PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Eighteen: Final Evening in the Guest House

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

8 October 1990, 7:00 PM - The Guest House

It is our final evening in El Salvador and many guests have been invited to the Guest House for a meal and discussion. Bishop Medardo Gomez arrives about 6:30 PM, accompanied by J. and J. This is a great honor for us; he rarely goes out after dark because of the threats against his life. He is immediately the center of attention, a quietly intense and imposing presence seated on one of the couches in the common room. After a few minutes the word goes out that we should gather around him. He wants to talk with us before the meal so that he can go home early and be ready for an early-morning departure for meetings in the U.S.

"For better or for worse, we have a process of peace going on in our country. It is not complete, but we are moving. Delegations like yours help to open this space. You are like a great choir, carrying the stories. I want to assure you that, even though you might not think so, your presence helps in the process for peace. Extend my thankfulness to the brothers and sisters in the United States for their solidarity and prayers. This is a great contribution for the building of peace here."

At this point he introduces Pastor W., from San Miguel, who is president of the eastern region of the Lutheran Church in El Salvador. Later I hear the opinion from several of the delegates who have been here before that Pastor W. is the apparent next Lutheran Bishop of El Salvador. He has the faith and commitment to working with the poor, plus the education needed to move comfortably in international circles.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Seventeen: Aguilares area

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

8 October 1990 - Aguilares area

We are visiting a community which was one of the stops made by the 1989 delegation. Returning delegates are amazed to see how much building and planting has taken place in just one year. We are told that they have about fifty acres in the community. About 7.5 acres are planted in vegetables, and about ten are set aside for grazing. They have four cows. The main crop is corn, with sesame interspersed. They also have a chicken house and bee hives.

Question: How did you get this land?

"We have the help of U.S. sister parishes, and also of a Norwegian group. SHARE was a big help to us. We have put in electricity and an irrigation system."

Question: Do you experience much harassment?

"Not right now. In other areas there is repression, but for us here, right now, there is nothing repressive. Of course, they are watching us. We had plenty of problems in the first location where we settled as a repopulated community. The most serious of our problems was land, which is why we moved here. We heard about this land and had an opportunity to buy it."

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Sixteen: Resurrection Lutheran Church

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

8 October 1990 - 8:00 AM - Resurrection Lutheran Church

Chris had the time of the service wrong, so we are sitting in an office of the Lutheran Church waiting for the students to end their 7:30 worship. The one that we will attend doesn't begin until 8:30. This church is an amazing shade of green - green for the Resurrection. We entered through a lovely enclosed and shaded courtyard. The room in which we are waiting has a beautifully painted Salvadoran cross, about 21" high, hanging on a wall against an excruciatingly tacky floral-patterned wall paper. Two-thirds of the adjoining wall, which is the first thing one sees upon entering, features a floor to ceiling photo mural of a fall scene in the U.S. or Canadian northwest. Cyril opines that it depicts the Cascades rather than the Rockies. The incongruity of such a scene here in tropical El Salvador is startling.

I learned this morning that most of the group was awake a good bit of last night. Helicopters were flying low overhead, and there were explosions in the distance and brilliant flashes lighting the sky. We heard several explanations of what was going on, but finally learned that a cadre of FMLN had attacked Mariona prison in an unsuccessful attempt to liberate some of the political prisoners.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Fifteen: Suchitoto

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

7 October 1990 - Suchitoto

[Our intention for today had been to visit Panchimilama, a village which previous delegations had visited and which had received material support from PVC fund-raising efforts. On the previous evening, however, word had come to the Guest House that a fiesta was planned for the next day by the people of Suchitoto, who had requested that any internationals who were able to do so should come to the city as witnesses, thus providing some protection for the inhabitants as they gathered. After a brief discussion our delegation decided that this was where we were needed most and changed our plans accordingly.]

We leave at 7:30 AM for a 9:00 AM mass celebrating the 25th anniversary of a Sister who works for the church in Suchitoto. We are stopped at two military checkpoints along the way. Both times we are all ordered out of the bus, to line up along the side of the road and have our passports checked and our knapsacks searched. At the first stop we pick up J. and J. and two Salvadorans. They had been on a public bus on their way to Suchitoto, and had been taken off and detained. The bus did not want to wait for them while their documents were cleared, so they had been waiting for another ride to come along.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Fourteen: Santa Ana Department

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

6 October 1990 - Santa Ana Department

It is Saturday morning and the bus has brought us to a public park in the department of Santa Ana in the western part of the country. This is not a conflictive area, and despite the war in the country, life goes on here more or less as usual. The park is crowded with families on holiday, and we look like just one more group of tourists, with our cameras and backpacks. The contrast between this and what we have been experiencing for the past week is more than a little jarring.

