Disgrace at the Metropolitan Cathedral

Salvadorans are surprised, angry, disappointed.  

Fernando Llort is the most famous Salvadoran artist in the world.  In 1992 the Peace Accords were signed here, ending the twelve year civil war.  At that point, the Catholic Church asked Fernando Llort to create a tile mural for the entrance of the Metropolitan Cathedral where Archbishop Oscar Romero is buried.   Fernando Llort and his team completed the piece in 1997.

After Archbishop Romero was assassinated, the Catholic Church replaced him with a more conservative Archbishop.  Romero and many church officials during his time were liberal, working in rural areas with people suffering.  Catholic parishes in El Salvador are very conservative these days.

San Salvador's current Archbishop José Escobar Alas ordered workers to chip away at Fernando Llort's tile mural from the entrance of the Metropolitan Cathedral during the night.  They destroyed the whole piece.  Archbishop José Escobar Alas did not tell Fernando Llort that he was going to take down his work.

Salvadorans throughout the country are outraged as Fernando Llort's artwork focuses on aspects of Salvadoran everyday life, struggles, and nature.  Llort's work is a voice for the common people here.

With that background information, I point to Tim's El Salvador Blog (http://luterano.blogspot.com/).  His posts from December 31st, January 2nd, and January 4th describe the event.  Tim has been documenting current events here since 2004.

Feliz Ano Comunidad Copapayo!

I headed to Rosa's community in Copapayo.  It is an hour and a half bus ride outside of Suchitoto's city center but still considered part of Suchitoto.  We followed the gnarly dirt road in the hills, through corn fields, and lush tropical foliage.  Beautiful!


 

View from the bus, heading to Comunidad Copapayo

I went for both a morning and afternoon walk with Rosa's nephew's Samuel and Louis.  We walked through the fields, into the mountains, down by the lake.  Exploring the whole way.  They were telling me about the plants, animals, and even trying to scare me with horror stories.  Hilarious!  At one point they asked how far I planned walking.  I responded, "A la frontera de Guatemala" (To the Guatemalan boarder).  They looked at each other with scared faces and were silenced for a few minutes before I told them the truth.  They were spunky guides!

View of the corn field, on our afternoon walk

View across the field to the lake

Samuel and Louis setting off fireworks IN THE HOUSE!  See the chicken next to the tree?  They TIED it to the tree because when it wondered outside the house, it wouldn't come back like the others.  So they tied the poor thing to the tree!  And THEY WERE SETTING OFF FIREWORKS RIGHT NEXT TO HER!

Cooking in Comunidad Copapayo

Rosa's family oven.  Her mom bakes killer sweet bread each meal.  It's made from their corn or rice, sugar, and water.  Simple ingredient list but complex flavor!  Love it!  Interestingly, they serve it with sugar-saturated coffee or orange soda.

This is where we cooked our dinner.  Sanitary enough for your restaurant?

Our beating the dry kernels off the cob, we were left with this.

And threw them behind the oven, here, for the free range chickens and pig who wonder their way around the house/yard.

First we dried the kernels more on the cement patio and in the sun.  Then we boiled the kernels in water and let them soak for hours to do away with the rough part of the kernel.  Then we washed the kernels and strained their tough shells out.  We let the kernels cool.

Then Rosa's sisters Morena and Marisol ground the kernals on this rock slab and with the rock to the left.  They used the orange wacal to transport water from the pila to the grounds and made masa.

We used bits of masa to make Salvadoran tortillas, which are much thicker than the ones we are used to.  Their diameter is similar to that of a corn tortilla though.  Rosa's sisters crafted them in perfect circles and quickly, without focusing.  Mine were feo (ugly) and I was diligent.  Oh well, I guess I need to practice.  Oh!  This is their grill on which we cooked the tortillas!

Peggy's 73rd Birthday Dinner

Peggy enjoying her birthday cigar with her favorite companion...La Luna

Eva and I during a laughter intermission

At the end of our road trip, we rolled into Suchitoto as the sun was setting.  We landed at our favorite restaurant.  It was nice to be “home.”  We ordered our favorite dishes.  Peggy lit up a cigar, as she does on every birthday.  We each celebrated by drinking a beer and toasting to her awe inspiring, life changing, presence on earth.

Me, Eva, Rosa, Selena, and Peggy at Villa Balanza

Copan Ruins

 

Copan is known as the “Paris of the Maya World.”  During the Classic Period (AD 250-800) it dominated the region.  This site is rich in hieroglyphics.

Homes of the rich and famous Maya families

I love visiting ruins without researching in depth beforehand.  It invites my imagination to play with the artifacts and ruins and to fantasize about the lives of commoners, royalty, religious, etc.  Then I’m often rudely awakened by archeologists’ facts and conclusions.

Stairway covered in hieroglyphics

I am amazed by the Maya people’s organization.  They populated vast landscapes but were politically organized.  A king ruled each section and the kings held routine meetings.  Like many civilizations during this time, they were advanced mathematically and astronomically.

