New Publication on Community Archives in El Salvador
Four members of the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador project have published the article “Toward Healing and Justice: Building Equitable Relationships with Community Archives in El Salvador” in the Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies.
The article draws on the partnership's ongoing collaboration with Centro Arte para la Paz [Center Art for Peace, CAP] in Suchitoto, Cuscatlán, as the authors reflect on what it means to build archival projects based on trust, reciprocity, and long-term relationships. Focusing on the experience of co-creating the Mediateca of CAP, the publication brings together the perspectives of several members of the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador team. Giada Ferrucci, Postdoctoral Associate at Western University, Amanda Oliver, Head of Archives and Special Collections at Wilfrid Laurier University, Tom Belton, Head of Archives and Special Collections at Western Libraries, and Fernando Chacón, a graduate student researcher with the project.
The article emerged from conversations and collaborations with members of CAP developed through the partnership since 2021. It highlights the importance of recognizing community members not simply as participants in research, but as custodians of knowledge whose experiences and priorities should shape how archives are created, managed, and shared. As the project continues to work alongside survivors, community organizations, and memory initiatives across El Salvador, this publication offers one example of how collaborative archival work can help preserve histories that might otherwise be lost while supporting communities in telling their own stories on their own terms.
The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Western University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.
Summer Research Task Force: Surviving Memory Team Prepares Project Content for the New Academic Year
Summer remains a busy time for the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador team. A research task force composed of postdoctoral fellows, research assistants, local team members in El Salvador, and project leaders is working to review, update, and finalize project content before the new academic year begins in September. Many members of the team are working in Surviving Memory’s Oral History and Documentation Lab, which was established with funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Ontario Research Fund (ORF), Western’s Faculty of Information and Media Studies, and Western Research.
The team’s current goals include completing video editing and uploading materials to the massacre map, advancing the transcription and translation of interviews and testimonies, and updating news, events, publications, and project information on the website. A small team led by Dr. Giada Ferrucci is also overseeing research assistants who continue to digitize a large collection of material about El Salvador from York University’s Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean.
This task force requires careful coordination. The team is managing hundreds of documents and sensitive files while also ensuring the quality and consistency of content in English, Spanish, and French. Members meet every Wednesday to review progress, address ongoing challenges, and coordinate the next steps.
According to Dr. Amanda Grzyb, project director, , “It’s awe-inspiring to see how seamlessly this large team works together on complex tasks like transcription, translation, digitization, data analysis, and video editing. I am so grateful to our project coordinator, Dr. Adriana Alas, who is coordinating the work along with postdocs, Dr. Giada Ferrucci and Dr. María Laura Flores Barba, and long-time lead research assistant, Yarubi Díaz Colmenares. Their dedication to the Surviving Memory initiative and to disseminating the memory of the Salvadoran Civil War is evident in everything they do.”
The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Western University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.
"Intergenerational Memory Research in Postwar El Salvador and Liberia": online panel by Surviving Memory team on June 23
Members of the Surviving Memory in Postwar el Salvador team will participate in the online panel “Bridging Generations and Methodologies: Intergenerational Memory Research in Postwar El Salvador and Liberia”, on June 23, from 12:00 - 1:30pm (EST). This panel is part of the Digital Memory Studies Association speaker series (dMSA).
The discussion explores intergenerational memory in postwar contexts, focusing on El Salvador and Liberia. It highlights how younger generations act as co-researchers and creative agents, using participatory methods such as crowdsourcing, photovoice, music and songwriting, and guided nature walks to document, interpret, and transmit collective memory.
By engaging survivors and youth as co-creators, the session emphasizes inclusivity, ethical reflection, and embodied practices, fostering resilience, social recognition, and community cohesion. Participants will discuss the integration of digital tools, arts-based methods, and experiential learning in memory studies and social justice work.
Dr. Amanda Grzyb, Surviving Memory project director will convey the panel, with the participation of Dr. Maria Laura Flores Barba (Western Postdoctoral Fellow, Western University), Dr. Adriana Alas (project coordinator), Dr. Joel Martínez-Lorenzana (Research Associate), and Dr. Giada Ferrucci (Western Postdoctoral Fellow, Western University).
Use this link to register. For more information, visit the MSA website.
The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Western University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.
In the News: Surviving Memory Research Assistant Amaan Thawer and his sister celebrate convocation at Western University
A trajectory of fight for Health Equity after a severe family illness strengthens the bond of siblings Amman and Jahaan Thawer. They celebrated their convocation together at Western University this spring. Access here the full Western News story highlighting their path of resilience and activism leading to graduation.
Amaan was a Research Assistant for Surviving Memory for two years, after joining project coordinator Amanda Grzyb’s field course in El Salvador in 2023. In the project, he examined the continuing effects of the Salvadoran Civil War on health and the environment by engaging with communities affected by metallic mining and agricultural chemicals in their land and water.
