The CIS mission is to promote solidarity and cultural exchange across borders between the Salvadoran people and others in the search for development and dignity. We work to promote and strengthen a culture of solidarity that implies accompaniment, respect for equality of different cultures, and mutual support between people. We focus on using different strategies to promote a solidarity that creates the space for grassroots organizing for justice and dignity.
This scholarship program benefits 59 youth. Part of the program includes the participation in human development workshops.
The workshops include the following topics: social reality, family and personal; self-esteem;
family relations; human vocations; personality and vocation.
The workshops that took place sometimes included parents. When the topic of family relations was discussed,
in two parts, the parents participated. This
permitted the parents to get closer to the group and generated more trust in
the scholarship program.
There was also a meeting with a delegation from St. Peter’s, who sponsor the majority of the scholarship recipients.
This year 13 students graduated from high school. One college student has finished studies to
be a teacher, and he is waiting on his final tests so that he can graduate in
June or July 2013.
Thank you brothers and sisters for you solidarity.
The scholarship program in Mejicanos is one of the CIS's 14 scholarship programs. Read more information about the program read our website or contribute to the program.
1932, A Scar in Our Memory is a documentary where the survivors of the indigenous
upraising in the western part of El Salvador in 1932 share their story. This event marked the nation’s political,
social, economic and cultural life. It
left thousands dead. The Mélida Anaya
Montes Spanish School remembered this date by the students watching and reflecting
about the documentary.
1932,
Cicatriz en la memoria es un documental donde los
sobrevivientes del levantamiento indígena en el occidente de El Salvador en 1932
comparte su historia. Este hecho marcó
la vida política, social, económica y cultural de la nación y dejo un saldo de
miles de muertos. La Escuela de Español
Mélida Anaya Montes recordó esta fecha con sus estudiantes observando y
reflexionando sobre el documental.
Students’ Reflections:
Hoy, el 22 de enero,
es una fecha importante y necesitamos recordarla. Es el aniversario del primer
día de la insurrección indígena de El Salvador en el año de 1932. Aunque es
crucial recordar, tal vez sea más importante reflexionar y considerar, ¿qué
podemos aprender de aquella fecha? Por ejemplo, ¿necesitaron usar violencia los
revolucionarios?, ¿Es posible que hubieran tenido más éxito con otras tácticas?
No sé la solución. ¡Discutamos!
Mi otra pregunta
para reflexionar es ¿qué podemos hacer con la cultura indígena? Ahora, muchas
costumbres han sido perdidas. ¿Debemos tratar de recuperar aquellas costumbres?
¿Cómo podemos homenajear a nuestros antepasados, su forma de vivir y su lucha
por la justicia? ¿Si perdemos una parte de nuestra historia, perdemos una parte
de nosotros mismos y la comprensión de nuestraobligación para continuar su
lucha por un mundo justo?
Today, January 22, is a day in our history worthy of remembrance. It is
the anniversary of the first day of the indigenous insurrection of 1932.
Although it is crucial to remember, perhaps it is more important to reflect and
consider: what can we learn from this moment in history? For instance, did the
revolutionaries need to use violence? Is it possible that they could have had
more success with non-violent direct action? I do not know the answer. Let’s
discuss!
My other question for reflection is what can we do with the indigenous
culture that remains? Today, many customs have been lost. Should we try to
recover these lost customs? How can we honor our ancestors, their way of life
and their struggle for justice? If we lose a part of our
history, do we lose a part of ourselves and an understanding of our obligationto
continue their struggle for a just world?
Sam Lawrence, intermedio
La masacre en 1932
[fue] una reacción de los poderes del capitalismo y la oligarquía contra la
organización de los trabajadores indígenas.
[Fue] una manera de parar el movimiento [por la búsqueda de] la justicia
en El Salvador.
The 1932 massacre was reaction from the capitalist poor and the
oligarchy against the organized indigenous workers. It was a way to stop the movement for the
search for justice in El Salvador.
Cathy Howell
Básico A
En el documental [1932,Cicatriz de la Memoria], los sobrevivientes compartieron sus
experiencias y memoria del evento. En el
pasado, tenían miedo de hablar, pero ahora tienen el valor para enseñar a las
generaciones futuras. Para del devenir de la sociedad sus testimonios ayudarán
a recuperar la cultura indígena.
