Benefit for El Salvador

Tonight I attended a benefit dinner at a Salvadoran restaurant in Albuquerque's South Valley. The benefit was to raise a scholarship for a campesina from the northern mountains of El Salvador to attend the National University. The informational leaflet distributed read as follows:

"Few young people of the Segundo Montes Community and neighboring communities of northern Morazan, located in one of the poorest areas of El Salvador, have the possibility of attending university. There are no government scholarships and few families can afford tuition. Most universities are private and there is only one national university with two branches.

"Morazan was one of the areas of El Salvador that showed incredible resistance to military policies of genocide during the war years of the 1980's. the children of those parents, who survived the war by embracing and sustaining comunidad as a source of hope and liberation, carry forth that commitment by continuing to organize through the Los Quebrachos Youth Center. A 30 member scholarship committee from this organization selects applicants for a scholarship. We have requested that the scholarship be given to a young woman because of the need to develop future women leaders.

"Because the student must travel to San Miguel to attend university, room and board is necessary. Therefore the scholarship for each year costs $2,200."

Besides a tasty Salvadoran dinner served to the benefactors, there was a program of poetry and music. The music was provided by Chuy Martinez on guitar, and his companero on the harp. The poets who read their work were Demetria Martinez, Margaret Randall, and Renny Golden. It's interesting how people's paths cross again. I knew Renny years ago when I lived in Chicago, and encountered her earlier this year in Albuquerque, when we both attended a peace march. She lives here now.