While searching for her son in a hidden gravesite in 1979, a Salvadoran woman was arrested by the military government, tortured and raped. She was seven months pregnant, she tells a group of Xavier University students visiting El Salvador.
But she didn't back down.
"When your child is taken away in a violent act, you lose all fear," she said. "We marched. We did not fear the military."
As she spoke, she looked at a framed photo on the wall and began to cry. She said it was important to keep talking about what happened, to never let atrocities be forgotten.
Christians for Peace in El Salvador (CRISPAZ) led a delegation of Xavier students to the country March 19-26 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the assassination of San Salvador Archbishop Oscar Romero.
The students visited COMADRES, a group of mothers who organized during the civil war to find their murdered or disappeared sons.
More than 25,000 civilians were killed or disappeared during the war.
Students visited an organization that supports youth seeking alternatives to gang membership. They also met with leaders of the trade reform and Fair Trade movements and spent three days with families in rural communities.
Participants say they returned to Cincinnati with a new understanding of the U.S. role in Latin America — and of the responsibility that comes with awareness.
"How many U.S. citizens know that our government financially supported a military operation that committed mass violations of human rights?" says XU student Ann Marie Castleman. "Because that is what happened in El Salvador from 1980 to 1992 during the armed conflict."
While in El Salvador, the students heard stories of horrific acts committed by the U.S.-backed military government. The country has not yet recovered politically or economically. Power still lies in the hands of a small number of families, while much of the country lives in hopeless poverty.
The visit motivated the students to use their influence as U.S. citizens to work for social, political and economic justice for the people of El Salvador, according to Castleman.
"As citizens of a democracy, we have a powerful voice and numerous opportunities to make that voice heard," she says. "As citizens of a global world, we have a duty to make our voices heard and stand up against injustice and to demand peace and equality for all."
Salvadorans talked about the proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which would eliminate barriers to trade between the United States and Central America. Despite massive protests, CAFTA was signed by the Central American governments and is now awaiting ratification by the U.S. Senate.
The students met with the leaders of the Salvadoran Federation of Agrarian Reform Cooperatives (FESACORA), who described the inherent inequality of "free trade" between the ultra-industrialized United States and El Salvador, a Third World country the size of Massachusetts. Of 112,000 farms in El Salvador, only seven are industrialized, and those belong to the families in power.
"We are in crisis, and waiting for a larger crisis," said Mateo Rendon, the president of FESACORA. "Three hundred people a day flee to the United States. One hundred seventy-five will make it there. This is not a treaty, because we're not in equal conditions."
The U.S. dairy industry is capable of exporting an amount of product that could flood El Salvador in four inches of milk, according to FESACORA. Producers in El Salvador fear they'll drown in U.S. product under CAFTA.
"CAFTA has the potential to cripple El Salvador's agricultural economy, a move that will serve to further devastate the already struggling farmers in the country," says Xavier student Erin Weir. "It would force these farmers to compete with large U.S. corporate farms without being granted any subsidization."
While in El Salvador, students learned they could support artisans, farmers and workers by purchasing Fair Trade-certified goods and sweatshop-free clothing. When the students returned to Cincinnati, they sold union-made T-shirts to support Just Garments, one of the first unionized textile shops to emerge from El Salvador.
"Many of the products that we purchase and use daily are produced in El Salvador or other countries with similar economic and political situations," Weir says. "The decisions we make, especially as consumers, play a role in the livelihoods of people in El Salvador and around the world."
The trip helped students understand Latino immigration in context. Intervention and trade policies that exploit Latinos drive them further into poverty. The pressure valve is immigration to the United States.
"It's important for people in the United States to know more about the countries from which these Latinos are coming," says Dan La Botz, a member of the Coalition for Immigrant Rights and Dignity. "Today U.S. economic policies are largely responsible for the impoverishment of Central America and therefore for the Central Americans' migration, because if they can't make a living at home, they come here." ©