Image 1: Excavated site: The Massacre at El Mozote
Image 2: Image of El Mozote today
Image 3: Child in El Mozote today
As I read "The Massacre at El Mozote" by Mark Danner, I thought of how scary it would be to live in a place where the authorities are the ones responsible for terrorizing and committing acts against its citizens. In the case of El Salvador, the military targeted the most vulnerable populations, Mayan in rural communities. I was devastated, outraged, and disturbed by some of the accounts that I found in the novel.
What is most disturbing is the US's role in these dark years of El Salvador's history. They heavily funded and politically backed the Salvadoran military and its death squads. The US's backing of the military was a death sentence to all these people.
Even as I kid growing up in the Dominican Republic, I remember strikes and some social unrest but I don’t remember ever feeling persecuted. I do remember stories about Trujillo’s dictatorship from family members. The only person that is old enough to remember life during the Trujillo regime is my abuelita Tita. Tita is 90 and Tita usually points out the positives. She does mention some distant relatives who were persecuted but it seems like she was not necessarily negatively impacted by the assassinations and the terror. I’m not sure if she was even aware that these acts against humanity were taking place. Mi abuelita, Tita, is also not Haitian and our family was not on the political left. Tita is a white lady from a middle class family: she was at one point a teacher and a school principal. There was no reason for my Tita to fear that Trujillo would go after her or her family.
Rufina Amaya presented the most devastating story. As I read her account of what took place on the day of the massacre, my stomach was churning and my heart broke. I don’t know if there is anything worse than experiencing the death of your children. Rufina managed to escape from line-up of women who were about to be killed. This was what happened afterwards. I will quote Rufina at length because this was the quote that stood out the most for me.
“Then I heard one of my children crying. My son, Cristino, was crying, ‘Mama Rufina, help me! They’re killing me! They killed my sister! They’re killing me! Help me!’ I didn’t know what to do. They were killing my children. I knew that if I went back there to help my children I would be cut to pieces. But I couldn’t stand to hear it, I couldn’t bear it. I was afraid that I would cry out, that I would scream, that I would go crazy. I couldn’t stand it, and I prayed to God to help me. I promised God that if He helped me I would tell the world what happened here."
“Then I tied my hair up and tied my skirt between my legs and I crawled on my belly out from behind the tree. There were animals there, cows and a dog, and they saw me, and I was afraid they would make a noise, but God made them stay quiet as I crawled among them. I crawled across the road and under the barbed wire and into the maguey on the other side. I crawled a little farther through the thorns, and I dug a little hole with my hands and put my face in the hole so I could cry without anyone hearing. I could hear the children screaming still, and I lay there with my face against the earth and cried.”
After reading this, I felt helpless and overcome by rage. The last time I felt this way was after watching “Hotel Rwanda.” Where could we have gone so wrong? And how can the people who commit these atrocious acts live with themselves?
(Image above:Aftermath years after the massacre.)
Whats its most interesting to me about this entry is the relatability that it posseses. What it says about humanity is outstanding. I wasn't aware of the massacre of El mazote. Reading the excerpt, brought me back to reading the countless textual evidence that there is about the Holocoust. The loss of human life is undeniably heart wrenching. I aswell as you being of Dominican decent remember the accounts that were told by those who lived in the time in our history where violence was use to rule to establish power over the less fortunate. I ask myself the same questions you have, how can the people who commit these atrocious acts live with themselves?
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how little we know about the many human rights abuses. El massacre took place in 81. It seems like a long time ago but it is not. I feel that it is incredibly important to learn about these cases and to condemn them, even if is from thousands of miles away. We are all interconnected and what affects one community affects all of us. I'm not Mother Teresa but, I have found this to be very true.
