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Discussion & Study Guide for "If the Mango Tree Could Speak"
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Historical Overview: El Salvador

1000 AD

Immigrants from what is now Mexico begin moving south to El Salvador. The people are called Pipils and speak the Nahuat language. By 1000 AD, they are established in their new home. They call it Cuzcatlan -- Land of the Jewels -- because of the country's great beauty and its very fertile land.

1524 - 1821

Spanish conquerors led by Pedro de Alvarado invade El Salvador. The Pipils -- numbering over one million -- resist and drive Alvarado out. He returns a year later. After three years of fighting, the Pipils are defeated and many flee to remote areas where they continue to farm communally. By the late 1800s, approximately 80% of the Pipil population in El Salvador has been killed. Many of the surviving Pipils intermarry with Spanish colonists, producing a large mestizo population.

1821 - 1838

El Salvador declares its independence from Spain in 1821, joining the United Provinces of Central America. In 1833, an uprising of Pipils is defeated. In 1838, the provinces separate into independent countries. Salvadoran politics divides into Liberals and Conservatives (see Guatemala historical overview). After independence, El Salvador's government is controlled by a Liberal oligarchy promoting an export based economy.

1838 - 1930

By the end of the 19th century, coffee becomes the major export crop. An oligarchy -- called Los Catorce, meaning The Fourteen -- of a few families owns most of the fertile land. There is almost no middle class and the remainder of the country lives in poverty.

1930 - 1970

After a brief attempt at democratic reform, General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez seizes power in 1931. The economic and political turmoil leads to uprisings in January of 1932 of primarily Pipil peasants and urban workers led by the Communist party, armed mostly with macheteso and stones.

The army easily defeats the revolts and Communist leader Farabundo Marti is captured and executed. Pipil leader Jose Feliciano Ama is hung while his children are forced to watch. In retaliation for the uprisings, Hernandez Martinez orders his soldiers to kill anyone who dresses, looks or sounds indigenous. Some 30,000 people are killed in the span of a few weeks in a massacre known as La Matanza, or "The Slaughter." Pipils who survive hide their indigenous heritage, discard their traditional clothing and stop speaking their language.

Hernandez Martinez holds power until 1944. From then until 1982, El Salvador is run by the military: either directly or through military controlled political parties.

In the 1960s, cotton and sugar join coffee as major export crops, causing more peasants to lose their land. By 1975, 40% of the rural population is landless. Migration of Salvadorans going to work on banana plantations in Honduras creates tensions between the two countries and results in a brief but bloody conflict.

1970 - 1979

Students, teachers, labor groups and religious leaders organize to demand reforms for a more equitable society. International observers declare a progressive coalition headed by Jose Napoleon Duarte and Guillermo Ungo the winner in the 1972 elections, but the military collects the ballot boxes and announces their candidate president. The new government ruthlessly squashes protests and arrests Duarte, torturing him and forcing him into exile. Similar electoral fraud mars the 1977 elections.

Social discontent increases in response to the government's corruption and repression and to the growing poverty throughout the country. Police fire on protestors, convincing many that legal opposition is no longer an option in their struggle for social justice. Wealthy landowners and businessmen create political organizations which are forerunners to the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) led by Colonel Roberto D'Aubuisson. These groups also begin organizing and financing death squads to eliminate political opposition.

1979 - 1984

Violence increases dramatically in early 1979, as government sponsored killings, mass arrests, and tortures are directed against student and labor organizations and the Catholic church. In October 1979, a group of young army officers takes power and installs a juntao of two officers and three civilians, including Guillermo Ungo. Concerned by the success of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, they hope that moderate reforms will head off a social explosion and international isolation. The United States begins increasing its military and economic aid to El Salvador.

But hardline forces within the military block all serious attempt at reform and by early 1980, the civilian members of the junta resign and are replaced by more conservative ones. In March of 1980, Duarte -- who is back from exile -- is brought onto the junta. He soon becomes head of the government, pitting him directly against the progressive movement he once led. This movement forms a coalition called the Democratic Revolutionary Front (FDR). The government declares a state of siege, outlawing all political activities.

In a letter to U.S. President Carter, Archbishop Oscar Romero requests that the United States stop funding the Salvadoran military and instead support the purchase of fertilizer, seeds, school supplies and medicines. In a sermon broadcast over the radio, he begs soldiers: "In the name of God ... stop the repression." A day later -- on March 24, 1980 -- the archbishop is murdered while celebrating Mass. At his funeral, shots fired from the roof of the presidential palace kill dozens of people in front of the Cathedral.

