After a good night’s rest, I was ready for our last trip. After breakfast we headed to a community called Cinquera in the department of Cabanas. About an hour into the drive, we passed through Suchitoto (my favorite city in El Salvador). We paused here briefly to visit the church and pick up a birthday present for Jefe. We sang him happy birthday after boarding the bus again and passed out pastries. From Suchitoto we drove along Lago Suchitlan for another hour to Cinquera. We arrived at the hostel, which is a developing project of the community, and met with a community leader Don Pablo. Don Pablo shared the history of Cinquera and their struggles during the war. This story lasted nearly three hours with a break for lunch in the middle. I am going to do my best to summarize what he said.
History of Cinquera
Don Pablo began my sharing the conditions of his people before the conflict. In the 1970s and before, the people in Cinquera lived in very simple conditions (they still do). They did not own any of their own land and worked on land owned by the wealthy families of El Salvador. Seasonally, the people would migrate to the other regions of the country to harvest coffee and other crops. People would often sell animals or mortgage their homes to get money to fee the transportation fare. When they arrived at the fincas, the people formed long lines to enroll in the finca for the season. Each finca had a limited number of paying positions. After the paid positions were filled, the remaining people in line were told there were no more positions. They could not afford to return home since they spent all their money to arrive. They begged the duenos of the fincas to allow them to stay and work the land in exchange for food and lodging. Of course, the duenos agreed to unpaid labor. All of the campesinos worked long hours and lived in terrible conditions. They lived several hundred to a dormitory without beds or bathrooms. Every two weeks, they were able to bath and receive payment. This meant the housing was incredibly smelly and dirty. Disease was common, especially infections from poor sanitations. People wore the same clothes and hot, rubber, boots for two weeks – can you imagine? The people also slept shoulder to shoulder on the floor, amongst the filth. Each person received tortilla and beans daily and very little water. They were often very hungry and weak. As people began to organize, one person would question the masses, “what more do we want?” and the people would respond, “one egg” or “more water.” But there was fear of retaliation by the armed guards who supervised the campesinos. The workers could not contest their payment either. The finca managers measured the amount of coffee collected not by weight but by depth of the coffee in the basket. It did not matter if your basket with wider or not. They stuck a measuring stick into your basket but used the tip of their thumb as the reference line. This resulted in nearly 25 pounds of coffee not being recorded per person. If a campesino argued, they would be made an example of through violence in front of the others.
In the decades leading up to the war, young men were required to participate in the military. They served in local groups of 25 men and traveled to other communities to “recruit” other young men. The men were brainwashed to believe that they were strong and deserving. When they returned home to their wives and girlfriends, they were abusive and forceful, contributing to the machismo culture. The men treated their wives in the same way they were treated by higher ranking military officials – with brute force. This practice of recruitment would continue through the armed conflict.
*warning graphic descriptions. As the nation’s tensions were rising in the late ‘70s, a few locales began to speak out against the actions the colonel was taking on the community. The acts of severe violence against the people began to rise. One was a 16-year-old girl. She was kidnapped, raped and tortured for 3 days, then left on the bridge over the river after they cut off her ears, nose, and tongue and shot her. Another woman was tied to a chair and they peeled the skin from her head and chest then left her to be eaten alive by animals. In another case, they collected all the women and children. The soldiers would hold the children up by their feet, chop off their heads with a machete, and then drop them into the latrine. The women had their arms chopped off, were killed, and dropped into the latrine as well. These atrocities and massacres are not common only in Cinquera but many regions of El Salvador.
The people of Cinquera began to organize and work with other communities to share information. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, the Catholic Church was beginning to spread the doctrine of liberation theology, which represents Jesus’ struggle as a struggle of the people. The local priests began to spread the stories of the Bible in the context of the people’s repression. The fathers used the Bible as a tool for increasing literacy in the communities as well. In Cinquera, the newly arrived father at the start of the conflict gifted a Bible to every family. However, this liberation theology divided the Church. Not all of the priests believed this doctrine should be promoted. This caused problems with the Church. Priests who taught this theology were often persecuted by military officials. Some priests passed important information for community meetings and the names of community leaders onto the local colonel.