We are met by Pastor C., a Lutheran pastor whose main parish is in the city of Santa Ana, but who also supervises the work in four outlying communities. His manner is hearty and outspoken; he even has business cards which he hands to us as we gather around him for a background briefing before we begin our hike into the communities. He leads us along several of the planned trails through the park, allowing us to linger at a scenic overlook for photographs of the Santa Ana Volcano. Then single file we descend the mountain on a steep and rugged trail which takes us at last into the community of indigenous which we are to visit. Pastor C. gives us some background on the area.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Thirteen: University of Central America

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

5 October 1990, 3:00 PM - University of Central America

We are welcomed to the university and led back a hallway to a conference room/library where some of the items which were attacked during the massacre are on display. [On the night of 16 November 1989 members of the elite Atlacatl Battalion of the Salvadoran military invaded the UCA and massacred six Jesuit priests/scholars, their housekeeper, and her daughter.] There are text books and a Bible which were machine-gunned into tatters. A scorched and blistered portrait of Archbishop Romero hangs in a charred wooden frame. The glass which had once covered it drips in icicles from the lower edge of the frame, melted by flame throwers and solidified again into tortured columns. The wooden panel above the door frame is pierced repeatedly with bullet holes, mementos of that terrible night nearly a year ago.

A slightly-built, middle-aged Spanish priest enters the room and takes his seat at the head of the conference table. He is introduced to us as Rafael Sivatte, an assistant to Fr. Jon Sobrino.

"I have been here since 1985, more or less - teaching at the university three months of each year. The last time that I was here was just before the massacre. But now I am settled in to stay as the Old Testament professor and assistant to Jon Sobrino.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Twelve: CODEFAM

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

5 October 1990, 11:50 AM - CODEFAM

This group was formed on 9 September 1981 out of the roots of the war in El Salvador by families of captured, disappeared, and assassinated persons. It was originally called Comite. Later, on 14 March 1983 Marianella Garcia Villas was assassinated in Las Bermudas. She was a worker who fought for human rights, and at the time of her death she was investigating the use of chemicals in bombing by the military. She was accompanying ninety families who were escaping from a strong military operation when she was wounded and captured. First she was taken to a military school, then to a military hospital, where she was tortured – burned on the legs and arms, raped, and forced to swallow a grenade which then was exploded. She was a founder of the Human Rights office which PVC just visited, and CODEFAM works in her name today.

(Later we were to meet a young girl named Marianella. Her mother, whose first husband was disappeared, tells us that the child was born just a few months after Marianella Garcia Villas' assassination, and that when she went to register the birth, the authorities questioned her sharply as to whether she was sure that she wanted to give her daughter such a controversial name. She answered them proudly that yes, that was her deliberate intention.)

"The work of the committee is three-fold: 1. to struggle for the defense of human rights, with priority on freeing political prisoners; 2. to struggle to clarify the whereabouts of the disappeared and to enforce existing laws in El Salvador to discontinue this practice; and 3. to bring those persons who are responsible for the violations of human rights to trial and punishment.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Eleven: The Independent Human Rights Commission

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

5 October 1990, 10:15 AM - The Independent Human Rights Commission

We are introduced to Jorge, who will tell us about the history and work of the Commission.

"I am pleased that you are here, because your visit demonstrates the authority that our group has internationally.

"We began on 1 April 1978 at the initiative of professors and students at the National University who raised concerns about the rise in human rights violations at that time. In twelve years we have suffered two disappearances, three assassinations, and three captures. But we still continue despite the oppression of the armed forces.

"We are members of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIHD) and of the Coordination of Human Rights in Central America (CODEHUCA). Our organization has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize, and this year received a prize from the non-governmental organization 2001 in Sweden. Also the Lutheran Church has extended to us the symbol of human rights.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Ten: The Dental Clinic

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

5 October 1990, 8:30 AM - The Dental Clinic

We are seated in a circle on folding chairs in a corner of a large garage or warehouse, talking with two of the leaders who direct the dental clinic. They begin with a history of the project.

