Segundo Montes, Morazán (also called Comunidad Segundo Montes or Ciudad Segundo Montes) is a community in Morazán Department, El Salvador, formed in 1990[1] by repatriated refugees who had fled the country's civil war. The community was named in memory of Segundo Montes, a Jesuit priest and scholar at the Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas" who was murdered by right-wing forces in November 1989 together with five other priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter.[1]
When the settlement was first proposed, the national government opposed the return of the refugees, ceding their right to return only after the United Nations intervened on their behalf.[2] Among those who made their home in Segundo Montes was Rufina Amaya, known as the lone survivor of the December, 1981, El Mozote massacre.[3]
In 1991, Ciudad Segundo Montes became a sister city to Cleveland, Ohio,[4][5] home of Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan, two American churchwomen raped and murdered by members of the Salvadoran National Guard in 1980.[6] The sister-city relationship was a joint project among Central American Network, the Salvadoran Association of Ohio, the Commission on Catholic Community Action and the Community Relations Board of the City of Cleveland.[7]
The community's beginnings in a Honduran refugee camp and their return to their homeland were the subject of a 1992 documentary by WHYY-TV of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The film was described by Philadelphia Inquirer critic Jonathan Storm as "hopeful," portraying how the town's founders increased local literacy rates "from next to nothing to 85 percent in a nine-year period" and showing the town's establishment while the war still was being waged.[8]
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ a b Dennis P. DeMaio and Hank Brusselback. "Amid war, Salvadoran village rises anew," Rocky Mountain News (Colorado), September 5, 1990, page 45.
- ^ Arthur Golden. "Returned refugees know little peace in desolate town," The San Diego Union (CA), December 9, 1990, page 1A.
- ^ Timothy Gilfoil. "Salvadoran refugees return home," Sunday Republican (Springfield, MA), April 28, 1991, page A1.
- ^ Darrell Holland. "Helping a troubled sister: Cleveland extends hand to Salvadoran City," The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), August 3, 1991, page 7D.
- ^ Sam Fullwood III. "Cleveland’s family is worldwide," The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), July 22, 2004, page B1.
- ^ William F. Miller. "Salvadoran glad to see war is over," The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), January 8, 1992, page 1B.
- ^ William F. Miller. "Toothbrushes en route to Salvadorans," The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), September 11, 1992, page 5B.
- ^ Jonathan Storm. "WHYY films shed light on Latin lands," The Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), September 22, 1992, page E1.
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