Wednesday afternoon we went with the UCA students up the volcano that looms over San Salvador – no longer active – for a nice lunch, our fanciest meal.  I like to eat just as much as anyone, so I was perfectly happy to indulge myself in a delicious meal at a nice restaurant with a great view.  And to be honest, I was going to be with my people.  I’m not wealthy by American standards and grew up poor, but these days there’s no pretending that I’ve got much in common economically with the Salvadorans living in corrugated metal huts or communities like Tepecoyo where the water comes only twice a week and no denying the similarity of my lifestyle with the Salvadorans who enjoy lunch on top of the volcano (the plumber shut off the water at my house for an hour the other day and it was nearly a crisis).  Simply put, what everyone on top of the volcano shared, perhaps students excepted, was privilege.  And it was useful to see that, because what it means is that there really are enough resources to go around; they’re just not going around, neither in El Salvador nor in America.  The students, God bless them, all ordered the most expensive items on the menu, filet mignon, ribeye steaks – all on the credit card of the American Jesuits (I ordered a modest grilled salmon on the very same credit card).  I would have done the same thing at their age.  I sort of like it that there’s a nice restaurant with a good view on top of the volcano.  I just wish more people could climb that mountain.  I suspect it has something to do with other people be willing to come down from that mountain.  But maybe the whole damn thing’s poisoned and needs to come down.  I was told by one of the local guides that the military use to throw the bodies of the murdered into what remains of the lava in the volcano’s crater.

The photos below were taken from the volcano above San Salvador: our fancy lunch site at Las Brumas, a bird in flight, and clouds over San Salvador.

If the trip to the volcano was an indulgence, it may have been a necessary respite from a day otherwise focused on the social, political, and economic reality facing El Salvador today.  Before and after lunch we listened to several presentations that set out many of the current challenges.  Here is an overly brief summation: devastating effects from climate change requiring billions in infrastructure recovery, horrific gang violence greatly exacerbated by U.S. deportation policies under Obama and Trump, a Catholic church that has moved away from its social commitments of the 1980s and 90s, and many others.  Foremost in everyone’s minds is the State of Exception declared by President Nayib Bukele in March that remains in place with no end in sight.  The State of Exception was pushed through to curtail the gang violence and the staggering rate of homicides.  The homicides seem to have decreased rather substantially, winning support for the measure.  Yet civil liberties have been assailed, most of all the right of habeas corpus – the right to appear before a judge when arrested.  We heard story after story of people being picked up for no apparent crime.  Around 60,000 people have been arrested in about seven months; hardly anyone has been released.  More than once fears were expressed that the climate was coming to feel like the 1980s.  These are matters too thorny and complex for me to understand after just a week in the country, yet history shows that few rulers who have taken constitutional powers away hand them back, though there are some exceptions.

The photos below are of the clouds rolling in over San Salvador, a mural with a detail of Monseñor Oscar Romero, detail of (clockwise from top) Celina Ramos, Elba Ramos, Ignacio Martín Baró, S.J., and Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J. from the chapel at the UCA.

Thursday morning we drove out to Suchitoto, a nice change of pace from the previous day spent in our neighborhood of Antiguo Cuscatlan.  Suchitoto is an old city dating back to the pre-colonial period; it served as the original capital of the Spanish until it moved to San Salvador.  We visited the Centro Arte para la Paz overseen by Sr. Peggy O’Neill, an imminently wise Sister of Charity.  She spoke to us of her work over many decades in the country trying, and succeeding, to create a space of beauty and tranquility in a place of so much trauma.  We visited the museum and admired the lovely artwork.  Suchitoto is also a touristy place and we roamed around the square and its shops.  While roaming around there we saw stenciled onto some buildings an image of a bird and flower with the expression “In this house we seek a life free from violence against women.”  In times of great difficulty we may be tempted to dispense with art and beauty, but these may also be the very things that both see us through and give us reason to get through.

The photos below are of the grounds at the Centro Arte para la Paz, the image stenciled onto some city buildings, and a painting from the museum showing Monseñor Oscar Romero in contemplation which is derived from a historical moment during the funeral of Rutilio Grande, S.J.