El Salvador

Yes, another of the Guatemalan Kingdom—15 September 1821, independence from Spain. Nationhood? 1838, when the Federal Republic of Central America dissolved, though El Salvador was one of the nations that attended to restore the Union in 1842. The restoration didn’t happen at that time, nor were the subsequent attempts to re-establish the federation successful. El Salvador was also part of the Greater Republic of Central America along with Honduras and Nicaragua, which formed in 1895, but this too fell apart after only a few years, in 1898. Another significant day that Salvadorans celebrate each year since 1992 is January 16—Peace Accords Day.

I’m guessing that most people know primarily know about El Salvador in relation to the Salvadoran Civil War that, after political unrest and insurgencies in the 1970s, ran from 1980 until 1992. Prior to the start of the war, there were fraudulent elections and poor living conditions for most of the population. With the government responding to large demonstrations complaining about these things with the suspension of constitutional rights and unleashing violence of civilians, it became clear that things would turn ugly. The Catholic church denounced government violence—and I’m so glad that the church did denounce the government—but this contributed to the most infamous assassination performed by the Salvadoran death squads when the Catholic Archbishop Óscar Romero was shot during mass in 1980. Archbishop Romero is revered as a national hero.

Following a coup d’état in 1979 and the death squads’ assassinations, the civil war grew until a 1986 earthquake helped things settle down—for a while. I wish I had the space to write more about the civil war as a whole—but I hope you will take the time to learn some more about it. During this timeout the Human Rights Commission of El Salvador published a report, outlining the use of forty types of torture used on political prisoners.

Amnesty International’s report in 1985 stated that many of the 40,000 people killed in the civil war until that time had been killed by government forces. In addition to the huge number killed by the end of the war, more than 25 percent of the population was displaced—there are still large El Salvadoran refugee communities all over the place.

The trials of El Salvador aren’t over—unfortunately there are high crime rates, including on the highest murder rates in the world. It’s considered to be at the center of the gang crisis. While in the last year and a half the homicide rate has dropped, it’s still the highest in Central America.

Today’s Salvadoran poem is by Roque Dalton—it is titled “Poet in Jail.” It comes from the Anthology of Contemporary Latin American Literature 1960-1984.


Poet in Jail

I did not want to think about destiny. For some reason
I associate it with forgotten tapestries of shame and majesty
where an impassive face
(like that of Selassie)
struggled to impose upon itself an eternal mark. Only the air,
absurd from cold in this my frying-pan country, applauds
till it reaches the heart in this hour. Oh, assault!
Oh, words that I shall no longer pronounce the same!
sit of commissions for returning grandfathers.

This morning the guard brought only scraps
for me—the poor man has not suffered—
scraps which, with the fog, have given meaning to the day.
They are dead pieces of salt of some dead shellfish,

corn tortillas attacked with that fury
without more warm places to annoy,
remains of wild rice like three haughty standard-bearers
occupied in sparing lives of lambs and crude logics.

The wall is full of dates that I bear sinking,
Pieces of the final fatigue, bare fatigue, that cry and are
the worst witnesses of something that not even my tears would erase.


—Roque Dalton
translated by Wayne H Finke
from Anthology of Contemporary Latin American Literature 1960-1984