Foreign Shores
As the latest issue of The Advocate has now hit the stands, I’m simultaneously e-publishing my article therein. Shortly hereafter, I’m sure, to be followed by further posts enjoining the battle of the blogs.
Relating the full experience of El Salvador in a few hundred words is impossible. The best one can hope for is a brief glimpse into the feelings, impressions, and thoughts of those who spent a week of their winter break in Central America. For fourteen students and two professors, the sensations and observations of a foreign land still percolate in their minds, a turmoil of unfiltered information. It is hard to summarize a life-changing experience.
For Professor Cynthia Mertens, life changed nearly five years ago. As part of Santa Clara University’s continuing relationship with the University of Central America (UCA), Mertens participated in a faculty immersion experience that took her – along with a group of other SCU faculty – to El Salvador for a week of in-depth exposure to its people and culture. Touched by her experiences, Mertens wrote in her journal, “I hope to create the opportunity for law students to feel the same passion, the same flame – the need – to make the world a more equitable place.”
Two years later Mertens led a group of fourteen law students to El Salvador. Carefully selected from a large pool of applicants, those students attended a tailored lecture series to prepare them with the historical and political foundations necessary to understand the conditions in El Salvador. Of that first experience, Mertens later wrote, “It was an educational experience with tremendous emotional impact. In short, it was the best educational experience I have provided students in my 29 years of teaching law school and rates as the best professional experience of my career as a lawyer.”
Exhausted from her second trip to El Salvador, and busy with work at the Katharine and George Alexander Community Law Center, Mertens suggested that an additional faculty member be prepared for the possibility of any future immersion experiences. Happy to take on the task, Professor Gary Neustadter and his wife participated in the faculty immersion trip in September 2004. Together, Mertens and Neustadter accompanied fourteen students to El Salvador from Jan. 1-8, 2006, in what they hoped would be the second in a continuing series of excursions to Central America.
In order to comprehend such a singular experience, it is necessary to know something of the discordant modern history of El Salvador. For decades, before civil war erupted in 1980, the Salvadoran government rested in the hands of the military. During the ‘60s and early ‘70s, a growing movement of leftist dissension began to threaten the right-wing junta. After two elections, which arguably saw the junta manipulate results, and the institution of “Death Squads” to deal with vocal dissenters, the left’s patience dried up. As cleric after cleric died, and protest after protest elicited tragic responses from the government, the opposition forces finally organized. In January 1981, they united to form the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (Frente Farabundo Marti de Liberacion or FMLN).
For the next eleven years, junta and FMLN opposition forces battled for control of El Salvador. Fueled by Cold War fears of communism, the Reagan administration sponsored the right-wing junta and allocated several millions of dollars to ensure they remained in power. During the civil war, estimated casualties reached upwards of 70,000 dead. It was not until the very visible and bloody execution of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter at the UCA, that the international community moved to intervene.
As reports of the junta’s inhumane actions reached the United States and the United Nations, both sides of the conflict sought UN arbitration in brokering a peace. In January 1992, their efforts culminated in the Peace Accords and put an end to twelve years of civil war.
Fourteen years later the scars of war remain. Although the axes lie under the ground and the guns are silenced, El Salvador remains a country divided by political fervor. Apologetics and propaganda plaster most available surfaces and give the appearance of a country caught in an ideological conflagration. Primary among those responsible for the graffitic advertising are the political descendants of the civil war: the FLMN is the philosophical child of the left-wing opposition army while the right-wing junta and supporters merged to form the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA). Both sides remain in control of different areas of the country, and though they remain at peace, they still do battle for political and economic control.
In part because of that battle, in part because of a history of abject poverty, and in part because of the problems that come with it, El Salvador struggles to climb from the dust of its village streets into the twenty-first century. 2L Greg Hartman expressed his excitement to see some progress in labor conditions as demonstrated during the group’s visit to the Just Garments factory. The first factory in El Salvador to unionize, Just Garments formerly held a contract with The Gap, before public pressure forced The Gap to cease its unethical labor practices. Now a unionized company, Just Garments pays more than any other factory in the country. Although the pay differential remains small, union representatives seem optimistic for a renewed contract with The Gap at ethical prices. Despite such positive steps, the progress is slow, and El Salvador still stumbles in the languor of reconstruction.
