A Lake, a Spy, an Election, and a Book: Another Month in Chinamequita

I've been in Chinamequita for about a month and a half now. I have gotten to know many people, who have treated me very kindly the whole while. The people, landscapes, food, and culture have provided me with wonderful experiences. I've made a friend recently who has introduced me to some poetry and some places in the country, including the overlook (the Mirador) of the capital city and a trip to the largest lake in the country, located in Suchitoto. We saw only a little of the small colonial city as we spent most of the day at the lake, where we met up with a Presbyterian delegation who I had met the other day in Chinamequita during their visit to our agency.

Among the delegation is a woman who happens to be involved with the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (PPF), which is currently one of the organizations coordinating human rights work in Colombia. It was definitely a stroke of luck to meet this woman now, as I had just days ago decided to apply to the Peace Corps, and talking with her rekindled an interest in human rights accompaniment. I have decided that the Peace Corps can provide me with an opportunity to make a difference, as well as the opportunity to conforton internal policy with which I may not agree. Moreover, I realize that despite my large differences with most US foreign policy of which I'm aware, I should support those policies with which I agree. Thus, I have started an application, although it is temporarily halted while I apply to the human rights work in Colombia, which I would prefer as it seems more neutral. Still, I'm looking for all manner of opportunities in Latin America, as I have school loans and other concerns. I could end up waiting in a bar for a bit to get by as I figure out something better for the long term.

I may not be able to join in the volunteer service through PPF as I'm agnostic, but I have expressed my willingness to examine the faith during my stay if allowed to serve as a volunteer. I realize I need to do more work to investigate various religious beliefs, even though I have no intention of believing in one. It's good to understand other people's perspectives. I also realize however, that my main motivation for applying to the human rights work through this organization is that they are willing to accept volunteers with lower levels of language abilities. Although I'm working to improve my abilities on a daily basis, it will be quite awhile before I can be accepted to the long term volunteer opportunities that are offered by Peace Brigades or Wintess for Peace. Basically, all of the opportunities work with towns that have requested human rights monitoring. These towns have declared themselves neutral in the longstanding armed conflict that continually ravages the country, and because of their unwillingness to support any armed group, including government soldiers, they have suffered repression and massacres. The idea is that it is less likely that the government will massacre the civilians if people from the US are present there. In any case, I am currently applying to the PPF and am awaiting word as to whether I will be permitted to serve. If not, I still hope to go to Colombia and perhaps do some teaching work as I explore Bogota and Cali. I am currently contemplating a bus trip through Nicaragua and Costa Rica and flying out of San Jose, although I realize I won't have the time or money to spend much time exploring. I would like to see Managua for historic reasons and Grananda for the view, at least.

In any case, back to the lake. It was artifically made and huge. It is a wonder that something so large and spectacular could be made by effort. We took a small motorboat out for a half hour and didn't even come close to seeing any other shore point. We did, however, pass many small islands with birds a plenty. We were told that some 40,000 birds live at the lake at the high point around easter, but there were probably less there when we went. We saw pelicans, white and gray cranes, blue herrings (I think), some other type I've never seen, and even a few buzzards. It was an impressive site. The bird I had never seen was interesting. It rested beneath the water with it's head sticking out and then would make dives for fish. It was black with some sort of mane thing on it's neck. Smaller than the pelicans but not by a whole lot. The water was a mossy green color and didn't look very great for swimming, so we stayed out of it. It is amazing to think that something so massive was created by humans. While its history is artificial, it is certainly now a natural habitiat for birds, fish, and the cows and horses that graze along it's shore. Towards sunset we were greeted with rays poking through clouds and extending to treetops. My friend and I then caught the last bus home avoiding an unpredicted stay in either Suchitoto or San Salvador.

Anyway, today is a special day for the country. The legislative elections were Sunday, and resulted in the rightist party still having a majority in the unicameral (one house) legislature, but not by much. In the local Chinamequita elections, the ARENA candidate won the mayorship, which was an unfortunate loss for women's interests as the FMLN team had 5 women that would be sitting on the Mayor's board of advisors had he won, while the ARENA only had one. The election for the mayor of San Salvador proved to be tricky though, as it was decided by less than 100 votes. The leftist candidate, Violeta Menjívar, was decided winner on Sunday but then recounts were demanded. Over the next two days it is unclear how many times the votes were recounted. At some point it was decided to include the votes that had been discarded because they were unclear. I was told the rightist party also has more influence in the current Election Monitoring Tribunal (TSE), and I wouldn't be surprised if the rightist leaders had pushed for a recount including the unclear votes once they realized they would lose with the regular count. This, however, is only pessimistic speculation. It should be said however that last night, when the results were being postponed yet again, there was a large march led by the FMLN (leftist party) to the hotel where the votes were being recounted. Some people unfortunately resulted to throwing rocks and even firing some kind of projectory, but it was unclear what kind it was. The street had been closed off with large fences, which I believe had barbed wire on them but it wasn't clear from the TV images I saw. I don't believe there were any injuries, although I saw one of the policemen fire a gun into the crowd before the leftists had fired anything, but while they were throwing rocks into the empty street. I am not sure if this was a bullet or a rubber bullet for dispersement purposes.