In October of 1980, the armed opposition groups join to form the Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN), named after the leader of the 1932 uprising. In November of 1980, the entire leadership of the FDR is arrested at a press conference and assassinated. In December of 1980, three North American nuns and one church worker are raped, tortured and killed.

The country is now in full-fledged civil war, most intensely between 1979 and 1984. The military uses U.S. funding and training to implement a counterinsurgency strategy designed to destroy all potential support for the guerrillas. Rural communities are bombed and tens of thousands of people are assassinated by the army and the death squads. About 20% of the population is forced to leave their homes. Many go to Honduras, Mexico or the United States.

The FMLN gains control of substantial territory in northern areas of the country. Despite frequent air attacks and isolation from supplies, they set up alternative local government in their "controlled zones."

1984 - 1989

Duarte, a Christian Democrat, is elected president in 1984, defeating D'Aubuisson. Duarte receives massive financial support for his campaign from the U.S. government, who fears both D'Aubuisson's extremism and the FMLN's growing power. Nonetheless, by 1988, ARENA has control of the National Assembly and a majority of the municipal governments. In 1989, ARENA chooses a moderate, Alfredo Cristiani, as their presidential candidate and he wins the election. His government begins to reverse the modest reforms of the past decade by privatizing banks and returning land to the oligarchy. Despite continuing death squad killings and other repression, the popular movement again begins to mobilize.

Responding to international and internal pressure, the government begins peace talks with the FMLN. Little progress is made and violence against community activists persists. In the midst of the negotiations, the office of a major labor confederation is bombed. In November, 1989, the FMLN breaks off the talks and launches an offensive in San Salvador. The army attacks and bombs poor neighborhoods, exacting many civilian casualties. The FMLN withdraws.

On November 16, 1989 soldiers enter the University of Central America campus and murder six Jesuit priests, their cook and her 15 year-old daughter. There is strong evidence that the Minister of Defense ordered the killings, in an attempt to eliminate what the army sees as the intellectual leadership of the guerrillas.

1989 - 1994

Worldwide condemnation of the murders and the FMLN's show of military strength during 1990-91 impel the slow-moving negotiations to reach agreement. On January 16, 1992, the Salvadoran government and the FMLN sign a peace treaty. It calls for the U.N. to supervise the demobilization and disarming of all combatants, a purge of military officers accused of human rights abuses, and the conversion of the FMLN into a legitimate political party.

In 1993, the United Nations releases a report on human rights in El Salvador called From Madness to Hope: The Twelve-Year War in El Salvador. It places blame for most of the killings and disappearances of the past twelve years -- including the murder of Archbishop Romero and the massacre at the University of Central America -- on government security forces. The report also cites the guerrillas for some human rights violations. It raises concerns about the role of the U.S. government in funding the war (a total of $6 billion over twelve years) and covering up crimes committed by the military. The Salvadoran Congress approves a general amnesty for those accused of civil war atrocities, thereby institutionalizing the impunity.

The first elections since the end of the civil war are held in March and April of 1994. The FMLN participates for the first time as a legitimate political party, in spite of the killing of a couple dozen FMLN party activists prior to the election. ARENA candidate Armando Calderon Sol is elected president in a run-off, with the FMLN-led coalition in second place as the main political opposition in the country.

Central American History: Key Points

Students should understand the following key aspects of Central American history:

• Highly developed civilizations existed in Central America for many centuries before the arrival of Europeans.
  
  
• The Spanish conquerors came in 1524 to exploit the land and its people. The Spanish conquest had a devastating effect on indigenous people and their civilizations, but did not eradicate them.
  
  
• For most of their history, Guatemala and El Salvador have had military rule.
  
  
• Businesses from the U.S. and other countries began operating in Central America in the late 1800's and have used unscrupulous means to extract high profits.
  
  
• The U.S. government has stepped in many times to protect these business interests, both with direct military intervention and with military and economic support to military rulers.
  
  
• Efforts by poor people to achieve better living conditions, socioeconomic justice and democracy have included both nonviolent organizing and armed struggle against the oligarchies and military.
  
  
• The governments of Guatemala and El Salvador have attacked civilians and suppressed dissent, and have been condemned by the international community as violators of human rights.
  
  
• Elected, civilian governments have held office in both countries since the mid-1980s but the militaries continue to hold much of the power.
  
  
• Negotiations between the guerrillas and the government have suceeded in achieving a fragile peace in El Salvador. Efforts to negotiate peace have made some progress in Guatemala after several years of talks, but a comprehensive peace agreement has not yet been achieved.