Global Voices » El Salvador

El Salvador: The Family Agriculture Plan

Silvia Viñas — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:29:03 +0000

Colleen O'Brien from the blog Locavore del Mundo writes about The Family Agriculture Plan (PAF) in El Salvador, “a new act that was implemented in 2011 by the Ministry of Agriculture that aims to reduce rural poverty and increase agricultural production in order to revitalize the economy in the countryside.”

El Salvador: New Attack Against Anti Mining Activists

Silvia Viñas — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:02:15 +0000

Voices from El Salvador reports on a new attack against anti mining activists in Cabañas. This time, Father Neftalí Ruiz was attacked by “several young men [who] tied him up in his home and proceeded to search his home, computer files, and cellphones for information and supposed weapons.” Grit and Grace published an English translation of a press release by the National Working Table against Metallic Mining in El Salvador on this attack.

Latin America: Museum Releases Digital Archive of 20th-Century Art

Silvia Viñas — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:36:22 +0000

The International Center for Arts of the Americas (ICCA) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has released a digital archive of 20th-century Latin American and Latino art, which, “is now available, free of charge, to the research and teaching community as well as to the public at large.” Culture magazine Ñ [es] briefly interviewed Mari Carmen Ramírez, the project's director.

El Salvador: Top Stories of 2011

Silvia Viñas — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:53:02 +0000

Tim's El Salvador Blog summarizes the top stories from El Salvador in 2011.

El Salvador: Destruction of Cathedral Mural Angers Citizens

Renata Avila — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:08:24 +0000

Update (1 February, 2012):

The Cathedral's website, catedralsansalvador.org, which included pictures of the mural is no longer online.

El Salvador has a bloody history: 75,000 civilians were killed by the armed forces and death squads during the civil war (1980-1992) and the religious community suffered the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980, the murder and rape of four United States churchwomen, and a massacre of Jesuit priests. The Catholic church was particularly harmed by State violence during this period.

After the signing of a peace agreement, memory and reconciliation became priorities for many citizens. Any act in the opposite direction tends to spark a lot of reactions, as happened recently regarding the controversial destruction of one of the most visible Salvadoran memorials: a mural in the facade of the capital's San Salvador Cathedral. The Internet quickly flooded with shocked comments and calls to actions.

San Salvador Cathedral. Image available on Wikipedia (GNU Free Documentation License).

Kabistan [es] explains on Tumblr:

Esta semana fue destruido sin previo aviso el mural que adornaba la fachada de la Catedral Metropolitana de San Salvador;realizado por Fernando Llort; por parte de la autoridades eclesiásticas del recinto; particularmente nunca me ha gustado ni el mural ni la catedral , pero el acto en si es indignante, una falta de respeto para el artista(y la comunidad de artistas en general) que concibió la idea, y las personas que colaboraron en su construcción.

This week, without previous notice, the mural that adorned the facade of the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador, by Fernando Llort, was destroyed by the ecclesiastical authorities of the precinct; I've never actually liked the mural or the cathedral, but the act itself is outrageous, disrespectful to the artist (and the artistic community in general) who conceived the idea, and to the people who helped in its construction.

Blogger Mildred Largaespada [es] gathers several reactions and posts pictures of the destroyed mural. She wonders:

Cómo se les ocurrió este atentado contra la autoestima de las y los salvadoreños, la historia de este país, el arte…?

How could they come up with this assault on the self-esteem of Salvadorans, on the history of this country, on art …?

On his website [es], Llort, the artist who created the work as a tribute for peace, describes his work on the Cathedral:

The Catholic Church of El Salvador asked me to design the facade for the Cathedral. This was one of the most inspiring artistic moments of my life, because it meant to me that I was putting my art on a very important symbol of my country, with huge historical significance. It was a work that took us (me and a group of artisans) around one year to finish.

