The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador collaborative research initiative involves more than 20 partners, including universities, civil society organizations, nonprofits, museums, and municipal governments. All partners make cash and in-kind contributions to our activities. Our research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
HOST INSTITUTION
Western is a comprehensive public research university in London, Ontario, Canada and it is the host institution for Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador. Our project includes significant cash and in-kind support from the Faculty of Information and Media Studies, the Faculty of Music, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the Faculty of Health Sciences, the Faculty of Science, the Schulich School of Medicine, Western Libraries, and the Office of the Vice President Research.
Other partners and Funders
AgwA is a Brussels based architecture office founded by Harold Fallon and Benoît Vandenbulcke. This Architecture Office firm centered on Educational Architecture.
Association for Training and Research on Mental Health (ACISAM) integrates a group of professional and technical staff who develop coordination, training, research, support groups, direct action and participatory communication to address issues affecting Health Mental in its various manifestations.
Asociación para el Desarrollo de El Salvador - CRIPDES is a nationally and internationally recognized grassroots organization with a base of approximately 300 rural communities in El Salvador, formed in 1984 in the midst of the armed conflict in El Salvador to assist refugees, displaced, and other war victims from the countryside suffering human rights abuses. CRIPDES’ main objective is community, regional and national organization for policies, practices, and resources which promote increased access to development, basic services, employment, and improved living conditions for inhabitants of El Salvador’s countryside.
Association of Survivors of the Sumpul Massacre and Other Chalatenango Massacres (Asociación de Sobrevivientes de la Masacre del Sumpul y las otras Masacres de Chalatenango - Asociación Sumpul) aims at dignifying all massacre victims and survivors in the region who were subjected to repressive state violence during the Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992). Members of the Sumpul Association work to preserve historical memory of wartime massacres; recognize and appreciate the popular organization of campesinos and our struggles against state violence; and seek moral and material reparations for survivors.
Alcaldía de Arcatao is a municipality and small town in the Department of Chalatenango, El Salvador. Arcatao is located 32 km east from Chalatenango at the border with the Republic of Honduras in a small valley between the mountains; La Cañada and Caracol. The Municipality of Arcatao is populated by 1461 habitants and is formed by Cerro Grande, Eramón, Gualcimaca, Las Vegas, Los Filos, Los Sitios, Teosinte and Zazalapa communities (cantones). It is widely known that during the war, our communities and its population were seriously affected by massive and gross human rights violations. This is confirmed by the massacres perpetrated by the Salvadoran Government Armed Forces and allied militia groups at Cerro Grande, Los Dubones, y El Sitio.
Alcaldía de Las Vueltas is a municipality in the Chalatenango Department in the north of El Salvador. The municipality is bordered to the north by Ojos de Agua, to the east by Las Flores, to the south by Chalatenango, and to the northeast by Concepción Quezaltepeque. Las Vueltas was one of the areas most hit by the Civil War and was one of the sites of the repopulation movement in 1987 that began amidst the war. Salvadoreans organized their return from refugee camps in Honduras such as La Virtud and Mesa Grande.
Alcaldía de Nueva Trinidad is a municipality in the Chalatenango Department in the north of El Salvador. The first massacre in this municipality was perpetrated on May 8, 1980, when the residents witnessed the first of many massacres in which 6 defenseless women were cruelly murdered by the National Guard in El Rincon, in the jurisdiction of the Canton Manaquil, Nueva Trinidad. Torture and deaths due to state violence took place in Nueva Trinidad from 1980 to 1982, and the massacre in the urban area of Nueva Trinidad in January 31, 1982. During the Guinda de Mayo in 1982, 98% of the population of the municipality had to flee.
Alcaldía de San José Las Flores is a municipality in the Chalatenango Department in the north of El Salvador. The ravages of the Civil War deeply affected their population. The municipality played an important and strategic role during the Salvadoran Civil War. The town was one of the first settlements to be repopulated by refugees who had been driven away by government bombing during the early 1980s. In 1986, in defiance of the military, the civilian population returned to reconstruct the village. This was part of a campaign of a number of towns throughout northern El Salvador, with the assistance of humanitarian groups in North America and Europe, to resist the militarization of the area and prevent continued bombing during the war.
Alcaldía de Suchitoto is a municipality in the Department of Cuscatlán, El Salvador that has seen continuous human habitation long before Spanish colonization. Within its municipal territory, Suchitoto holds the site of the original founding of the Villa of San Salvador in 1528 that existed for a short time before the site was abandoned. In more recent times, the municipality has prospered even after the severe effects of civil war in El Salvador that lasted between 1980 - 1992 and saw the population of Suchitoto decrease from 34,101 people in 1971 to 13,850 by 1992.
