Dance music blasts from a stereo, young women are selling cool drinks in the aisle, and children, grandparents, and teenagers are crammed into the seats of an old Canadian school bus – this is early morning public transport in El Salvador, one of the smallest, most densely populated countries in Central America.
I am travelling with a group of Salvadorans who work with CRIPDES, a partner organization of the Brandon based non-profit organisation The Marquis Project. CRIPDES works with rural communities who were displaced in the twelve-year Salvadoran civil war that finally ended in 1992. With the help of CRIPDES staff, farmers -- or campesinos, as they are called here -- and their families are beginning to be able to return to the land they were forced to abandon after the military razed and burned their crops and homes.
Today we are accompanying CRIPDES staff member Martita to her family´s land in the department of La Paz, an hour away from the capital city of San Salvador. We get off the crowded bus in Santiago, a sleepy town with cobbled streets and concrete houses, and then hike for two hours up a dirt road to Martita´s land. It is a beautiful journey through bright green tropical foliage, complete with vibrant butterflies that flitter up to greet us on our way. But beautiful as this setting is, for Martita, it also carries horrific memories. As we pass a stone bridge she tells us her aunt was killed here, returning from taking Martita´s cousin to hospital, and here, in a patch of bright yellow flowers, death squads killed Martita´s father and brother. High in the hills, we walk past a tiny school and she tells us “this is what they were fighting for. Education. None of the men in my community who fought for this school are still alive.”
We arrive at Martita´s land and are warmly welcomed by her sister and mother with fresh corn on the cob and steaming bowls of atoll, a sweet creamy corn pudding that reminds me of tapioca. It seems strange to be receiving such gracious hospitality on a picnic table besides the shell of their abandoned home. Most of the house has been reclaimed by the forest: grasses carpet the floor and vines crawl up the walls to the holes in the roof.
Because there are no male family members to help them reconstruct their house and work their land, Martita´s sister and mother are currently living in Santa Tecla, a busy, crowded suburb of San Salvador. But just like farming families who have left their land to move to Brandon, Martita´s mother still longs for the time when she can live on her land again. Hopefully with CRIPDES’ help her dream can become a reality – but for now, Saturday visits will have to do. |
