Independence day in Arcatao
By Diana Hammer
September 18, 2003
The Independence Day mass opened with a prayer of confession. “God, we ask forgiveness for making this day more a celebration of dominion and power than a time of conscious raising and awareness.” It was the least offensive display of patriotism I have ever seen, and the people of Arcatao still prayed for forgiveness. Nationally, this is a holiday to celebrate independence from Spain in 1821, but the campesinos in Arcatao were also remembering and celebrating the end of a more recent war.
From where I was sitting on a wooden bench on the side of the church, I had a great view (through the streamers) of the children waving blue and white flags, and the motto of El Salvador, “God, Union, Liberty,” hung across the front in blue and white letters. There were songs and readings from the liturgy. One man of the community gave a 10 minute history of what happened during the war in Arcatao. Padre Donald, an American Jesuit who has been in Arcatao for 6 years, gave the homily encouraging young people to be proud of their country and to take ownership of its future.
Then came the offering. The money baskets were circulated like usual, but special gifts were presented on the altar as well. One person brought a special tree, the next brought the national flower, someone else brought remembrances of the martyrs from Arcatao, and then came a living offering: Dear God, we give you thanks and we offer you these people, men and women of different ages, who represent all of us who are here to do your work and lead our community. Nelson, the elected leader of the CCR Youth Commission was one of the people offered and celebrated.
As we walked out of the church after the mass, the voice of Oscar Romero on loud speakers boomed across the plaza: “I would like to make a special appeal to the men of the army…. No order given by men should prevail over the Law of God which says: DO NOT KILL. No soldier is obliged to obey an order which goes against the law of God…. In the name of God, and in the name of this suffering people… I ask you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: End the repression!”
Soon music started, and after a celebration in front of the church with traditional dancing and trivia about the 14 departments, Nelson took me back inside the now empty church. Empty except for the 50 pictures of martyrs on both sides of the altar that I hadn’t noticed earlier. There were men, women, and young kids. Some pictured with their automatic weapons, and all were combatants during the war. Each framed picture had the name of the person on the first line, and then the word Presente (I am here).
Nelson said he knew some of these people or knows their families today. He is 23 and was only 1 or 2 years old when his family had to leave. They stayed in the mountains a short time, and then went to a refugee camp in Honduras . His mom covered his mouth with a cloth so he wouldn’t cry when soldiers were near. Many other babies died of suffocation that way.
At the back of the altar is the grave of Padre Nicolas, the first Jesuit to come to this area and the priest during the war. Next to his grave is a place to light candles, and a book with more names of both guerrillas and civilians who died in the war. There are also wooden crosses on the wall with more names of those who died. By this time I was crying inside, and seeing clearly before me these same crosses covering the fence of the School of the Americas in Georgia . “… I ask you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God…”
Nelson then walked me through the Stations of the Cross which are painted in bright colors, mixed in with pictures of important moments in the history of Arcatao, in a mural that goes around the whole sanctuary. First Station: Jesus is condemned to death… Massacre of Guarcinga. Second Station: Jesus takes up his cross… people farming and looking up at a military helicopter flying overhead. Third… Fourth… Fifth… Monsignor Oscar Romero… Monsignor Rivera Damas… the Jesuits from UCA. Next, people facing the church wall with their hands tied behind their backs. “That really happened,” Nelson said. “When the soldiers came many people fled to the church. Some were killed right outside that wall.” Then: a picture of the earth with a banner across it saying International Solidarity. “That has a very special significance, which you already know,” Nelson said.
Continuing on the other wall… four American church women. Jesus is nailed to the cross…Jesus dies on the cross…. Now the Peace Accords of January 16, 1992. People waving banners and celebrating outside the cathedral in San Salvador . Last Station, Jesus is Laid in the Tomb…Repopulation. Nelson said, ¨This is still going on. Today there are barely 4000 people who live in this area, but before the war there were 14,000. People are still coming back!”
Over lunch in a comedor, Nelson told me more about Padre Nicolas. “He accompanied the people through everything. One time, right outside where we are now in the street, soldiers came with people in ski masks who pointed to about 15 people that they thought were dangerous. They tried to take these 15, but the community wouldn’t let them. People said, ´let them go, or you’ll have to take all of us too.´ The soldiers tried to leave through the back of town but people ran ahead and blocked them. Then they took the 15 over by the church, but people were there too. Soldiers began to throw tear gas bombs. One landed right next to Padre Nicolas but didn’t explode, so he picked it up and threw it back at the soldiers. Finally, they had to give up.”
I was beginning to realize it, and then Nelson said it, “This is such a luxury for us to be sitting here like this, calmly, eating. We aren’t worried that soldiers are going to come in and take us or our friends. In the time of the war, any sort of meeting, even mass, was prohibited.”
Today 10 years after the war, all of these people, the Salvadorans and those who joined the struggle with them, are Presente in the hearts of this community. I am continually amazed by the horror through which these people have come and by the normalcy of their lives now, both of which they share with me. “The Church preaches her liberation, as we have studied it today in the Holy Bible. A liberation which carries, on top of everything, a respect for the dignity of each person, the salvation of the common good of the people, and a transcendence that looks before anything to God, and only to God, for hope and strength.
“Now let us proclaim our Belief in this truth… ”
***quotes translated from Oscar Romero’s homily of March 23, 1980. He was assassinated the next day.
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