El Salvador: Civil War (1980-1992)
(see also El Salvador to 1980, Oscar Arnulfo Romero & El Salvador since 1992)
Basics
CIA World Factbook. Includes map.
UN Development Program, Human Development Indicators
On the Web: Articles
Trial to Settle History Starts. Juliana Barbassa, Modesto Bee (8/25/04). Civil trial of retired Salvadoran Air Force captain & Modesto resident Alvaro Rafael Saravia assembles wide array of depositions concerning murder of Msgr. Oscar Romero in 1980.
The Battle for Human Rights in El Salvador (1975-1999). Mark Engler, Democracy Uprising (4/30/99).
On the Web: Specialized Sites
Center for Justice & Accountability. Brought charges against Alvaro Rafael Saravia for murder of Msgr. Oscar Romero.
In the Library: Articles
Almeida, Paul & Rubén Urbizagastegui. "Cutumay Camones: popular music in El Salvador's National Liberation Movement," Latin American Perspectives 26 (3/99):13-42.
Alvarez, Francisco A. "Transition before the transition: the case of El Salvador," Latin American Perspectives 56 (win 88):78-92.
Armshaw, Marianne M. "Salvadoran officers face trial," National Catholic Reporter (10/27/00):3-4. "Families of slain churchwomen have day in court."
Arnesen, Eric. "El Salvador: reminders of war," Monthly Review 38,5 (10/86):20-28.
Association of Salvadoran Women. "Participation of Latin American women in social & political organizations: reflections of Salvadoran women," Monthly Review 34,2 (6/82):11-23.
Barry, Tom & Deb Preusch. "The war in El Salvador: a reassessment," Monthly Review 38,11 (4/87):29-44.
Blachman, M.J. & K.E. Sharpe. "Things fall apart: trouble ahead in El Salvador," World Policy Journal 6 (win 88-89):107-39.
Blundy, David. "Victims of the massacre that the world ignored," London Sunday TImes (2/22/81).
Killings at the Rio Sumpul.
Bollinger, W. "Villalobos on 'popular insurrection," Latin American Perspectives 16,3 (sum 89):38-47.
Bourgois, Philippe. "What US foreign policy faces in rural El Salvador: an eyewitness account," Monthly Review 34,1 (5/82):14-30.
Canby, Peter & Jay Dean. "Soldier of misfortune: why Joe Sanderson fought & died in El Salvador," Mother Jones (7/84):13-21.
Eisendrath, John & Jim Morrell. "Arming El Salvador," International Policy Report (8/82).
Evans, E.. "El Salvador's lessons for future U.S. interventions," World Affairs 160,1 (sum 97):43-49.
Farje, Javier. "Interview w/Adrián Esquina Lisco: 'We shall liberate ourselves'" IWGIA Newsletter 49 (4/87):43-54.
Gleijeses, Piero. "The case for power sharing in El Salvador," Foreign Affairs 61,5 (sum 83):1048-63
Helvarg, David. "A voice from the grave," Progressive (6/98). Remembering murders of Catholic missionaries Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, Maura Clarke & Jean Donovan in 1980.
Hinshaw, George. "The Devil next door: El Salvador in American rhetoric, January-May 1981," Proceedings of the Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies 14,1 (fall 87):9-18.
Hochschild, Adam. "Inside the slaughter: El Salvador's victims, El Salvador's butchers," Mother Jones (6/83).
Jimenez, Liliam. "El suicidio de Marcial," Nexos 61 79 (7/84).
__________. "Marcial y la revolucion salvadorena," Nexos 71 (7/84):61-63.
Karl, Terry. "Negotiations or total war: Salvador Samayoa interviewed," World Policy Journal 6 (spr 89):321-56.
McCarthy, Tim. "Brave lives that denied death's dominion," National Catholic Reporter (12/29/89):1,6.
NACLA Report. Special issue on "El Salvador 1984" 18,2 (1984):13-46.
Navarro, Vicente. "Genocide in El Salvador," Monthly Review 32,11 (4/81):1-16.
Palumbo, Gene. "Peace architect Rivera Damas dies at 71," National Catholic Reporter (12/9/94).
Petras, James. "Blots on the White Paper: reinvention of the Red Menace," Nation (3/28/81):353,367-72.
Rosenberg, Tina. "What did you do in the war, mama?" NY Times Magazine (2/7/99):52-93.
