30r364 boek.qxd:awards book 11 - Prince Claus Fund

Campaigner Against the Chaos of Forgetfulnessby José Benjamín Cuéllar MartínezSpeaking and remembering, remembering and speaking… that is a privilege of those who knowwhat the best and most tender meaning to life is: when truth seeks to be told for the commongood and prevent lies from prevailing for the gain of selfish interests.Communicating and dignifying, dignifying and communicating… that is the key to changing theindecent for the decent, the perverse for the virtuous. And even though it still has to be achieved,that is the gem that El Salvador – my land, our land – has in the person of Carlos HenríquezConsalvi, the beloved and legendary ‘Santiago’, ever since he took a stand and stood by my people,our people, the outsider of justice, through his many statements.Because the media, the official powers and the real powers have not allowed this countryand its people – historically sacrificed and bereaved, but also strongly rebellious – to know theirhistory and discuss it, speak about it and remember it, share it, cultivate it and learn from itslessons to develop their own thoughts and their imaginative and creative activity and be fullof a lucidity that it has had and maintained even in the most adverse conditions. And in this task,‘Santiago’ – the Carlos who was needed – was always and continues to always be present, withhis fundamental contribution to ensuring a new tragedy is averted.He was said to have been greatly shaken on 23 December 1972 when he learnt that an earth -quake had destroyed Managua, Nicaragua’s capital. He decided to go and show his solidaritywith that poor people in Central America. He did what he could to go and show his support. Andeven though at times it seemed impossible, he managed to board a Venezuelan military plane,together with hospital supplies and a rescue group. There was no going back. The die was thrown.His destiny was in that region that was beginning to blaze and was about to enter the mostviolent stage of its recent history. “My ties were with Nicaragua,” said ‘Santiago’. And the tieswere close because even though he returned to his native Venezuela, and travelled to BuenosAires and to Paris with the love of his life and the desire to finish his journalistic studies, hereturned to the land of Sandino. He was the chauffeur of Mercedes Sosa and Borges’ photo grapher.In Europe, he discovered the snow and Bob Dylan, but he returned to this land with the desireto set up a pirate radio station in the mountains of Nicaragua.He began working as a journalist again. And, by chance, he was there and captured on hiscamera an event that shook the country and drove its people to fight more ardently againstthe Somoza dictatorship: the assassination of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, owner anddirector of La Prensa, the opposition newspaper, on Tuesday 10 January 1978.The guerrilla station was not established in Nicaragua, but in El Salvador. It was set up to bethe voice from the Morazán Mountains, to recount what was really happening on that war front.The Venceremos (‘We will overcome’) was the legendary radio station that, in the clamour ofthe battle, some people – campaigning against it – would say that ‘we were lying’. Yet it graduallywon a place in the heart of the people of El Salvador. It reported what was left unsaid on thecommercial frequencies out of fear or because they were run by the people in power. The dreamthat started in Nicaragua – the ‘Nicaragüita’ of Carlos Mejía Godoy – became a reality in ElSalvador with the arrival of ‘Santiago’ on 24 December 1980.A globetrotter and in love, he came and adopted my country and would never give it up. Anddates seemed to have something to do with it. Let me explain. On 24 December 1972, he set offto the calamity in Nicaragua and exactly nine years later he arrived in the bloody and bereavedEl Salvador, on the eve of war. And several days later, on 10 January 1981 – the anniversary of the522008 Prince Claus Awards