Day 3 in El Salvador

San Salvador
On November 16, 1989 six Jesuit priests, a housekeeper and her daughter's lives were taken by the Salvadoran military. This travesty occurred on the campus of the University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador. The Jesuits were targeted for speaking out against the oppressive socioeconomic structure of the Salvadoran society. The lives of these priests were taken for their steadfast defense of the poor. On this day we honored their memory by visiting UCA. As visitors we visited the garden where the priests were martyred. We heard stories about how many people’s lives were taken and there was no one recording the deaths. Photographs were taken of their bodies and the entire scene so the government could not cover up the death of the priests. Those photos are preserved at the school. Oscar Romero was shot in the heart for his love of the poor. The priests were shot in the head for their intelligence. There is a small museum dedicated to their lives where you can see the blood-stained clothes they wore and see the pictures of their deaths. Turning the pages of those albums is very difficult. During the military’s raid of the school, they used napalm to burn a picture of Oscar Romero and shot the painting through the heart, just as Romero was.

After visiting the museum, we met Soyapa Perez who is a feminist theologian and is in charge of the extension school that educates lay-people. This school is mostly attended by women. Soyapa discussed how the school invites people with any beliefs and thoughts. There is a plurality in the theology department and nothing is prohibited. All focuses are optional but Liberation Theology is emphasized. Each program teaches national reality. For liberation theology to be relevant, the faces of the oppressed must be seen. Soyapa is passionate that the paradigm of liberation theology includes everyone. One fear of hers is that as students pursue different theologies, they will forget what has happened and what shaped who the students are. Everyone we spoke to described a fear that they young people would forget what happened to the older generations. At UCA there has always been students with different Christian backgrounds from all over the globe. We shouldn’t ask the question, “is the Church founded on Jesus” but “what should the Church be like if it is founded on Jesus”. She says that we should not be focused on the Church, but focused on the Kingdom! “Another Church is possible” is a quote that deeply moves Soyapa.



The UCA is based on the needs of the people. Chava briefly spoke about how we the Church should not be focused on power and money which are common trappings. She described how it is most important that we focus on love and community. Students are taught that each problem of the people is something to be done by the lay-people. Following their focus of the needs of the people, the UCA even spends time educating their students about raising children. They want to see their students thrive as local leaders in their communities. Soyapa is troubled that sometimes lay-people spend years working and developing relationships, opening people’s minds to the community around them and building the kingdom. However once a priest shows up they will begin saying “yes father” and all the authority will be placed upon those masculine shoulders. This is indeed a traumatic problem facing the Church today.
Barrett asked our new friend how one works toward this utopian vision. Soyapa described that the inspiration stirs from the depths of primitive Christianity. A inclusive Church that includes everyone and serves is what our speaker dreams of. She tells us that we must see each other as equals. “Neither Greek, nor Jew, nor woman, nor man. We must see each other as equals. We are all equal in baptism.” Soyapa offers the possibility that Jesus was the last prophet as the fulfillment of prophecy. Is it possible that in the new covenant all followers of Jesus are considered prophets? “Christianity has become more Greek today, we need to liberate theology” says Soyapa. She says that we have rationalized Christianity the same way the Greeks did. They thought to believe you had to understand and come to conclusions that fit what they believed. We have put the Gospel back on the shelf and said it is too crazy and radical to live today. Our teacher says that if the early Christians could do it, then so can we.
Our time with Soyapa ended with a small discussion between her and Chava. “You need to believe in the poor which is not characteristic of leaders” said our female Priest. She continued to explain that most people want a theology with no problems. Liberation theology is different. The government wanted the poor to be docile and quiet, added Soyapa. She continued to explain that “those ideas were the same with white racism before Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. The Gospel is not associated with the white person or those with power, it is looking from the cross. That’s the perspective of Jesus. Whenever you question values and try to move against the grain, it’s always painful and difficult.”

After meeting with Soyopa we traveled to Maria Madres de los Pobres, a urban parish with a long history of work with people on the margins of society. This Parish began serving the community by taking in the children of single mothers and offering daycare. Next the developed a health clinic followed by a primary school up to third grade. Today they are able to welcome children from greater distances, there is a library, the communities’ elderly are invited during afternoon and community banks are helping to give small loans to locals who are working to get out of poverty. These banks are even self-sustainable!
While we visited the parish a young man named Danny translated for us and gave us a tour. Our first stop was to visit a small group of students, they performed a dance for us and showed us some of their crafts! Afterwards we visited the elderly who were exercising and working on some crafts. During the tour of the neighborhood we were told that this would be the most under-resourced area we will see of El Salvador. If you have traveled to any third-world countries and visited a slum, then these photos will look very familiar to you. As I looked into the distance I saw these red dishes on many of the metal shacks and asked Danny what they were. He informed me that they were satellite dishes for cable. “Cable in the slums!?” I exclaimed. He informed us that roughly one third of all money in the hands of the citizens of El Salvador comes from America. Even more odd is the statistic that says one third of all people born in El Salvador are living in the USA. Almost everyone in El Salvador has a family member in America who is sending money to their family in central America. It is also somewhat shocking to understand that this is a country separate from the USA, however their currency is the American dollar. The Salvadorans don’t even have their own money.
During our reflection in the evening Eli asked us who was the person we met that we had a connection to and helped motivate us to actively “live” our faith. Perhaps this is a good question for you to entertain.