Schirmer, Jennifer. "The seeking of the truth & the gendering of consciousness: the comadres of El Salvador & the Convigua widows of Guatemala," in S. A. Radcliffe & S. Westwood (eds.) "Viva": Women & Popular Protest in Latin America (London, 1993), pp. 30-64.
Shayne, Julia Denise. "Gendered revolutionary bridges: women in the Salvadoran resistance movement (1979-1992)," Latin American Perspectives 26 (5/99):85-102.
Shenk, Janet. "Can the guerrillas win? Behind battle lines in El Salvador, a confident rebel army prepares for a final showdown," Mother Jones (4/88):35-44.
Siegel, Daniel & Joy Hackel. "El Salvador: counterinsurgency revisited," in Klare & Kornbluth (eds.) Low Intensity Warfare (NY, 1988), pp. 112-35.
Smyth, Frank. "Consensus or crisis? Without Duarte in El Salvador," Journal of InterAmerican Studies & World Affairs 30 (win 88-9):29-52.
Stokes, D. “Countering the Soviet threat? An analysis of the justifications for US military assistance to El Salvador, 1979-1992,” Cold War History 3,3 (4/03):79-102.
Villalobos, Joaquin. "Popular insurrection: desire or reality?" Latin American Perspectives 16,3 (sum 89):5-37.
In the Library: Non-Fiction Books
Alegría, Claribel y D.J. Flakoll. The Won't Take Me Alive [No me agarran viva] (London, 1983). Life story of a Christian guerrillera.
__________. Para romper el silencio. Resistencia y lucha en las cárceles salvadoreñas (México, 1984).
Americas Watch Committee & American Civil Liberties Union. Report on Human Rights in El Salvador (NY: Vintage, 1982).
Armstrong, Robert & Janet Shenk. El Salvador: The Face of Revolution (Boston, 1982).
Arnson, Cynthia. El Salvador: A Revolution Confronts the US (Washington, 1982).
Baloyra, Enrique A. El Salvador in Transition (Chapel Hill, 1982). US influence on Salvadoran politics.
Binford, Leigh. The El Mozote Massacre: Anthropology & Human Rights (Tucson, 1996).
Binns, Jack R. The U.S. in Honduras, 1980-81. An Ambassador’s Memoir (Jefferson NC, 2000). Argues that U.S. support of Salvadoran military enlarged rather than reducing conflict there.
Bluestein, Howard I. et al. U.S. Army Area Handbook for El Salvador (Washington, 1970).
Bonner, Raymond. Weakness & Deceit: US Policy & El Salvador (NY, 1984).
Bosch, Brian J. The Salvadoran Officer Corps & the Final Offensive of 1981 (Jefferson NC, 1999). Perspective of the U.S. military attaché.
Brockman, James R. The Word Remains: A Life of Oscar Romero (Maryknoll, 1982).
Cagan, Beth & Steve Cagan. This Promised Land, El Salvador: The Refugee Community of Colomoncagua & their Return to Morazán (New Brunswick NJ, 1991).
Cardenal, Rodolfo. Historia de una esperanza. Vida de Rutilio Grande (San Salvador, 1987).
Carrigan, Ana. Salvador Witness. The Life & Calling of Jean Donovan (NY, 1984).
Castellanos, Miguel. The Comandante Speaks: Memoirs of an El Salvadoran Guerrilla Leader (Boulder, 1991).
Center for the Study of the Americas. Listen, Compañero: Conversations with Central American Revolutionary Leaders (San Francisco: Solidarity, 1983). Interview with Salvador Cayetano Carpio.
Clements, Charles. Witness to War: An American Doctor in El Salvador (NY, 1984).
Cunningham, Hilary. God & Caesar at the Rio Grande. Sanctuary & the Politics of Religion (Minneapolis, 1995).
Devine, Frank J. El Salvador: Embassy Under Attack (NY: Bantam, 1981).
Didion, Joan. Salvador (NY, 1983).
Dilling, Yvonne & Ingrid Rogers. In Search of Refuge (Scottdale PA, 1984).
Diskin, Martin & Kenneth Sharpe. The Impact of US Policy in El Salvador, 1979-1985 (Berkeley, 1986).
Diskin, Martin. Reform Without Change in El Salvador. The Political War in the Countryside (Boulder, 1990).
Doljanin, Nicolás. Chalatenango, la guerra descalza. Reportaje sobre El Salvador (México, 1982).
Dunkerley, James. The Long War: Dictatorship & Revolution in El Salvador (London, 1982).
