Spanish School March 2013 Activities

Escuela de Español

Actividades en marzo 2013

El mes de marzo estuvo cargado de muchas conmemoraciones y días especiales para reflexionar.  Iniciamos el mes, celebrando el aporte de las mujeres.  Con nuestros estudiantes reflexionamos alrededor de este tema.  Y como una manifestación concreta de nuestro reconocimiento, el día ocho, cada persona rescató el aporte de una mujer que ha cambiado al mundo.

This month of Mach was filled with many commemorations and special days to reflect on.  We started the month celebrating the role of woman.  With our students we reflected about this topic.  As a concrete showing of our recognition, March 8^th, each person remembered the role of a woman who has changed the world.

El martes 12, conmemoramos la vida y el legado del Padre Rutilio Grande, una de las víctimas de la injusticia y la violencia institucionalizada que predominaba en El Salvador en los años 70.  Asesinado un 12 de marzo de 1977, junto a dos salvadoreños, a manos de Escuadrones de la Muerte, el Padre Grande conformó una comunidad de fe y esperanza a través de la toma de conciencia sobre la realidad, la dignidad como seres humanos y la defensa de sus derechos fundamentales.  Gran amigo de Monseñor Romero, el martirio del Padre Tilo (como le llamaban de cariño) aún inspira la lucha del pueblo salvadoreño.

Tuesday March 12^th, we commemorated the life and legacy of Father Rutilio Grande, one of the victims of institutionalized injustice and violence that dominated in El Salvador in the 70’s. He, together with two Salvadorans, was assassinated by hands of the death squads on March 12^th 1977. Father Rutilio Grande created a community of faith and hope by raising consciousness about the reality, human dignity and the defense of fundamental rights. He was Monseñor Romero’s very good friend, and the martyr Father Tilo (his loving nick name) still inspires the Salvadoran people’s struggle.

Compartimos un fragmento de la canción de Franklin Quezada, Rutilio

Rutilio que creces

con cada marzo floreces

Rutilio que es cada vez más

Rutilio Grande, grande, grande

Pastor amigo de los niños

Humilde santo campesino

Profeta de un pueblo que grita su fobia ancestral                             

Rutilio Grande, grande, grande

We shared a fragment of the song by Franklin Quezada, “Rutilio”

Rutilio who grows

With each March you bloom

Rutilio who is each time is greater

Rutilio Grande, grand, grand

Pastor and friend to the children

Humble poor-farmer saint

Prophet of the people that screams their ancestral fears

Rutilio Grande, grand, grand

En el marco de la visita de la Delegación SOA Watch, los y las estudiantes de la Escuela se involucraron en la discusión y la lucha por el cierre de la Escuela de las Américas (ahora conocida bajo el nombre de Instituto del Hemisferio Occidental para la Cooperación en Seguridad).  Reconocer y escuchar la voz de las víctimas mediante el testimonio de doña Irma Reina, la reflexión en torno a la infame historia de esta autollamada Escuela y relacionar estos hechos al 20 aniversario del informe de la Comisión de la Verdad nos permitieron reconectarnos con una parte de la historia cargada de impunidad, injusticia y desigualdad tan vigentes hoy en día como antes.

Marking the visit of the SOA Watch Delegation, the students from the school were involved in the discussion and struggle for the close of the School of the Americas (now known as Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). We recognized and listened to the voice of the victims via the testimony of Irma Reina.  The reflection about the infamous history of the self named School and relating these facts to the 20th anniversary of the report of the Truth Commission, permitted us to reconnect with a historical weight of impunity, injustice and inequality that is as true today as in the past.

Irma Reina sobreviviente de 3 masacres

Así, no podíamos de dejar de conmemorar a Monseñor Romero, mártir, profeta, pastor del pueblo salvadoreño.  Siendo tan difícil hacer un reconocimiento a su vida, creemos que la mejor manera de recordar su legado es diciendo MONSEÑOR VIVE… Y SEGUIRÁ VIVIENDO en nuestras mentes y corazones.

Cada estudiante, maestra o maestro expresó el significado de Monseñor en su vida.

In addition, we could not leave out the commemoration of Monseñor Romero, martyr, prophet, and the Salvadoran people’s pastor.  To start with it was so difficult to recognize his life, we believe that the best way to remember his legend is saying LONG LIVE MONSEÑOR …and HIS WILL CONTINUE LIVING in our hearts and minds.