Amaan is graduated from the B.Sc. in Geology, while Jahaan graduated in Health Sciences and works on health equity, women’s health advocacy, Black men’s prostate cancer awareness, social justice, and the social determinants of health.
The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Western University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.
In the News: Surviving Memory Co-Founder Dr. Amanda Grzyb Appointed to the Order of Ontario
On June 1, 2026, Dr. Amanda Grzyb, project director and co-founder of Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador, attended the investiture ceremony for her 2025 appointment to the Order of Ontario. The ceremony was officiated by the Honourable Edith Dumont, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
Professor Grzyb was recognized for decades of collaboration with survivors of genocide and state violence, her commitment to community-based research and historical memory, and her efforts to address contemporary social injustice.
Western News highlights that Professor Grzyb has led Surviving Memory into “an award-winning collaborative research partnership that includes artists, scholars, community organizers and local leaders working with Salvadoran communities to commemorate sites and stories.”
In an interview with CBC, Professor Grzyb spoke about the relevance of historical memory and transitional justice in today’s society:
“If anyone listens to the news, they know that we're living in an era of rising authoritarianism, white supremacist thinking and ideology, residential school denial. We are surrounded by the implications of state violence, the legacies of state violence. And unfortunately, it's not going away. So I would say that every survivor I've worked with, from Holocaust survivors to Rwandan genocide survivors, to survivors of the Salvadorian Civil War, their number one concern is to prevent this from happening to anybody else.”
The Order of Ontario is the highest civilian honour in the province. Learn more about the 30 recipients appointed in 2025 here.
The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Western University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.
Surviving Memory team participates in the “Mass Atrocities, Environmental Degradation, and Communities Rights” conference in Dundee
Three members of the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador team attended the “Mass Atrocities, Environmental Degradation, and Communities Rights” conference in Dundee, Scotland from May 17-21, 2026. Hosted by the University of Dundee, the University of Stirling, and the Congress of Nations and States, the conference included a mix of scholars, activists, and community leaders focused on cases of state violence across the world.
Dr. María Laura Flores Barba (Western Postdoctoral Fellow) presented a paper about Surviving Memory’s massacre mapping initiative and Dr. Amanda Grzyb (Professor of Information and Media Studies at Western) and Reynaldo Hernández (Surviving Memory co-founder and civil war survivor) co-presented a paper about Surviving Memory’s community-based research methods.
The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Western University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.
When Retirement is Simply Continuation: My Work with the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador Project
Bernie Hammond, PhD
Professor Emeritus, Sociology/Social Justice
and Peace Studies, King’s College, Western U
The Meaning of Retirement
After an academic career spanning 40 years and at the age of 73, I began to contemplate retirement. Many of my friends both academic and otherwise had already retired and to a person they recommended the experience very highly. But what would I do? Uniformly, friends reassured me that they were so busy in retirement that they couldn’t understand how they had ever found time to work! So, in 2015 I took the plunge. Now almost 11 years hence, I am living proof of the truth of those reassurances I had received from so many friends.
A Word About My Academic Work
By way of explanation and before I recount what it is that currently keeps me busy, a word or two about the nature of my work in academia is warranted. I am a sociologist and I had the good fortune to work for an institution that valued and supported the fact that my passion in academia was to write and teach about issues of social justice and to convey that enthusiasm to my students. I believe strongly in the concept and practice of experiential learning and to that end I built opportunities into my teaching for my students to travel to Global South countries and to learn first-hand about the structural injustices people faced, how they dealt with them and how in many cases those problems could be traced back to our own political realities.
Although I arranged for my students to travel to many parts of the world, I personally supervised those students who chose to travel to the Caribbean and Central America, specifically to the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Guatemala and El Salvador. During the first few years of retirement, I taught English to mostly youth from low-income backgrounds at a small language school in Guatemala. I also travelled frequently to the Dominican Republic to investigate the deleterious impact of a Canadian mining company on local communities. Additionally, I continued to present papers on a variety of Canadian social justice issues at an annual conference at the University of Holguin in Cuba. Then in 2017, I was offered the opportunity to participate in an extraordinary, brilliantly conceived project that investigates and supports the experiences of survivors of the civil war that ravaged El Salvador from 1980 until 1992.
