The 1980 assassination of beloved Archbishop (and now Saint) Oscar Romero-the voice of the poor-sparked the conflict, and the ensuing 12 years were marked by countless atrocities: the military’s complete destruction of villages and massacres of civilians such as the 1981 massacre at El Mozote that left more than 700 men, women and children dead rampant kidnappings and gruesome torture murders of labor leaders and workers the rape and murder of four American churchwomen and the 1989 massacre of Jesuits that led to international intervention.Īcclaimed poet, translator and human rights activist Carolyn Forché made seven extended trips to El Salvador in the two years preceding the outbreak of the war, from 1978 to 1980, during the violent “time of the death squads.” She traveled at the behest of her impassioned and brilliant guide and mentor, Leonel Gomez Vides, who desperately hoped to prevent a war in his home country.
The war also left 550,000 internally displaced people and 500,000 refugees who fled the country, as well as more than eight thousand civilians who were “disappeared” and never found. Most of the dead were civilians who died at the hands of government forces supported by the United States. From the beginning this has been your journey, your coming to consciousness.”Ĭarolyn Forché in What You Have Heard is True, quoting Leonel Gomez Vides (emphasis original)įrom 1980 until 1992, more than 75,000 people died in the bloody civil war that raged in El Salvador. That is what you will do when you return to your country. “You want to know what is revolutionary, Papu? To tell the truth.
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