The Documentary[1932, A Scar in Our Memory], the survivors
shared their experiences and their memories of the event. In the past, they were afraid to talk,
however today they are brave in order to teach future generations. The survival of the society counts on their testimonies
to help recover the indigenous culture.
Marita Capili, Básico A
El miedo al
comunismo, el racismo contra los indígenas y el deseo por un chivo expiatorio [ante]
los problemas del país dejo como resultado una masacre de al menos 20 mil
hombres y niños.
The fear of communism, the racism against the indigenous and the want of
an escape goat, are some of the problems of the country that left as a result a massacre of at least
20 thousand men and children.
Janet, básico A
[ ] correcciones gramaticales del
texto, grammatical corrections in the
text
Since March of 2005, when the Romero Community settled
in Tonacatepeque, community members have been threatened by farmers from the
Hondonada Cooperative due to a land dispute.
There are 277 manzanas (about 478 acres) of land that form the
Vertientes and Guayacán Property, which belongs to the Salvadoran Institute for
Agrarian Reform-ISTA. Many communities (November 2nd, Paso Puente,
Romero Community), cooperatives (Sagrisa, Distrito Italia, La Hondonada,
Guayacán), and independent farmers live on and farm the land. The government has negotiated with each
community, cooperative, and independent farmer.
They have offered 8.5 manzanas (about 14 acres) for the 78 families that
make up the Romero Community. They have
offered the cooperatives and independent farmers ¾ of a manzana (about 1.29 acres)
per family. The Romero Community has
accepted the negotiation. However the
cooperatives want 2+ manzanas (about 3.45 acres) per family (which there is not
enough land for) and they want to appropriate all of the land and will not
accept the negotiations with ISTA. (For more context and history please read this section on our website.)
The needs of the Romero Community members, due to the
extreme poverty in which they live, force the men and woman of the community, especially
the youth to survive by gathering fire wood, green wood, and some coconuts from
the nearby mountain. This mountain is abandoned
and people from many communities in the area go there to do the same thing, in
order to survive.
About six days before his death, the young 16-year-old,
Marco Antonio Sarmiento Martinez, told us that he had previously been
discouraged from getting fire wood from the mountain. During the time of the mango crop he was told
not to gather mangos and coconuts because he and other youth were threatened by
the farmers. Months went by and the
people planted and harvested corn and beans.
During this time many community members went to the banks of the river
to farm.
At the start of November the women of Romero Community
brought in the corn harvest from their small plots of land. Despite the fact that many people told the
youth not to go to the mountain, they decided to go in order to make a few
dollars. They went with adult women from the community. Marco said that while
they were helping the women, four men came down from the hill that surrounds
the river. At that point, the only thing they could do was grab the sacks full
of corn and run away. The men were
yelling at the women that they were going to kill them; they chased them all
the way to the area that’s called “the trash can” in the Residencial
Libertad.
Back in the community tired, drained and worried,
Marco Antonio told the men what had happened. The men said they had told him
not to go. No one knew who the men were that had threatened the group because
Marco could not describe them.
On Friday, November 16, the day of Marco’s disappearance,
Raúl Acevedo and another neighbor warned Marco not to go out, since his mother
would have to shoulder the burden of the family. Later the same day, Mr.
Acevedo came back to a worried community, they told him that Marco had
disappeared and they couldn’t find him. Last they had heard was that he was
going to gather firewood and coconuts.
On Saturday November 17, they found his body in the
south of Distrito Italia Number Three in Tonacatepque. They found he had numerous injuries made with
a machete and his hands were tied behind his back with barbed wire. His hands, ears, and other extremities were
cut off, and there were other machete cuts on his face which left him
unrecognizable. He had been blindfolded.
His cranium was destroyed. A
young CIS scholarship student had to go identify the body because they would
not allow the mother of the young man to see the state in which the police had found
him.
After these events, Mr. Raúl Acevedo, a community
leader and another youth have received threats that say “they will be next.”
For these
reasons we demand:
A thorough investigation of the crime
Protection for the community
Justice for Marco Antonio Sarmiento Martínez
No
More Impunity!