El Salvador’s Civil War (1980-1992)
This 12-year conflict was stimulated by the extreme poverty brought about by a maldistribution of land and held brutally intact by an authoritarian government. This government was strongly backed by the Salvadoran military and supported by the United States in the context of the fear of Communism characteristic of the Cold War. These conditions led to the eventual formation of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition of leftist groups bent on changing Salvadoran social reality. The military responded with vicious repression including the formation of death squads and the employment of scorched-earth tactics developed by the US military in Vietnam. One of the consequences was the widespread displacement of people who frequently sought refuge in the mountains. The UN estimated that approximately 75,000 died over the course of the war. They heard 22,00 complaints of violence and attributed 85 percent of wartime violations to the Salvadoran Armed Forces . Peace Accords were signed in 1992; however, countless families were left to mourn men, women and children who not only did not survive the war but died horrendous deaths following unspeakable torture. These deaths scar the memories of a generation of Salvadorans who to this day struggle to come to terms with their loss and to remember their history through local associations dedicated to this task. These community associations are key partners in the Surviving Memory in Post-War El Salvador project.
The Project
The project was initiated in 2017 by a group of civil war survivors, architects, social movement leaders, and my colleague, Dr. Amanda Grzyb in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University. So far, the project has focused on communities in the northern department of Chalatenango and Cuscatlán in whose mountains many sought refuge during the war. Unfortunately, these same mountains frequently became the site of many of the most atrocious massacres civilians suspected of assisting or even sympathizing with leftist groups. The project began modestly by mounting a display of photographs taken by Canadians from Oxfam Canada and other sympathizers during the conflict. This provided living relatives with the opportunity to see for the first time photos of the war time experiences of loved ones, many of whom had not survived the war. My task was to help set up the photo displays in several communities and assist local survivors to identify relatives and friends, thus giving them new insight into their experience of the war.
In doing so, I was and remain deeply impressed with the healing potential of memory in coming to terms with tragedy and suffering often buried, consciously or not, deep in one’s subconscious. Psychological services from local health care providers and mental health professionals from Western University were provided to assist those who wished them as these memories emerged. The profound healing nature of survivor memory as became evident in responses to the photographic display left me even more admiring of and committed to this overall project.
Gradually, with generous funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, other granting organizations, and many other community and religious organizations, the scope of the project expanded. It now involves an array of dozens of academics and other professionals from many countries who assist in locating and recording the music of the revolution, in building museums devoted to preserving memories of the war, creating a memorial park at the site of one of the major massacres, and even an embroidery project stitching war memories into garments, cushions, and wall hangings. We have moved from accompanying survivors to document massacre sites with GPS to the use of drones, LIDAR surveys of destroyed villages, and Ground Penetrating Radar to locate unmarked graves . In the latter case, the team has learned directly from the Six Nations Survivors’ Secretariat, a survivor-led Indigenous organization recovering the truth about the former Mohawk Institute residential school.
My Compensation
On a personal level, this project has seen me hiking through forests and up mountains while fending off mosquitos and tics, assisting in setting up interviews with survivors, checking Spanish to English translations, participating in meetings of survivor associations, and walking many kilometers over rough terrain to participate in annual commemorations of massacres. I have often joked that for me retirement has meant simply continuing to work but without a salary. I must confess, however, that whatever humble contributions I have made to the success of this project have been dwarfed by the immense pleasure of seeing its success and the satisfaction and sheer fun of working with the brilliant and congenial team responsible for its achievements.
My colleague Dr. Amanda Grzyb has a way of drawing to her people who are not only immensely talented, but who have proven to be some of the most congenial and engaging people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Her own talents are evident, of course, in helping to conceive this project and collaborating with others to bring it to the level of success that it has achieved. Her many contributions to academic life and to the community generally are no doubt reflected in her much-deserved recent appointment to the Order of Ontario!
“Transcendent Memory” Exhibition Opens June 4 at Western University
The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative invites for the opening of “Transcendent Memory: State Violence, Solidarity, and Community-Based Research in Postwar El Salvador” on June 4, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., in the Community Room at Weldon Library, Western University.
The exhibition explores memory, solidarity and community-based research related to state violence and its legacies in El Salvador.
Photos: Reesevale
The exhibition will be on display on the main floor of Weldon Library, in Western University (London, Ontario), from June 4 to December 22, 2026.
The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Western University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.
Co-Creating Youth Mental Health Support in Arcatao
Since 2023, the Global Minds Collective has collaborated in Chalatenango, El Salvador, with young adult community leaders to identify mental health priorities and bring to fruition the organization’s Mindful Social Innovation Lab (MSI) programming to local communities. Over a two-year period, Global Minds, through the collaboration of researchers Alejandra Aguilar and Juan Carlos Jimenez, have led key informant interviews, focus groups, and co-design workshops with young adult leaders in the communities and districts of Arcatao, Nueva Trinidad, San Jose las Flores, Guarjila, Guancora, Las Minas, and Las Vueltas.
Through this collaborative work, community leaders identified significant stressors in the lives of young people in Chalatenango, and the absence of mental health support for the general population. Despite these limitations, leaders also identified a key asset in this region; community organizations and programming for young adults have been a vital space for young people to find community and belonging and have served as important vehicles for facilitating communal wellbeing in times of stress and crisis.
