Jefe, Sarah, Rachel and I began the day with a run, which went much more smoothly than the first try. At 8am, we were picked up from Happy House with our backpacks repacked (and the rest of our stuff left in a vacant room) and on our way to Cinquera, another community in El Salvador.
The ride wasn’t too long, and we made a little pit stop to visit a community named Suchitoto. During the war, this area was a hard hit battle zone, by both the army and the Guerrillas. We only stopped for about 10 minutes to visit the church and use the bathroom, and buy Jefe a cake for his birthday. Sadly, I did not have a camera, so I couldn’t take pictures.
We arrived to Cinquera around 10:30. Cinquera is a community that suffered an extreme massacre during the war. The entire community was burnt to the ground, and every building that now exists is new. The community is actually very organized and rebuilding itself poco a poco (bit by bit).
We had the honor of speaking with Don Pablo, one of the only survivors of the massacre. We spoke with him for a good 3 hours over lunch and then coffee and cookies. He told us his entire life story, most of which was very hard to imagine.
He told us about the coffee farms that were the only work available. He said 2,000-2,500 people would be able to work per day. When that number was reached, they wouldn’t accept other people, and they were left without another option. Everyone lived in poverty.
He described the pure hunger they suffered during long work days, often only being fed one tortilla with a few beans on top, once a day. People were so desperate for food, if one bean fell on the floor, people would fight to be able to eat it.
He described the process of how the Finca owners would count the amount of coffee beans, and how they robbed the workers in doing so. Basically, they would use a long stick and measure to the bottom of a bucket (instead of weighing the amount of beans). The depth determined the amount of money they would receive, but the Finca owners always moved their fingers before giving the money. If anyone complained, they were beaten up.
He said it is impossible to describe how difficult and dirty life was. Because of a lack of water, they were only able to bath once every 15 days, despite the dust and sweat that covered them daily. At the finca, everyone slept in one large room, squished together on the floor. He also told us about all the illness, especially stomach issues due to unclean water, and how it could get really smelly during the night due to many GI infections.
He also spoke about military drafts that occurred before the war even began. Every 6 months, the military would arrive in the community and take 40-50 young (starting at 14 years of age) to be trained. They would walk them out of the community like cattle, with their hands held behind their heads, as mothers wailed for their children to not be taken away from them.
The military had complete control over the area. They would molest and beat people for no apparent reason. He explained that originally, people would say hello to the military patrol, and they would get beat up for doing so. News got around, and they decided to just politely walk by and ignore the military officials. They got beat up, and sometimes killed, for that too. He described life as basically having no human rights.
Between the 1960s and 1970s, the democracy party started developing. The military saw this happening and immediately began calling this party communist and told the community to not vote for them. After the elections and the votes were counted, they found one vote for the Democratic party. The military found this person and killed him. (he later found out that the election was rigged by the military, and probably a whole lot more people voted for the Democratic party)
In 1969, a representative from the Military came to the community and gathered together all the young men (Don Pablo was part of this group). He started lecturing them on the danger of communism. He told them that Fidel Castro was part monkey and part human, that he ate kids raw and alive.
These ideas never really clicked in the heads of those in the community, and the community became stronger, with more solidarity, confidence and fraternity. The military saw this and continued to call Cinquera communist and Marxists. Eventually the Military had enough, and they planned the massive massacre that burned the community down to the ground and killed hundreds of people.
Don Pablo escaped by running away. Throughout the war, he watched 5 of his 8 children die. With sadness in his voice, he calmly told us the stories of their death. He described a little bit of the process of bringing the community back up to its current position.
He said, as a survivor, his most important job is to educate people about what happened. He has told his story to hundreds of groups (which would explain how he was able to stay calm, but still show so much emotion). It really was amazing listening to him.
After our meeting/conference, we changed into sports clothing and headed to the community’s forest. During the war, the forest served as a heavy fighting and hiding zone. Now, the forest is a national park and protected in order to maintain the artifacts left from the war and all the plants and wildlife that live there. In addition, many students come to the area to study the history of the war, as well as plant and animal species.
Our guide was an individual, originally from a few communities over, who had fought and survived the war. During the civil war he lived, hid and fought in the forest. As a result, he knew it like the back of his hand. We took a path through the forest, and he stopped us at random spots to explain how one area served as a kitchen, or another as a hospital.
Unfortunately, because my camera was nonfunctional, I was unable to take pictures of the forest. It was really beautiful, and I could imagine how scary it must have been hiding out in that forest, hearing gunshots in the distance and hoping that someone with the intention to kill you didn’t happen upon you.
Our guide explained to us about the kitchen system, which I thought was very interesting. First, camps could not be concentrated because it would be too easy to find them, so the kitchen was located far from the camp, where people slept. The cooking system sat almost next to the ground, and a roof was build over it. All of the smoke and steam from cooking was sent into an underground system of tunnels, which allowed the heat to escape slowly from the land, distributed in a large radius around the area. As a result, all the smoke didn’t rise in one area, giving away their location. In addition, the rising fog would make it difficult to see people, and offered additional protection.
We were short on time before the sun set, but our guide decided to take us up to a lookout at the top of the mountain. It was absolutely beautiful! We spent a little too much time up there though, and while going down it got dark quickly. By the time we arrived at a natural waterfall and pool, it was completely dark. The original plan was to swim in the lake, and we still wanted to do so. Despite the freezing cold water, we all got in for about 5 minutes and splashed around.
Thank goodness for modern technology and the fact that Aeja and our guide had cell phones. Otherwise, I’m not sure we would have made it back to the hostel in one piece. It was extremely difficult to navigate the rocky, uneven path in the pitch black dark. We also had to cross a river, using cement blocks casually placed in the water… twice. This was the most difficult. We also crossed a rather shaky bridge that had a few missing planks. It took us about an hour to walk the same distance that took us about 10 minutes earlier that day. As scary as it was, it helped me understand even deeper the fear that must have filled the lives of the men and women who lived and fought in that forest.
We spent the night in Cinquera. After getting safely back to the restaurant/hostel area, we were assigned our rooms. We had a typical Guatemalan dinner of eggs and beans and tortillas, served to us in the large restaurant area. As soon as we got to dinner, the skies opened up… the first rain I had seen in a long time! We finished dinner, had cake for Jefe’s birthday, and all hung out for a while before going to bed.
As a really random side note, I also learned that night just how much water a toilet takes to flush. The toilets at the hostel did not refill themselves, so you had to carry water from a large bucket to the toilet and fill up the back of the toilet before you could flush. After about 5 trips with my bucket, I could finally flush. I knew toilets required a lot of water, but when you have to lug buckets of water, you understand a little better… :-)
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