Suchitoto

We spent this weekend in Suchitoto. Suchitoto is situated about an hour away from the city of San Salvador; it is a little city with a lot of history. I would describe Suchi as a non-tourist version of Guatemala’s Antigua; all over you can see the remnants of its colonial past. It also sits right next to Lago Suchitlan, which makes it the Salvadoran get away destination. Suchi happens to be where our wonderful professor Sister Peggy lives and has created a cultural center and hostile. Post-war Peggy came here to aid the returning refugees; so twenty years of living in solidarity with the community has brought her a great deal of respect for her throughout the community. In her twenty years here Peggy has aided in numerous community building projects and helped (through her many connections) to fund many more.

While our weekend there was a beautiful get-away from the city life, it also served as a learning experience. Just a boat ride away from Suchitoto lays a massacre site; what was once like any other Salvadoran community, now 30 years later still remains abandon. A man by the Rogelio who was only nine years old at the time, was one of the only survivors of that lived to tell the tale of happened that horrible day. The community had been living in fear of attacks from the Salvadoran army for months before the massacre actually happened, and had actually fled their homes in the weeks prior. They were only returning because that had gotten word that the army had left.

Rogelio told his story to us, standing on the very ground in which the massacre of his entire family and community happened. It was like no testimony I have ever heard. If you can imagine the death camps in Germany; people lined up and executed, hanged, burned in their homes and starved to death. Rogelio merely escaped the same fate as his family, only by the smoke of the gun shots that took the lives of his sister and mother in front of him. He spent the next two days injured and trying to survive in what used to be his town; now a ghost town, abandon and half burnt to the ground. Later simply by pure fate, he would find his uncle who was a guerrilla soldier. From that point on his uncle took care of him and would reconnect him with his grandparents (who had fled the country).

Rogelio now lives with his wife and children in the newly created El Citio. All of the people who managed to survive these horrible events in the community of (most because they fled the country to Honduras) Copapayo, have created a community similar to Nueva Esperanza. Through organization in the community they have created a school, health care center and a library. They were proud to report that their community has Zero gang action; which is a huge accomplishment in a country that is the second most violent in the entire world (Yes--more violent that any current warring country in the world). They try to keep a proactive mentality within the youth in the community to keep drugs and gangs from entering the community.

Listening to Rogelio’s story and the feeling of standing on the ground where so many innocent people lost their lives is a feeling that will stick with me for the rest of my life. It is one thing to learn about the things that have happened, but it is whole different ball game to take action to stop future atrocities. As if this whole experience wasn’t enough, hearing his testimony concreted in my mind how and what war really does to communities. People can’t just be statistics and collateral in war.