“Voices in Ink”: Drawing Memories in Las Vueltas, Chalatenango, El Salvador - Exhibition February 2026
On February 27, 2026, the Las Vueltas Research Team opened “Voices in Ink” at the MacOdrum Library, Carleton University (Canada). 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).
The exhibition marks the culmination of seven months of collaborative creative work. “Voices in Ink” showcases the power of community-based comics as a medium for storytelling and advocacy, one that bridges personal memory, community history, and political struggle.
The opening event brought together scholars and students from Carleton University. In a conversational panel, Prof. Beatriz Juárez-Rodríguez, Joint Chair Prof. Marie-Ève Carrier-Moisan, and illustrator Jessica Larios discussed collaborative ethnography, participatory and decolonial methodologies, and the role of visual storytelling in sustaining memory and deepening intergenerational conversations about justice in El Salvador.
The event concluded with a reflective wall activity, inviting participants to draw or write responses to the question: “What story, memory, or struggle from your community or lived experience would you like to see told as a comic, graphic narrative, or illustrated piece?"
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.
The Centro Arte para la Paz hosts the presentation of the book Chalatenango luz y sombra: fotografías de Ralph Sprenkels y memorias de las comunidades repobladas
The 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] brings together Ralph Sprenkels’s powerful photographs, accompanied by testimonies from communities repopulated during the Salvadoran postwar period.
Through its pages, the book invites readers on a profound journey through historical memory, narrated by women, men, young people, and children who lived through the conflict and its consequences. The images reflect pain, but also the resistance and capacity for reconstruction of communities that faced loss and the challenge of rebuilding their lives.
More than a visual record, Sprenkels’s work accompanied community processes, especially those of women who, in the search for their disappeared sons and daughters, faced great risks with courage.
This work, edited by Adriana Alas, Lidice Michelle Melara Minero, and Irina Carlota Silber, is a joint initiative of Western University, the Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen [Museum of the Word and Image, MUPI], and Chalatenango communities as part of the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative.
It offers a space to reflect, remember, and recognize the stories that shape the identity of the repopulated communities of 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.
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.
Chalatenango luz y sombra Presented at MUPI
With a full house, the Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen [Museum of the Word and Image, MUPI] held the presentation of the 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], a work that brings together Ralph Sprenkels’s powerful photographs alongside testimonies from communities repopulated during the Salvadoran postwar period.
Chalatenango luz y sombra [Chalatenango Light and Shadow] offers an approach to historical memory through the stories of women, men, young people, and children, captured through the committed and humanist gaze of Ralph Sprenkels. His images document the pain, resistance, and reconstruction of communities that, after the armed conflict, suffered the loss of their loved ones and faced the challenge of rebuilding their lives. Sprenkels not only recorded history with his camera, but also accompanied community processes, especially those of women who, in the search for their disappeared sons and daughters, faced high-risk situations.
The book, edited by Adriana Alas, Lidice Michelle Melara Minero, and Irina Carlota Silber, is a joint initiative of Western University, the Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen, and the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador Project.
The event featured the participation of singer-songwriter Sandra Alas and the Memoria Viva [Living Memory] theater collective from Las Vueltas, who contributed an artistic moment filled with sensitivity and commitment to historical memory.
The book Chalatenango luz y sombra [Chalatenango Light and Shadow] will also be presented on Tuesday, February 17, at 3:00 p.m. at Casa Museo Jon Cortina [Jon Cortina House Museum] in Guarjila, and on February 18 at 2:00 p.m. at the Centro Arte para la Paz [Center Art for Peace] in Suchitoto.
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.
Invitation to the presentation of the book Chalatenango luz y sombra: fotografías de Ralph Sprenkels y memorias de las comunidades repobladas
Casa Museo Jon Cortina [Jon Cortina House Museum] is pleased to invite you to the presentation of the 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].
It will take place at Casa Museo Jon Cortina on Tuesday, February 17, at 3:00 p.m.
We look forward to seeing you!
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.
Book Chalatenango luz y sombra: fotografías de Ralph Sprenkels y memorias de las comunidades repobladas to Be Presented at MUPI
The Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen [Museum of the Word and Image, MUPI] invites the public to the presentation of the 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], a work that brings together Ralph Sprenkels’s powerful photographs alongside testimonies from communities repopulated during the Salvadoran postwar period.
The book, edited by Adriana Alas López, Lidice Michelle Melara Minero, and Irina Carlota Silber, is a joint initiative of Western University (Canada), the Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen [Museum of the Word and Image, MUPI], and Chalatenango communities as part of the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative.
The presentation will take place on Monday, February 16, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. at MUPI, with the participation of the Grupo Teatral Memoria Viva [Living Memory Theater Group] of Las Vueltas and singer-songwriter Sandra Alas.
The book offers an approach to historical memory through the stories of women, men, young people, and children, captured through the committed and humanist gaze of Ralph Sprenkels (1969–2019), a Dutch-born anthropologist and historian. His images document the pain, resistance, and reconstruction of communities that, after the armed conflict, suffered the loss of their loved ones and faced the challenge of rebuilding their lives.
Sprenkels not only recorded history with his camera, but also accompanied community processes, especially those of women who, in the search for their disappeared sons and daughters, faced high-risk situations. His work today constitutes a valuable visual testimony to memory, dignity, and resilience in Chalatenango and throughout El Salvador.
