Remembering Martin Luther King

This speech was given on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination

25th Anniversary Celebration and Visit from Friends of Batahola!

Chorus "Angel Torrellas" singing "Ave Maria" with the National Orchesta in Granada, March 7, 2008

Who's Defending Monsignor Romero?

Read this doc on Scribd: Who's Defending Monsignor Romero?

Questioning the New Ambassador to Nicaragua: Coordinator of the Contra War?- Witness for Peace Nicaragua

Read this doc on Scribd: Questioning the New Ambassador to Nicaragua: A Coordinator of the Contra War?

The Story of Stuff

Want to learn more about the environmental impacts of consumerism?

Watch online:
The Story of Stuff

"From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world."

This video was recently emailed out to the Ben Linder list serv. I found it very interesting, and wanted to share it with you all. Every country in the world faces environmental problems related to the extraction, production, and disposal of goods. Managua has many factories where workers endure brutal conditions, and the trash dump of Managua, La Chureca, is an open space on the banks of Lake Managua where trash is dumped and toxic runoff flows directly into the lake. There are many more examples of environmental problems and human rights abuses in Nicaragua, as in your own communities.

I hope you enjoy the video and use the links to discover ways you can be involved in protecting the environment.

- Laura

Father Roy Bourgeois Urges Nicaragua to Withdraw Troops from the School of the Americas

"Our God does not bless war, does not bless killing, does not bless violence"

On February 14, we heard from Fr. Roy Bourgeois at Casa Ben Linder. Nearly a hundred people gathered to hear the leader of the School of the Americas Watch organization to recount the history of the movement to close the U.S. military school that trains Latin American soldiers. The purpose of his current visit to Nicaragua is to meet with President Daniel Ortega to urge him to withdraw all Nicaraguan troops from the SOA.

What is the School of the Americas?

The School of the Americas (SOA), in 2001 renamed the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Initially established in Panama in 1946, the SOA was kicked out of that country in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Former Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.” The SOA, frequently dubbed the “School of Assassins,” has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned.

Over its 59 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins (History of the SOA).

Origins of the Movement

Fr. Roy remembered Benjamin Linder, a young engineer from the U.S. who came to Nicaragua in 1983 to accompany the poor and to work on creating hydroplants to provide villages with electricity. On April 28, 1987, Ben was ambushed along with his colleagues by the U.S.-backed Contra forces and shot at point-blank range. "Ben reminded us what it is to be in solidarity with the poor," said Fr. Roy. The Ben Linder group was created in remembrance of Ben and as a way that foreigners working in solidarity with Nicaraguans could create a network and denounce U.S. support of the Contras. Around the time that Ben was killed, Fr. Roy and others were being jailed for their peaceful protests against the training of the Contras in Florida.

As a young man, Fr. Roy believed the rhetoric surrounding the Vietnam war. After graduating from college, he enlisted in the Navy. He spent four years in Vietnam before being discharged . He had been wounded in a bombing raid which killed several of his friends and was awarded a Purple Heart. "We thought that we were liberators," he said, "but something happened to us--we are not made for war." His experiences in war forced him to examine his faith. "Our God does not bless war, does not bless killing, does not bless violence," he said. After leaving the Navy, Fr. Roy entered the Maryknoll community. He became a Catholic priest and was sent to live in Bolivia. "I came home [from Vietnam]," he said, "wanting to be a peacemaker."

"For the next five years, the poor became my teachers," Fr. Roy said. He was shocked by the U.S.'s role in the Bolivian dictatorship and was eventually exiled for speaking out against the repression. "It saddened me," he said, "to see my government in Bolivia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and so many other countries, on the wrong side. I saw so many crimes against humanity."

Returning to the U.S. gave Fr. Roy the opportunity to speak his fellow citizens about the effective of U.S. military intervention in Latin America, and he realized how little people in the U.S. knew about the situation. He became increasingly aware of the situation in El Salvador after the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the rape and massacre of four American churchwomen (two of whom were Fr. Roy's friends and fellow Maryknoll missionaries).

Protesting at the SOA

When 500 Salvadoran soldiers arrived at Fort Benning, Georgia to train, Fr. Roy rented a house nearby with several friends. He and two others disguised themselves as high-ranking military officers, and entered the School of the Americas for the first time. They made their way to the barracks of the Salvadoran troops, climbed a tree with a boombox, and waited until the lights went out to blast Oscar Romero's last sermon. Near the end of the sermon on March 14, 1980, Romero made an appeal to the armed forces:

"I would like to make a special appeal to the men of the army, and specifically to the ranks of the National Guard, the police and the military. Brothers, you come from our own people. You are killing your own brother peasants when any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God which says, "Thou shalt not kill." No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you recovered your consciences and obeyed your consciences rather than a sinful order. The church, the defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, of human dignity, of the person, cannot remain silent before such an abomination. We want the government to face the fact that reforms are valueless if they are to be carried out at the cost of so much blood. In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression."