Llort's mural was a symbol of peace, as Linda Raftree states in an extensive post where she explains the meaning of the art work, and draws a timeline of El Salvador's history. In “On pueblo and cathedral, ruin and rebuilding” she writes:

La Armonia de mi Pueblo is the title of the work that Salvadoran artist Fernando Llort created in 1997 to adorn the front of San Salvador’s Cathedral. Armonia is easy to translate into English – it means harmony. Pueblo is a bit more difficult. It’s a term in Spanish that includes the notion of both place and people. It comes from the Latin populus and can refer to a) inhabitants of a nation, country or region who share a similar culture; b) a population that farms in a particular zone (eg., a village or community); or c) the peasant or working class. So in essence, the title of the work is “the Harmony of my People”.

Linda adds:

Church leaders have since apologized to the Llort family and to those who are upset by the surprise removal of the tiles. They contend that they consulted with the congregation of the cathedral, and got their approval to remove the tiles. But the Secretary of Culture has called the Catholic church out for their actions, condemning ’the destruction of the face of the Cathedral,’ and accusing the church of violating the ‘Special Law on Protection of Cultural Patrimony’ which states that ‘although the mural on the Cathedral of San Salvador was not declared a Cultural Site, it was in process of being declared, meaning that under no circumstances should any interventions have been made.’

In his article “Church ripping Llort mural from facade of Cathedral”, blogger Tim provides background information on the prominent artist and also points out the reactions on social networks against the destruction:

The Facebook page of the Fernando Llort Foundation was filled with expressions of sadness and solidarity. Another Facebook page, Indignados por El Mural, is rapidly filling with pictures and comments and anger at the blindness of the church to the meaning of this artwork.

Ironically, pictures of the mural are still included in the San Salvador Cathedral [es] website, together with a description that states that without doubt the mural contributes “a unique personality” to the Cathedral. It also states that the murals are the most meaningful reference of Salvadorean contemporary art.

Blogger Hunnapuh [es] said that it is incredibly disrespectful to destroy such valuable work of art. In his opinion the cathedral should be demolished, because of its authorities' narrow mentality and because he considers the cathedral a terrible work of architecture which the mural somehow helped look less ugly.

However, Copinapitli thinks [es] the Cathedral controversy is just a smoke curtain, distracting citizens from really important issues yet to be addressed, such as the growing violence which resulted in 50 murders in the first four days of the year, the risks of increasing scandals due to a tax reform, and a bad economic situation in general. According to this blogger, such situations deserve more attention from Salvadoran citizens.

Tim blogs that the artist responded to the destruction of the mural and made three requests:

First, he requested that the church make a full and complete explanation of its study and reasons for destroying the mural rather than restoring it. Second, he asked that there be greater recognition in El Salvador of the value and respect due for the work of Salvadoran artists and artisans. Third, he asked that the church return to him the rubble from the tiles removed from the facade so that he could create a new art work in homage to Salvadoran artisans.

Llort currently enjoys moral rights on his art work and the destruction might be considered against Salvadorean law. In any case, it is a good sign for Salvadorean democracy that its citizens are standing up to fight for the protection of their art, their common places, their memory.

Central America: LibreBus Project Presents its Documentary

Jenny Cascante Gonzalez — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:17:39 +0000

Several months have passed since the LibreBus [es] collective project traveled across the streets of five different Central America countries looking for free culture and knowledge sharing enthusiasts.

As Jane Park explained in October, 2011:

Librebus, a project inspired by Free Culture principles, consisted of a regional tour spanning most of May of this year [2011] to explore Central American shared culture and digital communities. Twenty-seven “librenautas” [free navigators] with different nationalities, backgrounds and skills, from the free software community, Creative Commons chapters, freedom of speech activists and natural commons experts, shared their “open” knowledge with others in a variety of activities, from roundtables to public data hackathons and the first Central American CC Salon in Guatemala.

Conversations were held in each city with representatives of diverse communities that promote the use of information technology and communication. LibreBus ‘free navigators' also organized meetings with digital natives whose contributions complemented to the discussion on free software and the defense of freedom of speech and content sharing.

Musicians, artists and users in general were able to learn about the cultural commons licenses. Also, participants had the opportunity to learn about the development of knowledge and technological constraints that farmers face in the region because of the legislation and use of transgenic seeds.

A documentary [es] showing the different interactions that took place during the tour through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, is now available online. The organizers are open to arranging a similar tour in the future, under the same flag: free collective knowledge.

