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.
"These people have been without basic necessities for years. The church has been helping them for several years, and now the people are organizing themselves. Their two biggest problems are education and health. The closest school is ten kilometers away. The children are poorly nourished and cannot walk that distance. Also they cannot afford to buy the shoes, pencils, and paper needed to attend the school. So most of them do not go to school.
"In 1987 we began a literacy program, and started a little school in 1988. This past year the school could not afford a teacher, but we do have a health promoter. We still don't have a real school because we cannot get the basics for it. For instance, we have just five desks for 150 students.
"Our main work has been to accompany the people, especially spiritually. Despite all that we have been able to do, we are still looking for ways to address the two major problems. Santa Ana has experienced a tremendous influx of population because of people displaced by the war from other areas. In 1980 the population of the city was about 6,000. In 1990 it is approximately 650,000. This has caused a major problem with deforestation, because with this tremendous increase in population, the trees have been needed for building houses.
"There is work in the coffee fields and on government cooperatives, but often the workers do not get paid. Where this community is, there used to be a government road. There is plenty of land, but it all belongs to the government cooperatives.
"It is not easy to work with the people in the countryside. One has to take certain risks. When we started the adult literacy campaign, the man who lent us space for the classroom was arrested and accused of helping to train soldiers for the FMLN."
After more walking through the community, we have lunch and rejoin the bus, which has been waiting for us along the roadside at the foot of the mountain. From here we proceed to another of Pastor C.'s communities, where we are to attend the service. We meet first with the group of women who have come together to form a small directive in the community. They do primarily religious work, but also social work and organizing in the various communities. They come together to voice the needs of the women in the community.
Question: How large is this community?
"There are about 350 families right here, but there are lots of little communities like this in the area which form the larger community."
Question: What kinds of work do you do?
"Primarily we do evangelization in the church. We also go out into the community, talk with families, and determine their needs. We are starting adult literacy classes, which will also include children who cannot go to school because they work with their parents. We also have sewing lessons. We do have limitations, because we are trying to run many programs in one small church building."
Question: How did you learn to organize? Do you have union experience?
"No, we just came together and suddenly it happened that we were working on programs. We have support and guidance from our pastor."
Question: Please explain the term you have used, "participative evangelization."
"Everyone joins in Bible study and in planning the worship services. There is no one leader."
Question: Do you have problems getting women out to meetings?
"Yes, we are a small but enthusiastic group. To the others we stress that the work is important, and that it will not take much of their time. You would be surprised how much help little things can be. For instance, sponsoring one talk on childhood diarrhea does a lot to further health in the community.
"Part of what happens with us women is that we have been able to do things beyond survival. We have a small shop where we sell items, and all share in the gain.
"Here a majority of the residents are women and children. We don't have a lot of men. Most of the population is children."
Question: Why?
"Because of the situation in our country. The army takes the young men, whether they are married or not."
Question: For how long are they in the army?
"It used to be for two years, but now it is three."
Question: Is there forceful recruitment?
"Yes. Sometimes the women go to the garrisons and cry and plead for their men, but it doesn't help. Some come back to us as amputees. Some don't come back at all."
Question: Are soldiers allowed to come home to visit?
"Yes, they are allowed one or two days leave per month."
Question: While men are in the service, is any provision made for their families?
"Soldiers are paid a salary. If they want to send it home, fine. But that is up to the man. There is no allocation for dependents. The pay is 500 to 600 colones per month, which is about ten times what coffee pickers make. This makes the army very attractive to some."
We then proceed into the church, a small building with corrugated iron sides and roof. Sections of the right-hand wall are propped open as windows. The service is lively and informal, with much hymn singing, plus scripture and prayer. After it is over, some of the women join us on the bus for the trip to still another community, this one located within the city of Santa Ana, where we make the formal presentation of the material aid items which we have brought along. These women love to sing, and as soon as we are settled on the bus and well under way, they pass out the songbooks which we had used in the service and have the whole group of us singing vigorously during the drive into the city.
Copyright © 2022 Marian L. Shatto
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