what an honor it has been to work on the processing and publishing of the El Rescate archives.
i learned so much, even if a lot of it wasn’t pretty. i sat though pages of some of the most violent history. my first day at work i came home shaking because of what i was reading daily. i was worried i wouldn’t know enough spanish to do the work well and sure enough day one i read this word i didn’t recognize “ametrallar” i had to look it up and it felt really weird for the first thing i learned to be a new word for murder. that defined a lot of my experience moving forward: the joy of learning something new, and the sadness of it being so horrific.
a lot of stuff made me angry. lots of the cassette tapes (recorded by journalist chris norton) are from press conferences with salvadoran officials, military officers, or US embassy men. fuck all of those guys. my personal tiny revenge was finding the names of all the men in the cassette tapes. the tapes would come unlabeled and i’d have to listen closely to figure out what year the tape was recorded (usually through noting down major events, locations) and then from there i can determine who was the ambassador or whatever was at the time. i wanted to make sure their names were written down so everyone would know who said those things.
despite all those feelings i step away from this project knowing that salvadorans are the fiercest in the world. i would smile to myself at my desk hearing the ambassadors on cassette tape try and downplay the victories of unionists and rebels. all these photos you see here, and the many others stored away, made me smile and just think about how proud i am to be salvadoran american!!
YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A CSUN STUDENT TO ACCESS THE ARCHIVES. anyone can come look through them.
these archives may be housed at csun, but they belong to the people. they are record of the true salvadoran history, they are proof our history is NOT a farce, but it a fierce history of struggle no matter the odds and no matter the ending.
my last day was today and i’m sad to leave the office but i’m glad the work is done for everyone to experience! ASÍ SACABUCHE!
TECUS would like to invite you to the opening of the historic El Rescate Collection now held at CSUN Special Collections & Archives! ☀️
El Rescate was founded in 1981 by Salvadoran refugees with the support of the Southern California Ecumenical Council to meet the urgent need for legal and social services for refugees fleeing the civil war. The organization donate their archival records to CSUN’s Special Collections and Archives. For the first time, historic documents, photos, and special digital materials are now processed and available for researcher and community access. 🗃️
The struggle against US imperialism and for immigration and refugee justice is still urgent today. Discover the history of the fight with us November 2nd, 2-5pm at CSUN Library Jack & Florence Ferman Presentation Room. 📚
Find more event details at library.csun.edu/events/el-rescate.
