Commemoration of Victims of the Armed Conflict in El Jícaro
El Jícaro is one of the communities in Chalatenango that was severely affected during the armed conflict and was the site of three brutal massacres in 1981: January 23, July 4, and during the month of October.
The community decided to commemorate July 4 in honor of all the victims of the armed conflict in the area. The commemoration includes a procession through the community, a ritual accompanied by poems or texts dedicated to the victims and survivors, testimonies, and a mass.
The photograph on the altar is of José Alfredo Menjívar Alas, who disappeared in 1980 along with two other young people.
At the end of the commemoration, the following poem, written by Bautista Mejía, was shared [English follows]:
Huellas del alma
Para ellos,
los que partieron sin aviso,
sin un último abrazo,
sin tiempo siquiera
para decir adiós.
Ellos,
que arrastraban sueños de justicia,
como hojas que el viento
no quiso retener.
Cuando yo aún buscaba el camino
con pasos inciertos…
Ellos partían para no volver.
Ya no están sus manos
dispuestas al abrazo,
ni su risa bajo el sol.
Pero dejaron sus huellas,
frágiles y sagradas,
en los resquicios más puros
de una niña inocente.
En cada recuerdo,
su luz se derrama
como un faro encendido
en la penumbra.
Su ausencia duele, sí…
pero no es el final.
Porque vive quien ama,
aunque su cuerpo marchito
descanse en tumba sin nombre,
sin epitafio.
Sus nombres los lleva el viento,
las montañas, el río.
Y en los sueños
rozamos sus manos
como el frío de su partida.
Para ellos,
cierro los ojos
y detengo el ruido.
Entonces comprendo:
su amor no se ha ido.
Habitan en un rincón de mi alma,
como una sonrisa lejana,
como un eco que vuelve
cuando todo está en calma.
Están en la flor,
en la lluvia,
en la luz de cada día.
Y en cada latido
de este corazón que aún tiembla,
al escuchar sus nombres.
Traces of the Soul
For them,
those who left without warning,
without one last embrace,
without even enough time
to say goodbye.
They,
who carried dreams of justice,
like leaves the wind
refused to hold.
When I was still searching for the path
with uncertain steps…
they were leaving, never to return.
Their hands are no longer here,
ready for an embrace,
nor their laughter beneath the sun.
But they left their traces,
fragile and sacred,
in the purest corners
of an innocent girl.
In every memory,
their light pours out
like a beacon burning
in the half-light.
Their absence hurts, yes…
but it is not the end.
Because those who love live on,
even if their withered body
rests in a nameless grave,
without an epitaph.
Their names are carried by the wind,
the mountains, the river.
And in dreams
we brush against their hands,
like the cold of their departure.
For them,
I close my eyes
and quiet the noise.
Then I understand:
their love has not gone.
They live in a corner of my soul,
like a distant smile,
like an echo that returns
when everything is calm.
They are in the flower,
in the rain,
in the light of each day.
And in every heartbeat
of this heart that still trembles
when hearing their names.
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.
Participatory Strategic Planning Workshops with the Santa Marta Community
In May 2025, community members in Santa Marta came together for a series of participatory workshops focused on strategic planning for memory, education, and community-led organizing. With the involvement of more than 40 participants across generations, the workshops helped consolidate a shared roadmap for 2025–2030 grounded in lived history, collective care, and long-term continuity. Rather than “starting” something new, the process deepened work the community has sustained for decades, and clarified priorities for the Casa de la Memoria [Memory House] (as a physical and digital space), sites of memory, intergenerational education, artistic participation, and women’s memory as a pillar of community knowledge. The workshops also reaffirmed that the future Committee of Historical Memory, chosen by community assembly, will guide coordination and continuity of the initiatives.
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, Ferris State University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.
Research-Creation in Action: Building a Community Roadmap for Memory, Education, and Digital Access
Over the past year, research activities with the Santa Marta (in Cabañas, El Salvador) community have focused on strengthening community-led memory work through collaborative research-creation. This has included documenting priorities for a Casa de la Memoria [Memory House] that is both physical and digital, advancing the organization of testimonies, photographs, and music for long-term preservation, and identifying opportunities for youth involvement in documentation and digital skills. Community discussions also highlighted the importance of mapping and caring for sites of memory, rivers, hills, caves, paths, and community spaces, so future generations can connect landscape to testimony through commemorations, plaques, and digital routes or maps. Across these activities, the work emphasizes intergenerational learning and participatory cultural practices (theater, music, embroidery, storytelling) as essential ways memory remains alive and accessible within and beyond Santa Marta, including for diaspora communities.
