If many of the books from Africa that I’ve read so far portray the Clergy in a not so favorable light, then pause for a moment, before you paint all Clergy with one broad brush. (After all “the danger of a single story” is the inspiration behind this blog). While many people know about Pope John Paul’s role in supporting Solidarity in Poland, not many are aware of the role played by the Church in Central and Latin America in standing up to the dictators.
One of the most famous martyrs from El Salvador was the Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated by the Military Dictatorship. Just recently, 30 years after the tragic event, the President of El Salvador Mauricio Funes publicly apologized on behalf of the State for this assassination. These events in history were brought to my attention thanks to Democracy Now and as I read more about Oscar Romero, I was struck by the contradiction here – “Godless” Leftist Guerillas supported by the Clergy opposing a military dictatorship supported by none other than Jimmy Carter’s (whose religious views are widely known) Government and all the others that followed. One of the longest civil wars in LatAm that led to 75,000 deaths finally ended in 1990.
One Day of Life by Manlio Argueta is a novel that follows the life of one woman – Guadalupe “Lupe” Guardado – as she tries to get through one day. Set just before the break out of the Civil war, Argueta depicts life under the government’s paramilitary organization as experienced by peasants struggling to get through their lives one day at a time. Not only was the book banned in El Salvador, but the author was also exiled for his political views.
Lupe’s husband Jose is involved in organizing farmers in his village and is therefore forced to live in the hills and visit his family only during the nights, just like most of the other men. Her son Justino joined the ranks of the murdered and her son-in-law that of the “missing” as they had the nerve to protest against the economic conditions facing the peasants. Her grand daughter Adolfina at 14 had personally experienced these inequities and at that tender age taken part in protests and witnessed massacres of students in a bus. At the end of the novel Jose is apprehended and severely beaten by the authorities beyond recognition. Lupe and Adolfina are summoned to identify the beaten man as he had uttered the name “Adolfina” before losing consciousness. Although Adolfina fails to recognize her grandfather, Lupe does, but in a remarkable show of emotional restraint claims to not know the dead man, just as she had promised Jose who had foreseen this tragic end.
While the story is mostly narrated by Lupe as she gets through her day, there are periods of reminiscences which reveal much about the political climate. The transformation of the church from one that had turned a blind eye to the plight of the peasants to one that was instrumental in creating awareness of their rights (parallel to Oscar Romero's own transformation), the persecution of the clergy for their support of Unionization, the overall Red scare, are all described by Lupe in plain simple direct words. The psyche of a soldier who has grown to hate his pigmentation (neither white nor Indian) and how his hate is channeled by the authorities who recruit and train these disillusioned youths to form death squads from within a community is made known to the readers in a monologue by one Private Martinez who is Lupe's neighbor. This is one of the best chapters in the book according to me, offering amazing psychological insights as to how self loathing turns into hatred for everyone else as Martinez compliments the British colonizers for doing away with Indians unlike the Spanish colonizers!
Lupe is an embodiment of patience and restraint and despite suffering insurmountable losses she maintains her poise. By not shedding any tears at the sight of her dead son and husband she in her own way resists the authorities. Her granddaughter Adolfina on the other hand at 14 has been actively protesting the authorities heralding perhaps the new wave of feminism.
Despite the review, I should concede here that reading the book was not easy and at certain points i felt that it was rambling and I could not wait for the day to end. It was only after I put the book down, and thought about it did i see the true merits of the book. One day of Lupe's life was enough to give me a mini-history lesson of El Salvador which makes it a perfect book for OBOC!
While the story is mostly narrated by Lupe as she gets through her day, there are periods of reminiscences which reveal much about the political climate. The transformation of the church from one that had turned a blind eye to the plight of the peasants to one that was instrumental in creating awareness of their rights (parallel to Oscar Romero's own transformation), the persecution of the clergy for their support of Unionization, the overall Red scare, are all described by Lupe in plain simple direct words. The psyche of a soldier who has grown to hate his pigmentation (neither white nor Indian) and how his hate is channeled by the authorities who recruit and train these disillusioned youths to form death squads from within a community is made known to the readers in a monologue by one Private Martinez who is Lupe's neighbor. This is one of the best chapters in the book according to me, offering amazing psychological insights as to how self loathing turns into hatred for everyone else as Martinez compliments the British colonizers for doing away with Indians unlike the Spanish colonizers!
Lupe is an embodiment of patience and restraint and despite suffering insurmountable losses she maintains her poise. By not shedding any tears at the sight of her dead son and husband she in her own way resists the authorities. Her granddaughter Adolfina on the other hand at 14 has been actively protesting the authorities heralding perhaps the new wave of feminism.
Despite the review, I should concede here that reading the book was not easy and at certain points i felt that it was rambling and I could not wait for the day to end. It was only after I put the book down, and thought about it did i see the true merits of the book. One day of Lupe's life was enough to give me a mini-history lesson of El Salvador which makes it a perfect book for OBOC!
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