September 14, 2004

SAN SALVADOR - Cecilia Alfaro, a 52-year-old pastor with two children, has seen too many faces to remember them all. Today, more than 20 years after the war began in her country that left more than 75,000 people dead; she cannot avoid tears as she tries to remember their faces.

She shared her testimony with Lutheran World Information/ALC during a visit on the part of the president of the Lutheran World Federation Mark Hanson, his wife Ione and leaders from Latin American Lutheran Churches to the Faith and Hope Community, which sheltered scores of displaced and persecuted during the bloody Salvadoran internal war that wracked the country between 1980 and 1992.

Cecilia was one of the first volunteers from the Lutheran Church of San Salvador who welcomed hundreds of displaced who reached the city, fleeing death, persecuted by the army, terrified, hungry and defenseless. She recalls the feelings that swept over her as she walked through the refuge.

"I could not help but remember the Gospel of Saint Luke, the part that says 'to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and to let the oppressed go free,' because that is what we did, we helped them, gave them a hand, helped them with the little that we could."

Many of the young people who reached the Lutheran Church or the shelter they set up when they needed more space, never came back. Some families left, but never came back. Many left the country for foreign lands but others decided to fight for their ideals.

Cecilia remembers that from the onset of the military repression, the resources for the displaced were insufficient. La Resurreccion Church only had room for 25. Later they found land where they could make room for 400 displaced and later they expanded to the point where the "Faith and Hope" shelter housed up to 1,700 people.

The Churches were overwhelmed by requests for solidarity support from thousands of people displaced from their places of origin by a war that racked the country for more than a decade and left 75,000 dead in its wake and more than 1 million displaced and homeless.

"I remember the faces of young people, of people I went to school with, members of Bible reflection groups who are no longer with us," said Cecilia, as her memory was filled with the names and gestures of so many young people, men, women and children who never returned.

Cecilia grew up in Mejicanos City in a very Catholic household. "Ever since I was a young girl I dreamed of being a nun and going to Africa as a missionary," she said, adding that God had other surprises in store and the Holy Spirit led me down another path. "God wanted me to be a missionary in my own land, in the midst of war."

Cecilia was studying Sociology at the National University of El Salvador when the government shut it down, considering it to be a subversive focal point and bastion of opposition groups. There she met Victoria Cortes, social work leader for the Lutheran Church (then linked to the Missouri Synod) and a professor of Pedagogy at the University. "Victoria invited me to be a volunteer with the social work and I accepted," she said.

At the beginning of the 1980s, the country confronted major political and social conflicts, grassroots organizations were repressed with violence, there were selective murders, channels of social expression were closed and the much feared war became a harsh reality.

On March 24, 1980, a paramilitary commando murdered Oscar A. Romero while he celebrated Mass in the La Divina Providencia Hospital Chapel. With his death the "voice of those who have no voice" was silenced and the link between grassroots sectors the government was broken.

The insurgent struggle, on the other hand, meant that vast sectors of the civilian population were caught in the crossfire. In rural zones, they were forced to abandon their houses, their crops and escape with the clothes on their back

The Lutheran Church Becomes Involved

The Catholic Church and the Green Cross immediately sought to help the displaced, thousands of men and women, the majority elderly and children, sick and hungry. The shelters were filled to overflowing. Someone mentioned the La Resurreccion Lutheran Church,located in the San Miguelito barrio in the city.

There was enormous demand. Hundreds of people needed a place to stay. At the end of April 1982, Cecilia and other volunteers met with Pastor Medardo Gomez and he, together with the board, prayed and discussed the best way to help such a huge group. In the Church, they can only offer shelter for 25 people. .

The Church found itself before a need to organize for social and pastoral attention. The Salvadoran Lutheran Aid was created, run by Victoria Cortis, and included Vilma Rodrmguez, Angel Ibarra, Cecilia Alfaro, among other leaders

Faced with the urgent need to offer practical and immediate responses to the displaced and with the support of ecumenical cooperation, the Lutherans bought land in Galera Quemada, in the municipality of Nejapa, some 24 kilometers from San Salvador.

With precarious installations built by the displaced themselves, the "Faith and Hope" shelter was established, a name that reflects the spirit that motivated the Church. Years later, Victoria Cortes would open a Lutheran project in Managua (Nicaragua) with the same name.

The first 400 refugees arrived on May 5, 1982 from San Vicente and San Sebastian, rural areas close to San Salvador. In Faith and Hope, they eventually housed between 1,500 and 1,700 refuges, the majority having fled their homes in fear of their lives. Under its so-called "raised earth" policy, the army destroyed entire populations it suspected of being linked to insurgents.

The panorama could not have been more dramatic or challenging. Many people were very ill and in a fearful state. Cecilia recalls that she suffered at home when she thought about the people in the refuge. How could I stay at home, she said. Finally, she took her things and spent the nights with the refugees.

After the first 15 days, and after the refuges themselves created a basic organization that included health, food and education committees among others, they had to face how to survive and generate resources.

Faith and Hope developed like the early Church. People had fowl, they built a bakery, and they made shoes, all for the refugees themselves. As in the early Christian Church, everyone put their gifts at the service of the community.

The war and the displacement also left marks that are hard to erase. This was even truer when "Faith and Hope" was the victim of an attack in the nursery and Bishop Medardo Gomez was kidnapped together with Dr. Angel Ibarra and released three days later thanks to international pressure. The Church was attacked for its social work, its commitment to the Gospel and the Salvadoran people.

Vilma Rodrmguez, a psychologist, tells how difficult it was at first for the children and the elderly to share their traumatic experiences and to grieve. As a result, a crisis intervention program and post-traumatic therapy for the refugees was developed. The Salvadoran Lutheran Church was a therapeutic community, a healing community.

Other Testimonies

Don Alfronso Carranza, age 88, still shudders when he remembers that his children died in combat and the body of one, a community leader, was dragged by soldiers through the streets of San Sebastian, to terrify the local population. He arrived at Faith and Esperanza, a refuge where he was able to rebuild his life.

Vladimir Martinez remembers that many Salvadoran young people could not live with their families, for fear of being accused of being suspects. As a result, he was forced to leave his loved ones. During the war his parents and brothers were killed and he lost a leg. Today, he is dedicated to organizing war veterans and demanding that their rights be respected.

Matmas Antonio Dmaz took his family to Faith and Hope. He was cruelly tortured by the army, and said his strength always came from his faith in God. He has been a Lutheran pastor since 1984.

When the talks began among sectors of civil society, with international support and the government, the doors to the Faith and Hope Refuge were opened to facilitate the return of the displaced to their places of origin and itconcluded its role as a shelter in 1988. Today, it houses a Lutheran congregation.

Today, the Lutheran Synod continues to carry out its pastoral and social work. It continues to speak out about social problems, poverty and exclusion that are provoked and perpetuated by economic globalization. Bishop Medardo Gomez seeks out communication media (an unusual case among Evangelical Churches in Latin America) and every Monday offers a press conference to address timely issues and offer a pastoral word.

Loved by some and considered controversial by others, Bishop Gomez is a man of God who knew how to carry out his task at a crucial time in the history of the country. For this, Bishop Mark Hanson's visit to El Salvador from September 11 to 16 constitutes support for his work. Hanson asked him to continue exercising his prophetic voice in the country.

Perhaps the testimony of Cecilia Alfaro, like other Salvadorans who survived the war, can be the voice of those who are no longer with us to tell their story.

ALC News Service