'The message from the people was clear 'If we learn of the past today, then we will have tomorrow.'

Holly Bruford visits El Salvador as the country remembers the assassination of a national hero.

It would appear almost impossible to pass through El Salvador without hearing mention of the name Oscar Romero, the country’s martyr: the Archbishop who died for the poor.

Last week, my brief visit to the country happened to coincide with the 26th Anniversary of the assassination of El Salvador’s national hero.

It was a fascinating time to be there and learn a little more about what this man still signifies over a quarter of a century later.

On Saturday night a remembrance service was held in the central plaza under the illuminating glow of the city’s cathedral. It was an appropriate place for an all night ritual beneath the colourful campesino motifs which decorate the cathedral’s façade, and with Romero’s tomb buried deep within the crypt below.

Thousands came to pay their respects, travelling from remote regions across the country, many by foot or on long bus journeys. They waved their bright red flags of the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, the political party born of the guerrilla organisation of the same name) and everyone from old, peasant women to young, flag-bearing boys wore a Romero t-shirt with pride.

Message

A flame burned high above the crowd – a symbol that went hand in hand with the evening’s message, underlined by the engaging speech of Bishop Orlando Cabrera who explained that 'In today’s day he (Romero) continues watching over us'.

Twenty-six years ago, at the end of a decade of repression, Archbishop Romero was assassinated before the altar of the small chapel of the hospital of Divine Providence in San Salvador as he was giving Mass. His murder ignited an armed insurrection that same year.

Salvadorans were suffering from landlessness, poverty, unemployment and overpopulation. A wave of nationwide unrest had been rising as the social injustices of the peasant economy were becoming exposed.

The majority of ordinary people led impoverished and insecure lives. And the successful revolution in Nicaragua in 1979 encouraged many Salvadorans to seek reforms and consider armed struggle as the only means of change.

As guerrilla activity commenced, the right wing responded with the creation of death squads. Thousands of Salvadorans were kidnapped, tortured and murdered. Romero, in protest at the killing of men and women who had 'taken to the streets in orderly fashion to petition for justice and liberty' began to speak out.

But in a context of polarisation, where the left and right tangled for power, men like Romero in their defense of the poor - not out of fondness for socialist ideas but out of simple fidelity to their vocation and the Gospel - were taken for supporting socialist ideology.

Real danger

In a poignant diary extract he writes 'My backing for the popular organisation in no way signifies sympathy for the left or, even less, that I don't see the danger of infiltration, which I know to be quite real, but I also see that with us anti-Communism is very often the weapon the economic and political forces use to perpetuate their social and political injustices'.

These complexities of power, religion and state that continue to prevail today were evident at this year’s service with the notable absence of the Archbishop, the non-attendance of any political force from El Salvador’s ruling conservative party, ARENA, and the lack of coverage in the dominating pro-ARENA dailies.

Nevertheless, the message from the people was clear 'If we learn of the past today, then we will have tomorrow.'

With a state which refuses to include the history of the country’s recent repression and subsequent civil war in its national curriculum - at least until 9th Grade which a vast number of school children fail to reach - they have a hard struggle ahead.

But the engagement, the dedication, and the hope that the crowds ignited in the spirit of last week’s ceremony is a clear sign that Romero’s cause lives on.

The closing words of the service from Bishop Orlando Cabrera were perhaps the most illustrative of the presence of Romero today:

'They are wrong those that thought killing Monsignor Romero would silence his voice. Today he is more admired, and more loved than ever. He has left a light which through the passage of time continues to grow stronger and stronger.' (Diario Co Latino 27/3/06)

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