Regardless, today Violeta was finally declared winner, and the rightist party (ARENA), has apparently accepted the results. This is historic as this is the first woman who has won the mayorship in the capital of a country in a deep struggle with gender relations. Audio from ARENA's political coordinator was on the TV last night, and he was angrily saying they were prepared to accept the San Salvador results while denouncing the leftists as using unjustified violence. I agree that the people should not have thrown rocks (although from what I saw this was only into an empty street) or have fired any projectiles (obviously more dangerous), and that this is unjustified as I am against all violence. However, it is important to note the country's recent history in the people's frustration in the democratic process.

After a 10-year civil war in which the government's soldiers and death squads committed the majority of massacres, rapes, tortures, and violence as a whole, a peace process was initiated. When information came forth, notably through the UN's investigation, that the government was responsible for almost all of the war crimes, and simultaneously while the government was under investigation from a local court over a huge massacre at El Mozote, they pushed through legislation giving them general amnesty from all war-crime charges. Thus the rightist government cleared themselves of all of the atrocities they had committed, and the local court case about El Mozote had to be dropped. But, the country still had the Peace Accords. Unfortunately, according to a number of the informed people I've talked to here, the objectives in the Peace Accords have largely been unrealized. Further, recent elections have been marred by vote-buying and intimidation, and reports of the fairness of most recent election are forthcoming. A quote from the murdered president John F. Kennedy seems relevant here: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." I submit replacing the word inevitable with likely, as I have faith that peaceful revolution is possible even in the face of widespread repression and violence. My greatest faith comes from Gandhi, Oscar Romero, and Martin Luther King, Jr., although I know there are many others I'm leaving out and that there was great violence during their peaceful efforts.

I have been managing to read a bit at night when I can no longer do work on the computer and when I am not preparing for my English classes. In addition to Gandhi's "The Story of My Experiments with Truth", the one I have just finished is quite relevant to the abovementioned issues and to us as United Statesians. It is short, sad, and utterly worthwhile. It is called Massacre at El Mozote: A Parable of the Cold War, and you can find a cheap used copy at www.addall.com. In short, it is about a huge massacre of over 750 people, mostly unarmed women, children, and old people, who were brutally murdered by the government soldiers in El Salvador in 1981. Some of the methods included hurling babies in the air and impaling them with rifle bayonets as they fell towards the ground (a tactic that I have read has also been used in Colombia against their citizens, and probably in many other places if I had to guess). Almost all of the emptied clips of the soldiers' machine guns were found to be of US make when dug up by forensic anthropologists. This was common, as the US was supporting the government despite its atrocities with the view that anything was better than communism. In fact both the Carter and Reagan Administrations and US Congresspersons were bent on fighting communism on ideological grounds even if it meant fighting against democracy at the same time. I submit here an old idea, that if we simply blanket a group as having unnaceptable views and try to destroy them, we are operating against democracy itself, which should accept a variety of views into the democratic process and allow the people to decide for themselves what they wish. I highly recommend the above-mentioned book, as it is reported with what seems to be very high integrity and with the original documents included so that the reader can come to her or his own conclusion. Given all of the information, it is hard to imagine one could conclude that the US and Salvadoran governments acted justly or in a manner that would promote democracy.

I understand that most people do not want to read such sad things. I understand. I wish there were no sad things to read. Further, I know most people feel that they have nothing to do with US foreign policy or that it warrants their attention, they are simply working at their jobs, having some fun when they can, and not hurting anyone. I argue otherwise. As United Statesians, we benefit every day from US foreign policy. The clothes and electronics we buy are cheap and of great variety and quantity because they are made in sweatshops that our government and corporations ensure stay in existence, and our complacency and refusal to do anything serves those interests. The services at many restaurants we eat at, such as the washing of the dishes, are often provided by immigrants who are struggling to better their economic circumstances even though our government is currently trying to make them criminals for having entered the country to do so. Most undocumented immigrants would surely prefer not to be undocumented, but the process of securing a visa is expensive and near impossible for many, and so they enter with the hopes of the so-called American Dream that previous immigrants entered with. Each immigrant wave is persecuted by the descendents of the older generations. What a sad cycle.