Each student and teacher expressed the significance of Monseñor’s life.

Siendo marzo un mes de reconocimientos a quienes han dejado huella como Monseñor Romero, el Padre Grande o el aporte de mujeres, reconocidas o anónimas, quienes han cambiado el mundo, apuntamos en nuestra agenda de celebraciones un tema social cada vez más vigente: EL AGUA. 

March was the recognition of those who have left their mark like Monseñor Romero, Father Grande, as well as the recognition of the role of woman, well-known or anonymous, who have changed the world.  Toward the end of March we turned our agenda to celebrate a social topic each day more relevant: WATER.

Aunque es un derecho humano, alrededor del 50% de la población salvadoreña no tiene acceso a agua limpia.  La población rural, especialmente las mujeres, dedican un importante porcentaje de su tiempo en la recolección del agua.  La falta de acceso y/o la escasez de agua limpia están causando efectos negativos a la salud.  La mortalidad infantil es mayor entre las familias que carecen del servicio.  Así que la mejor manera de celebrar este derecho fue bebiendo un buen vaso de agua limpia y haciendo compromisos por la protección de este recurso. 

Recordemos:

EL AGUA LIMPIA ES UN DERECHO HUMANO

 Even though it is a human right, around 50% of the Salvadoran population does not have Access to clean water.  The rural population, especially woman, dedicate and important percentage of their time collecting water.  The lack of access and/or the scarceness of the clean water has many negative effects on health.  The infant mortality is high in the families that lack this service.  Due to this, the best way to celebrate this right was drinking a good class of clean water and making commitment to protect this resource.

We remember:

CLEAN WATER IS A HUMAN RIGHT

Learning from El Salvador’s Ongoing Struggle for Peace, Dignity and Inclusion

by Marilyn Langlois

Locking eyes with one of the people before me and reaching deep into my heart, I took my turn and aid, “Marilyn Langlois, California, mediadora, Perdón.” All 25 of us from throughout the United States on our recent School of the Americas Watch delegation to El Salvador made a similar statement on three occasions to our hosts, giving our name, state of residence, profession, and apologizing for not doing more to stop our government from the key role it played in the atrocities committed against Salvadoran peasants and advocates for the poor during the 1980-1992 war.  

We spoke with community organizations that included survivors of the war, elected deputies on the Human Rights Commission of the country’s Legislative Assembly (equivalent to a Congressional committee), and to the general public via a press conference held at the Monument to Memory and Truth, a huge stone wall in a public park etched with tens of thousands of names of people who were murdered and disappeared. 

Monument to Memory and Truth,
Parque Cuscatlán, San Salvador

Survivor tells of family members lost in the war.

We were well received by a variety of community members and officials, most of whom who share our vision of society free of militarization and where the root causes of violence like economic disparities and social exclusion can be fully addressed. The SOAWatch movement advocates closing the infamous School of the Americas/WHINSEC at Fort Benning, Georgia, which has a sordid history of training Latin American soldiers in killing, torture and other means of repressing the poor. We met with members of El Salvador’s military high command, who have become more open to civilian oversight in recent years, but remain under US tutelage. When we asked the Subchief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to refrain from sending Soldiers to SOA/WHINSEC, as well as withdrawing Salvadoran personnel from the United Nations military occupation of Haiti, he listened politely and said he’d get back to us.

Vice President Salvador Sánchez Cerén voiced strong support for both of our requests, noting that dismantling the SOA/WHINSEC will be a step forward to peace, and that the UN has lost prestige by participating in missions such as the one in Haiti. Vice President Sánchez further stated that the US continues to impose its vision of national security (prioritizing military readiness over uplifting the poor) on El Salvador, while he and his party (FMLN) aspire to achieve greater independence and sovereignty. Although the massive repression and killing by El Salvador’s US supported army ended with the 1992 Peace Accords, the war on the poor waged by economic elites continues in this country as elsewhere.

Vice-President Salvador Sánchez Cerén (3rd from right),
the FMLN candidate for President in 2014, with members of our delegation

During our visit I found many common struggles shared by Salvadorans and the residents of my home town, Richmond, California (with a diverse community that includes many Salvadoran immigrants), in the areas of violence prevention, environmental justice and public access to airwaves. 