Edwards, Beatrice & Greta Tovar Siebentritt. Places of Origin: The Repopulation of Rural El Salvador (Boulder, 1991).
Ellacuria, Ignacio. Towards a Society That Serves Its People: The Intellectual Contribution of El Salvador's Murdered Jesuits (?,?).
EPICA. El Salvador: A Spring Whose Waters Never Run Dry (Washington, 1990). Testimonies of life during the 1980's from fifty members of Salvadoran Base Christian Communities.
Erdozáin, Plácido. Archbishop Romero: Martyr of El Salvador (Maryknoll, 1980).
Galdamez, Pablo. Faith of a People. The Life of a Basic Christian Community in El Salvador (Maryknoll, 1986).
Golden, Renny. The Hour of the Poor, the Hour of Women: Salvadoran Women Speak (NY, 1991).
González Janzen, Ignacio. La batalla de El Salvador (México, 1981).
Gorkin, Michael; Marta Pineda & Glora Leal. From Grandmother to Granddaughter: Salvadoran Women's Stories (Berkeley, 2000).
Guidos Vejar, Rafael. El ascenso del militarismo en El Salvador (San Salvador, 1980).
Hader, Aaron. The US & El Salvador: Political & Military Involvement (Berkeley, 1981).
Hammond, John L. Fighting to Learn: Popular Education & Guerrilla War in El Salvador (Piscataway NJ, 1998). Focused on 1980-82 period.
Hayden, Bridget. Salvadorans in Costa Rica: Displaced Lives (Tucson: U. of Arizona, 2003).
Herman, Edward S. & Frank Brodhead. Demonstration Elections: US-Staged Elections in the Dominican Republic, Vietnam & El Salvador (Boston, 1984)
Hernández, A. Leon de piedra (testimonio de la lucha de clases en El Salvador) (San Salvador, 1981).
Hussey, Pamela. Free From Fear. Women in El Salvador's Church (London, 1989).
Koster, Koos. Obispos, militares y burócratas. Posibilidades e imposibilidades en América Latina (México, 1983). Memoir of a Dutch reporter killed in El Salvador.
Kunnes, Rick (ed.) El Salvador: No Middle Ground (NY, 1981).
Lauria-Santiago, Aldo A. & Leigh Binford (eds.) Landscapes of Struggle:Politics, Society & Community in El Salvador (Pittsburgh: U. of Pittsburgh, 2004). Invaluable interdisciplinary essays on 20th C.
Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. Justice in El Salvador: A Case Study (NY, 1982).
__________. Update: The Case of Four US Churchwomen Murdered in El Salvador in December 1980 (NY, 1984).
__________. El Salvador Certification: Summary of the Cases of Ten US Citizens Killed Since 1980 (NY, 1984).
__________. El Salvador's Other Victims: The War on the Displaced (NY, 1984).
__________. Free Fire: A Report on Human Rights in El Salvador (NY, 1984).
__________. Justice Denied: A Report on Twelve Unresolved Human Rights Cases in El Salvador (NY, 1985).
__________. El Salvador: Human Rights Dismissed. A Report on 16 Unresolved Cases (NY, 1986).
__________. From the Ashes: Justice in El Salvador (NY, 1987).
__________. Underwriting Injustice: AID & El Salvador's Judicial Reform Program (NY, 1989).
López Vigil, J. I. Rebel Radio. The Story of El Salvador's Radio Venceremos (Willimantic CT, 1992)
López Vigil, María. Death & Life in Morazan. A Priest's Testimony from a War-Zone in El Salvador (London, 1989).
__________. Don Lito of El Salvador (Maryknoll, 1990). Life story of a Catholic lay activist.
Lungo Uclés, Mario. El Salvador in the Eighties: Counter-Insurgency & Rebellion (Philadelphia, 1996).
MacDonald, Mandy & Mike Gatehouse. In the Mountains of Morazán. Portrait of a Returned Refugee Community in El Salvador (London:Monthly Review,1995).
Manwaring, Max G. & Court Prisk (eds.) El Salvador at War: An Oral History of Conflict from the 1979 Insurrection to the Present (Washington, 1988).
Martínez, Ana Guadalupe. Las cárceles clandestinas de El Salvador (?, 1980?).
McClintock, Michael. The American Connection, vol. I: State Terror & Popular Resistance in El Salvador (London, 1985).
Menéndez Rodríguez, Mario. Voices from El Salvador (San Francisco, 1983). Interviews with guerrilla & church leaders.