But there are things we can all do to change the circumstances. We can provide service to our communities, perhaps a little here and there after work or on weekends. Or, we can make work part of our service by working for agencies with social justice oriented missions. We can educate ourselves by reading. I know I have much to learn and every day I'm trying to read a little or learn something from the people I'm meeting. I realize I know hardly anything and it seems impossible to learn what I know I should, but I'm trying, driven by ideas that community service and non-violence are wonderful and correct things. We can use this knowledge to take direct political action by writing our representatives asking that our all individuals be respected and that our policies be more sensitive to humans and the environment. For instance, in regard to the current immigrant bill, we can write our representatives asking that immigrants be treated more humanely, that the undocumented be given amnesty, that we not spend a mountain of money building a huge wall between us and Mexico, that we provide better foreign policies to lift other countries out of poverty (which is the root of many people's desires to come to the US to begin with), and so forth. To begin with, we can educate ourselves so as to send informed letters and to educate each other. The book about El Mozote is an incredibly easy start. All you have to do is check it out of the library or buy a copy and read it. It took me less than 10 hours, and I'm not a fast reader as I often stop to replay the scenarios in my head or imagine myself debating Bush, which of course I do quite eloquently and with the result of him realizing his errors and greatfully stepping down as president.

One final and somewhat odd note is that in my classes it is possible there is a spy from the ARENA party. I have been informed by a lefty friend that their family knows that my student's father is a spy for ARENA. I was informed by the same person that the daughter had previously joined the leftist party for a small stint, but that this was probably to obtain information as she promptly left. The woman, of about my age, joined the class halfway through. However, the charges are speculative and personally I do not feel threatened by her. Nor do I have any reason to feel threatened as I am not pushing any political agenda in the class (neither does the agency have any political paraphenalia up; the agency allows everyone to join in and encourages unity within the community). However, I am trying to work in social justice issues into the curriculum, as is asked by my the agency for which I'm doing the volunteer work, and this could prove interesting depending on her perceptions. I'm certaintly not making any political suggestions nor do I want to. I solely want to submit various issues for thought to the class, introducing information of which they may not be aware. I think this is a wonderful idea and am in complete accordance with it. However, it has proven quite difficult as my classes are of very low level abilities. We will see what happens over the next few weeks though as I finish the classes here. There is much to do, as I am helping put up a web site and doing some limited translation work. But I feel confident that I am up to the task of managing various responsibilities and enjoying myself at the same time.

For now, I'm off to work and lesson plan! But before I go, I'd like to share a poem that I recently read and particularly liked. It's by a man from Uruguay named Mario Bendetti, and is called Te Quiero, which to my understanding is another way of saying "I love you." For those of you who don't speak Spanish you can get a general idea of the poem by using one of the online translators such a Babelfish, although these are not very good and their translations are more confusing than helpful at times. I'd recommend using an online English-Spanish dictionary if you want to better understand it, as not all words are used in their primary meanings. One note is that the word "sos" means "you are," and this form is only used in certain countries so I don't know if Babelfish will be able to translate it.

So, adios for now and here it is:

Te Quiero

Tus manos son mi caricia
mis acordes cotidianos
te quiero porque tus manos
trabajan por la justicia

si te quiero es porque sos
mi amor mi cómplice y todo
y en la calle codo a codo
somos mucho más que dos

tus ojos son mi conjuro
contra la mala jornada
te quiero por tu mirada
que mira y siembra futuro

tu boca que es tuya y mía
tu boca no se equivoca
te quiero porque tu boca
sabe gritar rebeldía

si te quiero es porque sos
mi amor mi cómplice y todo
y en la calle codo a codo
somos mucho más que dos

Y por tu rostro sincero
y tu paso vagabundo
y tu llanto por el mundo
porque sos pueblo te quiero

Y porque amor no es aureloa
ni cándida moraleja
y porque somos pareja
que sabe que no está sola

te quiero en mi paraíso
es decir que en mi país
la gente viva feliz
aunque no tenga permiso

si te quiero es porque sos
mi amor mi cómplice y todo
y en la calle codo a codo
somos mucho más que dos