Perquin

Trip Start Jan 04, 2008
1
43
59
Trip End Jul 16, 2008


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Flag of El Salvador  ,
Saturday, May 3, 2008

Finally, we arrived on the other side of the country in a town near the Honduran border called Perquin.  After finding a cheap hostal, we walked around town and ate dinner at a little papuseria.  Spanish soap operas were on TV so we had fun deciphering the drama.  Perquin was the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) headquarters during the war.  The FMLN is a political group that was born out of a guerrilla organization and sought to overturn the far right government that responded to opposition with death squads, kidnappings, and torture.  Inspired by Nicaraguaīs reform in 1979, the FMLN saw an armed struggle as the only means for change.  The war lasted over 12 years and killed approximately 75,000 people.  America pumped $6 billion dollars into the "wrong" side so I was a little concerned about how people would react to me as an American.  I was accepted but my Canadian amiga was definitely more welcomed.  We went to visit the national war museum and saw all sorts of astonishing pictures, war posters, radios, crashed helicopter, and even a bomb with the remaining bomb crater that it created Guerrila radio station, lined with egg cartons
Guerrila radio station, lined with egg cartons
 .  We hiked up the hill behind the museum that the guerrillas used to use as a look out and dug out trenches all along the hillside.  It was pretty chilling to take in all of the information and be at the actual location all at the same time. 
 
Next, we visited El Mozote, a town not too far out of Perquin that fell victim to the 1981 massacre.  I have read numbers anywhere from 750-1,000 people were brutally murdered on December 11, 1981.  Wikipedia has a pretty informative article about it, check it out.  Basically the US trained military heard rumor of guerrilla activity near El Mozote and so they went in and forced the whole town into the town square.  At that point they were made to lie down and were searched.  The families returned to their homes that evening and were told that if they opened the doors they would be shot.  The next day the bad guys ordered them back out and separated them into groups of woman, men, and children.  The men were tortured and killed, the women (and as young as 12) were raped and killed and they opened fire to the children and babies in the local church.  Then most of the bodies were burned and left to rot in the ghost town.  Of the 146 bodies that were uncovered, 140 were children under the age of 12.  It was really horrific and I read that the massacre was not even reported for a month and a half and even then out lovely American government was in denial of the event and continued to support the opposition War poster
War poster
 .   
 
Today they have a memorial in the town square names of nearly all of the victims and a big cross.  They have rebuilt the church with a mosaic mural of children, butterflies, and sunshine and planted a flower garden on top of the childrenīs remains.  It is truly beautiful.  Along the bottom of the mural are all of the names and ages of the children that were slaughtered.  The only thing I can compare it to is the Vietnam Wall in DC, but in this case it was innocent children which makes it even harder to look at. 
 
Our second night in Perquin we had to switch hostals because a big group of gringos came in!  How weird.  We found this old lady that insisted we call her "Abuela" which is Spanish for Grandma.  Her 9 year old granddaughter worked there as well.  They were both really excited to see us and gave us lots of group hugs!  The little girl was so sweet.  I wanted to take her home and buy her an American Girl doll and tell her to go play.  On our last morning Abuela got up early to make us coffee and she presented us with presents!  She gave us both leather key chains stamped with the seal of El Salvador.  We decided to part with a couple pairs of earrings for her and her granddaughter and she was quite thrilled with her gift in return. 
 
Travel, travel, travel... It was a long trip home but we stumbled upon a Dominoīs in Comayagua so we feasted on veggie pizza and cinnamon sticks... yum! 
 
It is now Monday and we have 2 NEW VOLUNTEERS!  Yay!  Claire, from Australia will be living with me and Jordan, from Michigan, will be moving into Nathanīs room when he leaves on Sunday.  I hope they can handle the heat, dust, and children!
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