Profiles

Learn more about the people who live in Santa Anita la Unión. Read their stories...

My name is Doña Mari Alvarado. When I was young I lived on a finca near....

Tumbador in the department of San Marcos.  I lived with my parents and we worked the finca together, picking coffee.  It was there that I met my first husband and we stayed and continued working.  It was then that people began coming and giving talks about the struggle, explaining what was happening in the country, making the situation clear to us.  We were very ignorant at the time, and what they were saying made sense to us.  They invited us to come see the guerillas in the mountains and we took the offer and went and visited. 

Arriving there was frightening for me, walking up into the mountains with my husband and entering the guerilla camp, everyone dressed in green uniforms with boots, big green backpacks, and firearms strapped across their chests.  Women had not yet incorporated and I was the first one to join this front.  For this reason I was shy at first, I didn’t know anybody, and I didn’t know the customs of living in the mountains.  But my husband and I decided to stay.  They respected women, everyone had an equal role, and eventually I began to feel more comfortable being there.