Menzel, Sewall H. Bullets vs. Ballots: Political Violence & Revolutionary War in El Salvador, 1979-1991 (Miami, 1994).
Metzi, Francisco. The People's Remedy. The Struggle for Health Care in El Salvador's War of Liberation (NY, 1988).
Montgomery, Tommie Sue. Revolution in El Salvador. Origins & Evolution (Boulder, 1982).
__________. Revolution in El Salvador: From Civil Strife to Civil Peace (Boulder, 1994).
North, Liisa. Bitter Grounds. Roots of Revolt in El Salvador (Toronto, 1982).
Partnoy, Alicia. You Can't Drown the Fire: Latin American Women Writing in Exile (San Francisco: Cleis, 1988). Articles from mid-80's by Ana Guadalupe Martínez, Gloria Bonilla, América Sosa, Marta Benavides, & Claribel Alegría.
Pearce, Jenny. Promised Land. Peasant Rebellion in Chalatenango, El Salvador (London, 1986).
Pedelty, Mark. War Stories: The Culture of Foreign Correspondents (NY: Routledge, 1995).
Peterson, Anna L. Martyrdom & the Politics of Religion. Progressive Catholicism in El Salvador's Civil War (Albany NY, 1997).
Pomerleau, Dolly & Maureen Fiedler (eds.) El Salvador: A Look at the Reality (Washington, 1985).
Rico Martínez, Francisco. Ideología y sociedad en El Salvador, 1975-1983 (?,?).
Romero, Oscar Arnulfo. Voice of the Voiceless. The Four Pastoral Letters & Other Statements (Maryknoll, 1985).
__________. The Violence of Love: The Pastoral Wisdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero (San Francisco, 1988).
Russell, Philip L. El Salvador in Crisis (Austin: Colorado River, 1984).
Shaull, Wendy. Tortillas, Beans & M-16s. Behind the Lines in El Salvador (Winchester, 1989).
Schmidt, Steffen Walter. El Salvador: America's Next Vietnam? (Chapel Hill, 1986).
Sobrino, Jon. Archbishop Romero: Memories & Reflections (Maryknoll, 1990).
__________, Ignacio Ellacuria et al. Companions of Jesus: The Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador (Maryknoll, 1990).
Spencer, David E. From Vietnam to El Salvador: The Saga of the FMLN Sappers & Other Guerrilla Special Forces in Latin America (Westport CT, 1996).
Stanley, William. The Protection Racket State: Elite Politics, Military Extortion & Civil War in El Salvador (Philadelphia, 1996).
Stephen, Lynn. Hear My Testimony. Maria Teresa Tula, Human Rights Activist of El Salvador (Boston, 1994).
Thomson, Marilyn. Women of El Salvador: The Price of Freedom (London, 1986).
Waller, J. Michael. The Third Current of Revolution. Inside the "North American Front" of El Salvador's Guerrilla War (Lanham MD, 1991). Critique from the right of previously established pro-FMLN movement in US that helped make guerrilla war possible.
White, Richard Alan. The Morass. U.S. Intervention in Central America (NY, 1984).
Whitfield, Teresa. Paying the Price: Ignacio Ellacuria & the Murdered Jesuits of El Salvador (Philadelphia, 1994).
Wright, Scott. Promised Land: Death & Life in El Salvador (?,?).
Yanes, Gabriela et al. Mirrors of War: Literature & Revolution in El Salvador (NY, 1985).
Zagano, Phyllis. Ita Ford: Missionary Martyr (Mahwah NJ, 199?).
Zimmerman, Marc. El Salvador at War: A Collage Epic (Minneapolis, 1986).
In the Library: Fiction
In the Library: For Young Readers
In the Library: Poetry
Escudos, Jacinta. "San Salvador 1983" in Partnoy, Alicia. You Can't Drown the Fire: Latin American Women Writing in Exile (San Francisco: Cleis, 1988), pp. 214-17.
Murguía, Alejandro & Barbara Paschke (eds.) Volcán: Poems from Central America (San Francisco: City Lights, 1983). Bilingual ed. of poems by Mercedes Durand, Jaime Suárez Quemain, Lil Milagro Ramírez, Ricardo Castorrivas, Alfonso Quijada Urías, Claribel Alegría, Roberto Armijo, Tirso Canales & Roque Dalton.