In contrast to the well groomed lawns and regularly swept streets of Santa Clara, the lake beside Copapayo is rimmed by a beach of refuse. Poison from contaminants seeps into the water and poisons the fish; fish which more often than not serve as food for the villagers of Copapayo. Among the first, and probably most lasting, impressions of El Salvador was the group’s visit to the El Salvadoran campo Copapayo which imprinted a human reality of the horrors of war and the deprivations of poverty.
Organized by a woman who lived in the campo – a member of the Women’s Association for Defense and Development (Defensa) – the group’s visit to Copapayo included a meeting with the community’s leadership, a tour of the community, an overnight stay in the campo, and several conversations with survivors of the civil war and the government’s mistreatment of the leftist village.
One student, 2L Ann Larson, recalled meeting a woman who was paralyzed on one side of her face from injuries sustained during the civil war. She spoke of another “name, her guerilla name. She talked about having been involved in this massacre where this group of people fled because they heard that the military was coming. “They had to get off of this island, so some of the people got on boats to get off of the island. The people that remained were all killed – about a hundred people – and the only ones who survived were two children who had hidden during this massacre.”
At the time of their visit, Copapayo’s population numbered little more than a hundred. Some electricity and no running water made living conditions difficult. Despite the lack of modern conveniences, and their extreme isolation from the nearest large population center, the citizens of Copapayo offered several large meals to the group and held a village gathering to celebrate with them. After dinner and dancing, the group bedded down on the floor of the community center – fourteen students and two professors – for a rural sleepover. “It was an instant bonding experience for us all,” said 2L Jeremiah Armstrong.
On Wednesday night, the group ate dinner with Ruben Zamora, a former presidential candidate and current professor at the University of Central America (UCA). After some confusion and a hastily improvised introduction, Zamora spoke to the group.
According to Armstrong, Zamora provided a well-balanced overview of what he thought needed to happen in order to transform El Salvador into a society where people were free to speak without such an extreme level of oppression. For Zamora, the issue of free speech was especially pertinent, as his brother had been assassinated during the civil war by government death squads for “voicing his opinion a little too loudly.”
The next day the group made an impromptu visit to what is considered the best orphanage in the country. Cribs filled with babies lined the hall and the entire facility struggled to sustain its allotment of abused and abandoned children. 2L Minal Belani said, “I thought it was good that the government was spending money on such a program. It was really sad to go and see.”
After they visited with the youngest children inside, their guide led them into a courtyard where several of the older children gathered. The boys and girls ranged from four or five to twelve and thirteen years old and were filled with excitement to receive their visitors. Each of the children quickly grabbed hold of a student’s hand in what seemed a warm and welcoming embrace. That’s when it dawned on Professor Mertens “that they thought we were there to choose a child to adopt, and that again, just broke my heart.”
Later that same day, the group met with Judge Astrid Torres, a criminal law judge with responsibility for one of the country’s maximum security prisons. 3L Lisa Chen described Torres, “She was this little woman and she has tried to take a stand against the government in terms of prisoner’s rights and to fight for what she thinks is right. She’s had the media write terrible things about her and she still doesn’t care. She does what she thinks is right.” Because of her efforts to provide for the basic human rights of prisoners, Torres receives regular death threats. “For some people,” said Chen, “she’s viewed as a troublemaker...She’s looking out for them [the prisoners] and she’s making sure they’re afforded that certain right. She’s had things said about her and she still believes in her cause.” For many of the students, Torres’s example of steadfastness, in the midst of corruption, served as a powerful example.
But was her example, and the examples of all those whom the group met, enough to change lives? It is still too soon to determine how this experience will affect the lives of those who went to El Salvador. It is still too soon for many of them to truly understand what happened. It is not too soon, however, to realize the potential power of this program, and the opportunity for education that it provides. Even though the full impact is limited to those who participated, the enthusiasm and passion expressed by those participants is contagious. It seems unlikely that they will soon forget their time in Central America. Finally, Professor Mertens expressed her hope for the future of this group, “The law school, the profession, and the community will benefit from the perspective that these students will bring to their courses and eventually to the practice of law.”
