El Salvador - A Story of Popular Resistance

EL SALVADOR - A STORY OF POPULAR RESISTANCE

To continue the story of Cinquera, a village of 1500 souls at the end of a 15 mile rutted dirt road, it is Rene’s voice that I am repeating. Pedro Ramon Fuentes, nicknamed Rene, is a handsome, strong man of 52.. His activism started at 19 when he was involved in the local peasant struggle to take over private land. Since so much of the country was in the hands of private landowners, there was no land for the peasants and no relief from poverty. This situation was the major issue in the civil war (1980-92), and El Salvador still lacks an effective agrarian reform policy.
In 1979 Rene entered the University of San Salvador – a difficult and costly project for any rural youth. Six months later, the University was closed down following the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. Rene decided to join with the guerilla movement against the ruling oligarchy. He was wounded in the fighting and had to withdraw to recover. When he returned to the front, it was as a paramedic in charge of the area around Cinquera. Thus, when the war ended, he chose to settle here. He tells us this as he embraces his curly-headed three year old son, the youngest of his six children. (PHOTO OF RENE AND SON)
During 12 years of civil war there was no formal governmental structure – no mayor, no town council, no security, and no connection to a national government. Only two years after the peace accords were signed did all that return, and along with it a flood of government and non-governmental organizations rushing in to offer help - 28 in all. It was chaos. Rene tells how the people formed the Cinquera Association for Reconstruction and Development to formulate a plan that would make the influx of aid accountable to the local community. After three years, the townspeople were able to proceed with just three outside agencies under their supervision.
The Association is an example of good leadership and a well organized membership. It has created a micro-loan program, women’s and youth groups and a scholarship program. Their board of directors now includes teachers, engineers, lawyers and social workers, three of whom had been scholarship students. They established a land-purchasing program to conserve the environment, especially the forests that sheltered them during the war, water sources and native plants and animals.
It may be hard to appreciate the size and success of these efforts until you hear that up until 1992, most of the village of agricultural laborers and their children had to travel far from home to pick coffee for three months of the year in order to earn barely enough to survive. The conditions during the coffee harvest were life-threatening. It was cold, there was no water, and only the adults were served the meager ration of one large tortilla and a handful of beans twice a day. Although the children worked, only the adults were paid. Many died.
Another of Cinquera’s successes is in education. Before the war there was one primary school in Cinquera and the only high schools were 15 miles away over rough roads, with no public and little private transportation. Most families could not afford school fees. Hence, there were only 4 high school graduates. Now education is a priority. Until 1997 volunteers taught primary school, as the Ministry of Education had not yet assigned teachers here. Yet by 2008 Cinquera had its own high school and now boasts 14 college graduates. The scholarship fund is a precious commodity, and students are expected to contribute 50% of their post-graduate salaries back to the fund. Meanwhile, the Association has purchased computers and provides training to all sectors of the society, because they recognize that computer technology is necessary to enter competitions for any of the country’s scarce resources.
Archbishop Romero, now seen by many faithful in El Salvador as a saint, stated shortly before his death: "An unorganized people is a people with whom one can play games; but a people who is organized and defends its values, its justice, is a people that commands respect."
Sherrill Hogen
April 16, 2010
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