El Mazote: A monument to remember cruelty but with hope for the future

18July
I got the pickup to the crossroads for the bus that was supposed to come at 9 to take me to El mazote. It didnt. This lady also waiting for it, started to chat to me. She had a box of shoes and some foodstuffs, that she was bringing up to the village. She was, I think in her late 40s maybe 50s. After about 40 minutes, the hopeful passengers gave up hope and started walking. So I joined them. There was a young girl with her baby and her young friend. They shared the task of carrying the baby. I offered to take some of the bags my travelling companion was carrying, some of which she carried like many locals on her head. She walked very straight and regally. She was elegant. She rejected my offer but then after about 30 minutes, the other young girl offered to take it on her head but couldnt. I took it off her as she already was carrying something. So we all helped each other and they chatted. A wealthy 4wd pickup with just 2 passengers, passed us but didnt offer a ride. Then this gentleman stopped and offered us passage. Later this rather old man in a cowboy hat and jeans got picked up too. He struggled to get into the back of the pickup. and kept trying to sit on the floor of the van even though there was no room and it was pushing me out of the way. The other occupants and my travelling companions were giggling at my predicament but it was a little at him and with me rather than really at me. It was so funny.

At El Mazote, I offered money to the kind driver but he refused and didnt take any from anyone else either. The locals guided me to the monument. They all knew why I had come. There is no other reason except to visit except for the monument. The village has very few houses, one or 2 small shops a church and until a few years ago had been abandoned after the terrible catastrophy that had hit the town. It is not like normal villages. There are not many children playing or people bustling around doing their various daily tasks. It is very quiet in fact. A little eerie, even though it is a beautiful sunny day.

On December 11 1981, a military unit trained in America, forces of the then president of El Salvador, funded by the US, entered the village at night and dragged the villages from their beds. It was cold but there was no mercy. For 3 days the villages, mostly children were herded and kept locked in the church and other places in the village. They were mostly seperated into groups of women, men and children. The mothers could hear their children crying of hunger, fear etc. The soldiers beat those they had captured and raped many of the women and girls. All in all they killed around 757 people maybe more as some may have escaped never to return or their bodies are in the jungle, lost to nature. I was told by guide that it was nearer 1000. Most of those killed were children. The massacre of the village left only 3 known survivors.

The monument is to remember this massacre. There is one part of the monument where the names of the families and their members is mentioned. This has the figures of a mother father and their 2 kids holding childrens hands. There were approximately 80 families.

The church burned down during the massacre, has been rebuilt. There is here,the jardin de reflexcion, built on the site of the old rectory of the church. On the wall of the rebuilt church is a beautiful mural and mosaic. Along the base of the wall is a list of all those who died with their ages. 146 of these names are under 12. The youngest was just 3 days. So many of them were just young babies, months old killed in their mothers arms.


On the opposite side of the church is a painted mural representing hope through time and education. It is bright and really gives a sense of a future with hope. One slogan struck the public then and still is spoken today: "NUNCA MAS" (never again). But how many times has this been said. This was 30 years ago. A sense of deja vu, was that not said after the holocost...

Barbarism doesnt even come close to describing this. I read a bit more and found out that the village had been told there was a possible attack on its way by the FMLN. But the villagers didnt believe it, as they were mostly protestants and normally it was catholics who were considered by the govt to be supporting FMLN. This village was not a known supporter of the guerrillas and felt safe.. Also some villagers had gone to the army and asked and were re'assured that nothing was going to happen. Some people even came from other villages, as they thought they would be safer in El Mazote.


One lady Rufina Amaya has spoken out about for 25 years about what happened to her and her family during the massacre. In March, she died of medical complications, but because an Austin College student received a grant, her story will live on.This is stuff I found thourgh the internet and in a musuem in San Salvador.
As Rufina Amaya tells her story, she recalls horrifying events where here family and friends were killed. According to this site http://www.kxii.com/home/headlines/12106361.html “She kept her faith 26 years after everything happened to her she watched her 4 children be killed so an incredible amount of faith," says Robert Thomas Quiring, a former Austin College student.
Rufina’s inspiration drove Robert Thomas Quiring to apply for the grant to pay for the documentary. He visited El Salvador and met Rufina, the lone survivor of the El Mozote massacre."

History shows even the US government refused to believe the massacre ever occurred, but Rufina spent years recalling the incident. The FMLN published a book with her input. They reported it soon after the massacre, on their rebel radio station Radio Venceramos. Famous US journalists visited El Mazote soon after, and provided the fotos of bodies and the remnants of the town. Rufina, even testified to legislatures in both the US and Central America. Her efforts led to an investigation and eventually and exhumation of more than 3,000 people.
“She’s a huge inspiration and that fact that such a humble person had that strength and that courage to speak out that truth and to struggle to make that truth known and to continue to tell that story, even thought it caused emotional stress, it was her mission and she carried it,” says Wenday Wallas, filmmaker on the project.
Now Austin College students make regular trips to El Salvador, visiting communities that suffered similar devastation.
"When I saw how devastating massacres are, I met with massacre survivors 10-20 years later, but it effects their spouses, it effects their children in every area of their lives and I want people to know what happened so we can stop it from happening again," says Sophia Kuiper, a senior at Austin College who has made trips to El Salvador.
Wallas says Rufina had a lot of input in the project, choosing what would stay and what was edited from the film. Even though she died before the premier Monday night, her story will live on.
"She felt like she was silenced her whole life but she kept continuing to tell her story,” Quiring says. “That's what this is about, to tell her story now that she has passed."
One of Rufina's daughters who also survived the massacre, Marta, is in medical school in El Salvador. The proceeds from the DVD sales will go to a scholarship fund.

And what tales will come out of Iraq. God knows.

I left El Mazote after an hour or so and decided to walk and take what came. The man who picked me up to bring me here, was miraculously on the road again. I had jsut thougth woudlnt it be nice if he was and there he was. He picked me up and I sat up front, as I was his only passenger. He sells mobile phones and makes biweekly trips if not more to all the villages here. He alays picks people up. I told him he had a big heart. He said if I was passing through his town to call in to his restaurant. I said I would if I could. He gave me his business card. Again he took no money. He jsut enjoyed the company. God what a sweet good natured man. There are still nice peopel in the world. I got a pick up back to Perquin from the crossroads. So far I ahve met so many lovely people here. No one is after anything. Ar rarity.
http://www.morris.umn.edu/academic/anthropology/chollett/anth2301/elsalvador.html
http://focal-point-aid.blogspot.com/2008/06/el-mazote.html
http://vagoscribe.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/closing-down-america’s-school-of-terrorism/
http://home.earthlink.net/~neoludd/MATANZA.htm