Canadian Salvadorean Asociation - ASALCA works with the purpose of participating in different events which might promote the Salvadoran cultural heritage to local, provincial and national levels.
Carleton University is a public comprehensive university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World War II veterans. Canada's Capital University, Carleton University is a dynamic research and teaching institution dedicated to achieving the highest standards of scholarship.
Centro Arte para la Paz (CAP) is a project that arose on January 16, 2005, born with the mission of promoting the culture of peace, through art as a vehicle for healing traumatic processes caused by the armed conflict in El Salvador, mainly linked to the post-war reintegration and dialogue between the new generations. It is located in the old Beata Imelda School of the Dominican Sisters congregation, considered local cultural heritage and which was rehabilitated to generate spaces such as gardens for peace, rooms equipped for the use of new technologies, multipurpose rooms for art workshops and a community museum for the recovery and promotion of the historical memory of the municipality of Suchitoto. is a Local Development Association, legally constituted in 2008, non-profit, with 33 associates and founding associates. It currently has 39 active members.
The Surviving Historical Memory Committee of Arcatao (Comité de Memoria Histórica Sobreviviente de Arcatao ) represents the survivors in our municipality, which was seriously affected during the Salvadoran Civil War. Here, many massacres of civilians were carried out by the army of the Government of the Salvadoran State throughout the 12 years of the armed conflict. The members of the Committee lost loved ones, friends, and family in the massacres of Los Guardados, El Portillo, Amate Los Novios, and Chupamiel, among others.
The Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango (Asociación de Comunidades para el Desarrollo de Chalatenango - CCR) was founded in 1988 to coordinate support for rural communities affected by the war in the department of Chalatenango, El Salvador. It emerged out of the necessity of local communities to build a consolidated regional organization that would help them advocate for justice, for the defense of economic, social, political, cultural and environmental rights, and to help them build a dignified life free from military violence. Currently their mandate is focused on promoting and strengthening grassroots organizing, citizen participation, gender equity, protection of natural resources, respect for human rights, and the self-sufficiency of rural communities in Chalatenango.
FutureWatch EDEP aims to connect people living in a diverse and mulitcultural society to experience their local (mostly urban) natural environment as a starting point to address pressing environmental issues. These experiences also create opportunities for new and old Canadians to create a dialogue, to promote communication and knowledge sharing, to build awareness, participate in outdoor recreation and nature appreciation which can ultimately lead to an increase in involvement and inclusion in Canadian society. Our purpose is to engage individuals from diverse communities who are economically and socially disenfranchised, particularly youth, children, seniors and women. The objective is to support their engagement process and to foster a positive leadership role in implementing their own solutions. In our work, we involve individuals from diverse ethno-specific communities.
KU Leuven or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is a research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, humanities, medicine, law, business, and social sciences.
Mindfulness Without Borders is a leading provider of evidenced-based programs on mindfulness and social-emotional learning (SEL) to youth, educators, health and corporate professionals in communities around the world. At its core, their programs and courses build community and connection by nurturing safe learning environments and cross-cultural conversations where people of all backgrounds can reach across things that seem to divide them in order to see possibilities for what they might create together as world citizens.
The Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen (Museum of the Word and the Image) is an innovative museum located in San Salvador, El Salvador. It was founded in the late 1990s by the Venezuelan journalist Carlos Henríquez Consalvi as a museum dedicated to collecting and preserving memories of the Salvadoran civil war, incorporating memories across the political spectrum.
PRO-VIDA is a humanitarian organization that has done tremendous work in several places of El Salvador, especially when it comes to water and sanitation. They have also supported our network providing analysis of the reality on the ground, especially in rural areas.
SalvAide is the only Canadian NGO with an exclusive focus on and expertise with respect to El Salvador. Our mission is to accompany the Salvadoran people as they build social justice, democracy, and economic development and sustainability. SalvAide works in partnership and solidarity with low-income communities in El Salvador to achieve environmental sustainability, economic self-sufficiency, and social justice through their local partners on the ground, CRIPDES and CORDES. SalvAide work to empower rural communities at the grassroots level, supporting them in project design, creating local leadership and skills, and ensuring that programs truly meet local needs.
Tutela Legal Doctora Maria Julia Hernandez works for truth, justice, and reparations around human rights violations in El Salvador. Their current projects include: Advocating for the release of the victims of human rights violations files locked by the Archbishop of San Salvador; Seeking justice for the victims of massacres; and Obtaining justice for the murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero.