Celebrando los Martires de la UCA

Another event to remind me that, always, la memoria vive!! This past weekend, on Saturday, was the vigil for the anniversary of the martyrs of the UCA, the Catholic University here in El Salvador. In 1989, six Jesuits, their housekeeper, and her daughter were murdered. Now, twenty one years later, their memory is still celebrated, and in grand style!

I knew I wanted to attend the vigil, so I was able to catch a ride in with Sister Peggy when she drove into the capital for her class. There were two completely wonderful things about this - one, I was able to spend time with Peggy and attend her class (which is AMAZING - liberation theology. Each time I attend a class I learn about six different things), and I also didn't have to take a bus into the capital. These completely awesome things outweighed the horror of having to wake up at 4:30 in order to catch a ride with her. SO incredibly worth it. Once in the capital, I was able to stay in the Casa de Solidaridad, the Santa Clara University study abroad program in El Salvador. It was wonderful to see all of my Santa Clara friends, as well as friends I have begun to make through visiting the capital and Casa students visiting Suchitoto. 

Saturday morning, the preparation for the day began at 6:30am. On the day of the vigil, two main things happen - a soccer tournament, and the creation of the alfombras. Soccer tournament is pretty self explanatory, even if we heathen Americans decided to call it "soccer" while determinedly calling a sport that has almost no use of feet in it "football." But alfombras might not be familiar to people; it was not familiar to me. 

Alfombras are giant mural like pictures on the ground, but are constructed of colored sand. Each group creating an alfombra is given a space on the ground in the UCA and have their own designs. I went to help begin the alfombra of Casa de la Solidaridad with the students from the United States, and also with Salvadoran students from a sister program with the Casa. After a hearty breakfast of pupusas and café, we chalked out the grid for the alfombra, drew the figures in chalk, and began mixing the sand and the color. After a while of this, I decided to go to the cancha, or the soccer field, and check out how the tournament was going. I was lucky enough to be able to arrive just in time to see the boys team from Casa play their first game in the tournament. Unfortunately, they lost in a shoot out, which made for an exciting game, but was a bit disappointing to lose. Next, we switched sides to watch the women's team play.

One of the women's teams from Casa ended up being short one player; and this is how I ended up playing in a soccer tournament in San Salvador. Of course, not being prepared for playing in a soccer tournament, I was in no way properly attired. However, I find that sometimes sports are like theater - the show must go on! And through this sentiment (firmly instilled in me from, I am pretty sure, conception) I found myself running about a cancha in the UCA, in a borrowed shirt, rolled up pants, and no shoes. As I discovered about thirty seconds into the game, flats are not the ideal shoe for running about kicking a moving object. Usually the shoe ends up going flying along with the ball. So, I decided to kick them off, leave them at the side line, and continue. And found that playing barefoot is fun! We won the first game, and went on to win the championship. Yay Casa Futbol!!!

After the tournament, we returned to the alfombra. The people at the alfombra had been working all day, and so our design was close to being complete. All of us footballers jumped in and grabbed some sand to finish the design. Around 3:30 or 4, thoroughly exhausted and incredibly dirty (a mixture of dust and sand and dye can do that) we headed back to la Casa de Solidaridad for showers before the vigil began.

The vigil began at 5pm. Crowds of people gathered at the UCA, admiring the alfombras, and walking to the plaza to start. At the plaza, candles and sheets with songs were handed out. As we lit candles, banners with the pictures of the martyrs began the procession, and we all began to follow, forming this river of light that seemed to stretch on forever. As we walked in this procession, I thought of the the eight lights that had been put out in the UCA twenty one years ago, and turned to look behind me. From the eight lights that had been extinguished, look how many lights were now lit. Voices had been physically silenced, but the message lives on. It was incredible to be a part of the experience, and to join with Salvadorans to celebrate the lives of people I had heard so much about through my Jesuit school experience. In high school, we studied Monseñor Romero, and as a part of that unit looked at these six Jesuits, Elba, and Celina. At Santa Clara, in front of the mission church, we have crosses with the names of all the UCA martyrs. Therefore, to be at the actual vigil was an amazing experience.

After the procession, we gathered again in the plaza, this time for a mass celebrated by the current Jesuits at the UCA. This, of course, included the amazing Jon Sobrino, who also gave the homily. I had the luck to meet up with Korla, Christy, Alex (volunteers with me in Suchitoto) and Alex's Salvadoran brother, David. After the mass, we all went to find food before the concert/dance began. Since this would go until 2 in the morning, we decided we definitely needed sustenance. We got into a line for the food that was provided, which included tamales, pan, pan dulce and café. After eating, we went back for the concert, and met up with several of David's friends, including a man named Angel who happens to be Rosa's cousin!! Small world, no?

We took a van kindly provided by the Casa back to the houses; by the time I got to where I was sleeping, it was a little past three. I ended up returning to Suchitoto at 6am, as I had work in the museum that day, but I am so incredibly glad I had the chance to experience the vigil. The more time I spend here, the more I love this country!!!