In the years of the armed conflict 1981-1992, Cinquera was considered part of the “red zone” where the fighting took place. The people were caught in the middle of it. Some chose to join the guerrilla resistance movement which lived in the nearby mountainside, some were recruited to the military, and others fled. Before the conflict some 6000 people lived in Cinquera. Now there are less than 2000, some of whom did not live in Cinquera before the war. There are remnants of house foundations, bomb shells, and rubble in town. Today there are many murals to commemorate the community leaders who stood up for Cinquera and the names of people lost in the massacres. The church bell tower remains in the condition during the war and a new church has been built around it. The idea of community memory is very strong.
Don Pablo shared the story of his people with great passion and calm. He himself was captured 4 times and he lost 2 daughters and 2 sons during the warm. A third son took his own life after the conflict ended “so as not to be a burden on his family.” Don Pablo has recorded this story on a disc and shares it freely with guests of Cinquera and other communities. He is a wealth of information and leadership for his community. Unfortunately, my summary is missing several details and the strength he compelled.
Cinquera Forest Reserve
After of conversation with Don Pablo, we changed into our bathing suits and walked down the road to the entrance to the Cinquera Ecotourism Park. We met with Rafael, our guide, who gave us a brief history of the park before we set out on a hike to the waterfall to swim (it was really hot and sticky).
In the time before the armed conflict and to this day, Cinquera is a community based on agriculture and maize cultivation. People often cut down trees to create new farmland. During the conflict, people stopped farming and the trees were allowed to grow freely. As the trees grew taller, people – campesinos and guerillas alike – used the trees to hide themselves from passing helicopters. When the Peace Accords were signed in 1992, the people of Cinquera saw a great respect for the forest which had grown and protected them. At this time, there are also 120+ species of birds and 50+ species of butterflies living in the forest. Some of the people, including Rafael, worked very hard to create this nature reserve to protect the biodiversity.
After our presentation, we set out on the trail. We walked alongside a river and crossed over it a few times – once on a very wobbly suspension bridge and twice on stone pillars that you had to step from one to the next. As we climbed the trail, we paused along way and various education points. The first was a large series of pilas (concrete basins) used in the late 1800s for producing indigo. The indigo plant was washed, stamped on like grapes to make wine, and dried here. The second destination was to recognize an endangered tree. The fruit of this tree provide sustenance for many birds and bats. Along side the tree was the grave of an unidentified person discovered when they were putting water pipes into the mountain and a trench where guerrilla soldiers hid during the conflict. The next destination was the “Vietnam kitchen.” In 1987, this kitchen was used by guerrilla soldiers. It employed a technique for disseminating the smoke from the cooking that made it look like fog. It was incredibly important for the guerrilla forces to hide their location and smoke was a huge giveaway. The technique involved long tunnels dug into the mountain with shingles as the roof. The shingles were separated by rocks to create air pockets for the smoke to escape slowly into the soil. Apparently this technique was used in Vietnam and gave the location its name. We continued up the trail to an encampment also used in 1987. This guerrilla encampment also served as a hospital. They constructed operating tables out of bamboo and used a unique shape to cover the patient from rain or hide the lantern light at night. Rafael told us that the guerrillas built their tents out of stakes and plastic. The tents were very low to the ground and you had to crawl underneath to enter. In the camp, you were not allowed to use people’s names nor lights after it got dark. The last destination on our hike was a look out point at the top of the mountain. From there we could see the sunset and Lago Suchitlan. It was very beautiful but required us to climb some 30 steps in a wiggly structure to see above the trees.
As we descended the trail, the little remaining sunlight was blocked by the trees and it was quite dark. We walked slowly and got separated from the front of the group. This was not a problem because the trail was easy to follow. However, at the split to return to where we started or to continue on to the waterfall, we had to make a decision. I was frustrated no one from the front group stayed behind at the trail division to tell us which way they went. We assumed with the darkness they all headed back to the trail head. When we arrived there, they were not there. Jefe, Sarita, and I retraced our steps on the trail to go back to the waterfall. The other group was surprised we arrived so late and hadn’t considered staying back on the trail. They had already gone for a quick swim in the waterfall and were ready to walk back. I was super bummed because I wanted to swim in the waterfall but could not since everyone was leaving. By this time, it was really dark and we traversed the rock steps with the illumination of Aeja’s iPod and our guide’s cell phone. But we all made it back in one piece.
I took a quick shower before dinner as the rain began to fall. After dinner, we celebrated Jefe’s birthday with another song and cake. He was happy. Shortly there after, I went to my room, read for a short bit, and was ready to go to sleep.