These are some extracts from the documentary:

El 16 de mayo de 2011 LibreBus dejó de ser un viaje por Centroamérica para convertirse en un compromiso.

On May 16, 2011 LibreBus was not just a trip through Central America, it became a commitment.

LibreBus leaving Honduras. Image by Flickr user LibreBus (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

24 personas subieron y bajaron en el trayecto pero son muchos más los que comparten la filosofía de ser librenauta.

24 people got on and off the bus along the way but there are many more who share the philosophy of being a free navigator.

Ser librenauta es seguir un camino: el del conocimiento libre para todos y todas.

To be a free navigator is to follow a path: free knowledge for everyone.

Information on presentations related to free software, photographs of the trip, and posts published by some participants can be found on the LibreBus [es] website. You can also follow the project on Twitter @Librebus [es] and Facebook [es].

El Salvador: Blogger Challenges Youth to Transform Country

Silvia Viñas — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:52:52 +0000

Fernando Marroquin says [es] youth in El Salvador talk too much -about politics, governance, etc.– but do too little or nothing to change the situation: “We don't act, we are spectators with bad seats”. He concludes his post by challenging other young Salvadorans to join him in taking action to transform the country.

Latin America: Youth Unemployment

Silvia Viñas — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:22:56 +0000

Bloggings by boz looks at youth unemployment in Latin America, concluding that “with growth projections decreased for 2011 and 2012, the current situation for youth unemployment is almost certainly getting worse. That could have major economic, political and social implications moving into 2012.”

El Salvador: National Assembly Passes Progressive Tax Reform

Silvia Viñas — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:23:07 +0000

Tim's El Salvador Blog explains a progressive tax reform passed by El Salvador's National Assembly: “Prior to these reforms, El Salvador had a particularly regressive tax system.”

El Salvador: Environmental Groups Meet to Discuss UN Climate Change Conference

Silvia Viñas — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:35:09 +0000

Voices from El Salvador blogs about climate change in El Salvador and a local forum organized by environmental groups to discuss the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which was held in Durban, South Africa from November 28 to December 11, 2011.

El Salvador: Visiting El Calvario Church

Silvia Viñas — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:40:48 +0000

Fernando Marroquin [es] posts pictures of El Calvario church in downtown San Salvador. He blogs about the church's history and encourages his readers to get acquainted with San Salvador's historic downtown.

El Salvador: Funes Administration Increases Number of Soldiers

Silvia Viñas — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:34:12 +0000

“During the first two and a half years of the Funes Administration, the military has grown by 6300 soldiers, a 57% increase, to a total of 17,000,” Voices from El Salvador reports in a post that looks into increased military spending in the Mauricio Funes Administration.

El Salvador: Remembering El Mozote Massacre 30 Years Later

Silvia Viñas — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:44:33 +0000

Tim's El Salvador Blog will publish a series of posts on the El Mozote Massacre, which took place 30 years ago on December 11, 1981: “All but one of the civilians taking refuge in the small village of El Mozote, more than 800 men, women, children and babies, were brutally killed by the Salvadoran army.” His first post presents basic facts of this “tragedy the world must never forget.”

El Salvador: ‘Encachimbados' Lead Occupy Movement

Silvia Viñas — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:33:44 +0000

Danielle Mackey writes about the Encachimbados (meaning “indignant”), El Salvador's occupy movement: “They call the attention of both the U.S. and Salvadoran governments to the free trade model, regional militarization strategies, and environmental destruction and climate change—all policies that the Encachimbados see as designed by a transnational elite, and which result in a low quality of life for the majority of the population of the Americas,” Mackey explains in Upsidedown World.

El Salvador: Calle 13 Performs for Rice and Beans

Silvia Viñas — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:49:38 +0000

Puerto Rican music duo Calle 13 performed in El Salvador on Saturday, November 19; the ticket fee, as Voices from El Salvador reports, “was a donation of rice, beans or other grains that will be distributed to flood victims.” Hunnapuh [es] blogged about Calle 13 and the controversy around their concert in El Salvador.