We met with Padre Antonio in the Mejicanos area of San Salvador, where gang activity is rampant. His holistic approach to violence prevention has many parallels to our work here in Richmond, calling for more education, housing, employment, job training and less emphasis on incarceration and police repression. A truce negotiated between the two main gangs a year ago has resulted in a dramatic decline in murders, but economic and social problems still need to be addressed. As Padre Antonio stated, “The truce is not the solution, but without the truce, there is no solution.” 

We met with anti-mining activists of the organization MUFRAS-32 in San Isidro, Cabañas province, who are advocating to protect their rivers from certain severe contamination if Canadian mining corporation Pacific Rim is allowed to begin operations there. So far a moratorium on mining is in place, but Pacific Rim is suing El Salvador for loss of potential future profits (!) based on CAFTA . The financial stakes for big corporations in this struggle are high. In 2009 Marcelo Rivera, a leader in the anti-mining movement, was murdered, and when a lawsuit was filed to hold the perpetrators accountable, two witnesses were killed. Similar to Richmond’s growing number of murals in outdoor spaces showing a vision for our city free of the toxic pollution from the Chevron oil refinery, MUFRAS-32 activists use art and public murals as part of their campaign to educate the community.

“Mining Contaminates my Nation.”

Activist Hector Berrios, mural in San Isidro with vision for a healthy future

We met with staff of the community radio station Radio Victoria in Victoria, Cabañas province. Even though the 1992 Peace Accords assured the right to free speech and access to air waves, they faced huge obstacles before managing to acquire one frequency (92.1) that is shared among ten local community radio stations in the northern region of El Salvador, with programming coming local residents sharing information that is unavailable in the corporate media. Radio Victoria is near the Honduras border and has provided much coverage during and after the 2009 coup and on-going repression in Honduras. It emphasizes youth leadership development and trains young people to be journalists and work in the station. Radio Victoria has faced threats and harassment, reminiscent of attempts to sabotage community radio stations here in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The words of Monseñor Oscar Romero, who was murdered by US trained snipers during a church on March 24, 1980, still ring true today, offering us an ongoing challenge to restructure our society so that everyone can live with dignity:

“Si queremos de veas un cese eficaz de la violencia, hay que quitar la violenzia que está en la base de todas violencias: la violencia structural, la injusticia social, el no participar los ciudadanos en la gestion publica del país, la repression…”

“If we really want an effective end to violence, we must remove the violence that lies at the root of all violence: structural violence, social injustice, exclusion of citizens from the management of the country, repression…”

--Sept. 23, 1979

April 3, 2013

SOA WATCH Delegation to El Salvador, March 2013

by Lisa Sullivan

If ever there were a more compelling tale to  provoke a stampede to shut the doors of the School of the Americas, it would be the tale of tiny El Salvador. As 25 of us discovered on a recent SOA Watch delegation there, even former  supporters admit: the time has come.

Perdon: Asking for forgiveness at the memorial wall

The legacy of that school is etched in blood on the hearts and minds of Salvadorans, and on the walls, parks and pastures of their cities and towns. A wall in central San Salvador with 35,000 names engraved, most of them murdered by orders by  SOA graduates.  A makeshift cross under the shade of a conacaste tree where four bodies of US churchwomen were dumped. A garden where rose bushes grow on the spots where six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter were murdered by the SOA- formed Atlacatl Battalion.  A closet with the possessions left behind by Monseñor Romero, assassinated on orders of an SOA graduate. There are no shoes: Romero was buried in the only pair he owned.

That is the image that clings to me the most. El Salvador was a nation of one pair of shoes.  After  dozens of people attending Romero's funeral were gunned down, the massive crowd scrambled for safety. The next day,  many  returned cautiously: they were looking for their one lost pair of shoes.

But, these one-pair-of -shoes-per-person were our sworn enemies. From the mid 1980's to early 1990's, we sent a million dollars a day to the Salvadoran military to wipe them out. We printed handbooks to show just how to torture them. We taught their fellow citizens how to shoot down those dared to raise their voices   The blood of tiny El Salvador is on all of our hands.

Father Roy Bourgeois at the
Human Right Committee Meeting 

This is why we began our delegation's first meeting, in El Salvador's Congress, with just one phrase: forgive us.  As we filed into a  hearing room with the Justice and Human Rights Commission, most of the congress members were busy on cell phones or laptops.  Each of us stood to say our names, our professions, our town and then, one word:  perdon. By the time the 9th or 10th person stood, there was utter silence.  As we reached the last person, there were tears. Hearts broke open, real dialogue ensued, and at the end of the session, even those representing the rightwing parties agreed that this school must close.  