ReplyDeleteWell..I read this book as well and was very shocked at the atrocities committed. It was so unbelievable to me that i couldnt put the book down, i wanted to know what each step of this experience was like...El Mozote is just one of the places where this action has taken place in Latin America (and Holocaust in Europe). It is not sad enough that a political group or social class can take this much power over others' lives, i think it's even worse and frightning how these same groups can find even bigger political powers who support this (i.e. United States). It is not only in this case that the U.S. has backed a government that tries to control its population through massacres, disappearances, wrongful arrests, etc... all within the range of avoiding the people to have freedom of speech or worse..a right to live!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it was awful for MS. Amaya to hear those screams of help, but in the end i think she did the right thing of running away..they would not have let her live...her children wouldve still been killed and today we wouldnt have had light of what happened at El Mozote if it wasn't for her story. She may not have been victorious at facing the "humans" who killed her children and died a martyr (which no one would have known of) but she did make us aware of how these cases took part of our Latin American History at a point where Human Rights were still not respected...
The first thing I have to say after reading this is: How can these things happen? As you said yourself, how can these people live with themselves?! Rufina Amaya's story is indeed an amazing one. Even her quote was difficult to read without my eyes getting watery. She was a very strong woman in order to have been able to escape and manage to hear the cries of her own children without letting out a sound. It is so sad to hear about all this terror, and not having the power to do anything about it. As a Dominican, I heard many stories about Trujillo as well while growing up. My grandfather, like your grandmother, never said anything bad about him. On the contrary, he said great things about that era. However, I did hear many horror stories about his dictatorship from my uncle as well. What hurts the most about these stories, is feeling impotent and not being able to stop it.
ReplyDeleteRossy- I completely agree with you! I respect and admire Rufina's determination to tell everyone who would listen her story. Her children did not die in vain. I think making people aware of these abuses is a great first step, especially in cases where you have powerful forces trying to silence a certain population. Torturing and genocide are about silencing a given community or people.
ReplyDeleteLaura- It is shocking how people quickly forget. I am referring to those who committed these monstrous acts. I think it is normal to feel impotent.
MOI!
Let me start by saying that I think my mind automatically thinks of ways to disagree with people apparently because I don't see things the way you guys do.
ReplyDeleteHave you thought about the fact that maybe we (the tamed, don't want to hurt anybody type of people) are the ones that are "different"? I mean, the human race has a history of abuse of power and of oppression of people going way back from the Egyptians to the Romans to the Spaniards to the Germans. When you can get an entire people to agree or feel okay with genocide, daily extreme physical abuse or death of those who are "lesser" in value what does that say about human nature? Maybe that we've been conditioned to think that that is not okay instead of the contrary. So while I disagree with these mass murders, like the one in El Mezote, it doesn't surprise me at all that people "allowed it to happen" or that the ones in power can sleep just fine at night. Maybe they're in touch with the part of themselves that we've (luckily) lost touch with that doesn't allow what we call a "conscience" to kick in.
I see where you are coming from. Genocide and other acts of violence are a reality of life. But isn't the fact that we're all appalled by genocide a statement in itself? I remember learning about the holocaust... It was and still is painful to watch pictures and images of jews in the concentration camps. While it makes sense, considering world history, to not to be shocked or taken aback by what took place in El Mozote, I can't help but be appalled.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason your question made me think about the media, internet, and all these new information technologies... Isn't more difficult today to pretend like these things aren't happening in this day and age?
You know, I'm actually very interested in this class. I think I'm going to have to ask your professor if he would let me sit in.
ReplyDeleteMiguel, I understand what you're saying here. The part I don't get is the 'HOW?' But then again, I haven't been in any of these people's shoes. So I guess I may never understand. There are many factors to be considered here as well; we have the psychological aspects, we have the social aspects, political aspect, etc. With that being said, then I guess we probably wouldn't be able. But you do have a valid point here.
I agree with Miguel.I know we have already discussed this but, I think that innately, humans have great potential for being evil. Even psychologists agree that as long as people feel they can justify their actions by saying they were just doing as they were told and in their minds relieving themselves of the blame, they are capable of terrible things. We should not discard the possibility that some people do terrible things because we, as humans are all capable of them.
ReplyDelete