- "Brazilian doctor Nathan Kamilot came here to develop a health project. As he worked among the people, he determined that there was a major problem with dental care, and that many health problems could be traced to dental problems. For instance, a lack of teeth can cause secondary malnutrition. Dental promotion was a new concept here. Dr. Kamilot studied to learn dental work himself, then started teaching others. The project took off. A proposal for funding was made to SHARE and to the Public Welfare Foundation, a U.S. organization which awards grants for health work. The funding is ongoing, because the project by its nature cannot be self-supporting. The PWF grant was about $50,000.00 and is still being given out.

"We train community members to do cleaning, extractions, and fillings, and to make and fit false teeth. This is a constant educational program, and it is spreading like wildfire all over the country. The main problem is getting supplies through to where they are needed. Our community clinics need generators and compressors, but anything bigger than a toothbrush is considered subversive. The doctor who started this work has since been captured and deported.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Nine: Chalatenango

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

4 October 1990: The Feast of St. Francis - Chalatenango

We leave soon after 7:00 AM for Chalatenango, a trip which should take only about three hours driving time, but on which we anticipate delays at military roadblocks. The first is at a bridge about an hour outside of the city, where we are held for a half hour and depart with instructions to stop at the military installation up the road. Ignoring this order would be both futile and dangerous, for the troops at the roadblock are obviously in radio communication with their headquarters.

At the gate we are stopped and required to surrender all cameras, which are collected and taken into the guard house. We then proceed up an inclined driveway to the parking area outside of what appears to be the main building of the installation. Chris tells us all to stay on the bus, while he goes into the building to negotiate permission for us to continue. Though our salvos are in order, any one of these regional commanders could decide not to honor them. While we are waiting, soldiers are working in the area of the bus on various projects. One group displays a speed and efficiency which leads us to believe that they had been trained by PennDOT. [Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, which is definitely NOT known for its speed and efficiency.] We also observe a white car with polarized windows drive up, from which emerges a gringo in military uniform (presumably U.S.) Later Chris tells us that he had had a rather lengthy talk with a U.S. "advisor" inside the headquarters while he was waiting for our papers to be reviewed.

Finally after an hour of sitting in an increasingly hot bus, we are cheered to see Chris emerge from the building with an expression of success on his face. At the gate we are handed back our cameras and are relieved to note that no film had been removed from any of them. From there we proceed into the city of Chalatenango, where we are stopped by the local police, who want to check the driver's papers. Chris explains that this is fairly routine and has nothing to do with our earlier stop. Probably the driver will have to pay a fee (bribe?) and we will be able to be on our way.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Eight: 22nd of April Parish

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

3 October 1990, 4:00 PM - 22nd of April Parish

As the afternoon wanes toward evening, our bus takes us to the outskirts of San Salvador, to the church building in 22nd of April Parish, about which I have heard so much for so long. This was Father Jim Barnett's parish before he had to flee last November. We are introduced to "the tallest man in El Salvador" - Father Gerardo, a German priest who towers over everyone in our group, even Chris. We enter the church and sit on benches in the back while Father Gerardo tells us the history of the parish and explains some of the work they are doing.

"This parish was founded nearly twenty years ago, near a former garbage dump. The people who built here literally invaded the place. They were threatened in the beginning and told to leave. These were people who had lived in San Salvador and had lost their homes because they couldn't pay the rent. This has always been a parish of poor people; many are unemployed. Years later people who had been displaced from the countryside began to arrive.

"This area is divided into four sectors. I serve two of those sectors, 22nd of April and La Credisa. There are fifteen thousand displaced persons living in these two sectors now.

"The work of the parish is organized by lay commissions – for missionaries, for catechists, for day care, for schools, for the artisans, carpentry, liturgies, youth groups, the elderly. Every commission has two representatives who meet together every Thursday evening to evaluate the work and plan for the future. There is also a pastoral team, with members elected by the commissions for a one or a two year term. This team consists of three religious, three lay persons from the 22nd of April, and three lay persons from the other sector. Two Sisters and I are the religious on the team at present. There are other Sisters who work in the parish but are not on the pastoral team."

