So it's been awhile since I've posted, but a) my life has been crazy and b) I have no internet access at my new apartment and probably won't for another week. As you can imagine, I am going through serious withdrawal. I've only got a half-hour before class, so this will be brief but I know some of you were wanting to hear about my trip to El Salvador.

In a nutshell, it was amazing. The trip was packed full from the moment we got off the plane, but I had a wonderful time. The countryside was lovely, the food was great, and the people were incredibly warm and generous. Given that the civil war only ended in 1992, almost everyone we talked to had a war story. Most of them were guerillas fighting the (US-funded) military. I heard some absolutely bone-chilling, horrifying stories of atrocities committed by the (US-funded) soldiers that would have been unbelievable had the person telling us the stories not seen it firsthand. And everyone had stories like that. One woman had had all three of her daughters stolen- literally ripped from her hands- by soldiers. She found one of them many years later, but the other two are still missing. The woman I stayed with in the village lost her oldest son. One man lost four of his five children- three killed in the war, one killed himself afterward because he was unable to live with what he saw. And these horrors were all helped along by the US government to the tune of $1 million a day. Gotta fight those
impoverished peasants and small children Communists!

But it wasn't all horror stories. Las Anonas, the village in which we spent most of our time, was just wonderful. The children were so adorable- every time we pulled out our cameras they would swarm us, wanting to have their photo taken. The women cooked delicious meals for us outside under the common shelter. We had meetings and celebrations in the Community Center. There were lots of "slogans," where the Erica, the local CRIPDES (a community building organization) leader would shout "Viva El Salvador! Viva Las Anonas! Viva Cuidades Hermanas! [Sister Cities]" and everyone would shout it back. It was great. The sense of community was incredible- nearly everyone in town came to the meetings.

I was really struck with how happy people were. By our standards, they are impoverished- no indoor plumbing, latrines, subsistence farming. Most of the adults are illiterate and barely went to school. But as Maura, the woman whose three daughters were stolen, said, "I'm either fine or I'm dead." I guess living through unimaginable suffering puts a different perspective on things. We spent many evenings after dinner just chatting with the villagers, laughing and joking and talking about politics. (Well, I didn't participate so much as listen to the girl translating for me.)

Other than hanging out in the village, we saw other sites: the church where Archbishop Oscar Romero was shot by the government, the University of Central America where six Jesuit priests, their cook and their daughter were dragged from their beds and shot by the military, the nature preserve of Cinquera where I sweated my butt off and then swam in a waterfall, a rebuilt church were I was inspired by the story of liberation theology, the war museum with its American-made guns and bombs, the cashew nut cooperative where I was inspired to see how impoverished people can pick themselves up out of poverty without wrongheaded neoliberal policies. (Why yes, it was a pretty political trip, why do you ask?)

We also, excitingly, held a press conference presenting the letter signed by 41 US Congresspeople denouncing the political repression and human rights violations. And by "we" I mean three of the Spanish speakers. I mostly just stood in the background. But I had a very stern look on my face. No word yet on whether it actually made it to TV (it's very controlled by the right-wing government).

So it was an incredible trip. I learned so much, and am even more excited about my Latin American Politics class this semester. I have photos posted at my Flickr site. I'll add more soon!