The Martyrs of El Salvador

 "November – A Novel” by Jorge Galan, 2019

Do you remember the civil war in El Salvador between the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front and a U.S.-backed dictatorship? Galan does. This tense book is set in San Salvador during the November 1989 'general offensive' by the FMLN in that city. The key event is the assassination of 6 Jesuit priests and 2 civilians by the military on the grounds of the University of Central America in San Salvador. There is one female witness who is in danger, along with the remaining priests, as she saw soldiers enter the building where the dead lie. Later witnesses confirm the story.

There are scenes of civilians caught in a district surrounded by fighting; relentless questioning of witness and family by pro-government 'prosecutors' who have been told what to do; hypocritical U.S. Embassy officials; steely priests who stand up for the truth time and time again; and of course funerals. The government, along with the U.S. Embassy, blame the guerrillas for the murders. An AK-47 was used, along with painted FMLN slogans, as false clues. What else is new?

The book's context is the life and assassination of Bishop Oscar Romero in 1980, even the massacre at his funeral. And the prior killing of American nuns and so-called Savadorean 'guerrilla priests.' Then the massacres of peasants, especially in 1932. And lastly the vicious Atlacatl Brigade and the bloody, U.S. trained Roberto D'Aubuisson. A cruel reality in this case is the sly kidnapping of the female witness from the naive Jesuits by the FBI, who are in league with the Salvadorean Armed Forces. Does the woman continue to hold to her story? Would you?

This is a very Catholic book. The names used are real, from history, as this is almost a fictional documentary. Some of the stories happen as real interviews carried out later. The Jesuits are heroes, as are the other 'liberation theologists' or at least priests. Bishop Romero makes a kindly appearance in a mountain village. There are journeys to LA's 'el Norte' to earn more money sweeping and cutting grass than picking coffee beans for nothing. A woman takes a son to see a gringo's Alaska oddities, which gives the boy an eventual thirst to leave. This same son joins the Salvadorean military, as going north is too difficult, and is involved in the murders. There is a bloody and confusing battle in a village where civilians die. The Jesuits are stabbed in the back at the Vatican.

Martyrs of Peace

The narrative is somewhat disjointed and flips back and forth in time. The pace is slow. The non-linear stories don't actually work to build a full picture, instead serving as snapshots that slowly link up in a partial way. This post-modern writing method is somewhat flawed, like an overly complicated jigsaw puzzle that need-ant be that way. This method backs the reader into the civil war instead of drawing them in.

Politically, the author is not a supporter of the FMLN and prefers to dwell on the tragedy of El Salvador's long-running landowner dictatorships and the deaths of Catholic priests. The Jesuit goal was 'peace' between the butchers and the butchered. The President of El Salvador Cristiani, who supported the peace process, thinks the murders precipitated the final peace treaty. He also was the one who approved plans to use the air force to bomb parts of San Salvador during the insurrection. The Jesuits thought 'hate' might have been the motive, not the role of the priests in the peace process, which the military opposed. The murders of the 6 Jesuits becomes a case with international dimensions, a case of martyrs. Were the real guilty brought to justice? Was there a secret government amnesty of the brains behind the deaths?

For those who remember, or those who never knew, the book will bring a bit of the horror back.

Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 15 year archive, using these terms: “Manufacturing Consent"(Chomsky); "Illegals, Migrants and Refugees," "Washington Bullets" (Prashad); "American Made," "The Open Veins of Latin America" (Galeano); "Blood Lake," "Revolutionary Rehearsals," "Building the Commune," "Drug War Capitalism," "Mariategui," "Guevara," or "Cuba."

And I got it from the Library!

The Cultural Marxist

September 3, 2022