Question: What is the most difficult thing for you working here, and what gives you the most joy?

"It is difficult to live in another country. I notice more and more that I am a foreigner. One can learn another language, but one can never know what every word means. It is difficult to know what offends people. I can't do direct translations, because something which would be quite all right for me to say in German comes out being very offensive in Spanish. It is difficult for me not to live in my own culture, not to be allowed to read whatever I want and to have whatever books I want. This is a very oppressive and totalitarian society. Here I must be very careful all the time.

"As for joy, the work is very satisfying, especially with the children. There is more liberty here to do what I want with methods of education. In Germany the school system is very controlled."

Question: What is your community's relationship with the government?

"Since the offensive, there has been more development in this parish. They have installed drainage canals and built public housing. But they do it on an individual basis, and this divides the people. The government won't work with the community as a community.

"A majority of the children do not go to school. There are official textbooks, but we don't use them. We get other books from Mexico, Guatemala, Spain.

"The offensive was not very strong in 22nd of April. It was much worse in Credisa. I wore earplugs and slept very well on Saturday night! We opened the clinic on Sunday afternoon. Soldiers came to the foot of the street, but they feared the guerrillas and wouldn't advance up the street. Then helicopters came after the guerrillas, but they wounded and killed many civilians. Middle class people in the parish criticized us for opening the clinic. They said that we did it to help the guerrillas. So many of the middle class left our church and went over to the fundamentalists. But the reality was that the FMLN had their own clinic. They didn't need our facilities.

"On Tuesday we opened the church. The FMLN had told the people in La Credisa to evacuate. Some residents had been trapped in their homes by the fighting. They asked me to ask the FMLN to let them out. The FMLN said yes, if the people would go directly to the priests' home. Afterwards some of these same people that I helped said that my success in negotiating with the FMLN proved that I was a friend of the FMLN.

"The people in the community are very fearful, especially the poor. Under other conditions most of these people would be in favor of the revolution. But here people do not speak about politics. They are controlled by propaganda and counter-insurgency tactics.

"You know, when at first one speaks out of fear, one is aware of what one is doing. But after a while, you forget that what you are saying is said under fear. You think that it is your own idea. And you end up saying what the TV says. For example, young priests know the gospel and preach it. But after enduring conflict and opposition, they muffle what they say. And gradually they come to believe that their bland sermons are still the gospel message."

Father Gerardo excuses himself and hurries off to another appointment. Our group leaves the sanctuary and walks around to a small room built against the side of the church. Here the artisans' cooperative makes and sells decorated greeting cards, notebooks, and wooden items. The first timers get first chance at the shopping, then wait while the others make their purchases. I buy three small wooden crosses on thread to be worn around the neck, two larger crosses which can be used hanging on the wall, a set of twenty-five notecards, six wooden Christmas tree ornaments, and one hand-painted notebook.

Copyright © 2022 Marian L. Shatto

 

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Seven: CPDN/National Debate

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

3 October 1990, 2:00 PM - The Permanent Commission of the National Debate for Peace in El Salvador (called CPDN or National Debate)

There are treasury police outside, so Chris and BD go ahead to check out whether or not entering will be safe. When we are given the signal, we go in as a tight, silent! group through a heavy wrought iron gate with an attendant, into a large, impressive-looking building. We are ushered through a reception area and seated on folding chairs in a circle in a large, airy room. The walls and ceiling are white, with royal blue trim and much use of black wrought iron. The floor is terrazzo tile. I point out to Linda that the roof has a sawtooth design very similar to that of the Mill Building [an old paper mill repurposed as a bank operations center, where she and I both worked at the time]. There are two other meetings going on in this room, and voices become loud at times. The sign on one wall says FEDECACES.

An international church worker gives us some background on the organization, which he explains was started at the initiative of the U.S. Embassy as a confederation of cooperatives. Later they went over to the UNTS (National Union of Salvadoran Workers). At this point the embassy went to them as said, "You have a debt to pay for the building. If you stay with UNTS, you must pay at the current exchange rate of 5 to 1, but if you leave UNTS you can pay at the old rate of 2.5 to 1. And if you don't pay, we will take you to court."

