ERIC EARLEY spent three weeks working in the community of Loma Chata in the foothills of the Guazapa mountains, 60 kilometres from San Salvador. He writes here of the people's attempt to rebuild their community and their lives after the signing of the peace accords between the government and the FMLN.
Blanca Estela is 12 years old. She was born after the war of liberation had begun. Then, 18 families owned most of the land in El Salvador; today some of this land is farmed by cooperatives.
Blanca lives in the community of Loma Chata, where every house had been strafed and bombed by government forces. FMLN fighters lived for weeks and months in dugout caves and tunnels, with the campesinos bringing them food in the night. It was from Guazapa that the FMLN launched the final offensive that led to the peace accords.
Blanca's community now feels safe. They have land to farm on an individual and cooperative basis. As part of the peace accords, the government agreed to assist cooperatives buy land. A government bank purchased the Loma Chata land, and each family now pays so much a year to the bank and will own the land in 30 years. Families earn their living from the sale of agricultural produce in San Salvador.
Blanca's family is one of 17 that live in temporary plastic sheet-walled houses. In all 81 people live in the community. Seventeen small concrete houses with cement floors are being erected.
If any of the community become ill the nearest health centre is 10 kilometres away; the closest hospital is in San Salvador. Antonio, Blanca's neighbour, is the community barefoot doctor with Aspros, cough cures and a campesino self-help health manual. Blanca's mother Maria assists with home births.
Due to contaminated water supplies, there are frequent outbreaks of cholera in El Salvador. In January, 17 died and 2000 suffered from the disease. Easter week two died and 371 cases were reported. Loma Chata has a pure water supply; there has not been any outbreak of cholera to date.
Blanca Estela at 12 cannot read or write. This is her first year at school because there are no government schools in the bush for campesino children. The Che school at Loma Chata was built by the community early this year and has one teacher. Twenty students aged from 7 to 14 are all in first grade. The school has a dirt floor, no books, a chalkboard, table and student chairs. In one day during the Easter vacation we dismantled the school, cut new posts, made it larger and moved it to a better site. All labour on the school, new houses and other projects is voluntary.
Juana de la Cruz is the teacher. She is a graduate of the National University. Juana has to catch a bus in San Salvador at 6.30am for Grayabal, then walk for 45 minutes over a steep mountain track to the school at Loma Chata.
Blanca's mother walked many miles, was away for a day and a night. Maria returned carrying eight kilos of large and small fish in a container half-filled with water. Some large fish were dried on the tin roof, others salted. They were a welcome addition to the daily diet of beans, rice, tortillas and the odd avocado and egg. We had plenty of radishes from a neighbour's garden; fresh radish leaves have a flavour far superior to lettuce.
While Maria was absent, Blanca cooked on the earthen oven, swept, washed clothes and cared for two grandchildren from dawn till dusk. Her eight-year-old brother learned to use a trowel and put mortar around the reinforcing iron in the concrete blocks. Both children help their father carry firewood from the forest, in the garden and at harvest time. Antonio's five- and seven-year-old girls carry concrete blocks on their head to his new house site.
The Easter Sunday ceremony was ecumenical in more senses than one. Pastor Paul of the US Church of the Saviour led the service for a largely Catholic community. Two women activists for the FMLN attended; they had walked many miles for the fiesta. Don Pablo and another campesino played guitars and we sang FMLN songs of the struggle and Church of the Saviour hymns.
In 1989 Pastor Paul was imprisoned by the army and deported to the US for his activities in the human rights movement. He returned after the peace accords and walks the countryside in search of souls.
One of the FMLN women spoke in a truly liberation theological way: "There can be no resurrection while the children and people of El Salvador live in poverty, in ill health and without education or good houses and work. The resurrection is change, a new life, a new society. Our war today is one to bring about that change. Then truly we will have a resurrection that is more than a church ceremony."
What of the future for Blanca Estela, Don Pablo and Loma Chata? There are plans to build a better school with a concrete floor, tables and books; a boundary fence to keep out the neighbours' cattle; a health centre and a small dairy herd so the children can have fresh milk added to their diet. At present there is no government assistance or community money for any of these projects.
[Assistance to the Loma Chata community can be sent to: Lic. Rolando Mata, FUNSALPRODESE, 27 Calle Poniente, 17 Avenida Norte, 1434 Col Layo, San Salvador, El Salvador.]