Recordar Para No Olvidar

We had a week off of work for Semana Santa (holy week). We do not have a car, so in order to get where we wanted to go we had to take buses. 2 to Cabanas, 3 buses and a pick-up truck to Perquin, 1 bus to El Mozote, 4 buses to Alegria, 3 buses to San Vicente, 2 buses to meet a friend at MetroCentro, 1 bus to get back home. 16 buses in 5 days!

We are getting better at traveling around the country, though it is not the most comfortable experience. We often did not have a seat, and were often crammed against other people's bags and butts. I feel very much in solidarity with people when I take the bus. "We are all in this together". It is also been interesting to realize that I don't need the comfort of a nice air conditioned car, that the comforts that I have known are not "necessary", but luxury.

The main purpose of our trip was to visit El Mozote, the place where over 1,000 El Salvadorans were massacred in 1981 during the war. We felt that we needed to go, out of respect and remembrance, and for our own learning. 

We arrived in another crowded bus. I was looking for a field, someplace solemn. What we found was the plaza of a tiny town, with a fountain that doesn't work and a small monument in the corner.

Why did we come? This was not what I had expected. However, as we began to explore the memorial and children's garden, I was filled with a strange sense of healing and hope. While I felt sad, I did not cry. I felt moved that people have returned to this small town, that it is still alive despite the atrocities in its past.

Almost half of the people that died were children, which is hard to fathom. They separated the towns people into groups, men, women and children. They killed the men first. Then they raped the women. Then they killed them too. Finally, in the church, they killed the children, mostly throwing the child in the air and landing on the bayonet of their gun. The youngest child was 3 days old.

The army called this strategy "removing the water from the fish". I imagine some of the people who were killed were gorillas. But certainly not the pregnant women, the elderly, the children... I'm not sure how human beings can be that cruel to other human beings, but that was the reality of the El Salvadoran civil war. 

The difficult part to accept for me is that the weapons they used were from the United States. We gave the government the tools and training to massacre innocent people. Why is it that my country is always so scared of revolution by the people? I have heard it called "contra-aid". Aid against the people. By gifting other countries guns, we are promoting war. Our government is not doing the killing, but without all those weapons, think of all the lives that could have been saved?

Soon after the massacre in 1981, independent reporters from the Washington Post and New York Times arrived in El Mozote and wrote about the massacre that occurred there. Congress began to argue about whether the US should continue sending aid to El Salvador. Reagan "certified" that no massacre had occurred and that Salvadoran forces were respecting human rights. They USA continued funding the war and training El Salvadoran soldiers until 1992.

On the other side of the church in El Mozote there was the most beautiful mural, with the hopes of the El Mozote community. Computers, a bilingual school, farms and food for all. It is now a holy place, and a place of peace. 

The guide that we spoke to there said that he feels his job is very important. He likes to teach people what happened, to tell them about the history of the country and El Mozote. "We cannot forget what has happened here. If we forget, we may repeat. Massacre, never again."

"Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. 

Peace is generosity. "

-Oscar Romero