We hopped back on the bus with our dear bus driver Hernal to head to various historical sites (if you call the recent civil war places where people were killed historical). Our first stop was the church on the ground of the Hospitalita Divina Providencia where Monseñor Romero was assassinated. As we drove through the gates to the grounds, we left the busy, noisy city and encountered peace. The church was a small, white bleached triangular building. We walked quietly through the pews and looked at the alter where Monseñor Romero had been giving his homily when a car pulled up to the front door, the window rolled down, and a gun fired. Monseñor Romero had made a point for this special mass to do the whole mass by himself as he had received the threats and new the risk he was taking.
After our short visit to the church, we met one of the Sisters of Charity that work at the hospital and she led us through Romero’s humble house where we saw everything as it had been the day he died: his books, toiletries, and blood-stained clothes. Monseñor Romero is deeply respected both nationally and internationally for living out liberation theology. He stood up for the poor and spoke out against the violence at the beginning of the Civil War, thus, he was killed.
Before we entered his house, the sister asked us to say a word that represents our experience in El Salvador. We listed words such as justice, love, compassion, faith, friendship etc. Then, she asked us to remember that word as we walked through Romero’s house. When we met in his bedroom with his bloodstained clothes, she told us how those words that we said out-loud were now our gift from Monseñor Romero and God, to continue sharing them back home.
Our next stop was the Theological Department at the Jesuit University of Central Ameria where 6 priests and the housekeeper with her young daughter were brutally tortured and killed in the middle of the night in 1977 by the secret police. We walked into the patio area that now has a simple rose garden made by the housekeeper’s husband in the place where the violence took place. Do I need to explain the symbolism of the gorgeous roses that grow in a place that became a place of murder? The art gallery and small exhibits covering the life and deaths of many of the priests, nuns, and people that were killed during the civil war left one numb imagining the pain, sadness, and ripping apart of culture and families. Was one side completely free of guilt? Is there ever any one side free from guilt in war?
Our last three stops of the day were a sharp contrast to the morning’s places of violence. On our way to the first stop we drove threw the richest neighborhood in San Salvador. It felt like we were back in the USA with McDonalds, Pizza Hut, fancy car dealerships, and huge malls. In between the two directions of the highway that ran through San Salvador and near the fancy malls, we could see simple houses of cardboard, scrap wood, and aluminum roofs. Next, as Hernal drove the bus towards the affluent areas of San Salvador, we passed the gigantic US embassy (one of the largest in the world). It looked like a completely enclosed college campus. Apparently, if they catch you taking a picture of it you could get in big trouble..so, no pictures (google it!).
After lunch at a modern restaurant, we headed to the Fernando Llort Art gallery. Fernando Llort is one of the most famous artists from El Salvador and is still living. His work integrates the traditional indigenous art with bold black outlines and bright, cheerful colors. He has taught his designs and style to poorer communities so that they can sell artesenia and remember that part of their culture. He is very beloved by his country. The pictures below are of some of the artwork from his gallery with his most recent being the still-life paintings.
The mural outside his gallery which is his typical style.
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