University of Central America

Friday, July 3, 2015

We visited the University of Central America (the UCA). On the night of November 16, 1989, a Salvadoran Army patrol entered the UCA in San Salvador and massacred six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter. The murders were committed because the Jesuits were voicing concerns over the atrocities of human rights violations being committed by the government during the war. They were killed in the middle of the night. Some were killed in their rooms while others were dragged outside and killed. They were severely beaten before they were murdered.

 

We went into the chapel were there are several sketchings of people, bodies, and torture during the war. People keep these sketchings nearby because they want to remember the bad things so history does not repeat itself.

 

We went into the museum at the UCA about the martyrs of the Civil War. It had information about the Jesuit priests, the housekeeper and daughter, Romero, his friend Rutilio Grande, the American women and nuns that were killed, massacre sites, and the thousands of others who were killed during the war. They had blood spilled from the priests, Romero, and Rutilio Grande. Salvadorans certainly have a way of preserving things, even the bad things. They also had clothing the people were wearing when they died, maps, items that had been burned, and a book that was slashed by the people who murdered the priests.

 

Outside of the museum was a rose garden memorializing the people who were killed at the UCA. It was created by the housekeeper’s husband. Just around the corner from that was the room where the housekeeper, Elba, and her daughter, Celina, were raped and killed. Inside one rooms of the UCA are several photo albums of the victim’s bodies and body parts taken the morning they were discovered. It’s never easy to look at the photos, but it helps us to better understand what life was like for ordinary people during the Civil War.

 

 

Listening to a guide inside the museum of the martyrs

 

 

A cross showing the 6 Jesuits,

their housekeeper, and her daughter

 

 

Rutilio Grande's belongings

 

Oscar Romero's belongings

 

The five church women who were

raped and killed by the military

 

Remnants from the massacre at El Mozote

 

The six Jesuit priests who were murdered

 

The clothing the priests were wearing

 

Soil and grass stained with the blood of the Jesuits

 

A dictionary slashed by the military

 

The housekeeper and her daughter who were raped and murdered

 

Looking at photos of the murders

 

Listening to the story of how the Jesuits died

 

The chapel at the UCA

 

A painting inside the chapel