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, Ferris State University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.
Community Conference on Memory, Trauma, and Mental Health
In May 2025, the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador project co-organized the conference “Memoria, Trauma y Salud Mental: Intercambio de Experiencias para la Praxis Comunitaria e Intergeneracional II” in Suchitoto, El Salvador. The event brought together 65 participants, including community leaders, health professionals, artists, educators, and researchers from El Salvador and international partner organizations, to exchange experiences and strategies for addressing the long-term psychological and social impacts of war and violence in post-conflict communities.
Building on the first conference organized in Arcatao in 2023, the gathering created a space for dialogue between community-based practitioners and mental health professionals working in rural regions affected by the Salvadoran Civil War. Workshops and discussion sessions explored a range of topics including trauma and memory, community-based mental health practices, the role of art and storytelling in healing processes, youth engagement, and strategies for strengthening local support networks.
Participants emphasized the importance of culturally grounded and community-driven approaches to mental health that integrate historical memory, collective care, and intergenerational dialogue. The outcomes of the event will contribute to a bilingual research report documenting key insights and recommendations for future community-based mental health initiatives in the region.
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.
Conducting Fieldwork for Community Books: Las Vueltas, April-May 2025
The Las Vueltas Research Team met in Las Vueltas in late April and early May 2025 to advance the creation of a community-bsed comic and the completion of the Las Vueltas Community History Book, both focused on documenting the history of resettlement and popular organization in Las Vueltas. The team includes community organizers Heidi Calderón, Nelson Rodríguez, Marvin Alas, and Juan Carlos; Salvadoran-Canadian artist Jessica Larios; Nicaraguan-Canadian research assistant Sabrina Del Bello Guatemala; and assistant professor of Anthropology Beatriz Juárez-Rodríguez (Carleton University).
Over several days, the research team conducted in-depth interviews, creative workshops, community workshops, and planning sessions with members of the community research committee and the broader Las Vueltas community. The work centers community voices and drawing memories in documenting their own history.
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, Carleton University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.
Music Team works on song archive, songbooks, and article publications
The Music team of the Surviving Memory project continues their work to document songs about the civil war, while also publishing new research about their findings.
Work continues to build a digital archive of songs from the war. Joel Martinez has spent several years supplementing our historical collection with new recordings of remembered songs from the war. He, Tata Méndez, and Emily Abrams Ansari are working together to build an archive that will effectively serve the needs of the community, helping to educate future generations about the war. This week, Tata is in El Salvador sharing a prototype for the archive design in workshops in Suchitoto.
Also this week, Giada Ferrucci and Emily Abrams Ansari published an article about wartime singer-songwriter, Norberto “Don Tito” Amaya in the online magazine, Revista Elementos. This article also describes the recent Rio Lempa commemoration and the use of music at that event.
This Spanish-language article is based on a longer scholarly publication, in English, which they published last month in the Journal of the American Musicological Society. “Faith, Trauma, Resistance, and Resilience in the Revolutionary Songs of Civil War El Salvador” argues that revolutionary song served both as a political and a psychological tool for wartime campesinos and campesinas. (A non-firewalled pre-publication version is available here.)
Joel Martinez has meanwhile been hard at work stewarding two songbooks toward publication.
A songbook created by the community of Las Vueltas, Cancionero sobre Memoria Histórica Las Vueltas, is now available on the project website and will soon be printed. The online e-book includes clickable links to recordings of performances of the selected songs made by the Music Committee in Las Vueltas. We thank Kayla MacInnes for her work on the book’s beautiful design, Imelda Mejía for the embroidery that graces the front cover, and Nelson Rodriguez for his evocative drawings.
Joel is also working with Felipe Tobar, a founder of the Surviving Memory project and former Asociación Sumpul (Sumpul Association) president, to create a songbook and recordings of his own songs. Tobar is a survivor of two wartime massacres. He has written a huge collection of songs that commemorate the war in recent years.
