from one village to another along the Sumpul River reading the scriptures to the people, leading them in prayer and analysis of the Salvadoran reality. Vicki first accompanied her father on his rounds when she was seven years old. Vicki enjoyed the freedom from household chores afforded by these expeditions. What she liked best, however, was basking in the esteem that the Sumpul River people held for her father. At home he was just a hardworking campesino. Along the Sumpul River, he was a man of some importance. The repression directed by the Salvadoran Armed Forces against the campesinos in Chalatenango greatly increased between 1977 and 1980. On March 24, 1980, the people of Chalatenango received word that Archbishop Romero had been killed. Two weeks later, the Salvadoran Armed Forces received a huge increase in military aid from the United States and began a new offensive against Chalatenango. Vicki and her father were in the village of La Arada when the Army arrived at seven in the morning on May 14,1980. “It was not really an offensive,” Vicki recalls. “In order for there to be an offensive, there must be forces in conflict. The town was not occupied by the muchachos. The Army simply came into town and started tossing grenades into the houses. “We were in the plaza preparing to return home. My father and I looked down the main street of La Arada and saw a soldier toss a baby into the air while his companions shot at it. They were not very good marksmen. It took three tosses before one of them hit the baby. It exploded, raining soft flesh and blood over the soldiers. The soldiers seemed to enjoy it. “At first, we did not move. We felt as if we were under a magician’s spell. Then my father grabbed me and we looked down the 1 main street of La Arada and saw a soldier toss a baby into the air while his companions shot at it. It took three tosses before one of them hit the baby. It exploded, raining soft flesh and blood over the soldiers. The soldiers seemed to enjoy it.” ran down the street away from the soldiers.” Vicki and her father joined the people of La Arada in their flight to the Sumpul River. As they began the descent to the river, they were attacked by two helicopters. The gunships divided the fleeing campesinos. The smaller group that included Vicki and her father fled across the mountainside and entered a deep, vine- covered ravine. “Iwill never forget the two hours we spent in that ravine,” Vicki says. “There were perhaps thirty of us laying on the ground. We could see through the vines to the edge of the chasm where the soldiers were probing and poking their rifles, looking for some sign of where we had fled. There was a woman with two children near me. 1 recognized her from our previous visits to La Arada. Whenever she spoke in our Bible classes, she talked about her children. She did this regardless of what we were discussing. She spoke of them as examples of God’s love and of the way God punishes us. This woman’s children gave her ideas about Mary’s relationship to Jesus, and Jesus’ relationship to the apostles. For her, these children were life itself. “Her three year old was frightened but she understood the need to be quiet. The baby was tired and hungry. The soldiers heard her when she cried and returned to search the edge of the ravine. This woman took a piece of cloth, rolled it into a ball, and stuffed it into her baby’s mouth. When the baby lost consciousness, the mother removed the cloth. But the baby awoke and cried out louder. Iwill never forget the look of horror on that mother’s face as she placed the cloth in her baby’s mouth again and held her as the infant choked to death.” When the people of La Arada thought that the soldiers had departed, they sent two men to reconnoiter the mountainside. When the scouts returned, they reported that the soldiers had left. The people were afraid to return to their homes and decided to cross the Sumpul River into Honduras. They crawled out of the ravine—the mother who had killed her daughter still held its tiny corpse as if clinging to the hope that her baby was still alive. They walked to the river, gradually joining other bands of refugees fleeing the Armed Forces’ offensive against Chalatenango. By the time they reached the river, they numbered well over six hundred. The shoreline was a mass of confusion. Things worsened when someone cried out that the Army was preparing to descend on the river. Vicki’s father called out to her, “Grab hold of one of the young ones and get into the river.” Vicki took the hand of the three-year-old girl whose sister had died in the ravine and waded into the river. Her father took two young children by their hands and followed. As the river filled with refugees, it became difficult to see the Honduran shore. Vicki is not sure who started the shooting, the Honduran or Salvadoran Army. The bullets seemed to come from both riverbanks. She glanced back at her father and saw a bullet explode in his head. He quickly sank beneath the river’s surface. The two children he was helping were swept into the current and drowned. As Vicki approached the shore, she heard the soldiers shouting that Salvadorans could not cross into Honduran territory. By then, the campesinos in the river were under fire from both shores as well as from two helicopters circling above. Vicki held the little girl close and let the current pull her downriver. She worked with the current to move closer to the Honduran For news on Northwest solidarity work with Central America, subscribe to Central America Update, published bi-monthly by the Portland Central America Solidarity Committee. Send $8 for one year to: P.O. Box 6443, Portland, OR 97228. Holland’s Books | | f HAPPY HARVEST ’? jvW 2190 W. BURNS IDE - 10AM - 8PM DAILY Used and Rare Reasonable Prices * 11 -6 , Monday - Saturday 527 SID 12th, Portland (503)224-4242 SWEDISH • SH IATSU • ACUPRESSURE • HYDROTHERAPY • SAUNA • ON -S ITE MASSAGE G O E OPEN SUNDAYS! BRUNCH 9 A M SAT. & SUN. 2348 S.E. Ankeny Street 235-5358 One block South of Bumside J co 2 A r n C A I - M i k a gentle approach to well being 'I will help you learn some gentle ways to move your body so you can experience what happens when the body and mind work together in the practice of yoga." Laureen MacLeod Room to Move*312 NW 10th 3rd floor-Portland, Or.97209«503-284-9438 Clinton St—Spring 1990 41
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