Rufina Amaya

Rufina Amaya (You Tube)

I met my hero, Rufina Amaya, on April 30th, 1996. She is a small Salvadoran woman with an amazing heart and strength that I can only imagine. She worked tirelessly telling her story in order to create a better community. Here is the journal entry that I wrote on the day that I met my hero Rufina over ten years ago.

The horrifying story took place on December 11, 1981 when over 1,000 people were massacred in the small village of El Mozote, El Salvador. The country was in the midst of a brutal civil war. As I stand at the tomb that marks the massive grave for an entire community one tear streaks down my face. The names of the murdered grace the walls as their only mark left on this once happy community. The memorial plaque reads: "Ellos noban muerto, estan con nosotros, con ustedes y con la humanidad entera."

Rufina Amaya is the sole survivor of the massacre. As we tour the site and walk on the red clay earth I think of the blood of the innocents that were murdered in this very spot. Remnants of the houses are all around me. The hills where the people sought refuge are full of painful stories. I stood next to the tree where Rufina hid during the massacre and can only imagine how she suffered as her four children screamed out the abuses they were enduring inside the church and as she watched her own husband's beheading. The pain this woman endured is so great it is truly unthinkable.

I feel overwhelmed by this spot and by Rufina's first hand telling of her story. She explains how she hid under the tree from 5pm to 1am and then was able to crawl away and run to the hills. She stayed in the hills with no food for weeks at a time. She met others from surrounding communities. Children cried and she helped them as she would her own children. She eventually lost them to their parents when they returned to the area. How do you keep on living when your entire family and community is gone and you are in fear for your life? God gave her an unbelievable strength, grace and hope for a better future. This hope for a better future helped her to tell her story. She first told her story about 15 days after the massacre when some folks from an international agency picked her up. She continued to tell the story of the ruthless Atlacatl battalion that killed an entire community and tried to cover up their brutality by burning the village and torching the church filled with people they'd shot and stabbed.

Rufina returned to El Salvador in the 1990's after seeking refuge in Honduras. She is an example to me of an amazing citizen. She cares for her community so much that she is willing to tell her painful story over and over to help her country face the wrong that they did and become a better place for future Salvadorans. Rufina died this year and I want to help her continue to tell her story.

Please read more about Rufina's story in: "The Massacre at El Mozote", by Mark Danner.