Protect the youth and their human
rights
Picture:
Marco Antonio Sarmiento Martínez, December 2008
BECADOS Y BECADAS DE LA PARROQUIA SAN FRANCISCO DE
ASÍS
Se benefició a 59 jóvenes en este programa de
becas. Como parte del programa se
realizaron talleres de formación humana con los siguientes temas: Realidad
social, familiar y personal; Autoestima; Relaciones familiares; Vocación
Humana; Personalidad y vocación.
Se tuvieron
talleres incluso con sus padres y madres, dos en los que se trabajó el tema de
relaciones familiares en dos partes. Esto permitió mayor acercamiento con ellos
y ellas y generó mayor confianza con el proyecto de becas.
Hubo también una
reunión con una delegación de la parroquia de San Pedro, quienes son los que
patrocinan a la mayor parte de becados y becadas.
Se graduaron 13 estudiantes
de bachillerato y 1 estudiante de la universidad ha culminado sus estudios de
profesorado, aún está esperando las últimas pruebas para poder graduarse en
junio o julio de 2013.
Gracias hermanos y hermanas por su solidaridad
El programa de becas en Mejicanos es uno de 14 programas de becas del CIS. Para leer más del programas vista nuesta sitio web.
In the short three months I’ve
been interning at CIS, I have learned and experienced so much more than I could
have imagined. The CIS family has welcomed me and the other volunteers with
open arms and supported us throughout the entire experience.
I arrived in El Salvador at the beginning of
June. I am one of two summer student interns at the CIS’ English School Program. For the last three months I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside the other intern and the school’s coordinator and to
collaborate and create new materials for the English school such as a popular
education manual for future English teachers at the CIS.
Aside from working in the office, I had the chance to
visit many different parts of El
Salvador and learn a lot about Salvadoran
culture and history. With the CIS team, we visited different communities and
learned a bit about how CIS supports different groups. For ‘dia del maestro’, teacher’s
day, the CIS staff and volunteers visited ‘La Vaquita’, a community in
Cabañas
where there is a women’s group that makes cheese locally. We were able to learn
about how their group was formed and how their business is important in
sustaining their community.
We also had the opportunity to visit San Luis
Los Ranchos, a community in La
Libertad where we visited an indigo cooperative and saw the
beautiful and detailed work done by a group of women who dye clothing. With a
friend of mine, I also visited a women’s co-op called ‘Mujer y Comunidad’ in La Libertad, where the co-op
worked to give other women in their community free workshops and training in
artisan crafts. Being here and visiting a few of these women’s groups has given
me a greater realization and amazement at the organizing and work that women do
to support their families and communities.
Another highlight of my stay in El Salvador has been teaching English at the CIS in the evenings. I taught the conversational level, a small and intimate group. I was able to learn so much from my students and the experience that they brought with them and shared in class. From El Salvador’s relationship with the U.S.A. to the war to reproductive rights to workers rights, we discussed a lot of social issues affecting El Salvador (click here to read the moving piece her student wrote for graduation). Outside of class, the volunteers and I loved hanging out with students in the evenings with students and getting pupusas after class.
By living with a host family, I was able to be close to
the CIS and have people to help me find my bearings when I arrived in the
country… also, the food was great! On weekends, the other volunteers and I
enjoyed visiting different towns such as Suchitoto, a charming town with a
wonderful campaign to stop violence against women. Another of our favourite
trips was to La Ruta
de las Flores, where we visited three different towns, Apaneca, Ataco, and Juayúa (where we
ate at the delicious food festival!).
My experience in El Salvador and with the CIS had
been a very valuable learning experience for me, both professionally and
personally. As I prepare to leave, I’m ready to take this experience with me
and apply what I’ve learned here to my life and attitudes when I return to Canada.
Congratulations to all of the English students who completed Cycle III-2012! We had a great end of cycle celebration. Here are some of the pieces that our student presented.
This is the video that the Basic B students made on mining in El Salvador:
This is the piece that our conversational student wrote to share at the End of Cycle Celebration.
El Salvador we live, El
Salvador I love
Yes. This is America, I mean, El
Salvador in America. The America
conquered by the Spaniards years and
years ago. El Salvador in America. The America plundered by Europe, or El
Salvador the U.S. colony for years. El Salvador of few rich and many
poor, with a long history of murder, bribe, corruption, violence, and
plundering.
There was a time when El Salvador
was different. It was before the big landowners took our ancestors’ land by
creating laws that benefited their greedy interests. Such event underlined the
beginning of an oppressive system; it was the destruction of our way of living.
