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.
Delegates are referred to by their first names. A delegate list follows, with a few words about each one to help give some personality to those of us who lived together for ten days in a bright red Mercedes bus.
Gail R. - Delegate coordinator, works as a church administrator, animal rights activist and local coordinator for a chapter of Amnesty International; this was her second time to El Salvador; fifty-three years old, three daughters, one of whom lives in England, several grandchildren
Cyril D. - Philosophy professor at Dickinson College; former Dominican priest; fifty-seven years old, one daughter; has a fine baritone voice and sings with several madrigal groups; has been to Nicaragua and speaks adequate Spanish; also part of Project Gettysburg/Leon (a sister city project linking Gettysburg, PA, with Leon, Nicaragua). [Cyril and Jean were married in June 1993. He passed away in January 2009] His significant other is...
Jean K. - Philosophy instructor at Gettysburg College [now a Lutheran pastor], on sabbatical finishing her doctorate; early thirties; also involved with Project Gettysburg/Leon; a college classmate of...
Sally B. - Dental technician [now a Lutheran pastor]; member of Project Gettysburg/Leon; mid-thirties, very athletic - she's the one who took all the soccer balls and super balls; second time to El Salvador; extremely sensitive writer and observer, very committed to the project
Douglas S. - Self-employed engineer; mid- to late-thirties, married with a young son; has been to Nicaragua with PG/L, also, as has his wife; does not identify with any faith community and provided a healthy skepticism which broadened our views, proved to be a very involved and effective delegate
Erwin H. - Retired high school chemistry teacher, seventy years old, widowed and recently engaged, with plans for a Christmas 1991 wedding; six grown children and an assortment of grandchildren; second time to El Salvador; he doesn't say much, but he is an extremely effective fund raiser; has the kind of credibility which allows him to go to a church council and say, Look, this is wrong, and this is what we need to do, and this is how much we need to spend to do it - and everybody says, "right," and does it [Erwin passed away in January 1999]
Phyetta "Jake" C. - Full time homemaker, sixty-five years old, five grown children and lots of grandchildren; whenever we visited a village, Jake found a baby to hold; Jake has the same kind of senior-citizen credibility that Erwin does; this was her first time to El Salvador [Jake passed away in January 2018]
Mary Ann G. - One of the organizers of PVC back in 1987; member of the 1987, 1988, and 1990 delegations; late thirties, mother of a 13-year-old daughter and step-mother to two grown sons; a trained artist, she spent a lot of time on this trip sketching, mostly people
Sue Ellen S. - Until the end of December the director of Christian Education at a Lutheran Church in Hummelstown; has now joined Mennonite Central Committee as a volunteer public health care worker for three years in Bolivia; late twenties, single; has a lovely alto voice and plays the guitar well
Greg K. - At 26 the youngest member of the delegation; professional church agency worker very involved in issues of low-income housing and advocacy for the homeless [now a Lutheran minister]
Linda C. - A founding member of PVC, thirty-six years old, stock transfer administrator at the bank where I work [now Director of Safe Communities], married, two teen-aged sons. She has been project coordinator for the past two years and has been to El Salvador three times.
Marian L. Shatto - Forty-six years old, single, bank mortgage administrator [retired in 2008], avid amateur musician, long-time political advocate for peace and justice issues, just earned a Master of Arts in Religion degree at Lancaster Theological Seminary, member of Lititz Moravian Congregation
Fr. Chris E. - Dominican priest serving as a campus minister at Emory University in Atlanta, GA; formerly served a huge parish in Miami along with six or seven other priests; he contracts with the SHARE Foundation to lead several delegations to El Salvador each year; this was his second PVC delegation; very skillful translator and negotiator; he is tall and sandy-haired, which makes him very easy to find in a crowd in El Salvador; just turned forty
Sunday, 30 September 1991 - 8:55 AM
We're on the plane at the gate, waiting to taxi to the runway. We're fifteen minutes late already, but at least we don't have to worry about changing planes.
