Suffolk University Alumni Magazine 2008/2009 - (Page 39) Below Right: On the way to work the last day in El Sitio. Pictured clockwise from left: Francisco Peguero, Jeff Pomponi (hidden), Luis Castillo, Yanitza Medina, Megan Cullen, Dean Grubb, Derek Lomba, Kaitlyn Winegardner, Valerie Gonzalez-Crisci. PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM GEARTY “once I got to El salvador, I realized I’m supposed to do this I had a reason to be there that I didn’t know going in.” Moakley donated his papers to Suffolk at his death in 2001, and this year’s delegation to el Salvador is part of a continuing effort to keep his legacy alive throughout the University. The trip, coordinated by Professor Chris rodriguez in the history department, builds on the success of a 2007 trip led by Professor Judy dushku of the government department. each year, a representative of Suffolk's Moakley Archive and Institute accompanies the students to forge relationships with Salvadoran leaders and to collect oral histories about the Congressman's life and work. “I think it is important for the school because one of the big pieces of who we are at Suffolk is giving back to communities—and that doesn't always mean your own backyard,” says trip participant Jacinda felix, the director of Suffolk's office of diversity Services. “And because of our connection with Congressman Moakley, it's important for us to keep this relationship with el Salvador. he really cared about Salvadorans. he fought really hard for them.” GRAPPLING wITH A VIOLENT PAsT AND CAUTIOUs PREsENT When their plane lands at el Salvador International Airport, the students think they are well prepared for the problems that plague the country, past and present, but the reality is still a surprise. old european cities have walls around them for protection. San Salvador, the capital, resembles one of those cities turned inside out. The streets around the guest house are lined with high walls, razor wire, steel grates and grills; this city is fortified from within to protect the inhabitants from each other. even the ice cream parlor has a uniformed guard with a pump-action shotgun standing next to a merry-go-round. But everyone is too busy with an intense series of meetings for the next three days to feel unsafe. The delegation meets with a Jesuit priest, the president of a business association advocating for the Central American free Trade Agreement (CAfTA), economists at a liberal think tank with an opposing viewpoint, former guerrillas who sing the students folk songs, and a panel of experts at the US embassy. They sit in the chapel where Archbishop oscar romero was assassinated while saying Mass in 1981. They touch their fingers to the monument inscribed vietnam-Memorial-style with the names of the war's nearly 75,000 victims. Marta, their guide, finds the name of her father; she has never been to the wall, and turns away, weeping. It is a whirlwind of learning that lasts every day from breakfast to bedtime. a small pack of dogs and large flocks of chickens, ducks, turkeys, and roosters. “We talked to the students about being comfortable in a different situation. This is not the US. you're going to a third-world country,” says felix. “how comfortable are you rolling up your sleeves and sleeping with chickens? Because on some level that’s exactly what we did.” It is hard travel. Showers are rare, so bathing is done from plastic buckets at a cement tub built alongside every house. Communal meals center around beans and tortillas, and even though the delegation eats with more variety than their hosts, fatigue and intestinal troubles have most students pining for comfort food. Toilets do not flush; they sit over a composting pit and students toss in a scoop of quick lime after each use. “I was kind of surprised, being somebody who is not afraid of the outdoors, that it actually was difficult to step away from a functioning toilet and [to eat] tortillas and beans every day,” says Jillian rizzo, a Suffolk junior. “Whether or not you think you can handle it, it was hard to adapt to it.” SUFFOLKARTS+SCIENCES//2008/2009 FEw COmFORTs, bUT PLENTY OF CHICKENs Three days after arriving, they depart for el Sitio, a town 30 miles north of San Salvador. half of the rural population in el Salvador, a country the size of Massachusetts, lives below the poverty line; the World Bank draws this line at living on roughly $2 per day. el Sitio fits this demographic. Nearly everyone is a campesino who returned here after the war. The host families are essentially subsistence farmers, growing enough each year to ensure their daily tortillas. The group splits up in pairs to stay with some of the 50 or so families in el Sitio. each house is simply constructed: two or three cinder block rooms and a corrugated metal roof that overhangs a patio with a concrete cistern for washing. Most houses have www.suffolk.edu [39] http://www.suffolk.edu
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.