Soldiers threatened to shoot Fr. Roy and his two friends. They were brought to the country jail, and were later sentenced to 1.5 years in jail. During the trial, while they tried to put the U.S.'s foreign policy on trial, they were silenced by the judge repeatedly.

After getting out of prison, Fr. Roy and his friends joined the growing movement of people protesting U.S. aid to El Salvador. Following the massacre of the 6 Jesuits and two women at the University of Central America in San Salvador, a U.S. Congregational task force was sent to El Salvador to investigate how U.S. military aid was being spent. The task force reported that 19 of the 22 soldiers responsible for carrying out the UCA massacre were trained at the SOA.

The first protest at the SOA carried out by Fr. Roy and his friends was a 35-day water-only fast. Each following year, on the anniversary of the UCA massacre, they gathered to protest, and the small group of protesters grew, from a few, to several dozens, hundreds, and thousands. In November, 2007, 25,000 people came to protest. They gathered to demand the closure of the SOA and to keep alive the memory of people who risked their lives to speak out against injustice, and for the many nameless who have been killed, raped, and tortured by U.S.-backed armed forces in Latin America.

In the early years of the movement, SOA Watch was able to obtain the names and countries of SOA graduates, as well as SOA training manuals (which contained torture techniques), and other materials under the Freedom of Information Act. In this way, SOA Watch was able to track graduates and expose human rights abuses attributed to them. Since 9/11, however, information from the SOA is much more difficult to obtain, and the names of graduates are no longer released.

The ILEA- International Law Enforcement Agency

I wrote in my November blog about the ILEA, the police training force in El Salvador to train Latin American troops in "counter-terrorism" tactics. As efforts to close the U.S.-based School of the Americas mounts, the treat of training schools in Latin America and other regions increases. For more information about the ILEA, see: The ILEA: Exporting "Criminal Justice" to Latin America from a Base in El Salvador.


Action in Nicaragua
On February 15, Fr. Roy and his team from SOA Watch and local activists met with President Daniel Ortega to share with him the history of the SOA and encourage him to withdraw Nicaraguan troops. While Ortega pledged his support to SOA Watch's cause, he did not commit to withdrawing his troops from the school.



We are hopeful that Ortega will decide to withdraw troops from the SOA to prevent future U.S.-supported violence in Nicaragua.

- Laura

Say No To Violence Against Women

UNIFEM, the United Nations Fund for Women, is looking for signatures on a Petition to Say NO to Violence Against Women. If they can get 100,000 signatures then the United Nations Foundation has committed that for each of the first 100,000 signatures to the campaign, the UN Foundation will donate $1 to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women. We need everyone's help to get 100,000 people to sign on to the UNIFEM campaign so that $100,000 will be contributed to the Trust Fund for local initiatives working to prevent human trafficking, assisting survivors of domestic violence or helping implement laws against rape.

Please sign the petition at:
www.saynotoviolence.org

Also, check out one organization that works throughout Nicaragua to end violence against women, the Red de Mujeres Contra la Violencia.

Thank you for your solidarity,
Laura

VMM Newsletter Jan. 2008

VMM is the U.S.-based organization that supports Friends of Batahola Volunteers, as well as volunteers all over the world, including Guatemala and El Salvador in Central America. View or download VMM's Jan. 2008 newsletter, and check out our update on page 4!

Thank you to all of our friends at VMM. We look forward to Betsy's visit this month!

Sincerely,
Laura

"Angel of the Poor:" Celebrating the life of Ángel Torrellas, one of the CCBN's Founders

At the Mass on Sunday, the community of Batahola Norte celebrated the life of one of the Center's founders, Fr. Ángel Torrellas, who passed on January 21, 2002.

The following are excerpts translated from the writing of Fr. José Luis Burguet, op:

Ángel Torrellas was born in the city of Gijón, Spain in 1930. He entered seminary at age 11, and eventually completed high school and theological studies. During his time in Spain, Ángel fell in love with music, going on to teach music and form a chorus in León.

Not feeling satisfied with his life, Ángel was convinced by his sister to take a course at the Instituto Superior de Pastoral de Madrid, and there discovered a distinct way of being Christian that responded to the poor. After finishing his studies, he requested from his Dominican superiors to be sent to Latin America, which lacked priests. He was sent to Netzahualcóyolt, Mexico, where he lived for six years.

In Mexico, Ángel met and began to work with the American Sister Margarita Navarro from the Congregation of Saint Joseph de Medaillle. She helped him in his human and spiritual development, and above all, to value and struggle for the liberation of women from exploitation and violence.