The trip down to the motel yesterday afternoon was pleasant and uneventful except for the TV interview. I arrived at Gail's home in Lancaster about 3:30. She was still doing last minute packing, but we got the car loaded and on the way five minutes before our scheduled 4:00 PM departure.
(9:10 AM and we are in the air.)
I had called Linda earlier in the afternoon, and she told me that the TV people from Channel 21 in Harrisburg were going to try to meet us earlier than 5:00 PM, because they had another interview scheduled after us. Gail and I were at the designated meeting spot, Howard Johnson's parking lot at the intersection of US 30 and I 83 in York, by 4:30 PM. Linda and Mary Ann arrived a few minutes later. And then we waited. And waited. A rally had apparently taken place that day at the nearby Harley Davidson factory, for large herds of motorcycles roared past every few minutes. The Channel 21 team finally arrived a few minutes after 5:00 PM. So much for being early for them.
There was a young woman doing the interview, and an equally young man running the camera. Linda remarked how young most of the people are who control what news is aired. The same thing is true of most of the aides in congressional offices. We concluded that the country is being run by the immature and eager, plus a cadre of old white men.
The interview lasted a good half hour. From that they may distill 30 seconds, if we're lucky. She talked with all of us together while he took group shots, then asked each of us specific questions with a voice mike recording. I hope that someone whom we know tapes it so that we can see it when we get back. They want to do a follow-up interview, taking more time, after we return. It's another way of making connections.
After the camera crew left, we decided to eat at the restaurant before continuing on to D.C. It was close to 7:00 PM when we were under way again, but Gail is a fast driver, and before 9:00 PM we were settled into the motel. Russ (Linda's husband, who was driving Linda and Mary Ann) started out ahead of us, but they made a wrong turn off of I 495 and had to double back to the motel, so arrived after we did.
Sally, Jake, and Sue Ellen were already registered and in their room by the time we checked in, and Cyril and Jean arrived as we were hunting for our room. Linda and Mary Ann transferred their checked luggage to Gail's car for overnight so that we didn't have to haul it all up to the second floor and back down again.
(On the plane: We have just been served a delicious breakfast of hot waffles, sausage links, a croissant with Smuckers jam, a cranberry-walnut muffin - I know that I'm headed out of the U.S. because the butter is sweet, not salted - orange juice, which I drank, because I could see it being poured from cartons marked "Ardmore Farms," and fresh fruit - orange slices and grapes, which I will not eat because they are already sectioned, though I can see that Linda, a row ahead of me, has eaten hers. We were warned to beware of salads, of fresh fruit that we don't peel, and of ice in our drinks, because often those are loaded onto the plane in Central America. I'm not going to take any chances of getting sick, especially not this early in the trip.)
Nine of us gathered in our room for a short time of devotion before going to bed. I have just learned that Cyril was a Dominican priest. He must have shared that at the first delegate meeting, which I could not attend. I led the devotions using our daily text for the day: "Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves. Protect the rights of all who are helpless. Proverbs 31:8" - very appropriate.
The alarm was set for a quarter to five, but we were all awake before then. The room was crowded with the added roll-away bed. Mary Ann and I had to take turns leaning over to brush our hair.
The motel had a nice buffet breakfast laid out - all part of the price of the room. I grabbed a doughnut and coffee, then went out to enjoy the clear morning air and watch the luggage while the others ate.
We traveled over to the airport in two shifts. From check-in on we tried not to look like a large group, because it is a direct flight, and we have no idea who might be on it, observing us.
12:20 EDT (10:20 in C.A.) - I napped during the movie. Sue Ellen has slept nearly since we boarded the plane, refusing breakfast and now the snack which was just served - soft cheese (product of West Germany - that will soon change, too - no more West and East, just Germany), Waverly crackers, two packs of salted cashews (I ate one and dropped the other into my purse for future reference), and free drinks. Please make mine orange juice, sans ice. The rum did smell good, but the only place I drink at 10:00 in the morning is Jugoslavija - and I certainly don't want my head to be at all foggy going through the airport.