In addition to the presentation at MUPI on Monday, February 16, Chalatenango luz y sombra [Chalatenango Light and Shadow] will also be presented on Tuesday, February 17, at 3:00 p.m. at Casa Museo Jon Cortina [Jon Cortina House Museum] in Guarjila, and on Wednesday, February 18, at 2:00 p.m. at the Centro Arte para la Paz [Center Art for Peace] in Suchitoto.
MUPI is located at 27 Avenida Norte, Urbanización La Esperanza #1140, between 19 and 21 Calle Poniente, San Salvador, El Salvador.
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.
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.
Architecture Students Engage in Community Memory Work in Chalatenango
From 24 January to 8 February 2026, seven master students from the KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture travelled to El Salvador for an intensive fieldwork period that will shape their master thesis projects. Each student is developing an architectural proposal for a memory space linked to a massacre site in Chalatenango. This year, the focus lies on Guinda de Mayo, Guancora, Casa de la Memoria [Memory House], and El Alto, where they had the opportunity to listen to testimonies and engage with community members.
During the trip, the students participated in a workshop led by María Laura Flores Barba and Victor Fallon Macal Guerra, in collaboration with Colectivo Bordando Historia [Embroidering History Collective] in Las Vueltas. The students produced drawings based on archival photographs of Las Vueltas, which will be embroidered onto “Hamacas para las Almas” [Hammocks for Souls], an ongoing art installation by Victor Fallon Macal Guerra.
The students’ itinerary also connected them to the ongoing architectural projects. In Las Aradas, they visited the recently completed memorial project and experienced its significance first-hand. In El Higueral, they joined a community meeting to prepare the upcoming construction of five memorial columns, developed in close collaboration with survivors and community members. Finally, at San José Las Flores Casa de la Memoria, they assisted mounting the new exhibition “Obras de Memorias” [Works of Memories], thus inscribing themselves in the ongoing and evolving process of the Casa project.
This latest exhibition brings together artistic works inspired by historical memory and shows ongoing architectural research for several massacre sites. The exhibition features contributions from both Salvadoran and international artists, including Antonio Romero and Colectivo Matiz . To mark the opening, the students painted a new mural on the facade of the Casa.
This two-week journey offered the students a chance to witness the strength of community-led memory work, contribute in small but meaningful ways, and reflect on the role architecture can play in supporting processes of remembrance.
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, KU Leuven, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.
Embroiderers from Las Vueltas participate in a historical memory workshop
In January 2025, the Mujeres Bordadoras Vueltenses [Embroidery Women of Las Vueltas] collective participated in historical memory workshops in Las Vueltas, Chalatenango. Teresa Cruz, an embroiderer and popular educator from the Museum of the Word and Image (MUPI), leads the group.
This workshop was coordinated by Western University (Canada) and by architects from KU Leuven University (Belgium), with the support of architect Evelia Macal, and Amanda Grzyb, coordinator of the Surviving Memory initiative.
The process began with the identification of historical images from the armed conflict, followed by visits to the places where those images were taken in order to identify the changes that have occurred over time. Later, a team of architecture students produced drawings based on the stories evoked by the photographs.
Using these sketches as a foundation, the embroiderers will stitch their stories with colored threads, creating testimonial pieces that will eventually become part of a museum collection to preserve the community’s legacy.
The activity also had the voluntary support of Olvin J. Abrego Ayala, an intern at MUPI, who is spending one year in El Salvador through support from his university’s Olga Gruss Lewin Program and a Fulbright research grant. Ayala comes from a family originally from Honduras, was born in Chalatenango, and lives in the United States, where he completed his bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies at Dartmouth University.
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, KU Leuven, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.
Surviving Memory’s Economic Reconstruction Project Advances Through Research Activities, Academic Output, and Institutional Coordination
Between November 2024 and January 2026, Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador’s Economic Reconstruction project in Chalatenango (ERES) – led by Aarhus professor and Salvadoran Australian, Vladimir Pacheco Cueva – made significant progress, combining community training, academic production, and institutional coordination. During the first stage (November 2024–May 2025), the team carried out a training process for community leaders from San José Las Flores, Las Vueltas, and Nueva Trinidad. This course, delivered in a hybrid format over eight weeks and concluded with an intensive workshop, graduated eight participants from key organizations in Chalatenango, including the Asociación Fundación para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Comunal de El Salvador [Foundation Association for Cooperation and Communal Development of El Salvador, CORDES], the Asociación de Comunidades para el Desarrollo de Chalatenango [Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango, CCR], the Asociación Sumpul [Sumpul Association], the Casa Museo Jon Cortina [Jon Cortina House Museum], and the Asociación Tiempos Nuevos Teatro [New Times Theatre Association, TNT].
At the same time, the project’s academic dimension was strengthened through the publication of a chapter on the political situation in El Salvador, which analyzes continuities and ruptures in a context marked by political radicalization and environmental fragility.
In a second stage (May 2025–January 2026), the focus expanded toward strengthening organizational capacities and generating applied research. The team carried out a new eight-week training program with the organization Medios de Vida Sostenible para la Juventud de Arcatao [Sustainable Livelihoods for the Youth of Arcatao, MVSJA], focused on project management. This process not only trained six community participants, but also culminated in the development of a research plan that will guide MVSJA’s actions during 2026 and 2027. In terms of outreach, there was progress in presenting work on the impact of Bitcoin in El Salvador, including a podcast version produced at Aarhus University.
Finally, a memorandum of understanding was established between Aarhus University and the consulting firm AMO, opening opportunities for pro bono technical training and an organizational assessment for MVSJA. Together, these achievements reflect a sustained effort to link historical memory, local development, and the production of critical knowledge.
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.