20 Year Tradition

By Jessica Alway

Eight crosses, a couple of statues and an honorary degree represent the foundation of a 20-year relationship between Santa Clara and El Salvador.

University activities revolving around the Latin American country including classes, speakers, immersion trips, study abroad programs, protests and faculty retreats reflect the school's increasing ties to El Salvador.

This connection began in 1982 when the president of University of Central America (UCA) Ignacio Ellacuria, S.J. traveled from the country to Santa Clara to accept an honorary degree and deliver the commencement speech for graduation. At this time he invited Santa Clara to become a sister university to UCA in its struggle for justice for the poor. Seven years later, on Nov. 16, 1989 he was murdered at the University of Central America along with five Jesuit colleagues, their housekeeper and her daughter.

Handmade crosses for each of the women and priests murdered in El Salvador dot the lawn in front of Mission Santa Clara de Asis on campus. A 7-ft. bronze statue of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, which sits on Kenna Lawn, includes eight crosses for the same martyrs as well. But not everyone is aware that one of these victims received an honorary degree at Santa Clara many years ago.When survivor, Jon many years ago.When survivor, Jon Sobrino, S.J., who was abroad at the time of the attack came to Santa Clara for refuge after the assassinations, the relationship between Santa Clara and the Jesuits in El Salvador was further solidified.

In the fall of 2000 the university spearheaded an effort to establish Casa de la Solidaridad, a study abroad program that brings students from Jesuit colleges and universities across the Unites States to study in El Salvador at UCA. Together with the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and UCA, Santa Clara created a program that emphasizes the intellectual and moral development of college students to prepare them for citizenship, service, and leadership in a global society.

President Paul Locatelli, S.J., also visited El Salvador in September as part of a larger delegation and met with students studying abroad.

Casa de la Solidaridad is designed to provide an opportunity to U.S. students in their junior year to integrate a semester of academic studies with the experience of being immersed in the cultural context of El Salvador. The students live in a community house and spend a significant part of their experience with Salvadorans, learning and living post-war lives.

Junior Jen Re said she chose to study in El Salvador to work with people in the community.

"It just fit," she said in a phone conversation from San Salvador. "It seemed like a good combination of studying and learning by working in the community."

She added that the school's Jesuit tradition only strengthens its ties to the country.

"Definitely what happened with the martyrs [was a major connection], and the church was the only voice defending the people and was strong enough to speak out," she said.

Junior Jelena Radovic-Fanta, also a particiapnt of the program, agreed. "I knew that for my study abroad experience I wanted something nontraditional that would allow me to be immersed in a new culture, live a new reality, and that contained the important aspect of social justice," she wrote in a reflection on the Casa de Solaridad Web site. "Ever since I read a pamphlet on Casa de la Solidaridad, it drew my attention for its emphasis on justice and solidarity. It is the perfect combination of education and a unique learning experience taught to me by the Salvadoreños."

Students wishing for slightly less commitment can participate in the immersion to trips to El Salvador sponsored by the Arrupe enter which take place during spring break.

Last year, 10 students traveled to Guarjila, El Salvador, where heavy fighting occurred during the Salvadoran Civil War. This number was up dramatically from the first trip in 2000, when four students joined four faculty members, four staff members and Provost Stephen Privett and Vice Provost Sonny Manuel on a trip to commemorate the Romero assassination, which occurred while the archbishop was performing mass on March 24, 1980 in El Salvador.

A small group of faculty members, usually 10 to 12, also travel to El Salvador annually for immersion trips in September, before the school year begins. Both groups have been active in the campaign to convince the U.S. government to close the School of the Americas, where members of many right-wing death squads in Latin America received military training, in addition to teaching others to respond compassionately and self-critically to those most in need.

The connection is not only active in El Salvador on campus, but in Georgia as well. Jesuit colleges and universities send students each year to the Protest of the School of the Americas ever November, on the anniversary of the murders of the priests. There will be 21 students, faculty and staff going to Georgia while another group of students and faculty go to El Salvador to commemorate the anniversary.

Michael Coyler of the Arrupe Center is traveling to El Salvador next Tuesday to attend the open house put on by the students attending Casa de la Solidaridad for all Jesuits institutions across the United States.

His mission, he says, is twofold. Officially he will be looking at the progress the program has made along with other representatives, but Coyler said he will also be searching the country for other opportunities for service. The Arrupe Center is looking for other sites for immersion trips in addition to those Santa Clara already participates in.

"I think it is so important that students have the opportunity to go to place like El Salvador," said Coyler.