The building now houses the National Debate, which was started by Archbishop Rivera y Damas as a mechanism to have representatives from across the political spectrum sit down and talk with one another. The center to left responded positively, but the right, especially the religious right, launched a massive campaign saying that the National Debate is just a front for the FMLN. The Catholic hierarchy was rather chagrined and pulled back from the process.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Six: CRIPDES

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

3 October 1990, 9:00 AM – CRIPDES

[CRIPDES began in 1984 as the Christian Committee of the Displaced. After the Peace Accords were signed in 1992, it became the Association for the Development of El Salvador. Its partnership with SHARE is on-going, strengthening community organizations in their work on justice issues. The SHARE Foundation is a U.S. based non-profit organization committed to supporting and accompanying the people of El Salvador ​​and Honduras in their struggle for social justice and sustainable development. During its early years PVC received security training and assistance in engaging guide/translators from SHARE.]

Our interview begins with brief background remarks. The CRIPDES headquarters was invaded and destroyed in April 1989, and sixty to seventy workers were captured. SHARE gave them the funds to purchase the current location. They are the group which organized the returns from the Honduran refugee camps, Mesa Grande, Colomoncagua, etc. Now they are trying to organize the return to their places of origin or choice of those who are displaced within the country.

We begin by going around the circle and introducing ourselves. The refugee coordinator gives us words of welcome. She says that our presence encourages them in their work with refugees.

Question: How and why was CRIPDES formed?

"There has been social injustice in El Salvador for the past sixty years or more. Thousands of Salvadorans have historically been marginalized, denied the basic rights of housing, land, education. Organizations have formed to respond to this situation. We had a situation where thousands of persons joined together to march in San Salvador and demand their rights. But we have never received a favorable response to our petitions. Always the case has been that when people demand their rights, the government responds with indiscriminate oppression. In 1932 40,000 were slaughtered when they took to the streets. Since then the oppression has intensified. Not only did we have to bear the lack of land, education, medical care, etc., but we also had to put up with the military.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Five: Morning in La Peña

 

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

2 October 1990 - Morning in the village in San Miguel

We settle for sleep overnight in the common house, the eight women on four reed-mat beds in an inner room, and the men on mats on the porch. The room is damp and colder than outside; I think that I am the only one not wishing for a heavier covering than our flannel sheet. Gail and I share a bed against the far wall. I must have slept for a few hours; she claims that she has slept not at all. By quarter after four my need to use the bathroom has grown greater than any concern for disturbing the others. I whisper to Gail that I am getting up, and she decides that she will, also. We draw on the skirts and shoes which had been the only garments removed for the night, and I pin up my hair as best I can, tucking it under the Totes hat which serves as my protection from both sun and storm. Then with hands covering flashlights we make our way around the prone bodies of our comrades and out into the pre-dawn air.

The room had been utterly black, with no perceptible difference between eyes closed and eyes open. Outside we are greeted by a sky brilliant with more stars than I can remember ever having seen before in my life, and a nearly full moon making its way toward the western horizon. The "facilities" are across the clearing, around the bus, and into the woods – left turn for the men and straight ahead for the women, then pick your tree. A concrete latrine in this village will be a major improvement, once they get it built.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Four: Meeting with the FMLN

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

1 October 1990 - late evening, meeting with the FMLN

After our walk around the community we return to the house which seems to be the common gathering place, and where we will be served a supper of scrambled eggs, fried chicken, and tortillas. The people stand around the table and watch as we eat. We feel embarrassed, knowing that the feast in front of us represents more than most of these people would eat in a whole day, yet knowing also that they are very proud to have the resources to entertain us this well and that they would be deeply hurt if we refused to eat and enjoy.

Word has come to us that there is a group of FMLN [Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional/Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front] soldiers in the area who would like to meet with the international delegation if we are willing. Of course we are willing! This is a rare opportunity which cannot be planned ahead of time. The guerrillas wait until it is quite dark and most of the women and children in the village have gone back to their own homes. Then quietly they come out of the darkness and surround the porch of the common house, where we have been eating and talking. A generator has been wired to a single bare light bulb suspended from the porch roof, and into the pool of light steps the guerrilla leader, who introduces himself as Nino. Most of the heavily armed men [and women, as it turns out] on the periphery of the light appear to be little more than boys in age, I am reminded that the campesinos refer to the guerrillas as "los muchachos" - the boys.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Three: La Peña, San Miguel

 

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

1 October 1990 - late afternoon, a small community in San Miguel

[After a substantial breakfast at the guest house, we loaded luggage and supplies into the bus and set out for our first visit, a mountain village in the Department of San Miguel.]

