The Salvadoran Civil War formally ended in 1992. Under the watchful eyes of the United Nations and the Roman Catholic Church, the military men of El Salvador’s right-wing government agreed to lower their firearms and pursue a plan for peace with their leftist opponents of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. Linda Hemby, a political activist and theologian, however, said post-war El Salvador resembles nothing of a perfect world even today.
At a panel discussion for the event “We Have to Dream While Awake: Courage and Change in El Salvador,” Hemby said, “I could be very wrong, but I feel people here, even those who have visited El Salvador, can’t really understand its infinite miseries, complications, contradictions and dangers.”
Hemby, a Salvadoran citizen herself, was one of three panelists who spoke at Newcomb Art Gallery Sept. 9. Sponsored by the Women’s Center and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, the list of speakers also included Latin American historian Tico Braun and sociologist Rae Blumberg. The panel discussion came at the end of a three-month art exhibit in which Women’s Center Director Sharon Davie and local photographer Peggy Harrison presented portraits illustrating the lives and struggles of Salvadoran women and children today.
“In these harsh daily conditions, in which they live, Salvadorans must come together to work, to cooperate, to struggle for a better life,” Braun said. “These are the Salvadorans that we meet in the pictures in this exhibit.”
The panelists discussed for an hour the everyday economic, social and political struggles of El Salvador’s masses.
“It’s a hard fight to wage,” Braun said. “Salvadorans work hard, they always have ... [yet] more than half of Salvadorans today believe that their society does next to nothing to help them.”
Braun said more than 30 percent of the country’s population lives in poverty and noted 47 percent of Salvadorans are unemployed.
“A 13 percent sales tax, a flat tax on most goods is religiously charged,” he said. Braun said the economy grows at a “pretty quick pace” of 3 to 4 percent a year, but noted the majority of the nation’s income belongs to a few families.
Meanwhile, Braun said, young people in America find i-Pods more interesting than life in El Salvador. He reminded the audience that El Salvador is part of Latin America, which in turn is part of America.
“Salvadorans work at calling centers, answering in English questions from beleaguered American consumers about the products they have acquired in Charlottesville, Virginia and elsewhere,” Braun said. “They have jobs at Wendy’s, KFC ... Domino’s Pizza, Payless ShoeSource, DuPont, Budget Rent A Car and gas stations owned by Texaco and Shell.”
Braun said the problems Salvadorans faced during the war have not only continued, but have worsened.
“There are more armed guards working for private security firms than there are policemen,” he said. “The police are corrupt and vicious.”
Hemby echoed Braun’s sentiments, noting that today’s El Salvador feels almost the same as it did during war.
“The past eight years have been as hard and brutal and desperate as the war years,” she said.
Hemby, who first visited the country in 1983 and returns there each year, shared stories about her personal experiences in El Salvador.
“I went around El Salvador collecting the dead, mutilated bodies left behind by the military, the police and other agents of the government,” she said. “The majority of the 75,000 civilians who died during the official 12 years of the wars were not bombed or shot to death — at least not before they were raped, dismembered or tortured in another way.”
Hemby explained that wartime atrocities continue today.
“Death squads from the past have reemerged,” she explained. “Job opportunities are almost non-existent and salaries for the 40 percent of people who have a real job don’t cover basic expenses.”
Hemby added that her poorest friends, who eat beans three times a day like half of El Salvadorans, do not have money to buy firewood in order to cook their food. Many people, Hemby said, turn to crime or alcoholism in order to cope with their financial hardships. Alcoholism is often the cause of domestic abuse.
Blumberg further explored the role of domestic violence and Salvadoran women.
She noted that “a woman who had no job of her own whose husband left her or she divorced because of violence within the home had no recourse if he contributed nothing to child support.”
Blumberg said after the war, feminist organizations such as Las Niñas established aggressive political campaigns against government officials who neglected to pay child support.
“They were providing organizational support, sometimes combat support and they became organizational experts,” Blumberg said of Salvadoran women. Women expected that when the Peace Accords were debated, they would be rewarded with the passage of women’s rights laws. “Unfortunately, they got zip,” Blumberg said.
While Blumberg focused on women’s issues, she insisted that for the most part, women have had the same problems as the rest of the country.
“They needed money,” Blumberg said. “They were poor.”
From greater self-confidence, Blumberg said, women derived a new economic power that they must channel to create joint projects with microfinance organizations.
“Most of these programs have unbelievable repayment rates of 98 percent or more,” she said. “At the same time, these microfinance institutions would be able to expand their missions.”
Both Hemby and Braun agreed that such an effort was a necessary one and noted that as economic concerns are dealt with, Salvadorans could begin to improve their children’s lives and their own lives.
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