miriam ayala
Miriam Ayala is the Vice-President of the Board of Directors of Asociación Sumpul. Miriam was born in the Canton of Las Minas, Municipality of Chalatenango, Department of Chalatenango, where she still resides. She is single and has one son. She is a survivor of the Sumpul Massacre, and in the course of the war 18 members of her family were murdered. After the Sumpul Massacre and the loss of many loved ones, she had no more options and so she joined the guerrillas until the signing of the Peace Agreements. She spent the 12 years of the war in different positions, including messenger and command radista in the Chalatenango area. From 1993 to 2003 she worked at Radio Sumpul, a community radio station located in the Guarjila Canton of Chalatenango. She was president of the Community Association of her community for 4 years. From 2006 to 2010 she was a member of the Board of Directors of CCR, and she served as Vice President of CRIPDES from 2016 to 2020. She was Vice President of the Mancomunal La Montañona (protected natural area in the Department of Chalatenango) on behalf of 3 communities: Guarjila, Las Minas and Chiapas. She served as a member of the Local Development Committee in the position of treasurer in the mayor's office of Chalatenango, representing Las Minas Canton. She has been a member of the Departmental Directive of the FMLN for the municipality of Chalatenango for 10 years. Currently she is also a member of the FMLN Departmental Directive representing the Secretariat of Historical Memory, and she is also working as a promoter of Women’s Policy in CCR.
BERNARDO BELLOSO
Bernardo Belloso is the former president of the Association for Development of El Salvador (CRIPDES) where he worked to organize more than 300 rural communities in five departments of El Salvador. Currently, he is a member of the Foundation for Community Development and Cooperation (CORDES). Bernardo was born in the San Vicente Department where he has been working on diverse environmental issues. Active in Salvadoran social movements since 1995, his work focuses on youth leadership in rural communities, and on environmental justice. He is part of the National Round Table against Metallic Mining in El Salvador, is involved in the anti-mining struggle, and partakes in the National Network against Water Privatization.
PEDRO CABEZAS
Pedro Cabezas is the regional coordinator of the Mining and Human Rights program of the Association for the Development of El Salvador, CRIPDES and the Coordinator of the Central American Alliance on Mining (ACAFREMIN). ACAFREMIN is a regional coalition of organizations and communities affected by mining projects. He studied Political Science at the University of Toronto, Canada and has more than 20 years of experience as a labour, mental health and environmental justice activist. In 2013 he joined the environmental movement in El Salvador where he played a key role in coordinating international actions to demand the prohibition of mining. Since the mining ban in El Salvador, in 2017, he has worked to strengthen regional exchange and collaboration among organizations and environmental movements in the Central American region.
LINDA DALE
Linda Dale’s career has focused on the development and use of community engagement processes as the basis for public education and social justice work. Linda is founder and Executive Director of Children/Youth as Peacebuilders (CAP), a Canadian charity that works directly with young people living in conflict and post-conflict situations. This has focused on participatory and cultural methods to facilitate young people’s exploration of their experiences of war as the basis for the development community based peacebuilding. This has included participatory research projects, education programs, peer-support initiatives and various reconciliation initiatives, all of which have involved the direct involvement of youth. CAP has worked in a variety of situations and countries including Angola, Burma/Thailand, Cambodia, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Northern Uganda and Rwanda. Linda has curated several exhibits on social justice issues. These projects have involved extensive community engagement in the definition of issues and the selection of exhibit materials. She has also produced several manuals and publications on child protection issues. Linda has a Masters in Educational Psychology (UNB).
TÓMAS GABRIEL
Tom Gabriel is a US national and registered nurse, who has been living and working El Salvador since the early 1980s. From 1983-84, he was coordinator of saneambiento ambiental (public health, latrines, garbage disposal) in Mesa Grade refugee camp in Honduras. From 1984 – present, he has been involved in public health initiatves in El Salvador, such as immunizations, infant-maternal health, midwife support/training, potable water projects, compost latrines, nutrition, and renewable energy projects. He was born in Minnesota, and lives parttime in Suchitoto and partime in San Salvador.
