throughout my time in El Salvador I was inspired by the Salvadorian spirit and bring a piece of it home with me as I return to my work in the U.S. working for immigrant rights.

Gabriela Flora is Project Voice regional organizer for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Denver, Colorado.

[1] El Salvador has a population of 7 million.