First Student-Led Research Forum
In April 2025, students involved in the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador project organized the first Student-Led Research Forum at Western University. The event created a collaborative space for undergraduate and graduate students to present research connected to the project’s core themes, including historical memory, environmental justice, community archives, and participatory research methodologies. Presentations highlighted ongoing work on archival digitization, diaspora memory, environmental histories of the Salvadoran Civil War, and community-based approaches to documenting memory and resistance.
The forum brought together students, faculty members, and community collaborators, encouraging dialogue between emerging scholars and experienced researchers. Through panel discussions and presentations, students shared insights from their research while reflecting on the ethical and methodological challenges of working with community archives and histories of violence. The event also served as an opportunity to strengthen mentorship networks within the project and to highlight the important role of student researchers in advancing collaborative and community-engaged scholarship.
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.
“El taconazo,” a song of the Salvadoran Civil War
This performance of the song “El taconazo,” by Norberto “Don Tito” Amaya, was presented by the Kubatana Vocal Ensemble of the University of Connecticut during its concert “UNBROKEN: Music, Resistance, Torture.” Held on April 25, 2025, the concert was the result of a semester of student research by members of the ensemble exploring the dichotomy between music as resistance and music as torture in contemporary song.
“El taconazo,” a song from the Salvadoran Civil War, was introduced to the class by music history professor Emily Abrams Ansari (Western University), following research on Don Tito’s music conducted as part of the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador project.
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.
Conducting Fieldwork: Las Vueltas, November–December 2024
In November and December 2024, the Las Vueltas Research Team carried out a series of in-depth interviews in the Las Vueltas Department. The team includes community organizers Heidi Calderón, Nelson Rodríguez, Marvin Alas, and Juan Carlos; Salvadoran-Canadian artist Jessica Larios; Nicaraguan-Canadian research assistant Sabrina Del Bello Guatemala; and assistant professor of Anthropology Beatriz Juárez-Rodríguez (Carleton University). These conversations explored the historical formation of the community, everyday social and cultural life before the Civil War, the dynamics of the resettlement process, and the social and political organization that emerged during reconstruction.
This fieldwork period also marked the beginning of an exciting artistic collaboration. Local artist Nelson Rodríguez and Salvadoran-Canadian artist Jessica Larios began co-creating the visual narrative for an upcoming community-based comic that tells the story of the resettlement of Las Vueltas and highlights the central role played by Padre Bernardo. The community-based comic book aims to bring community memory to life through a powerful and accessible visual medium.
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, Carleton University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.
Evelia Macal and Harold Fallon meet with Pope Francis in Rome
Within the framework of the UNISERVITATE 2024 Solidarity Service and Learning Award, won by KU Leuven in collaboration with José Simeón Cañas Central American University (UCA) for “Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador” architecture class, Evelia Macal and Harold Fallon had an audience with Pope Francis in Rome on Saturday, November 9, 2024.
Macal presented the pope with an embroidery of the Sumpul River Massacre made by survivor Rosa Rivera, who is part of Mujeres Vueltenses Bordando Historia [Las Vueltas Women’s Embroidery Collective] (also a Surviving Memory initiative). Harold Fallon presented the pope with a dedicated copy of the community book Memorias del Sumpul [Memories of the Sumpul], published in 2019 by Asociación Sumpul [Sumpul Association] in collaboration with Dorotea Mölders. The book includes the history of the Sumpul River Massacre, testimonies of survivors, and information about the preliminary design of the memorial, completed in 2024 in collaboration with AgwA architects, KU Leuven, Asociación Sumpul, and Western University. The memorial was funded, in part, by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), LiUNA OPDC, LiUNA Local 183, the Loretto Sisters of Toronto, and the Arthur Fallon Memorial Fund.
The dedication in the book reads: "To His Holiness, Pope Francis, on behalf of Asociación Sumpul, the organized communities of the region, and the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador project, with the hope that solidarity actions and prayers will bring justice and lasting dignity, especially in this context of denialism and growing authoritarianism that overwhelms so many people in the world. Rome, November 8, 2024."
Pope Francis was moved by the symbolic value of these gifts and listened with interest to the explanations about the struggles of the Chalatenango communities, in particular, the request for prayer for the end of the state of exception in El Salvador.
Photos: copyright Vatican Media.