 

View from the top of a Maya monument looking at their common area

Serious statue in the museum.  Everything is monstrous in size!

Long day of walking...

Honduras - Guatemala Road Trip

Beautiful hills in Guatemala!

The December 26^th, Rosa, Eva, Selena, Peggy, and I drove Sister Pat to her Franciscan community in Gracias, Honduras.  Pat and Peggy worked together in Chili when they were young and in El Salvador during the war.  Now Pat is lives with her community in Iowa but is visiting.

We stuffed ourselves into Peggy’s car and busted out of Suchi.  We drove through the beautiful Salvadorian, Honduran, and Guatemalan mountains.  We passed tiny towns with indigenous people, vibrant fruit stands, and odd-looking animals.  We were driving in the clouds most of the trip.  The air was fresh, the sky was mysterious, and the laughter was pure.

The first night we stayed with the Franciscan sisters in Gracias, Honduras.  Pat read our palms after dinner.  Ha!  My life is unique but she can’t remember what my special line means.  My long fingers say that I’m especially intuitive.  My lines say that I direct my life emotionally but have a similarly strong intelligence.  

Sister Pat, Sister Peggy, and Rosa (My host!) at the Franciscan Home in Gracias, Honduras

We concluded the night in song.  Erica, a novice, played the guitar.  Pat played beats on the table.   The rest of us sang.  We mostly sang Salvadorian songs as that is what they know by heart but Sister Brenda lent me a songbook so I could join in the fun.

Rosa and Peggy in a mototaxi on the way to Copan

The next day we battled our way through the patchas/fallas/potholes to the Copan Ruins.  We wound through the mountains, admired waterfalls, and gazed at the lazy river guiding our path.  After exploring the ruins, we relaxed for an evening in the little town of Copan Ruinas. 

Eva, Rosa, and Selena loving Peggy in Copan Ruinas

We began celebrating Peggy’s 73^rd birthday the next morning.  We settled on an “easier” route for the way home, one with less patchas.  But somehow we got off track.  It took us the same amount of time as our trip there but we curved in and out of borders more than expected.  First Honduras/ Guatemala, next Guatemala/ Honduras, and then Honduras/ El Salvador.  We were like a stitching needle threading our way in and out of countries.  Each of the borders had their own money schemes.  At one point, Peggy and I were in holding for an hour.

Thankfully we ended up at the border entrance closest to Suchitoto and the last part of the journey was a breeze.

Lots of cows and beautiful countryside in Guatemala

Navidad in El Sitio

Short History of Communidad El Sitio

On January 16, 1992 the government agreed to give people the land on which they had resettled, as most were forced from their homes during the war.  People from El Sitio first repatriated Nuevo Copapeyo with many others from the Mesa Grande (refugee camp in Honduras).

While in Nuevo Copapeyo, Peggy spoke with Mercedes (Community Organizer) and a small group about unpopulated land outside Suchitoto.  The group moved and created Communidad El Sitio, named after a tree in the area that was a common meeting place for the gorillas during the war.  They built Peggy a home alongside their own.   

Mercedes explained this to me in Spanish.  My translation may not be fully accurate.

Navidad in El Sitio

Peggy drove Sister Pat and I about forty-five minutes outside Suchi’s center to El Sitio.  We spent the day with Mercedes’ family.  She has six kids (around my age) and most of them have kids.  I have spent time with individuals from this family throughout my past two months here, so the huge gaggle of people wasn’t overwhelming.  I guess my training with the Buccola Crew was helpful too.

We ate extremely fresh chicken sandwiches and tamales.  We drank “coffee” that was actually burnt sugarcane but tastes like coffee.  We relaxed in hammocks.  And we sat and talked for hours.  My favorite conversations were based around stories Mercedes shared from Mesa Grande.

She talked about learning to read and write so that she could send notes to her husband fighting in the war.  She talked about taking care of kids whose parents were out fighting.  She told a story about when she and her husband found out they had the same birthday, after having been married for over twenty years!  They were illiterate like their parents, so they couldn’t read the birth certificates.

Paola snatching a shirt full of candy from the Penyada.

Little boy/angel processing to the Chapel.

When the sun went down, children in the community dressed in costumes for the Posada and sang Christmas carols while waiting for families to gather.  They acted out the Biblical Christmas story and processed on the dirt path (main road) to the chapel.  When we arrived, they performed the Posada with some characters inside the chapel calling and responding to the characters outside the chapel.  They completed the production inside and celebrated the Liturgy of the Word.

Posada call and response at the Chapel door.

Nativity in the Chapel

Afterward, there was an all night dance party in a local family’s yard.  Mercedes gave me a sip of their local moonshine.  I danced until 2am and was one of the first to leave!  There were still little kids running around, lighting fireworks and babies awake next to the loud speaker! 

I stayed the night with Mercedes’ daughter and granddaughter, Amenta and Xiamara.  We had a live chicken under the bed.  I found the next morning that Christmas day is similar to every other day.

Amenta, Xiamara, and Hector before the Posada