Relating the full experience of El Salvador in a few hundred words is impossible. The best one can hope for is a brief glimpse into the feelings, impressions, and thoughts of those who spent a week of their winter break in Central America. For fourteen students and two professors, the sensations and observations of a foreign land still percolate in their minds, a turmoil of unfiltered information. It is hard to summarize a life-changing experience.
For Professor Cynthia Mertens, life changed nearly five years ago. As part of Santa Clara University’s continuing relationship with the University of Central America (UCA), Mertens participated in a faculty immersion experience that took her – along with a group of other SCU faculty – to El Salvador for a week of in-depth exposure to its people and culture. Touched by her experiences, Mertens wrote in her journal, “I hope to create the opportunity for law students to feel the same passion, the same flame – the need – to make the world a more equitable place.”
Two years later Mertens led a group of fourteen law students to El Salvador. Carefully selected from a large pool of applicants, those students attended a tailored lecture series to prepare them with the historical and political foundations necessary to understand the conditions in El Salvador. Of that first experience, Mertens later wrote, “It was an educational experience with tremendous emotional impact. In short, it was the best educational experience I have provided students in my 29 years of teaching law school and rates as the best professional experience of my career as a lawyer.”
Exhausted from her second trip to El Salvador, and busy with work at the Katharine and George Alexander Community Law Center, Mertens suggested that an additional faculty member be prepared for the possibility of any future immersion experiences. Happy to take on the task, Professor Gary Neustadter and his wife participated in the faculty immersion trip in September 2004. Together, Mertens and Neustadter accompanied fourteen students to El Salvador from Jan. 1-8, 2006, in what they hoped would be the second in a continuing series of excursions to Central America.
In order to comprehend such a singular experience, it is necessary to know something of the discordant modern history of El Salvador. For decades, before civil war erupted in 1980, the Salvadoran government rested in the hands of the military. During the ‘60s and early ‘70s, a growing movement of leftist dissension began to threaten the right-wing junta. After two elections, which arguably saw the junta manipulate results, and the institution of “Death Squads” to deal with vocal dissenters, the left’s patience dried up. As cleric after cleric died, and protest after protest elicited tragic responses from the government, the opposition forces finally organized. In January 1981, they united to form the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (Frente Farabundo Marti de Liberacion or FMLN).
For the next eleven years, junta and FMLN opposition forces battled for control of El Salvador. Fueled by Cold War fears of communism, the Reagan administration sponsored the right-wing junta and allocated several millions of dollars to ensure they remained in power. During the civil war, estimated casualties reached upwards of 70,000 dead. It was not until the very visible and bloody execution of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter at the UCA, that the international community moved to intervene.
As reports of the junta’s inhumane actions reached the United States and the United Nations, both sides of the conflict sought UN arbitration in brokering a peace. In January 1992, their efforts culminated in the Peace Accords and put an end to twelve years of civil war.
Fourteen years later the scars of war remain. Although the axes lie under the ground and the guns are silenced, El Salvador remains a country divided by political fervor. Apologetics and propaganda plaster most available surfaces and give the appearance of a country caught in an ideological conflagration. Primary among those responsible for the graffitic advertising are the political descendants of the civil war: the FLMN is the philosophical child of the left-wing opposition army while the right-wing junta and supporters merged to form the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA). Both sides remain in control of different areas of the country, and though they remain at peace, they still do battle for political and economic control.
In part because of that battle, in part because of a history of abject poverty, and in part because of the problems that come with it, El Salvador struggles to climb from the dust of its village streets into the twenty-first century. 2L Greg Hartman expressed his excitement to see some progress in labor conditions as demonstrated during the group’s visit to the Just Garments factory. The first factory in El Salvador to unionize, Just Garments formerly held a contract with The Gap, before public pressure forced The Gap to cease its unethical labor practices. Now a unionized company, Just Garments pays more than any other factory in the country. Although the pay differential remains small, union representatives seem optimistic for a renewed contract with The Gap at ethical prices. Despite such positive steps, the progress is slow, and El Salvador still stumbles in the languor of reconstruction.