Photo 1. Participants and facilitators during a Mindful Social Innovation Lab session in Arcatao.
Working with Medios de Vida
In November 2025, our team began working in Arcatao with a local program called Medios de Vida Sostenibles para la Juventud [Sustainable Livelihoods Initiative], to co-facilitate the Mindful Social Innovation Lab. Medios de Vida Sostenibles para la Juventud is a local program in Arcatao that supports young people in creating livelihood opportunities by providing seed funding for small business incubation, entrepreneurial training, and emotional accompaniment as young people begin their businesses.
Medios de Vida was born out of local community efforts and collaboration between the local Catholic Church and its sister parish in Seattle, Washington. The program supports young people in their life trajectories and provides a credible option for staying in the community without having to migrate illicitly to the United States or leave the community for livelihood. Our intention in working with Medios de Vida in Arcatao is to implement a prototype of the Mindful Social Innovation Lab (MSI)that can be replicated with other community organizations in Chalatenango.
What Happens in the MSI Lab?
Our sessions have brought participants in Medios de Vida’s programming, and other young adults involved in local community organizations, together to learn about and practice mindfulness, finding ways to incorporate mindfulness in our daily lives, community engagement, and activism.
Participants come together and practice breathing exercises, gratitude, equanimity, conscious listening of our surroundings and our bodies, and peaceful meditation. Participants in our sessions have been very keen in collaborating with us, sharing beautiful anecdotes of their community activism and their means of practicing mindfulness and gentle meditation in their daily lives.
Young people have also shared important memories of past hardship, and as a group, we have been able to hold space to process these difficult emotions. These sessions have served as a space for emotional support amongst participants and a means of sharing happiness, resilience, and meaningful community building. These sessions are also accompanied by snacks, coffee, a warm lunch, and often done in spaces close to nature.
Photos 2-3. Young participants engage in mindfulness and collective reflection activities during an MSI Lab session.
Co-Designing Community Mental Health Interventions
The Mindful Social Innovation Lab, along with mindfulness and meditation, also provide space for imagining and planning a social innovation that responds to mental health needs identified by community leaders and participants through this programming and previous field work.
In these sessions, after having practiced mindfulness and meditation as a group, our participants and facilitators then begin co-imagining potential community projects that could be done to support mental health and wellbeing in the community. This is done through a variety of co-design strategies, including community mapping, brainstorming activities, storyboarding, and learning about trauma informed approaches and community-based programming, Given the fact that many participants are community leaders involved both in Medios de Vida and other community spaces, including women’s and young adult associations, participants have come up with a flurry of possible mental health interventions, based on the realities and needs of the teritory.
Looking Ahead
The Mindful Social Innovation Lab is coming to its mid-way point in Arcatao. Participants have come up with brilliant intervention ideas, many of whom emphasize the need for recreational community spaces for young people in Arcatao, especially a community center with a gym, library, recreational programming for young people and other community members.
Continued facilitation of a space of mindfulness, healing, peace is envisioned, along with uplifting the ideas and approaches of local community activists in Arcatao. The incorporation of additional community-recreation activities is also plannedas part of our Mindful Social Innovation pedagogy, in collaboration with Medios de Vida Sostenibles para la Juventud.
Photos 4-5. Community-based learning, reflection, and connection remain central to the MSI Lab process in Arcatao.
The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Western University, the Global MINDS Collective, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.
Food in Chalatenango: Stories of Plants and Chalateca Foods
What if we told stories of the Civil War in El Salvador alongside plants and food ingredients? What kinds of stories would be written? A multidisciplinary team made up of academics and local Salvadoran leaders is exploring these ideas in a community-based project in Chalatenango.
Memory and food recipes
Since 2025 we have been exploring the role that plants and ingredients used in the preparation of local food recipes play in the expression and reactivation of personal or collective memory in Chalatenango.
In the literature on memory, it is widely recognized that smell links odors to memory, and that olfactory memory is more lasting and intense than memory related to images or sounds.
The stories we are writing reflect people’s everyday lives before, during, and after the Civil War. Stories of people intertwined with the stories of cultivated and wild plants. Stories of suffering, but also of the resilience of both humans and nature.
The project will conclude in 2027 with the return of the information to the communities through the publication of a community book. We hope this book will help people understand the Salvadoran Civil War from a different perspective.
About the authors
The research team is composed of Alain Carretero (ethnobotanist at Aarhus University), Adriana Alas Lopez (anthropologist at Western University), Carlos Alberto Elías Ortiz (botanist at the University of El Salvador), Rosa Lilian Lopez (social worker at the Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango, CCR), and Meilyn Leiva (nutritionist, independent professional).
The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Western University, Aarhus University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.