Day 4 in El Salvador

Visiting Nueva Esperanza
Today we visited a community of resettled Salvadoran refugees in the Lower Lempa region. It means a great deal to Chava that these women are living a religious life and are regarded as nuns to all those around them when they are not under the umbrella of the official catholic church. Essentially they felt called to do what they do and they didn’t wait to receive approval or direct orders.



Soledad, the woman who spoke first was a member of the community who lived through it all and was here to share her story.

Hermana Noemi is a member of the Pequenia Communidad, who were 4 women that felt called by the Holy Spirit to not be teachers to the rich and instead reached out to those suffering. They found each other and their parents didn’t approve of the lives they felt called to. They invited Padre Pedro to teach them about the Bible, Mianmi (I am very confident that my spelling is wrong) and the Vatican ii. One note I want to include is that Chava is very passionate about closing the Clergy, Laity divide. She is all about us being equal, which is a theme we see throughout El Salvador!

Soledad is the main person I heard from. They just celebrated their 25th anniversary of them returning to their land. During the war between the rebels and the military, the soldiers put up a sign by their barracks that read, “Scorched Earth Plan”. Most of the people were peasants and couldn’t read. A man visited and told them the plan was to put an end to all the people on the country side. The military was going to eliminate all people and animals from that entire area. Large military vehicles began driving around the country side and murdered countless people. At the time, there were very few guerillas on the countryside, most of them were in the mountains. On Soledad’s mother’s side, 50 people were executed at the Sumpul River Massacre. The people talked to the Bishop hoping to find a place to survive and find sanctuary. He told them that all the large Parishes were full but there was room at a small faith community in San Roque. There was a basement at the parish where 400 Salvadorans hid from the military who was going to kill them all. The only belongings they had were the clothes on their backs.

At the time of the massacre, Soledad was giving birth and was able to leave on a bus. At the parish there was only one bathroom and one faucet. All of the families had small children. Soledad had a 4-year-old boy, a 2-year-old boy and a new born girl! There was no food. They cried alongside their children while the military surrounded the parish with death squads. Slowly the members of the parish brought them food and a gas stove. Candies and food were given to the children. Bathing was a giant obstacle because there was so little water.

One evening at 1am the military performed a raid on the tiny parish. During the night there was a problem with the toilet and it had started to overflow. The people were moving around trying to fix the problem and the military was alerted to the activity thinking they were training guerillas. During the raid they were able to continue hiding themselves. Other problems included typhoid and measles spreading amongst the youth. Blindness also afflicted a number of the children since there was no sunlight for them to see!

After six months some soldiers from England came. Their second in command said it was the worst refugee camp he had ever seen. He offered England as sanctuary but they said it was too far. The soldier from England secured them sanctuary in Nicaragua, he made arrangements for them to fly and even paid out of his own money to make it happen! This man went on all four plane trips to make sure all the people were safe. After eight months of living inside a refugee camp in Nicaragua, the people began to ask, “What are we going to eat?”. They had grown tired of the military rations and had a desire to work. The following caught my attention because I have a love of agriculture. These refugees in Nicaragua decided to develop a farming co-op. They were all women and knew nothing about taking a machete into the field. For nine years they worked the land in Nicaragua without any sign that the war was going to end.

On March 20, 1991 the women of El Salvador finally returned to their homes. After flying in, they were escorted in secret to keep their entrance a secret. Some Christian based communities were waiting outside the fence chanting to have them released. My notes become a bit confusing, probably because I was paying particularly good attention to what we were being told. What I do remember is that these people had to sneak in and that they were followed very closely. Once they were in El Salvador they celebrated mass in Santa Ana. Afterwards the women chose to stay together since they felt like family. Together they drove back to the land they had been kicked off. The military used machine guns to shoot out their tires. The women got out of their vehicles and passionately approached the soldiers saying, “Senores, we are NOT taking one step back”. These wild and brave women pushed the barricade out of their way; that day 320 women walked passed 600 armed and threatening soldiers. After the Peace Accords were signed January 16, 1992 the women of La Pequenia Comunidad were able to breathe easier. 54 homes were sponsored for construction by the Canadian ambassador. The first 10 homes were built for the families with the youngest children. As time passed they built a kindergarten through middle school, a computer center and a high school!

Today there is a health clinic in their community that helps assist the people of La Pequenia Comunidad. After we spoke with Soledad, we were introduced to Don Pilar. He gave us some background on the co-op. It was founded in 1993, there are 101 members; 55 women are members there are 138 families involved. There are 980 acres for them to work. They care for 35 cows, 130 acres of sugar cane, 49 acres of coconut trees, 35 acres of cashews. Lemon trees and mango trees are also grown. 100 pounds of cashews are sold to a processing plant in San Nicolas for $25. The milk is used to produce cheese, sour cream and other cheeses.

Some interesting facts about the farm is that the land had to be worked by hand in the beginning with men working alongside women. Members of the co-op are given pieces of land that they can farm themselves for extra money. Compensation corresponds to the amount of time they work on the public land. They have leaders in the community, but major decisions are made by popular vote.

Sister Noimi was one of the original four women that banded together to serve the women of Nuevo Esperanza. She graciously began telling us her story by describing how she and the three other women were raised in Christian homes. As they were growing during their teens, the women discussed with one another how they wanted to live their lives differently then everyone else around them. The catalyst that held them together was their passion to serve women and they saw an opportunity to live an alternative to the consecrated life. After earning a secretarial degree, Noimi decided she wanted to pursue a life focused on spirituality. During this time a Danish Priest began teaching them and the women helped him learn Spanish. Slowly, these special four began developing a heart for evangelism and as they reflected on their lives they began asking questions of the trajectory they would take together. One option was to become teachers for the wealthy children, but they quickly decided that they wanted nothing to do with that option.

They may not have had a clear idea of what they wanted to do, but the sisters knew they wanted to serve the poor and to live a life of community. For 25 years they reached out to the people living in the margins of San Salvador. During the way, the exiled people began returning and the four women asked, “how will we support them?” Sister Noimi gave herself to help the people returning from Nicaragua and Honduras. The first thing Noimi worked towards was finding the people land to live on and she successfully found them 5,000 acres that they could live on and work. It’s important to point out that it is incredibly difficult and rare for the people of El Salvador to support themselves with jobs in their country. There simply isn’t enough money and opportunity for it to work. The co-op that the people formed is incredibly successful because individuals don’t own it and they can’t sell it if times are tough.

Today all these people and their families have roofs over their heads and have been able to educate their children on their own without help from the government. What struck me the most from this entire day was that Sister Noimi is growing more concerned that her people will become too comfortable in their current situation. She told us that you no longer need an army to control people, you just need media that is good enough to put everyone to sleep. Noimi told us that it is important for the elders to re-tell their story so they always remember who they are and where they came from. I asked Sister Noimi how the components of their community spread and she described how a political project is needed to change the system. She described how we need to feed incarnate faith and how it is incredibly difficult. “They worship God with their hand in the air and not with their feet on the ground.” Their concern is to not pound people over the head with tradition and the Bible, but to struggle and walk with the people around them.

During our reflection of the day I discussed how amazing it is that a woman who had suffered as much as Sister Noimi would be concerned that her people were becoming too comfortable. Is it possible that we as Americans should mourn our own complacency? I’m reminded of my conversations with twenty-somethings who have described how they too have heard the gentle whisper of America to solely pursue safety and comfort and have wondered if there is something more that they can do with their short time in existence. Another interesting thought is that God does desire for us to be safe and comfortable, but we get in the way by creating that safety and comfort for ourselves.