Why make this trip?

Hello all,

If you are curious about why I have decided to go to El Salvador,
here's a synopsis of my interest in and history with El Salvador.
In 1995, I was a student with Friends World Program (now called
Global College), taking a year abroad at their Latin American Center (LAC),
which is based in Costa Rica. As part of a course we took called "Central
America Today, in November, we boarded a colorfully painted old school
bus and began a three week trip through Honduras, Nicaragua and El
Salvador. Two of our teachers accompanied us. (Most of our teachers at the
LAC were refugees or exiles from the surrounding Central American countries,
as a result of the civil wars that those countries had been through.)

On our trip, we visited Mayan ruins, beautiful lakes, the offices of former revolutionary organizations, such as the FMLN and the Sandinistas, and many grassroots human rights organizations, such as a women's organization working to improve the situation of women in the country. But there was one organization that made an indelible impression upon me. That was the Comadres (The Committee of the Mothers of the Disappeared and Assassinated of El Salvador), an organization which was founded the year of my birth, and which was very strongly supported and encouraged into being by (the now assassinated) Monsenor (Archbishop) Oscar Arnulfo Romero.

I had actually read about the Comadres in a class I took in college in New York City, so when our teacher in Costa Rica announced that we would visit them on our trip, I was ecstatic. I had read a book by Maria Teresa Tula, one of the founding members of the Comadres, in which she told of her experiences during the civil war, when many family members were kidnapped, tortured and many killed.

When I visited the Comadres with Friends World Program, Alicia de Garcia, another of the founding members of the Comadres, shared with us her testimonio; her attestation of what she experienced during the civil war in El Salvador. She spoke in Spanish, and one of our teachers translated. She spoke about the disappearances that happened during the civil war. She told us about the disappearances of two of her brothers and two of her sons. She told us in graphic detail about the experience of her own kidnapping and torture, and about how her daughter was also kidnapped and tortured, having her fingernails pulled out. Her sixteen-year-old son was killed for researching cases of disappeared people. She told us that during its existence, the office of the Comadres had been bombed eight times, and many files destroyed.

When Alicia de Garcia finished giving us her testimonio, there was a period for questions. One of my classmates asked, "Considering how dangerous your work is, and how disliked it is by the government, are you afraid to walk down the street on the way to work? Are you afraid that you may be kidnapped again?" Alicia gave an astounding answer that I will never forget.
(This is paraphrased from what I remember of her response.) "No, I am not afraid. I am not afraid, because our path is the right path; it is God's path. Monsenor Romero said that the right path is often covered in briars and brambles, and you may have to fight through those briars to follow it, but it is the right thing to do. So, no, I am not afraid, because I am following the right path. I am not afraid, because our path is just."

Alicia's answer had a profound effect upon me. When I heard Alicia de Garcia speak of the strength (against all odds) that came from her knowing she was doing the right thing, something inside of me changed. I knew I wanted to learn to be that strong. I wanted to learn to do what was right no matter what, and what’s more, not to be afraid. I knew there was an alternative to the way I had been living my life. I felt I had been giving in to my fears far too easily. Listening to Alicia, I realized that the things I was afraid of weren’t really that scary, and I set out to conquer them. Now I have learned to conquer some of my fears; the ones that seemed to be so important when I was eighteen.

Alicia’s testimonio and the work of the Comadres inspired me to conquer my fears and to learn to live my life in the best way possible. Now that I have become much stronger, I wish to return to the Comadres and be helpful to them in some way. That is why I have chosen to make this trip. Because the example of the Comadres has inspired my life and taught me not to be afraid and to work for what I think is right.

The original work of the Comadres was to research cases of people who were disappeared, to compile as much information about their cases as possible, and to petition the government to do something to find out what happened to these people, who have been missing for so long. Their work was also as a mutual support group for relatives of the disappeared. They continue this work today, in addition to working for women's rights and helping children whose parents were disappeared.

A major obstacle in the way of their goals is that in 1992, when the Peace Accords were signed, a general Amnesty was declared under which no one can be prosecuted for war crimes committed during the civil war. This means that survivors of torture may meet their former torturers in the streets, or while shopping, and there is nothing they can legally do about it. This state of affairs is common in many Latin American countries where disappearances happened during dictatorships. I recently watched a movie from Argentina which addresses this issue, called Cautiva. I would definitely recommend it.