EUSEBIO GARCÍA
Eusebio Garcia was born in Arcatao, Chalatenango, El Salvador and he migrated to Canada in 1986. He has been working for the Quaker Committee for Refugees since 1990, assisting refugees and new immigrants with orientation, guidance, detention issues, paper work, translation, interpretation, finding shelter and other resettlement services. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the Salvadoran Canadian Association (ASALCA) and SalvAide. In the past, he has also served as President of Board of Directors for the Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples; President of Board of Directors, La Paz Housing Cooperative; Member of Board of Directors for the Canadian Multilingual Literacy Centre; an Advisory Committee Member for the Access Alliance Community Health Centre; a Project Consultant for the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC); and the Project Coordinator, Mutual Support Among Central American Refugees (AMERCT).
CARLOS HENRIQUEZ CONSALVI (“SANTIAGO”)
Carlos Henríquez Consalvi, also known as “Santiago,” was born in the Venezuelan Andes. He studied journalism in Caracas. In 1972, he traveled to Managua—destroyed by the earthquake—to help the victims. Later, he got involved as a journalist in the opposition against the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza. In 1979, after the fall of the dictatorship, he participated in the establishment of alternative media in the region. In December of 1980, Henríquez Consalvi traveled to El Salvador and established Radio Venceremos in areas controlled by the insurgency—a radio station that he would keep clandestine for 11 years. After the Peace Accords were signed, he established Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen (Museum of the Word and Image) with the purpose of rescuing the Salvadoran cultural and historical heritage with exhibitions and audiovisual productions that travel throughout El Salvador and other countries. The Museum holds the complete Radio Venceremos archive, more than 50,000 photographs, and personal testimonies of the civil war in El Salvador. The Museum highlights the role of memory, social justice, human rights, and non-official histories. He received the Prince Claus Award for outstanding achievements in the field of culture and development. He was member of the UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme Committee for Latin America (MOWLAC) from 2014–2017.
REYNALDO HERNÁNDEZ
Reynaldo Hernández was born on a farm in a small canton in northern Cabañas, El Salvador. In 1980, he and his family fled their home under treat of attack by the Salvadoran military, and eventually arrived as refugees in Honduras. For more than a decade, Reynaldo alternated between living in two refugee camps in Honduras (La Virtud and Mesa Grande) and supporting the popular struggle in the mountains of El Salvador. He migrated to Canada in 1991, where he currently works as a house painter and participates as a consultant and workshop facilitator with the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador project.
EDUARDO MACIEL
Eduardo Maciel is an Argentine researcher and teacher, who has lived in El Salvador since 2007. He currently works as the Coordinator for Memory and Pedagogy (Chalatenango) for Caritas. He studied liberation theology at the Central American University "José Simeón Cañas," where he is now pursuing a PhD in Ibero-American Philosophy. Through the lens of theories of postmemory, his doctoral research focuses on places of memory related to the Salvadoran armed conflict, especially the processes, narratives and aesthetic representations of community monuments and murals. From 2012 to 2015, he served as the coordinator of the Theology Department at the Lutheran Salvadoran University, an institution where he continues to work as a volunteer teacher and researcher. His research interests include liberation theology in El Salvador, memory studies, and the aesthetics of Walter Benjamin.
