I woke very early with the roosters on this day. With no air conditioning, the window was open, inviting in all of the sounds from outside. I never actually saw any roosters around the house but as I said in an earlier post, most of the yards in San Salvador were hidden behind walls and gates.
After my early awakening (roosters actually wake before it is light outside), I took a cool shower. I was told before getting to El Salvador that the places we would be staying in would not have hot water (another luxury taken for granted in the United States). I was expecting the worst but it really wasn't too bad. There must have been a little warm water mixed in because it wasn't ice cold, just refreshing.
Our first speaker of the day was Carlos Garcia. He would be sharing some of the history of El Salvador. Carlos works for Equipo Maiz which was started in 1983 to create awareness during the armed conflict. After getting home, I looked at their website to learn a little more about the organization. I could not understand it all as it is in Spanish but I found it very fun. Even if you do not read Spanish, check it out: http://www.equipomaiz.org.sv/
Maiz means corn in Spanish. Corn has been and is still very essential to the people of El Salvador so this is why the name was chosen. If you are like me, you will be entertained when you see the little corn cobs working in the office on the main page of the site :)
I found a lesson plan that does a very nice job of summarizing much of the history shared by Carlos and other speakers we met: http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his135/Events/ElSalvador80/Salvador80.html
On the main page at the top, you will find a part labeled "Background" and there is also a timeline at the bottom. A struggle between the classes in El Salvador has existed for over 100 years. The most recent war took place from 1980-1992. The United States supported the El Salvador government during this time, and provided 1.5 million dollars a day during the height of the war. Also, the El Salvador military trained in the U. S. at the School of the Americas. To learn about it, here is a link to a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja9nXs1tQ7Q. It does contain some things that may be difficult to watch but is mostly informative.
It is estimated that 75,000 people were killed during the war, most of them were civilians. Because this war is so recent, many of the people currently living in El Salvador or those who have chosen to leave have relatives and friends who were tortured and/or murdered. We met people who shared their stories with us. It is very difficult to communicate the feelings that listening to these stories provoked. How does something like this happen? How can people do such horrific things to other human beings? Why was our government supporting this? Why didn't we know about it? What was I doing when all of this was happening? I was growing up, graduating from high school and college, getting married-I was oblivious. Perhaps not knowing was due to my mediocre (at best) social studies education or perhaps it was because we weren't supposed to know.
The people shared their stories with us so that we would go back to the United States and somehow share what we learned. I know I cannot truly convey the heartbreaking stories that I heard but I have chosen to write this blog as part of my sharing. I will also share with my students and the Augsburg College community. In addition, I have a renewed interest in learning Spanish. I have taken some classes and even went to a private tutor over the years but never really advanced past the basics. It was frustrating to not be able to communicate fully with the wonderful people of El Salvador. Since my daughters are both studying Spanish now, maybe it would be easier to practice.
Well, I haven't even gotten to our second speaker of the day, but I will continue with that in my next post.
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