There are some beautiful, and beautifully dressed, women on this flight. One in front of Linda has her sleek black hair done in one of the tightest French braids that I have ever seen. She is wearing a black suit, gold earrings, pearls around her neck. I understand why we were advised to dress up. The black and white striped dress from Susan Witman's, the consignment shop where I purchased much of the clothing which I have along, looks much more "in" than would my red kettlecloth jumper with the big pockets.
Both Sue Ellen and I were made to check our carry-on bags at the gate. Linda got hers through. I'm not sure about Gail and Mary Ann. I'm worried about the way that it will be treated - it's all soft, and the zippers don't lock. I hope that nothing is damaged or stolen.
11:10 AM (C.A.) - As we make our descent into Guatemala City, the first phrase which comes to mind is "rugged terrain." This is a pleated and wrinkled land - wave after wave of steep hills, with a silver ribbon of river dividing each from each. No superhighways cut through these mountains. The landscape is devoid of human habitation.
Guatemala City appears to sit in a kind of basin. The steepness of the hills gradually gives way to flatter countryside. We see clusters of buildings, but are still too high to determine their nature. As we approach the airport, we pass long stretches of what in the U.S. would most likely be public housing - three and four story residential buildings with a monotonous sameness to them. This is evidently better class housing here, however, for in the next instant we see large neighborhoods of shacks. What seem to be factories appear in the background, a mix of industrial and very poor residential.
Now we are down, and the plane half empties, as those passengers who are getting off here deplane. Two darling little girls whom I had seen in the waiting room in Dulles go by, ages 2 and 4, perhaps - the larger one clutching a stuffed toy and the smaller one a water bottle. They are dressed alike - fancy party dresses, tight black bodices and two-tiered white tulle skirts - almost like ballet costumes.
12:10 PM - We're in the air again on our last hop to El Salvador. The plane is full, or nearly so, including a group of six to eight Japanese - all males, so they are probably businessmen rather than tourists.
The attendants served Coke and whiskey (separate, not mixed) and more cashews while we were on the ground.
Goodness, this is up and down. Already the seatbelt light is on, and we are descending into El Salvador.
3:25 PM - We're here! I can still hardly believe it. We all got through the airport with no trouble. Cyril looked so official that he was asked at passport control if he were a diplomat.
On the drive in from the airport "Ntsiki's Testimony," a song about South Africa on Carolyn McDade's tape "This Tough-Spun Web," kept running through my mind. How beautiful the country! How great the suffering of the people! Life happens along the highway - homes, roadside stands, soccer games, small boys flying kites. Lots of kites! Several times we saw cows in the island between the lanes. This is Salvador's I 95, we are told - two lanes of fairly good macadam in each direction. Stray from this highway and one is soon on gravel, dirt, or mud.
The guest house is spacious and comfortable. Everyone who had been here before and stayed in the old one is exclaiming about how lovely this one is. It had been a clinic before this, perhaps a large private home originally. The front section has four double rooms upstairs, with one bath between two rooms on each side of the building. Linda and Sue Ellen are in the front left, with Gail and me behind them. Mary Ann and Sally take the front right, sharing a bath with Cyril and Jean. Doug, Greg, and Erwin are downstairs front in a triple room. Chris is in the back section of the house in a single. That leaves Jake, who objects to being by herself and ends up rooming with Felicidad, the housekeeper, who will "mother" us during our stay.
This will be our home for the next ten days. It will see deep reflection, and much laughter; tears of frustration and horror as helicopters fly overhead, and shrieks of joy as children play with the super balls that Sally has brought. We are the first delegation to stay here, we are told. May there be many more following us, linking the faith communities of our two countries.
Copyright © 2022 Marian L. Shatto
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