Mapping from Memory: A Workshop to Draw and Remember Copapayo

On February 7 and 8, we held two participatory mapping workshops in Suchitoto and Sitio Cenícero as part of the Virtual Reconstruction of Copapayo Viejo project.

In these workshops, people who lived in Copapayo before the war worked with the Surviving Memory team to reconstruct, from memory, the layout of the former settlement. Using printed maps, paper, and colored pencils, participants identified streets, homes, and community spaces, and drew the houses where they once lived, contributing details about their structure, surroundings, and everyday life.

The sessions were facilitated by Zack MacDonald (map librarian), María Laura Flores Barba (postdoctoral researcher), Fátima Pérez (sociologist and project collaborator), and Francisco Mejía (local coordinator for Surviving Memory).

These activities build on a broader process that, since 2024, has included site visits, high-resolution GPS surveys and remote sensing technologies, as well as the recording of testimonies. Based on this work, the team has begun developing a digital map and 3D models of the homes.

The goal of this year’s workshops was to share these advances with the community and to continue enriching the collective reconstruction of Copapayo. The maps and drawings produced will be integrated as additional layers of information within the virtual simulation.

We are deeply grateful to all participants for sharing their memories, as well as to Patricia Market for her support in the conceptualization of the workshop and in the digitization of the materials.

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.