In contrast to the well groomed lawns and regularly swept streets of Santa Clara, the lake beside Copapayo is rimmed by a beach of refuse. Poison from contaminants seeps into the water and poisons the fish; fish which more often than not serve as food for the villagers of Copapayo. Among the first, and probably most lasting, impressions of El Salvador was the group’s visit to the El Salvadoran campo Copapayo which imprinted a human reality of the horrors of war and the deprivations of poverty.
Organized by a woman who lived in the campo – a member of the Women’s Association for Defense and Development (Defensa) – the group’s visit to Copapayo included a meeting with the community’s leadership, a tour of the community, an overnight stay in the campo, and several conversations with survivors of the civil war and the government’s mistreatment of the leftist village.
One student, 2L Ann Larson, recalled meeting a woman who was paralyzed on one side of her face from injuries sustained during the civil war. She spoke of another “name, her guerilla name. She talked about having been involved in this massacre where this group of people fled because they heard that the military was coming. “They had to get off of this island, so some of the people got on boats to get off of the island. The people that remained were all killed – about a hundred people – and the only ones who survived were two children who had hidden during this massacre.”
At the time of their visit, Copapayo’s population numbered little more than a hundred. Some electricity and no running water made living conditions difficult. Despite the lack of modern conveniences, and their extreme isolation from the nearest large population center, the citizens of Copapayo offered several large meals to the group and held a village gathering to celebrate with them. After dinner and dancing, the group bedded down on the floor of the community center – fourteen students and two professors – for a rural sleepover. “It was an instant bonding experience for us all,” said 2L Jeremiah Armstrong.
On Wednesday night, the group ate dinner with Ruben Zamora, a former presidential candidate and current professor at the University of Central America (UCA). After some confusion and a hastily improvised introduction, Zamora spoke to the group.
According to Armstrong, Zamora provided a well-balanced overview of what he thought needed to happen in order to transform El Salvador into a society where people were free to speak without such an extreme level of oppression. For Zamora, the issue of free speech was especially pertinent, as his brother had been assassinated during the civil war by government death squads for “voicing his opinion a little too loudly.”
The next day the group made an impromptu visit to what is considered the best orphanage in the country. Cribs filled with babies lined the hall and the entire facility struggled to sustain its allotment of abused and abandoned children. 2L Minal Belani said, “I thought it was good that the government was spending money on such a program. It was really sad to go and see.”
After they visited with the youngest children inside, their guide led them into a courtyard where several of the older children gathered. The boys and girls ranged from four or five to twelve and thirteen years old and were filled with excitement to receive their visitors. Each of the children quickly grabbed hold of a student’s hand in what seemed a warm and welcoming embrace. That’s when it dawned on Professor Mertens “that they thought we were there to choose a child to adopt, and that again, just broke my heart.”
Later that same day, the group met with Judge Astrid Torres, a criminal law judge with responsibility for one of the country’s maximum security prisons. 3L Lisa Chen described Torres, “She was this little woman and she has tried to take a stand against the government in terms of prisoner’s rights and to fight for what she thinks is right. She’s had the media write terrible things about her and she still doesn’t care. She does what she thinks is right.” Because of her efforts to provide for the basic human rights of prisoners, Torres receives regular death threats. “For some people,” said Chen, “she’s viewed as a troublemaker...She’s looking out for them [the prisoners] and she’s making sure they’re afforded that certain right. She’s had things said about her and she still believes in her cause.” For many of the students, Torres’s example of steadfastness, in the midst of corruption, served as a powerful example.
But was her example, and the examples of all those whom the group met, enough to change lives? It is still too soon to determine how this experience will affect the lives of those who went to El Salvador. It is still too soon for many of them to truly understand what happened. It is not too soon, however, to realize the potential power of this program, and the opportunity for education that it provides. Even though the full impact is limited to those who participated, the enthusiasm and passion expressed by those participants is contagious. It seems unlikely that they will soon forget their time in Central America. Finally, Professor Mertens expressed her hope for the future of this group, “The law school, the profession, and the community will benefit from the perspective that these students will bring to their courses and eventually to the practice of law.”
posted by Thuan30 | 11:41 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home