DOROTHEE MOLDERS
Dorothee Mölders is an Adult and Community Educator and community organizer, educated in Germany. She was involved in the German solidarity movement in the 80's and 90's, supporting Central American struggles for social justice and liberation from authoritarian and military governments, which was inspired by Latin American liberation theology. When she came to El Salvador in 1991, shortly before the civil war ended, she worked initially with rural communities in the northern department of Chalatenango, in close relationship with human rights and community organizations, as well as the Jesuit university, Universidad Centroamericana José Simeon Cañas (UCA). She was co-funder and collaborator with local, as well as German human rights organizations. In recent years, she worked as an In-Country-Consultant with German and US-based NGOs that support Salvadoran grassroots organizations and social movements, in issue areas such as environmental justice or indigenous rights. However, she continues to volunteer with local communities and social movements, especially around memory work. Since 1992, she has been collecting information, historical data and testimonies from survivors of the Sumpul-massacre in 1980, which were recently published as a book under the title Memorias del Sumpul (August 2019).
JUAN CARLOS NUñEZ
Juan Carlos Nuñez was born in El Portillo del Norte, San Isidro. In 1983, his family left for Mesa Grande refugee camp and returned to Las Vueltas on October 10, 1987. From 1990 to 1993 he studied until third grade in the canton of La Ceiba and from 1994 to 1999, from fourth to ninth in the school of Las Turns. In the period from 2000 to 2001 he studied general option baccalaureate at the Dr. Francisco Martínez Suárez National Institute in the city of Chalatenango. In 2002, he went to San Salvador to study a degree in legal sciences at the University of El Salvador (UES). In the period 2009 to 2012 and 2012 to 2015 he was part of the municipal council of Las Vueltas. He served as mayor of Las Vueltas from 2018 -2021, and was recently elected to a second term for 2021-2024.
SISTER MARGARET O´NEILL
Margaret O’Neill is a sister of Charity from New Jersey. She is known to the world as Hermana Peggy and has lived in Suchitoto, El Salvador since 1987. She has a Doctorate in Religion from New York University. Peggy has taught at Iona College, New Rochelle, New York for 25 years, as well in the programs in El Salvador for 18 years, Casa de Solidaridad, Santa Clara University and Global Education Program, Augsburg University. Peggy has received honorary degrees from Canisius University, Furman College, College of St. Elizabeth and Marquette University for her work in El Salvador. She is the founder and director of Center Arte para la Paz, a healing space for youth born post peace accords. The mission and vision of the Center is to build a culture of peace both personal and social using the arts as the vehicle. At the Center is a community museum, Memory Lives, which has provided the space to explore historical memory, which has clearly contributed to the healing process that is ongoing.
JULIO RIVERA
Julio Hernaldo Rivera Guardado is the Secretary of the Board of Directors of Asociación Sumpul. He was born in the Caserío El Picacho, Canton La Laguna, Municipality of Las Vueltas, Department of Chalatenango. He currently lives in the Community of Nueva Trinidad, Department of Chalatenango since March 1991. He is married and has a son. He is a survivor of the Massacres of El Rosario, La Laguna, and El Sumpul. During the war, 20 members of his family were murdered. He survived the war by fleeing from one place to another because of the continued persecution of the government army. Once he was able to settle in one place, he collaborated in the guerrilla supply area. After his family was murdered, he left the country to take refuge in Mesa Grande refugee camp in Honduras. In March 1991, he returned to El Salvador to settle in New Trinidad. Once resettled in Nueva Trinidad,a, his first mission was as a member of a Human Rights Committee to demand respect for the rights of the survivors and unmask all the abuses committed by the government army of El Salvador. He has served in the Parish in the Catholic Church since 1991 in different areas: as the Youth Coordinator, as a Catechist preparing for the various Sacraments, as a delegate of the Word of God, as Parish Coordinator of Liturgy for six years, as a member of the Parish Council and currently as a Member of the Family Pastoral Parish Team in the area of formation. Since 2012, she has worked on the subject of Historical Memory as a member of the Committee of Survivors, which years later has become the Sumpul Association, of which he is a member of the Board of Directors with the position of secretary. He works in a Community Cultural Center of New Trinidad, serving children, adolescents and young people from 1997 to date. He serves the elderly sector of their Community since the age of 60 providing them with moral support and attention and at the same time food support with the support of a sister Parish of the United States from the year 2000 to date.
