Everyday Revolutionaries: Gender, Violence, and Disillusionment in Postwar El Salvador

261 Pages·2010·1.506 MB·English

by  Professor Irina Carlota Silber

Everyday Revolutionaries
Genocide, Political Violence, Human Rights Series
Edited by Alexander Laban Hinton, Stephen Eric Bronner, Aldo Civico,
and Nela Navarro
Everyday Revolutionaries
Gender, Violence, and Disillusionment
in Postwar El Salvador
IRINA CARLOTA SILBER
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, AND LONDON
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Silber, Irina Carlota
Everyday revolutionaries : gender, violence, and disillusionment in postwar
El Salvador / Irina Carlota Silber.
p. cm. — (Genocide, political violence, human rights)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8135-4934-7(hbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8135-4935-4
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Postwar reconstruction—Social aspects—El Salvador. 2. Revolutionaries—
El Salvador—Case studies. 3. Political activists—El Salvador—Case studies.
4. El Salvador—History—1992– 5. El Salvador—Social conditions.
6. El Salvador—Politics and government—1992– 7. El Salvador—Emigration
and immigration—Social aspects. I. Title.
F1488.5.S55 2011
972.8405(cid:2)4—dc22 2010013766
A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Copyright © 2011by Irina Carlota Silber
All rights reserved
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Visit our Web site: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu
Manufactured in the United States of America
For Antonio, Cenzo, and Inés
Dispatches from the Frontlines
AROUND THE WORLD; Salvadoran Police Report 50Dead in Political Strife
SAN SALVADOR, July 6
The police said today that at least 50people were killed over the weekend in
El Salvador.
Ten of the bodies were in the northern town of Las Vueltas, an area where
leftists who have been fighting the ruling junta are concentrated. Residents of
the town said that the victims had been pulled from their homes Friday night
by unidentified men, and that when the bodies were found the next day, they
showed signs of having been tortured.
Meanwhile, the Salvadoran military reported guerrilla attacks on installations in
the northern town of Chalatenango and in the eastern department of Cabanas
[sic]. A military spokesman said the attacks were minor and discounted them as
“desperate acts of extremists.”
—Associated Press, July 7, 1981
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
List of Organizations xv
Cast of Characters xvii
Introduction 1
1
Entangled Aftermaths 10
2
Histories of Violence/Histories of Organizing 31
3
Rank-and-File History 41
NGO War Stories 70
4
NGOs in the Postwar Period 75
Stitching Wounds and Frying Chicken 89
5
Not Revolutionary Enough? 91
FMLN Snapshots 111
6
Cardboard Democracy 118
Aftermaths of Solidarity 135
7
Conning Revolutionaries 137
Postwar Dance 163
8
The Postwar Highway 165
Epilogue: Amor Lejos, Amor de Pendejos 189
Notes 203
References 219
Index 231
vii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book has taken me some time. In the process of assembling it I have been
inspired, pushed, challenged, and supported by mentors, colleagues, family,
and friends. While time has changed the questions I pose, the stories I weave,
and the analysis I develop, what has remained constant is my deep respect for
the men, women, and children of repopulated communities in Chalatenango,
El Salvador, who welcomed me into their homes and shared so much about their
lives in the past and in the present. Their power of reflection and their analysis
of loss and possibility is what I privilege in this book. Though I provide pseudo-
nyms, in particular, I must thank Elsy, who opened up a path for this research
and whose children I did not expect to thank over pupusasin the United States.
Much of this book is for this next generation of Chalatecos, whose stories, whose
genealogies, force us to rethink the meaning of postwar and to people our
accounts upon which so much policy is forged. For so many hours of conversa-
tion, company, and distraction, I thank Chayo, her family, and Chavela and the
women from the arts and crafts workshop. I am grateful to Aquilino for his
patience in explaining postwar processes to me, and to Kasandra for her com-
panionship and café listo. This book would not be possible without the assis-
tance of the many directors and staff of the Chalatenango offices of two
organizations, CORDES and CCR, who opened up their doors to me in 1993and
granted me access to repopulated communities. Throughout the book I seek to
discuss, faithfully and fairly, events organized by these groups, whose overarch-
ing labor is to promote a dignified life for historically marginalized citizens in
El Salvador.
After nearly two decades of engagement with Salvadoran processes, the list
of individuals and institutions to thank are many. For their intellectual guid-
ance at different stages of his project, I thank Roger Rasnake, who first pushed
me to research the politics of Salvadoran migration when I was still an under-
graduate, Connie Sutton for her early guidance, Aldo Lauria-Santiago for
shaping the field, and Elisabeth Wood for her model scholarship and her
engagement with my work. I am indebted to Bambi Schieffelin for helping me
theorize narrative language practices and for her long-standing support of my
ix