Orientacion historica

Day 1

After about 10 hours of travel, we finally arrived in El Salvador! There, we were greeted by our hosts from Voces en la Frontera: Jose, Eboni, and Jaime. At the guesthouse, after getting situated, our group was greeted by Miguel Ventura. Miguel is well known for his involvement in the political and social sphere of Morazan. As both a former priest who lived with the guerrillas and former governor of Morazan, he has been on the front lines of the changes that El Salvador has experienced since the late 20th century. He had the challenging task of providing us with the historical context of present day El Salvador and the various issues and challenges that the country continues to face.

The history of El Salvador's current problems can be traced back to the original conquest of the Americas and colonialism. Miguel argued that in many ways, the extermination of people has continued to be the most prominent way of maintaining power in the country, even to this day. Due to its oligarchical power structure, the government has managed to put down uprisings and suppress the spirit of the people to destroy the concept of "ser humano". Common themes throughout history include using violence as a form of control, exterminating people en masse, and maintaining a vertical hierarchy of rule.

It is hard to say what left us both overwhelmed and wanting more by the end of our first day. It could have been Miguel's personal stories of his time with the guerrillas and nearly becoming the third Jesuit priest to be assassinated while serving his community. Alternatively, it could have been that a painful and bloody history was summarized in a quick 2 hour lecture. Then again, we were also only operating on 3 hours of sleep.

"Los suenos" called us to bed early to give us more time to reflect on all that we learned in just 1 day.

~ Marina, on behalf of our group