THE SALVADORAN MARTYRS AND THEIR LEGACY FOR JUSTICE

IGNACIO ELLACURÍA, S.J. Ignacio Ellacuría was born in 1930 in and joined the Jesuits at the age of 17. After years of seminary and study in , Ecuador, and Austria, Ellacuría returned to El Salvador in 1967 as a professor of theology and philosophy at UCA. He later went on to become president () of the university.

ELLACURÍA’S LEGACY FOR JUSTICE Throughout El Salvador’s civil war, Ellacuría was one of the loudest advocates for peace negotiations. He acted as an informal mediator between the FMLN and the Salvadoran government. Ellacuría and his fellow Jesuits were targeted by the army as “intellectual ringleaders” to be eliminated. Despite multiple death threats, Ellacuría continued to work for peace and the rights of innocent until his death.

IGNACIO MARTÍN-BARÓ, S.J. Ignacio Martín-Baró was born in Spain in 1942 and joined the Jesuits at 17. In 1981, he assumed the position of academic vice-rector of UCA and was the head of the psychology department, where he taught about the psychology of liberation. Outside of UCA he was known as “Padre Nacho,” particularly by his congregation at the Jayaque rural parish in the coffee growing region 30 miles west of the .

MARTÍN-BARÓ’S LEGACY FOR JUSTICE In July 1989, he founded UCA’s Institute of Public Opinion. The institute let him conduct polls that measured popular opinion about the civil war, a war characterized by violence, polarization, and the “institutionalized lie.”

AMANDO LÓPEZ QUINTANA, S.J. Amando López Quintana was born in 1939 in Burgos, Spain and joined the Jesuits in 1952. He lived and worked in El Salvador from 1970-72 until a move to Nicaragua in 1974. In 1983 he returned to UCA to be a professor of philosophy and theology and chair of the philosophy department. He also served as a parish pastor.

LÓPEZ QUINTANA’S LEGACY FOR JUSTICE He was an advocate for the nation-wide literacy campaign headed by Fernando Cardenal, S.J., that reached hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans. THE SALVADORAN MARTYRS AND THEIR LEGACY FOR JUSTICE

JUAN RAMÓN MORENO PARDO, S.J. Juan Ramón Moreno Pardo entered the in 1950 in El Salvador. He studied and worked in Ecuador, at Saint Louis University, Panama, Nicaragua, and in Rome. From 1971-74 taught at UCA in El Salvador, then returned to UCA in 1985, where he remained until his death.

MORENO’S LEGACY FOR JUSTICE Moreno helped Ignacio Ellacuría organize the Centro de Reflexión Teológica, where he served as the assistant director of the Monsignor Romero Centro Pastoral—the building where the assassinations took place. He also provided pastoral assistance at a Jesuit parish and helped with a literacy campaign in the village of Santa Lucía for internally displaced refugees.

JOAQUÍN LÓPEZ Y LÓPEZ, S.J. The oldest of the eight people killed at the University of , López was the only slain Jesuit who was born in El Salvador. He trained as a Jesuit novice in El Paso, Texas and Oña, Spain. At UCA, López served as a university administrator.

LÓPEZ Y LÓPEZ’S LEGACY FOR JUSTICE In 1969 López helped bring the Fe y Alegría (Faith and Joy) foundation to El Salvador to educate marginalized children, teens, and adults. A movement that began in Caracas, Fe y Alegría focused on education as a key factor in the empowerment of the poor. The center in El Salvador offered those in need three schools, four workshops, and one clinic. In the 1980s, López helped carry out resettlement projects for the internally displaced victims of the civil war through Fe y Alegría.

SEGUNDO MONTES MOZO, S.J. Segundo Montes Mozo entered the Society of Jesus in 1950 at the age of 17. After years of formation, study, and teaching in Ecuador, Austria, and Spain, Montes returned to El Salvador in 1978 to become the chair of the Department at the University of Central America. Montes founded UCA’s Institute of Human Rights.

MONTES’ LEGACY FOR JUSTICE Montes became well known in the Americas for his and activism, authoring a study for Georgetown University on refugees and exiles. He served as an informal advisor to Democratic Congressman Joe Moakley of Massachusetts, who was advocating amendments to U.S. immigration laws that would protect Salvadoran refugees. After receiving death threats due to his advocacy for human rights, he simply said: “If they kill me, they kill me.” THE SALVADORAN MARTYRS AND THEIR LEGACY FOR JUSTICE

JULIA ELBA RAMOS AND CELINA MARICET RAMOS Elba Ramos was a domestic worker in San Salvador and worked on coffee farms during the harvest season; her husband, Obdulio, worked on farms as well. In 1970 the couple moved to Jayaque, El Salvador, and had four children together, but the two oldest died at a young age. Their third child, Celina, was born in 1973.

In 1985 Elba was hired as a cook and housekeeper at the University of Central America; Obdulio was hired as a watchman and gardener there in 1989. After her husband was hired, the family moved to the southeastern end of the university grounds near the main gate, where their new house backed up to a street that had been bombed. Concerned for their safety, Elba and Celina moved into the empty room of the Jesuits’ residence called the Avenida Einstein. Celina was a high school student and had completed her first year of business studies.

Julia and Celina Ramos’ Legacy for Justice: Elba and Celina were killed in cold blood because the did not want to leave any witnesses. The Atlacatl Rapid Reaction Battalion, which was the elite unit of the Salvadoran army that conducted the assassinations, made their deaths a symbol of innocent victims because they were noncombatants in the civil war in which the Jesuits were perceived as a valid threat.

Elba’s body was nearly unrecognizable and was found shielding Celina’s body in their room. Obdulio, who had already lost two young children, found all eight bodies the following morning. He planted a circle of six red rose bushes for the Jesuits and two yellow rose bushes in the center of the circle for his wife and daughter.

The roses still grow today.

REFLECTION • Why is it important that we remember the names and legacies of each of the Jesuit martyrs and companions? • Who are figures in the world today who are risking their status, power, privilege, or even lives to bring about justice? • How can we keep the legacy of the martyrs alive in our schools, our communities, and in our own lives?