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Summer Program dates: July 30th to August 20th, 2010
Liberation Theology, Social Movements in El Salvador
Application Deadline: January 30, 2010
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Liberation Theology, Social Movements, Security and Conflict Resolution in El Salvador
 El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America. Its capital, San Salvador, is located at the base of the San Salvador Volcano, and the country is noted for it beautiful volcanoes, beaches and rugged, low-lying mountain terrain. With a climate that is usually hot and humid, the country has been an exporter of coffee, sugar, livestock, corn, poultry, sorghum, and other products since colonial times.
El Salvador's population numbers about 6.6 million, of which nearly 90% are of mixed Indigenous and Spanish extraction. The country originally had Maya-Pipil and other indigenous groups, the vast majority of whom were murdered during the Colonial period. Since the end of the Civil War in 1992, the country’s remaining indigenous descendents have begun a reclamation project to teach their long suppressed language and customs, and are happily seeing resurgence in both national and international interest in their traditions.
El Salvador declared its independence from Spain in 1821, but its early history as an independent state was marked by frequent uprisings and violent massacres, as peasant and indigenous groups struggled against the racism and economic exploitation they faced from ruling elites. In 1932, more than 30,000 peasants and indigenous people were murdered by government forces – a tragedy that gave birth to the modern political struggle leading to the Civil War of 1980-1992.
During the 12-year civil war, in which more than 75,000 people died, human rights violations by the government security forces were rampant. The Jesuit leadership at El Salvador’s Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) was key in establishing a national dialogue between the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) rebels and the government. However, even amidst these negotiations, government forces continued violent attacks against unions, peasants, student groups and liberation theologians who helped them.
On October 31, 1989, these attacks culminated in the bombing of the National Federation of Salvadoran Workers’ headquarters, killing 10 labor leaders. The FMLN responded with what is now called, “the Final Offensive,” bringing heavy fighting to the streets of the capital. During the Offensive, military forces entered the Jesuit residence of the UCA and murdered six priests and two lay civilians. This sparked an international outcry and retraction of US military aid to the Salvadoran government, accelerating the peace talks that led to the peace accords in 1992.
The United Nations established a Truth Commission to investigate human rights abuses committed by both sides during the Civil War. In 1993, it recommended democratic judicial reforms and the removal of identified human rights violators from all government, police and military posts. This did not occur, however, because the Legislative Assembly granted amnesty for political crimes committed during the war, freeing hundreds of military personnel known to have routinely tortured, raped and murdered civilians during the war. Among those freed, were the officers convicted of the killings at the UCA.
However, the peace accords brought the Salvadoran military under civilian control, and created a new civilian police force. It also allowed the former FMLN guerillas to form a legitimate political party and participate in elections. While these and other steps are evidence of tentative progress being made towards creating a democratic society, high crime, poverty, human rights abuses and other forms of political repression continue to threaten the delicate process.
Program Courses
 Religion and Politics:
Liberation Theology and Revolutionary Social Movements
Distinguishing between the "popular church" and the official Catholic Church, the program will examine the origins of Liberation Theology in Latin America in the 1960s. We will look at socio-political movements in Central America and how Liberation Theology has served as an intellectual and spiritual resource for both popular social movements and revolutionary armed forces from the 1960s to the present. Using El Salvador as a vivid example, the history of governmental violence against liberation theologians and grassroots church activists - oppression which continues in the present - will be discussed in order to understand why many CEBs (communally-organized Christian Base Communities) have been dismantled or forced underground.
Students will participate in community meetings where they will observe the importance of religion in the daily lives of Salvadorans, both as an inspirational faith from which to confront severe hardship, and as a methodological tool for analyzing their socio-political reality. There will be opportunity to talk with CEB community members along with Jesuits, the main promoters of Liberation Theology in Latin America, regarding the social, economic, and political realities of El Salvador. Finally, the concept of martyrdom will be discussed as a powerful spiritual and organizational force among El Salvador's poor. By learning about the institutionally-condoned murders of many common people, Jesuits, and other religious leaders in El Salvador during the 12-year civil war (1980-1992), participants will reflect on the role of martyrdom in the country's ongoing struggle for peace and justice.
International Security and Conflict Resolution:
The Impacts of Civil War in El Salvador 1960s - present
 This course looks at the historical role of US foreign policy towards El Salvador and examines the roots and history of prominent indigenous, peasant and student movements. It also reviews the process and content of the country’s Peace Accords, including the present role being played by new political parties and the United Nations.
El Salvador offers the experience of watching a country strive to redefine itself. Both national and international organizations are helping to rebuild El Salvador, and this program will give you the opportunity to talk with members of these organizations and everyday people about their experiences and hopes.
Guest Speakers and Field Trips
- Former FMLN guerrilla commanders and Salvadoran military personnel
- Ex-government ministers and officials
- Liberation Theologians and Christian Base Community groups (CEBs)
- Indigenous activists from Rescate Ancestral Indigena Salvadoreño (RAIS)
- Maya-Pipil religious practitioners
- Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen, a museum about the Civil War
- COMADRES (Mothers of the Disappeared)
- Returned refugee communities
- Prominent Salvadoran artists and writers
- Marketplaces and villages
Homestay and Location:
You will spend two weeks living with host families in San Salvador. When on excursions beyond San Salvador, you will stay in a hotel accompanied by Nahual Institute staff. The city's central landmark is the domed Metropolitan Cathedral, where Archbishop Oscar Romero, murdered by the military in 1980 for his outspoken criticism of them, lies buried. The Cathedral faces onto the downtown “Plaza Barrios,” and nearby are the beautiful Teatro Nacional, and Teatro Cafe. The city has two bustling marketplaces, the Mercado Ex-Cuartel for handicrafts, hand-woven textiles and ceramics, and the Mercado Central for daily needs. Easily accessible are shopping malls, movie cinemas, restaurants, banks, hospitals and universities, along with the National Museum of Anthropology, the Botanical Gardens, and “La Laguna,” an attractive garden built on what was once a swamp at the bottom of a volcanic crater.
Faculty
The Summer Program in El Salvador is an interdisciplinary collaboration of the Nahual Institute for Global Studies, the Universidad Francisco Gavidia, and the Jesuit Universidad Centroamericana (UCA). The program courses are team-taught by faculty from United States and Salvadoran universities.
Ignacio Ochoa, M.A., a native of Quirigua, Guatemala, is adjunct faculty at the Center for Latin American Studies and the International Security and Conflict Resolution Program at San Diego State University (SDSU). A former Jesuit scholar from Central America, he holds Master’s degrees in Latin American Studies and Philosophy, and has worked in Indigenous, rural and refugee communities in Panama, Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico. Mr. Ochoa has taught courses at San Diego State University, the Harvard University School of Business, Northeastern University, and the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA).
Read the full text of Mr. Ochoa's thesis about the Jesuit Massacre.
Walter Raudales, M.A., is an author, Literature professor and the Director of the Center of Public Opinion at El Salvador’s Francisco Gavidia University. A former Jesuit, with a background in Philosophy, Theology, Literature and Journalism, he has had extensive experience working with communities in Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.
El Salvador Links
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