KWRU Travels to El Salvador to Build Relationships with Poor

[March 11, 2000] Day 2 with the Poor of El Salvador

We spent an evening with the nuns at the community of Nueva Esperanza, who talked about liberation theology and their work with the poor. The following morning we awoke and traveled to the countryside to see the effects of Hurricane Mitch. Through the heat and dirt and sugar cane fields we walked, learning that the only way that many communities survived was because they were organized, through the FMLN.

We talked with Concepción, a disabled veteran from the FMLN. He told us that the second flood after Hurricane Mitch occurred not as a result of Mother Nature, but as an attack by the government in order to deter the people from organizing and to demoralize them in hopes that they would move. The government opened the dike, he explained, two days after the communities held a march at the presidential palace.

We later visited a women's cattle collective who had worked alongside the FMLN during the war. This visit was incredibly painful. We showed them photographs of the misery and poverty of the people in the United States, while they led us around to sites that looked like our painful photographs. We heard stories about their efforts to survive by selling cows that they could barely keep fed. Many cattle were cattle killed in the flood. We could all tell that only through continued struggle and unity in organization of the poor worldwide would we ever change our situations. People were in tears when we completed our stories. Then we packed into a steaming van and drove through the fields for another two and a half hours to San Vicente to prepare for the elections the following morning.

 

Dia 2 con los Pobres de El Salvador

Estuvimos una tarde con las monjas en la comunidad de Nueva Esperanza, quienes hablaron de la teologia de liberacion y el trabajo que hacen con los pobres. El dia siguiente nos levantamos y viajamos al campo para ver los efectos del Huracan Mitch. Caminando en el calor, por la tierra y campos de cana de azucar, aprendimos que muchas comunidades sobreviven solo porque estan organizadas atraves del FMLN.

Hablamos con Concepcion, un veterano incapacitado del FMLN. El nos dijo que la segunda inundacion despues del Huracan Mitch no ocurrio naturalmente, sino fue un ataque del gobierno para evitar que la gente se organizara y para demoralizar las personas en esperanza de que se mudaran de adonde estaban situados. El gobierno abrio el dique, explico Concepcion, dos dias despues que las comunidades habian tenido una marcha en el palacio presidencial.

Despues, visitamos el coletivo de ganado de una mujer, quien habia trabajado con el FMLN durante la guerra. Esta visita fue increiblemente penosa. Los mostramos las fotografias de la miseria y la pobreza de la gente en los Estados Unidos mientras ellos nos llevaron a varios sitios que se parecian a nuestras fotos. Nos contaron cuentos de los esfuerzos que hicieron para sobrevivir, vendiendo vacas que casi no tenian de comer. Mucho ganado murio en la inundacion. Todos nosotros vimos que la unica manera de cambiar la situacion es con el esfuerzo y unidad continua en la organizacion de la pobreza mundial. La gente estaba llorando cuando terminamos con nuestros cuentos. De alli, nos montamos en un van y manejamos por los campos por dos horas y media hasta llegar a San Vicente para prepararnos para la eleccion del dia siguiente.