NICOLAS RIVERA
Nico Rivera was born in the caserío Los Riveras of the municipality of Arcatao. He is a survivor of various massacres perpetrated against the civilian population during the armed conflict. As a member of the General Assembly of the Pro-Búusqueda Association, he receives constant training on human rights. He is also an active member of the Arcatao Historical Memory Committee, focusing his life commitment on the rescue, preservation and disclosure of historical memory as a premise for the search for the truth, justice and to avoid repetition of state violence.
NORMA RIVERA SALAZAR
Norma Rivera Salazar is an expert in Pedagogy for Peace. She has a master's degree in Cultural Management from the Latin American and Caribbean Center for Cultural Development (CLACDEC, Venezuela) and bachelor’s degree in Arts and Letters from the Central American University (UCA, Nicaragua). She has lived in Germany since 1997, where she has served as a consultant in the development of interactive methods for intergenerational work. Norma also worked as a pedagogue in Colombia in the process of construction of historical and ancestral memory. She is co-founder of the Theater for Peace strategy, implemented within the framework of the Civil Service for Peace of AGIAMONDO to make visible and denounce the violation of human rights in Nariño, Colombia. In 2019, she worked in Chalatenango, El Salvador, accompanying the work of co-construction of historical memory, facilitating healing processes, and strengthening spaces for dignifying and reinvigorating the memory of the martyrs of the Salvadoran civil war.
NELSON RODRÍGUEZ
Nelson was born Mesa Grande Honduras (Camp 1), where he lived with his family until 1988, after which they returned to the municipality of Las Vueltas, his parents’ place of origin. In 1989 in Las Vueltas, in full swing of the civil war, the Salvadroan Armed Forces murdered two of his older brothers. From 1990 to 1999, he studied basic education at the C.E. de las Vueltas. In the years 2000 to 2001, he completed a baccalaureate general option at the Dr. Francisco Martínez Suarez National Institute in the city of Chalatenango. For the year 2002, he emigrated to the city of San Salvador to study the career of legal sciences at the University of El Salvador (UES). He graduated from the university in 2006, completed his thesis in 2007, and, graduated with a degree in Legal Sciences in 2008. In 2009 the Supreme Court of Justice authorized him as a lawyer for the Republic of El Salvador. In the period from 2012 to 2015, he was part of the municipal council of Las Vueltas, focusing his efforts on rescuing historical memory of the municipality. Since 2015, he has served as a Municipal Trustee of Las Vueltas.
FELIPE TOBAR ARCE
Felipe Tobar is President of the Board of Directors of Asociación Sumpul, an organization of massacre survivors in Chalatenango and the former mayor of San José Las Flores. He was born in the Canton Corral Falso, Municipality of Potonico, Department of Chalatenango. From 1982 to 1984, he was elected as general secretary of the PPL (Local Popular Powers) for the municipalities of San Antonio Los Ranchos, Potonico, San Isidro Labrador and Cancasque. From 1987 to 1989 he was elected as president of the Community Directive of the Community of San José Las Flores. From June 1988 to June 1990 he was elected president of the CCR (Coordinator of Communities and Resettlement) of the Northeast area of Chalatenango that covered 9 municipalities. He is a survivor of the Sumpul Massacre and the El Alto Massacre. During the war, 18 members of his family were murdered. Throughout the war, he was displaced with his family, fleeing in the mountains and suffering the inclement weather, hunger, diseases and the persecution of the repressive forces of the government until the signing of the Peace Agreements in 1992. He has lived in the Community of San José Las Flores,Chalatenango since 1986. In May 2012, he was elected mayor of the Municipality of San José Las Flores by the FMLN party for the period of 3 years. In May 2015 he was re-elected mayor, retiring in 2018. On August 11, 2017, at the Survivor’s General Assembly, he was elected as the inaugural president of the Asociación Sumpul, a position to which he was re-elected in 2020.