The Civil War in El Salvador

By Rodrigo Mendez.

Alfredo Mendez is a 51 years old man. His eyes are brown like honey. His skin is brown too. He is a friendly man—every time you see him, he is smiling and worrying about others. Alfredo works hard. I have seen him working in a small farm where he grew corn, beans, and little corns. He used to wake up at five to prepare the equipment to go to work in the hot sun. Every morning he went to work; he smelled the fresh air and listen the birds sing beautiful songs. Alfredo has worked in a farm his whole life.

Alfredo Mendez is from El Salvador, a small place named Caserio Conacastillo, Nueva Concepcion. The place was very poor, the people had to work very hard to feed their families. The place where he lived, there are no buildings, no fancy houses, only some old cars. However, the people are friendly; they live as a community.  They do favors without making an angry face.

From 1980 until 1992 the Salvadorian people passed through ugliness—the Salvadorian Civil War. Alfredo Mendez passed through the whole war; he saw it with his own eyes. This war was very strong.  During the war, he was very poor; he did not have money. He had to go to work cutting coffee. Cutting coffee was a hard life because he had to pick and peel the coffee from the ground.  Sometimes the coffee was covered in poop because there were animals all around and the people didn’t have access to toilets. There were no restrooms. The life was hard as living in hell.

Alfredo Mendez was very frightened during the war because he and his family could die for no reason. The landowners were very unfair with the poor people; they wanted to steal their lands. The workers felt oppressed because the lands were the only soil they had to work. That’s why the poor people fought against the rich people. They did not want to be slaves and die of starvation. One day when he went to work with his horses, the landowners, La Forced Army, and La Guerrilla, those fighting with the poor, were ahead fighting.  He had to go back because it was dangerous to go forward.

 Going to San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, there were a lot of dead people. You could have seen the bodies destroyed—body parts lay all over the street.  Heads, arms, feet, legs, torsos, bodies spread out on the streets. However, not everyone fought.  Only those poor people who wanted to fight, organized themselves to fight against the Salvadorian government. The people that did not want to fight survived. The Forced Army only killed the people that were against them. Sometimes both sides wanted to trick you, if they were la guerrilla, they dressed like the Forced Army to confuse the people and get information, and also the Forced Army did the same.  The poor people did manifestations in the streets because they were mad about what the government was doing and the Forced Army.

     

So coming back to Alfredo Mendez. He and a lot of Salvadorian people have suffered because of the rich people. After the war when the agreement of peace came, everyone felt so happy and safe. Alfredo Mendez says, “Now, even though there is peace it is worse than before.   During the war you knew who the enemies were and who was fighting. The war has ended but there is still violence.  Now you don’t know who will kill you, it can be a friend or a family member.”