Some years later, another event
marked the history of our country, It was the murder of 30, 000 Indigenous
people whose struggle was to own a piece of land to make a living. It was a
cruel and bloody period of Salvadorans’ lives. A period when asking for human
rights to be respected was a crime. A period when asking for the right to a
small piece of land was called communism. Indigenous people were called rebels,
criminals, communists. At that time indigenous people lived in more peaceful
and harmonic communities than us.
That is El Salvador, dear people.
El Salvador, suffering from a 12 years’ war. War forced by the people with political
and economic power. Once again, a period of bloodshed, torture, robbery,
violence against the poor, against the campesinos, against the working class. A
period when the official documents registered between 75,000 – 80,000 lost
lives either by assassination or disappearance. A period when the bourgeoisie
was able to commit crime against our most beloved pastor. The voice of the
voiceless, Monsignor Romero along with many others who worked for social
justice.
Yes, this is our country, people.
The country where we do work for the value of our currency, but we are paid by
the value of Mr. Dollar which is not fair. The country signing a Free Trade Agreement.
Free for whom, I wonder.
But Friends, this is El Salvador.
El Salvador, with a great population of working, welcoming, warming, hopeful,
faithful people.
Listen to how wonderful our
country is with such characteristics. Adding one more. We are all young people,
young in age and hearts, and young people have the energy, courage, and
definitely the power to change the history of suffering and oppression against
the poor. To change that privileged life
of few.
Have you seen? The privileged
have always been a few, and the working class, the majority. Why don’t we do
something to change it? We should be able to see the light on the road. Let’s
make it shine for everyone in our country.
Let’s show how much we love this
beautiful country, our people, ourselves.
Let’s build a new, peaceful, fair
and wonderful country!
One
of the CIS’s great achievements, which makes us very proud, is the work with
youth, through the Scholarship Program.
The program started in 1997 in the municipality of Cinquera, department
of Cabañas, and benefited approximately 8 students. During the development of the program it was
so successful that it motivated donors and supporters to get involved in the
project. This way the number of beneficiaries
has increased, not just in the original town, but also in different
communities. In 2012 we have achieved to have many consolidated programs in different
communities. The communities that are involved
in the program are the following:
San Salvador
Comunidad Romero, Tonacatepeque
San Francisco de Asís, Mejicanos
Usulután
Estanzuelas
Isla El Espíritu Santo, Puerto El Triunfo
Cuscatlán
San Rafael Cedros
San Pedro Perulapán
San José Palo Grande, Suchitoto
La Libertad
Tamanique
Comasagua
San Pablo Tacachico
El Caoba
Chalatenango
Comunidad Ellacuría
Cabañas
Cinquera
Guacotecti
Solidarity Crafts-Jaragúa, Las Tinecas, Jesús Obrero
To
date we have reached up to 300 students in High School and University, from 14
differing communities from different municipalities in El Salvador.
After
this brief introduction we want to share part of the experience of the
The Third Annual Scholarship Student Forum
Cinquera 2012
These are the people
who participated in the forum
Some of the program´s partners
The CIS's Director and Grassroots Organizers
Representatives from the communities benefited:
Cinquera
El Caoba
Comunidad Monseñor Romero
Comasagua.
Ellacuría
Mejicanos
Tamanique
Guacotecti
Estanzuelas
San Rafael Cedros
Palo Grande
San Pedro Perulapan
San Pablo Tacachico
Isla el Espíritu Santo
The forum takes place yearly in the municipality of Cinquera where the
program started.The historical richness
that this place represents for Salvadorans should be known to the new
generations.Each year the communities
send different scholarship students so that they have the opportunity to live this
experience.
This
year more than 63 people participated in the third annual scholarship forum
which was celebrated during three days in July (Friday 20th, Saturday 21st and
Sunday 22nd). Many different activities
took place and the protagonists were the scholarship students. They presented different topics which were chosen
by each community.
Presentation and
analysis of different topics
Topics discussed:
Climate Change (Ignacio Ellacuria), Water (Tamanique) Mining (Comasagua), Social Networks and their Impacts (Estanzuelas), Overpopulation and its impacts (San pedro Perulapan), Consumerism (San Rafael Cedros), The origins of poverty and economic alternatives (Cinquera).
