Here's the translation of the first page of chapter 2 of our book, which as of yet has no title. Please see the previous blog post for an explanation of this. It's just the first page, and so ends abruptly. .
Chapter 2: Memories
of Mother Alicia. These are her words, but they could be from any of a
multitude of other mothers who experienced the same events in their lives over
the years that led to war.
I remember that Archbishop Romero said,
"It is up to you to make road where
there is no path. It is up to you to open gap between hills and brambles. You will encounter many
obstacles along the way. You will
stumble over many stones. But you will overcome, because
the work we have started is very worthy. It is the defense of life. "
Back
in '74 is they started disappearing persons. I was 32, and people began to
disappear. And at protest marches they began beating people, peasants. When campesinos came to the place for the march, and when they returned from the march, the Hacienda
Police and the National Guard would capture and beat them, and then they’d
leave them there in the road. So that people would see, and wouldn’t go to the
marches. That was an order by the landowners.
At
that time, the army was quite independent. They considered the defense minister
to be their boss. The president had no control over the army. No, no. The office of the Minister
of Defense was in charge of the military-all of it. The Hacienda Police,
National Police, National Guard ... he had power to command all the branches.
And still does.
The
Hacienda Police used to guard the estates. But later they became a very repressive
body, very criminal. The National Guard became criminal as well. At that time the
National Guard received visitors from
other countries like the United States... and Europe. People said that U.S.
military advisers came to help the authorities here. After the arrival of
foreigners the National Guard began their criminal practices.
Well, the thing is that there were people
who were quite unhappy. And that discontent motivated people to organize. Unions
increased organizing in the workplace; workers organized. Many cooperatives
appeared; cooperatives were organized.
After
that came the repression of the march of July 30, 1975. In 1975, university
students held a march where they demanded better conditions for education in
college. They called for improved curriculum. And they wanted the classrooms to
be improved. Because, [for example,] some of the chairs were ruined. Then wanted
general improvements, to teaching and to the places where they had classes.
That was the protest, the demand of the government. [1]
But the
government had prepared a large ... a group of soldiers. And there they was like ... a lack of control of everything. There was uncontrolled slaughter all
because with this massacre, there was…
[1] The army took over the campus of Santa Ana of the University of El Salvador on July 25, 1975. The July 30, 1975 protest demanded that
the military leave the University.
