Chalatenango Luz y Sombra: New Book Presented in El Salvador
On February 16, 17, and 18, 2026, the Surviving Memory research initiative presented its fourth community book. Chalatenango Luz y Sombra: Fotografías de Ralph Sprenkels y Memorias de las Comunidades Repobladas [Chalatenango Light and Shadow: Photographs by Ralph Sprenkels and Memories of the Repopulated Communities](MUPI, 2025) was launched in San Salvador, Guarjila, and Cuscatlán, with a total of 300 attendees. During the book presentations, participants included survivor communities from Chalatenango, the theater group Memoria Viva from the community of Las Vueltas in Chalatenango, young singer-songwriter Sandra Alas from the community of Guancora in Chalatenango, and the book’s editors.
Chalatenango Light and Shadow presents a blend of testimonies, photographs, reflections on the past, drawings, poetry, and music. The book begins with photographs from the archive of Ralph (Rafa) Sprenkels, a Dutch anthropologist-historian who lived in the communities of Chalatenango during the early postwar years. From there, he documented testimonies about violence against the civilian population between 1980 and 1992, while also photographing community life during the first years of reconstruction. In these photo-graphs, we see the communities, community events such as commemorations, theater performances, and masses, and the friendships Rafa formed during his years in Chalatenango. The book is built around the stories of 73 photographs and what they convey from the perspective of survivors of the war in Chalatenango’s communities. It includes testimonies about what happened in the 1980s and in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War in 1992, as well as present-day reflections and an intergenerational discussion about memory—what it means and what people hope to achieve by learning about and understanding the memories of the war years. This discussion is not always presented through essays or testimonies; it can also appear in the form of drawings, songs, or poems.
The book was edited by Adriana Alas (Western University), Michelle Melara (Surviving Memory/Casa Museo Jon Cortina), and Irina Silber (CUNY). It is a community co-authored work in which more than 50 people from the repopulated communities of San José Las Flores, Arcatao, Nueva Trinidad, Las Limas, San Antonio Los Ranchos, Guancora/Ignacio Ellacuría, Guarjila, Las Minas, and Las Vueltas participated. The book project also included the support and co-authorship of representatives from historical organizations such as Asociación Sumpul, the Association of Survivors of the Sumpul Massacre and Other Massacres of Chalatenango, the Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen [Museum of the Word and Image, MUPI], the FotoRafa Archive, the Asociación de Comunidades para el Desarrollo de Chalatenango [Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango, CCR], the Centro Arte para la Paz [Art Center for Peace, CAP], Casa Museo Jon Cortina [Jon Cortina House Museum], and Cáritas Chalatenango.
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.