Delegate Reflection: A Mother’s Testimony

This reflection was written by Sophia Goodfriend who participated in a SHARE delegation this past February with the Northwest School in Seattle, WA.

I found the dignity and respect, yet profound struggle behind each person I met in El Salvador striking. Despite the unimaginable horrors many have lived, they still carry themselves with incredible self-respect and never fail to treat those around them with the same importance. Take for example Alicia, a woman who came to share with us her story as we gathered in Parque Cuscatlan to learn about a monument erected by The Committee of the Family Members of the Disappeared and various other organizations. These N.G.O.s along with other Human Rights groups inaugurated the 45 x 8 ft. plaques inscribed with the names of the dead or disappeared during the Civil War without funds or support from the central government.

  A tiny old woman, Alicia came obviously dressed up for the occasion. Her poise and dignity alone was noteworthy. Then she began to speak, quietly at first, but with time her voice grew louder as she recounted the way in which she lost the first three of her five children in the Civil War. She described the screams she uttered when she was shoved up against the wall of her own house, with a gun pointed at her face. She could do nothing but look on, helpless, as soldiers took two of her sons and one daughter and forced them into the back of a truck in the dead of night. She spoke of the weeks she spent traveling the country, going from jail to jail searching for her children with no avail. Listening to this small and frail old woman in her nice clothes tell such a painfully true story with such profound composure and dignity was an experience so compelling no words could do justice to the emotions it provoked within me. Alicia deserved more respect than we could ever give her.

However, what is even more striking is that Alicia’s story is by no means unheard of. There is quite literally no one in El Salvador whose life was not affected directly by the Civil War. Alicia’s story was just one, one out of the millions of equally tragic stories that live within the Salvadoran people. It was the Salvadoran people, each of whom held such a tragic story of profound suffering behind their incredible kindness and evident vivacity that so expanded my world view, but first blew it apart.