Collective memory in El Salvador has long been a fragile commodity. An infamous 1932 government massacre of mainly Indian peasants was officially purged from history books for decades afterward.
The country's brutal 12-year civil war of 1980-92 not only claimed tens of thousands of lives and razed entire villages. It also ravaged the country's heritage, fostering widespread amnesia about Salvadoran literature, music, indigenous culture and the performing arts.
Over the next week, an ambitious multimedia happening with the umbrella title "Preservacion de la Memoria Historica Salvadorena" (Salvadoran Preservation of Historic Memory) at the Los Angeles Theatre Center downtown will try to salvage some of that missing past.
Produced by L.A.-based Olin Theater Presenters, its centerpiece will be a half-dozen performances of a narrative dance-theater production, "De la Locura a la Esperanza: From Madness to Hope." The piece -- incorporating 30 actors and dancers, a children's choir, choreography by Saul Mendez Folkloric Ballet, spoken monologues and recordings -- attempts to address the civil war's haunting legacy while looking toward the future of Salvador's people, both at home and abroad. Its title comes from a report issued by the U.N. Truth Commission on the civil war.
The event, which begins today and wraps up Nov. 1, also will encompass a photo exhibition about the civil war years; a symposium on historic memory; a discussion of two of Salvador's most significant writers, the poet Roque Dalton and the all-around man of letters Salvador Salazar Arrue; and a show of manuscript facsimiles, photos and other artifacts examining the life and legacy of Arrue, known by his pen name Salarrué, whose most famous work, "Cuentos de Barro" (Tales of Mud), published in 1933, is regarded as an exemplar of the modern Central American short story.
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Strong backing
Two key supporters of the week's activities are Cal State Northridge, which claims to operate the only college-level Central American Studies Program in the United States, and the General Consulate of El Salvador in Los Angeles. Organizers say that "Preservacion" is easily one of the largest cultural events ever staged on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of people of Salvadoran descent living in Greater Los Angeles.