SOAW group with Tony Saca

Thanks to the hard work of the Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad (CIS) and its director Leslie Shuld, who did a stellar job of setting up the delegation, all three candidates slated to run for president next February agreed to meet with us at length. GANA candidate, ex President Tony Saca charmingly side-skirted the issue via his US-embassy translator. ARENA's vice candidate went to great lengths to try to explain how his party is changing, without offering a position on the SOA. What else could he say, given that ARENA's found Roberto D'Abuisson ordered the murder of Romero. 

Talking the with ARENA vice-presidential candidate

Only Salvador Sanchez Ceren, candidate for the FMLN and current vice president was unhesitant and uncompromising in his support: closing the SOA is a just and moral cause. I share this vision with you.... as long as this school exists, hate and war .. will be the result. El Salvador must become sovereign and independent and make its own decisions.   We can only hope that he will win and be firm in his commitment to sovereignty. His current boss, President Mauricio Funes allowed the US embassy to replace his entire FMLN Security ministry with handpicked SOA graduates.

FMLN Presidential Candidate supports the closing of the School of the Americas

El Salvador is a place where the Pentagon's two rote arguments for keeping the SOA open just don't hold water. Those arguments are: 1. It's a new place with a new name, and 2. All those messy problems were in the past.The  publicity department of WHINSEC seems to be doing a poor job, as even the High Command of the Salvadoran Armed Forces used  the term Escuela de las Americas (Spanish for School of the Americas) to refer to the current school. During our hour long meeting, only one of the 12 commanders at our meeting table used the term WHINSEC. Some even visibly flinched when we showed them the list of graduates with each name methodically blacked out with magic marker by the US government. They had been told it was a source of pride to be an SOA graduate.

Above all, the Pentagon insists that the problems of the SOA lie in the past. El Salvador, however, the past is the present.  In a country where  tens of thousands of children were orphaned, where hundreds of thousands lost family members, where millions fled north, where millions more left without a mom or a dad, the present is a predictable outcome of such a past.

It is therefore not too surprising that more people have lost their lives at the hands of gang members and criminals in the decades following the war. When Lady Liberty refused to open her arms to those fleeing the US-funded civil war, survival was found in the only space providing welcome in US teeming cities: gangs.  This made-in-the-USA problem became El Salvador's own, as daily planeloads  of jailed gang members were shipped back to El Salvador, some not speaking even a word of Spanish. Should it be a surprise that the streets of San Salvador became such tough places? Valiant efforts by many, such as Fr. Antonio Rodriguez of the Mejicanos parish, have made significant inroads of incorporating this lost generation into the fabric of society. A truce between the two major gangs has halved the murder rate, but all agree that much needs to be done.

SOAW delegation meets with Father Antonio Rodriguez

And should it be a surprise that the land itself of El Salvador was left open for pillage? When the blood of its youth was left spilling in the streets and the muscle of its work forces packed north to do the jobs no one else there wanted, all was left was the tiny land of El Salvador itself. Under the empty cornfields and deserted pastures the eyes of hawks saw gold. No matter that the water itself must be poisoned to eke it out, life itself is dispensable in El Salvador. Or, so thought the mining corporations before they faced opposition from community leaders such as Marcelo Rivera Moreno, who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in 2009. Although the Salvadoran government currently has a moratorium on mining contracts, the Canadian Pacific Rim company has invoked a provision of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and is seeking $200 million in damages.

SOAW delegation participates in the Procession to commemorate Monseñor Romero

On our last day in El Salvador I was reminded how this fragile land continues to push open our hearts.  At the sign of peace in the anniversary mass for Monsenor Romero, Salvadorans hugged us with sincerity. The final blessing from the altar was an invocation that we should all be Romero. Yo soy Romero! shouted the crowd. Then the final words solidaridad con  Honduras! They suffer today what we did yesterday.

How unique I thought, how totally like El Salvador. To embrace strangers whose nation had caused them untold suffering, to assume forthright the task of building justice, to step beyond one's pain to help one who suffers even more. El Salvador breaks you open and spins you around, but then you land on your feet and know which direction you are heading.  

The SOA Watch Delegation visits Romero Community 

 To learn more about the movement to close the School of the Americas check out the SOA WATCH website.