News 12 -- Jan. 2, 1992

“As we sat on small stools unraveling the tamales from the banana leaves they were wrapped in, we turned the radio on to catch the 11 o'clock news. President Cristiani was being interviewed. The negotiations had concluded and an agreement had been reached and signed. The process in implementing the end of the war would begin February 1st and be completed in all its aspects by October 1st of this year 1992.”

[In some of his letters Larry used the word womyn as his way of expressing the equality of women and men.
campo = farm field or farm region. Campesino(a) = peasant farmer]

NEWSLETTER #12

JANUARY 2, 1992
SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR

New Year's Eve, 1991. After finishing our celebration of the Eucharist and being invited up the hill to a friend's house to eat the traditional Salvadoran chicken-filled tamales, I heard my friend's account of what this unique night in history meant to him.

As our whole community gathered below the veranda of the huge hacienda, we were filled with hope that the people of El Salvador would be blessed with a cease-fire and an end to the 11- year-old war, within the closing hours of the year (1991).

The evening was planned well. Our musicians and choral group were present to start things off. Folk music depicting the Christmas event helped set the mood. As the benches began to be filled with children and their mothers, the men were meeting in small groups in the rear. A group of youths and adults were applying makeup to their faces, putting on wigs and completing last-minute details. In a few moments they would present a social-drama entitled EL HOMBRE VIEJO, EL HOMBRE NUEVO. The Old Man [Person], The New Man [Person]. The idea being that we all need to enter the New Year renewed, vitalized and graced.

While we were busy getting this evening underway, the FMLN and Salvadoran government were meeting in New York in hopes of reaching a final agreement to sign a cease-fire within the very near future. And though our community and Salvadorans the nation over were carrying out traditional New Year's eve celebrations, ears were glued to nearby radios or televisions to receive the news all had waited and prayed to hear.

As we walked up the hill to Tobias' house, he began telling me what an end to the war would mean to him and his wife. "You would have to have been the parent of a son or daughter killed in the war to feel the hurt and pain as we have," he said.

"We have lost a son 14 and a daughter 16 to the war, another son, José, whom you know, Lorenzo, injured, captured and then released in 1989 and now our last boy on call to fight whenever he's needed."

"We don't like this war, but are committed to it. We believe in it because it is a struggle to restore the land to the campesino and take the power now in the hands of a few and place it back into the hands of the people. A cease-fire would remove the agony of not knowing whether or not tomorrow, another of our children would be taken from us."

As we sat on small stools unraveling the tamales from the banana leaves they were wrapped in, we turned the radio on to catch the 11 o'clock news. President Cristiani was being interviewed. The negotiations had concluded and an agreement had been reached and signed. The process in implementing the end of the war would begin February 1st and be completed in all its aspects by October 1st of this year 1992.

We sat there in the candlelight, Tobias, his wife, Rosa, and I, assuring one another that what we were hearing was true. What could be better news than this, the last night of 1991, for all of El Salvador?

As we walked down the hill to extend our "abrazos" to our community gathered below, Tobias couldn't hold back the tears. His voice cracked several times as he repeated over and over, "You will never know, Lorenzo, how relieved we are on hearing this news. We can hopefully begin to live our lives once more in peace. Gracias a Dios."

As we became involved with the crowd bringing in the New Year, I sensed what a blessing it was to be part of this community. It is a community that, from the moment of its return to El Salvador, has committed itself to the task of making a better life for their children.

Since returning, members of our community have been arrested, questioned and blindfolded for periods of 12 hours at a time and then imprisoned. It wasn't the kind of "freedom" they had anticipated upon their return from Honduras. Yet, daily life continued; crops were sowed and harvested, construction projects implemented, trades learned in Honduras were again functioning here in the community. Nothing, it seems, will dampen or prevent them now from going on with their lives.

I, too, little by little, am learning and loving the life and work in the "campo" (field). We've been picking corn in these weeks before Christmas and the New Year. Sounds easy enough. But WOW, have I discovered otherwise! The weeds often are as high as the corn and if not weeds, sorghum stands in the way, making it almost impossible to pass.

Working together, a few persons go in first to chop the weeds down, followed by those picking the corn. The corn is picked and tossed into huge netlike sacks, later to be hauled out of the field on the backs of the workers.

What makes this grueling work possible is the spirit of community that is felt among the men, womyn, and young folks working together. Singing, telling jokes and sharing stories of the past is all part of it. Last week, a man went about looking for the holes in the ground dug out by ground hogs. When discovering a hole, he would sink his long stick into it waiting a response. Before the morning was over, he had killed three ground hogs which make for the best of soup, they all agreed.

The stories the people share while working inevitably recall their long treks through the mountains, days on end,fleeing the government's armed forces. The tortures, their babies bayonetted, houses burned, parents beheaded, are recounted. The recounting provides a form of therapy among those who have shared similar experiences. I give thanks for being part of such sharing.

It is now Monday, January 6, which is traditionally celebrated as the feast of the 3 Kings. The 3 Kings were not, in fact, Kings, but sages or wise men, (womyn) who followed a light as they shepherded their flocks at night. And in being true to themselves and following the "star,” Jesus was able to manifest himself to them.

I guess that pretty well sums up the message my community has given me. That Jesus keeps appearing along the way, in the "campo,” eating and sharing tamales or in a big abrazo shared with a sister or brother on New Year's eve.

Thanks much to all of you who've written or passed news to me in one form or another over the last year.

Let's make time this year too to be quiet and bring each other and our lives and work to mind before the Spirit.

A joyful and blessed New Year. My love and prayers to each of you.

Lorenzo

[received/prepared for mailing 1/17/92]