I was very moved seeing the memorial wall for the victims of the civil war from the 1970s through 1991. It is a wall similar to our Vietnam Veteran's memorial, except the majority of the names on this wall were civilians. There is a section for each year of the war for the confirmed dead and a section for the missing men and women. All the victims are listed together, with no distinction for Archbishop Romero, the Jesuit priests killed, and the North American nuns. I was moved seeing the 3 sections of the names of the disappeared and killed and the two massacre locations that occurred during the year I was born-- 1988. The experience was even more powerful because Pastor Rafael was with us and pointed out the names of his family members and told us his family's story during the war.
Since the civil conflict is so central in understanding El Salvador, I am grateful for the opportunity to visualize the number of civilian deaths and see how it is possible for every Salvadorean to have lost someone in the conflict.
Jen
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