When we arrive at the village in mid-afternoon, after several delays on the road, we are met by a small instrumental group which has obviously been waiting for us for quite a long time. There are two guitars, a fiddle, a three-stringed bass, and maracas. Their repertoire consists entirely of lively dance tunes, most in a strong 4/4 tempo which reminds me of some of our kolos. [Balkan folk dances. “Kolo means “circle.”] Our group stands around the square listening and clapping along as the group entertains us. Then Chris comes over to me and asks me if I want to play the fiddle. After a moment's hesitation, during which Chris assures me that they would love it, and it would be a good way to help our groups relate to each other, I say sure, I'll give it a try.

Chris explains to the musicians what is proposed, and the next thing I know, I am at the center of a circle with the fiddle in hand. I ask Chris to tell them that what I will play is a song by a young girl to her boyfriend, telling him that she wants to dance and party. Then I begin "Ajde Jano." After the first chorus, the accompaniment joins me, a bit tentatively at first, then more firmly, pulling the rhythm from 7/8 into 4/4. The strings are all gut, the D and A in tune with each other, though somewhat lower than 440. The G is definitely not a fifth below the D; I never do figure out how it is tuned. After five or six times through I end the song, thank the fiddler for the use of his instrument, and return it to its proper owner.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part Two: Evening in the Guest House

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

30 September 1990:

Four parish workers have come to the Guest House to talk with us on our first evening in El Salvador. They include Father T., a diocesan priest who works with Base Christian Communities; J., a parish worker in Comunidad Veintidós de Abril [22nd of April, a poor community on the outskirts of San Salvador known as a center of activism] who also works with the BCC's; and two female parish workers. Also present is BD, a North American who has worked in El Salvador for nearly four years.

Father T. opens by telling us that several days ago he had gone with Bishop Medardo Gomez [Lutheran Bishop of El Salvador] to give an address at a church. There the people told him that recently soldiers had invaded the church, forced people to lie on the floor, demanded to know where the guns were hidden, and then robbed them. He sees the role of the church as trying to institute a project of peace while living in a situation of war.

Giving us a brief history of the 22nd of April community, he explains that it dates from 22 April 1971, when people who had been living under bridges, on the margins of life, took over the city garbage dump and built a community. When the war started in 1980 there was an influx of the displaced, and many of the original settlers left. There are now two sections: Credisa, which is more settled, urbanized, with a stable working class population, and 22nd of April, which is poorer than Credisa, an area of much oppression, many disappearances and murders.

PVC 1990 Delegation – Part One: The Delegates and Getting There

 

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

 

Project Via Crucis (PVC) is a Lutheran-based interfaith group in South Central Pennsylvania working in solidarity with the churches and people of El Salvador. Our mission is two-fold: education of people in our area about the reality of life in El Salvador, and how U. S. policy affects that life, and accompaniment of the people in El Salvador by sending visiting delegations to observe and learn from them. From this two-pronged mission has come a third, that of gathering funds and material aid to help support the work which is being done in Salvadoran communities. PVC was formed in early 1987, and has sent a delegation in October of each year since that time. [PVC’s active work continued through 2008. After several years of minimal activity, articles of dissolution were filed in 2012. Records were transferred to storage by the Lower Susquehanna Synod, ELCA.] I have been peripherally involved in the project from the beginning, through a close friend and co-worker who was one of the founding members. In early 1990, after attending a rally in Washington, D.C. commemorating the recently assassinated Jesuit scholars and their two housekeepers, I decided to join the 1990 delegation.

The notes which follow are transcriptions of the notes which I took while on the delegation. Because my Spanish is minimal, my handwritten notes of conversations were done from the translations provided by our leader and others. Quotation marks indicate my best attempts at recording precisely what was said, as translated, but are not intended to imply a complete verbatim transcript. Names of individuals, and in some cases of small villages, are disguised for security reasons. Exceptions to this are persons and villages with such high international visibility, such as Bishop Medardo Gomez, and Comunidad Ellacuria, that naming them as having received international visitors does not increase their already vulnerable positions.