EL SALVADOR

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EL SALVADOR tinue to appear. The year 2013 saw the release of a wonderful new documentary film, Roque Dalton: fusilemos la noche [Roque Dalton: Let’s Shoot the Night], by Austrian film-maker Tina Leisch. Dalton’s “novelesque” life continues to provide raw material for fiction writers, as in David Hernández’s Roqueana (2014) as well as in Manlio Argueta’s Los poetas del mal (2013) And despite all of this, the open wound that remains regarding the circumstances of Dalton’s death and the issue of accountability will continue to be an obstacle for those who wish, first, to bring to light the true literary greatness of his work, and second, for those who feel that he has much to teach us about how the left can move forward within the current historical juncture (for example, by learning to use the liberating power of humor). I evoke this situation in the paradoxical title I have chosen for this essay. Here we have an extraordinary legacy still waiting to be explored fully, yet a terrible wound mars it, one that has not yet healed after forty years. No one, including the Dalton family, believes that those responsible for Roque’s death will ever be put on trial and punished the way they deserve. But some form of transitional justice, perhaps a Truth Commission with good-faith participation on the part of those who have been accused, would go an enormous distance towards finally closing that wound. And what would probably heal it completely would be a sincere public apology from the guilty parties once they reveal the complete truth of what happened—no more weasel words regarding “youthful errors” or “military tribunals.” Then, and only then, will the full magnificence of Dalton’s legacy be able to shine forth unimpeded. A scar would still remain, but some scars can be beautiful… James Iffland is a professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies at Boston University. He is currently at work on a book on Roque Dalton. He was the 2005- 2006 Central American Visiting Scholar at DRCLAS. Reimagining the Future Technology and Collective Dreams in a Torn Nation BY FEDERICO J. RIVAS MY PARENTS TELL ME HOW LUCKY I WAS TO BE born in a hospital. It was late November of 1989 amidst the “final offensive”—one of the last but more gruesome clashes between armed guerrillas and military forces in the Salvadoran Civil War—and the odds were surely against making a safe trip. The guerrillas had stormed into the capital and established a strict 6 p.m. curfew enforced by checkpoints out on the streets. With the aid of a borrowed armored car, my mom was rushed safely into the hospital and I was born. Two years later, peace was signed. And yet, while I don’t remember anything about the war, I also can’t say I have actual memories of a country at peace. Today, El Salvador has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and, according to a recent poll, 79 percent of the population wishes they could leave the country. This can be interpreted as a majority of Salvadorans saying they have lost the ability to dream and build a future here. For me, as a member of the post-conflict generation, it’s hard to reconcile how a nation gifted with extravagant natural beauty and passionate, hard-working people, has become one of the most violent nations of the world. As a twelve-year-old I decided to accept the challenge of becoming a businessman. I started my first company when I was a sixth-grader by selling campaign buttons to my classmates running for student council. Many years later in 2013, inspired by Giuseppe Tornatore’s film Cinema Paradiso, my brother Edwin and I decided to start building spaces of peace, and promoting access to culture by screening free open-air movies at public squares across El Salvador. Cinetour, our company, goes into some of the most disenfranchised communities across the country. We install in public squares a huge inflatable screen—larger than most movie theatre screens in the region—and show short educational videos on topics such as violence prevention, nutrition and moral values, followed by a familyrated movie. We’ve now expanded to several countries across Central America thanks to the support of mass-consumption brands such as Unilever, which use the film screening to offer samplings and market their products. For three years, Cinetour has enabled hundreds of thousands of people to converge during weekends in spaces free of violence, in places where trust is restored: these events reignite creative processes in areas stigmatized by conflict, allowing people to dream, even for a moment, that there is more out there than just the plight of violence. In the same way that Hollywood dazzles and enables audiences to dream, we are challenging through our screens the barrage of negative news that permeates our day-to-day media. Cinetour has also increasingly become an important platform for publicizing NGOs such as Global Dignity and raising awareness about serious health issues affecting our country such as the Zika virus, dengue, and chikungunya. Cinetour is successful, but we wanted to have a bigger impact. In the year 2013, as a student in a class taught at Harvard by Professor Fernando Reimers, I read Abundance, a book coauthored by Peter Diamandis of the X-PRIZE Foundation. Both this book and this class profoundly shifted the way I think about the world, giving me the gift of understanding that for the first time in history, small, committed teams are able to tackle largescale problems. Abundance argues that the world is better than ever before, and that expo- 38 ReVista SPRING 2016 PHOTO, OPPOSITE PAGE COURTESY OF FEDERICO RIVAS
ART AND ACTION An outdoor theatre provides free films to the public through Cinetour. REVISTA.DRCLAS.HARVARD.EDU ReVista 39
Page 1 and 2: SPRING 2016 HARVARD REVIEW OF LATIN
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Page 5 and 6: Top: Labor Day protest for decent p
Page 7 and 8: FIRST TAKE A rose hangs on the wall
Page 9 and 10: PUBLIC POLICY, PUBLIC POLITICS Caro
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Page 21 and 22: PERSPECTIVES Carlos Dada Postwar Ki
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Page 27 and 28: PERSPECTIVES One out of every three
Page 29 and 30: PERSPECTIVES The pro-life movement
Page 31 and 32: PERSPECTIVES lepa, which in pre-Col
Page 33 and 34: ART AND ACTION Claire Breukel and M
Page 35 and 36: ART AND ACTION Performing El Salvad
Page 37 and 38: ART AND ACTION Venice Biennale, Wal
Page 39: ART AND ACTION Meléndez was named,
Page 43 and 44: THE PAST IN THE PRESENT Salvadoran
Page 45 and 46: THE PAST IN THE PRESENT while in of
Page 47 and 48: THE PAST IN THE PRESENT ecution. In
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Page 71 and 72: REMEMBERING ROMERO Lorne Matalon Sa
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Page 81 and 82: REMEMBERING ROMERO (Archbishop Ósc
Page 83 and 84: THE DIASPORA Sofía Jarrín-Thomas
Page 85 and 86: THE DIASPORA A Salvadoran-themed mu
Page 87 and 88: THE DIASPORA From the series, “Ho
Page 89 and 90: THE DIASPORA Marta Castillo Ramos i
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THE DIASPORA From left, clockwise:
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THE DIASPORA From left, clockwise:
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THE DIASPORA 4 2 3 From upper left,
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BOOK TALK democrat, who describes t
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BOOK TALK To Build or Not to Build?
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BOOK TALK ultimate theory that rule
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DAVID ROCKEFELLER CENTER FOR LATIN
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EL SALVADOR 1730 Cambridge St., Cam
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EL SALVADOR

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