(Part 1 of a 3 part series about El Salvador)
On the surface, the small town of Ciudad Romero, El Salvador
is much like others around Latin America. Small homes line unpaved homes,
walking is the main form of transportation, and most people meet your eye and
smile when you walk by. As the sun starts to set everyday, herds of cows take
over the streets, a bovine rush hour with moo’s instead of horns.
Its not until you start talking to the people who have lived
in this town since its founding in the early 1990’s does the incredible story
of courage and determination come alive. The journey of these people from
landless farm workers to refugees to a self-sustaining community gives hope for
areas of conflict around the world and provides a model for others to follow.
In July 2013, I led a group of travelers to El Salvador to learn
about the cultural and natural revival of the area surrounding Jiquilisco Bay,
the country’s largest wetland. We were hosted by EcoViva, a US-based non-profit
that works closely with local organizations to support local community development.
During an intense but exhilarating week, we learned about the struggles of
these rural communities to recover from war, carve out livelihoods from
exhausted lands, build infrastructure, and restore natural areas devastated by
years of abuse.
El Salvador’s civil war was one Latin America’s most
violent. The seed of this conflict was stark inequality; the vast majority of
land was owned by a small number of families and most of the citizens were
relegated to poverty. From the late 1970’s until the Peace Accords in 1992, at
least 75,000 people died and more than 700,000 people were forced from their
homes, including the residents of Ciudad Romero.
On our first day in Ciudad Romero, we met Marta Alvarenga, a
community elder (and fantastic cook), who shared their gripping story with our
group. Marta’s gentle smile belied the emotional story that she shared about
her community’s survival. She told us about the town’s namesake, Archbishop
Oscar Romero, who was a hero to the poor for speaking out against the
atrocities of the government. In March 1980, he paid the ultimate price and was
assassinated while giving mass.
Two months later, the army arrived to the original Ciudad
Romero, then located in the southern highlands, and burned down the town.
Fleeing through the jungle under the cover of night, the survivors made a
four-day trek to Honduras. Not wanted in there and with little to eat, the
group eagerly accepted an offer from the Panama’s President Torrijos and left
after six months. The group of several hundred refugees was given land in the
Panamanian rainforest to build a community and they carved out a life in the
jungle, surviving from food they grew.
After a decade in Panama, the residents of Ciudad Romero
were ready to go home, though the war was not yet over. Panama’s government was
reluctant to let the people return to a warzone but the determination of the
Salvadorans to return home was too strong. More than 600 people trekked across
the jungle to Panama City and held a hunger strike at the El Salvadoran
Embassy. After two years of pressure, they finally began to make their way back
to El Salvador despite the dangers that still existed.
Once they picked out their land, a huge former plantation
for cotton and sugar not far from the Lempa River, a small group returned to
start building the new Ciudad Romero. Though peace talks were occurring, the
group still faced danger. Several times on their journey, the first group was
harassed by police and the army, one time facing down tanks that stood in their
way. As refugees began returning from across the region, the new Ciudad Romero
became a home base as new communities were created in the abandoned fields.
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Marta’s storytelling was accompanied by two murals which
brought alive the struggles and emotions of the residents. One, hanging in the
town church depicts the assassination of Archbishop Romero and the violence
that the people fled, was carried back from Panama by hand (at right). The other mural, on
the outside wall of the town’s communal kitchen (above), shows the move to Panama and
life in the rainforest.
The Peace Accords were signed in 1992 but the problems
didn’t end there. Violence and poverty continued for several years until
leaders of 14 communities (including Ciudad Romero) organized to improve their
communities. They started by creating an emergency plan to respond to major
floods that covered fields and damaged the fledgling towns. This group
blossomed into an organization known as La Coordinadora del Bajo Lempa
(Coordinator of the Lower Lempa), which now involves nearly 100 communities in
the region.
One of the most impactful meetings of our group’s visit was
a discussion with leaders of one of the most active local groups, Asociacion
Mangle, formed to manage new programs for La Coordinadora. Among their
achievements include a community radio station that reaches more than 200
communities, a program that provides opportunities for young people to develop
important skills, and an agricultural program that is reducing the use of toxic
chemicals and improving soils. Their environmental programs are helping to
protect endangered sea turtles and end destructive blast fishing (the practice
of using homemade bombs to kill fish).
Over the week, we visited a number of these development
projects and met dozens of leaders working to improve their communities. Our
group tested out a high efficiency wood stove in action, helping to reduce
deforestation and improve air quality while making delicious tortillas. Another
day we visited the area’s clean water project, providing drinking water for more
than 13,000 people, created and managed without government support. One
especially hot day, we spent a couple of hours helping out at a local farm,
adding organic compost to fruit trees.
It was an action packed few days but just the beginning of our El Salvador adventure.
Read the rest of the story here:
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