Pastora. "The people's teachers" & "Construction" in Partnoy, Alicia. You Can't Drown the Fire: Latin American Women Writing in Exile (San Francisco: Cleis, 1988), pp. 181-82
In the Library: Drama
In the Library: Photography
CD & Audio
Film & Video
"All the Love" [1987], dir. ? . 26m. In Spanish, interviews with wounded Salvadoran combatants evacuated to Cuba for treatment & rehabilitation, from El Salvador Media Project
"Breaking the Ice" [1984], dir. ?. 15m. From El Salvador Media Project. Explores "new opening" by trade unions in face of government repression & "disappearance" of union activists.
"Commander Clelia" [1984], dir. ? . 28m. From El Salvador Media Project. Interviews with five political prisoners, including FMLN Commander Lilian Mercedes Letona (Clelia), released under June 1983 amnesty.
"Dateline San Salvador" [198?], dir. ?. 30m. From Syracuse Alternative Media Network. Crisis moves people to set aside fear & make public their dissatisfaction despite threat of repression. .
"Decision to Win" [1981], dir. ? . 75m. From El Salvador Media Project. Documents daily life in FMLN-controlled zone, focussing more on production, health care & popular democracy than war.
"Enemies of War" (PBS Special).
"For a Woman in El Salvador Speaking" [1985], dir. Sara Halprin, 8m. From El Salvador Media Project. Dramatic poem in sign language, Spanish & English celebrating women's strength in face of terrible loss.
"Four Images of the Revolution" [1984], dir. ?, 60m. Four aspects of life in FMLN-controlled area: health care, cooperative farming, tribute to women, & portrait of children.
"Guazapa: the Face of War in El Salvador" (1984), dir. Don North. 37m. From Cinema Guild. Life in FMLN-controlled area: soldiers help harvest crops, educate children & provide health care in midst of war.
"In the Name of Democracy: Life, Death & Elections in El Salvador" [1982], dir. Pamela Cohen & José Ponce, 31m. From Cinema Guild. Records badly flawed US-sponsored elections to Constitutional Assembly in 1982, from Cinema Guild.
"Letter from Morazan" [1981], dir. ?, 75m. From El Salvador Media Project. Letter recounting FMLN campaign of 7-8/82 , including interview with captured Vice-Minister of Defense.
"Look at My People, How They Struggle" [1985], dir. ?, 27m. From El Salvador Media Project. Documents wartime lives of Salvadoran women.
"Maria's Story" [1991], dir. Pamela Cohen, Catherine M. Ryan & Monona Wali, 53m. From Filmakers' Library. Profile of 39-yr. old mother of three & guerrilla leader.
"A Question of Conscience: The Murder of the Six Jesuit Priests in El Salvador" [199?], dir. Ilan Ziv, 43m. From Palisades Video.
"The Road to Liberty" [1983], dir.?, 29m. From Cinema Guild. Portrays social innovations in FMLN-controlled areas.
"Romero" [199?], dir. John Dugan, 105m. In video stores.
"Rosalina" [1987], dir. Leslie Jenkins. 23m. From First Run/Icarus. Salvadoran girl in Honduran refugee camp goes to school, helps mother, plays with friends & dreams of returning home.
"Roses in December" [198?], dir. Bernard Stone, 56m. From Palisades Video.
"Salvador" [1985], dir. Oliver Stone,122m. In video stores. Based on writings of war correspondent Robert Boyle, takes a realistic view of Salvadoran civil conflict.
"Sowing Hope" [1983], dir. ? . 27m. From El Salvador Media Project. Interviews (incl. one with Archbishop Romero) exploring lives of Christians in guerrilla-controlled zones.
"The Situation" [1986], dir. ?. 91m. Two years of daily life in war-torn El Salvador, seen by US film crew living withSalvadorn family. Features photojournalist Richard Boyle.
"Stories from Cuscatlan" [1989], dir. Peter Chappell & Jane Ryder, 52m. From First Run/Icarus. Personal stories of ordinary people.
"Testimony: The Maria Guardado Story" [2001], dir. Randy Vásquez, 63m. From Latin America Video Archives. Exiled torture victim returns to confront painful past in El Salvador.
"Time of Daring" [1983], dir. ?. 40m. From El Salvador Media Project. Both sides of civil war.
"Two Types of Peace" (1984), dir. ?, 8m. From El Salvador Media Project. Peace as sought by women of oligarchy, & by Mothers' Committee of Disappeared.
"Voces inocentes" [2004], dir. Luis Mandoki, 120m. Graphic picture of life for ordinary Salvadorans during Civil War, & process of forced recruitment into the army.