On March 2009, I had the opportunity to visit the museum and interview its founder and director, Carlos Henríquez Consalvi, Santiago. He talks about the origins of the museum, the production of the video, current projects, and his views on the importance of the recovery of historical memory. “The subject matter of memory, the reconstruction of local memories, is crucial. And above all, the reaffirmation of our identities in a country where the main product for export is the human being,” said Consalvi.
The work of the museum is inspiring and incredibly important. Today the museum runs monthly exhibits, produces video, and publishes books and a yearly magazine about historical memory, past conflicts, and identity. It also produces educational material, including a board game called Los Izalcos, to teach children about indigenous customs lost after the 1932 massacre.
Summary
Thanks to the Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen (Museum of the Word and the Image), we present this video about La Matanza or Great Massacre, an event that marked the lives of all Salvadorans. On January 1932, the miltary ended systematically with an uprising of campesinos who for decades had been fighting for land rights and were protesting the removal of then reformist president-elect Arturo Araujo. The killing rampage, led by General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, went on for weeks and was directed mostly towards indigenous people, claiming the lives of between ten to thirty thousand people.
It was the Communist Party, frustrated by the failed democratic process, which at the time called for the national uprising. Campesinos in the western region of the country readily followed, after decades of struggle that could be traced back to 1881 when communal lands were declared illegal. For the right, 1932 represented a victory on the fight against communism. For the left, La Matanza was a bitter reminder of the power of the military over civilian life, marking the beginning of a 50-year series of military regimes.
The video is a reconstruction of history based on testimonies of some of the survivors or children of survivors of 1932. For more information about the history of El Salvador, go to Professor Jack Spence's interview on this web site.