Ángel applied and was granted for permission from the Dominicans to move to Managua, and he and Margarita arrived on March 2, 1983, two days before the arrival of the Pope. The Dominicans assigned Ángel to the community of Batahola Norte, and he and Margarita immediately began working there, going door to door to meet people in the newly-constructed neighborhood. They visited over 800 homes, and soon began teaching in the community, with Ángel giving classes of flute and guitar, and Margarita classes of sewing and handicrafts. Ángel also celebrated Mass every Sunday.

Such great excitement on the part of Ángel and Margie, and the community arose that soon they were organizing to find the land to build an educational and cultural center, and people (and especially women) to share their talents in art, music, dance, typing, computing, natural medicine, and adult literacy. A women's group soon formed to reflect on their struggles, and to promote self-esteem and support.

The Ángel Torrellas Chorus began to grow and become famous in the country, giving hundreds of concerts throughout Nicaragua--in temples, markets, factories, streets, non-profit organizations, theaters, hotels, churches, and other places. The chorus was formed with the idea that music should be accessible to all, and with the knowledge that music is linked to spiritual formation. The chorus has given concerts on TV, created tapes and CDs, and given concerts in El Salvador, Guatemala, the U.S., and Canada. It has taught many youths the art of music directing, including the current director, Juan Guido, who was a student of Ángel's for many years. At weekly Mass, the Chorus performs the "Misa Campesina," which focuses on Jesus as being in solidarity with the poor of Latin America.

As the Centro Cultural Batahola Norte grew, it began to be filled with paintings and murals. A library, that attended to hundreds of children daily. Various groups of foreigners to the country began to visit to learn from the CCBN's work and what members of the community thought about the reality of Nicaragua. Hundreds of scholarships were given to youths in the community, many of whom now are professionals in various fields.

The greatest accomplishment of the CCBN has to been to foster a community that cares for others, that is infused with values of solidarity and living out a preferential option for the poor.

On January, 21, 2002, the community of Dominicans was preparing to pray in the morning. Ángel began to complain of terrible pain in his back and stomach, which appeared to be symptoms of appendicitis. He entered the Military Hospital at 8am, and the doctors reported serious problems with his aorta that required immediate operation. At 1:30pm, doctors began the operation, and quickly realized that the aorta was damaged in several places and it was impossible to repair. Ángel passed away that day in the hospital.
__

Six years later, Ángel's memory is kept alive by all who remember him at the CCBN, who were inspired by his example of solidarity and who continue to work, in the words of the CCBN's mission statement, to "transform this society to the Reign of God."

- Laura Hopps

Below is a video clip of the The Ángel Torrellas Chorus and Orchestra from the Mass, directed by Juan Guido, performing "Angel of Batahola," written by Nicaragua's most beloved singer, Carlos Mejía Godoy.

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Happy New Year family and friends! Laura and I both enjoyed a wonderful Christmas season with our families, and are now back in Batahola Norte working on preparations for the English program, researching small business start-up, and putting together proposals for the volunteer program. Our time spent at home was full of family, friends, and a good deal of fund raising and flashcard making for the English program. My Christmas was especially exciting seeing as I got to meet my new nephew - Patrick! I spent lots of time playing train with my other nephew Elijah, going to the park, and avoiding dirty diapers. All in all, my vacation was a time of relaxation and rejuvenation, enjoying the company of many of the people I love.

In the beginning of January I made a trip up to Pennsgrove, NJ to give a presentation to the Pennsgrove Rotary Club about the Centro Cultural and the new English program. We shared a great lunch, good conversation, and I think we are all excited to have met each other and formed a connection. Thank you Pennsgrove for your support and hospitality!!

The Centro Cultural is currently in the middle of matriculas, or class registration. New and returned students are coming everyday to learn about the classes being offered. We've already had a lot of people come asking about the English program. Laura and I will be co-teaching a class of 20-25 students for two hours every Monday-Thursday evening. We're in the process of working on our lesson plans and visuals, and are excited to meet our students in a few weeks! The class is open to anyone 15 years and up, and will be catered to people interested in learning English for professional purposes. Unemployment and underemployment are high in Managua, and good jobs can be difficult to find. English is a huge asset to being able to find a good job, with many businesses now requiring basic knowledge. Unfortunately most language schools are very expensive, so many of the people who would benefit from learning English, can't. The Centro Cultural is excited to be offering our class at a low rate, giving many people who wouldn't normally be able to learn English the chance to do so. They're able to offer the class inexpensively due to the fact that Laura and I are volunteer teachers and due to the generosity of our donors who are helping us buy books, dictionaries, etc. Laura and I are excited to finally be able to put our TEFL Certification to good use!

Aside from the English program preparations, I'm also working on a series of interviews concerning small business start-up. The Centro Cultural offered a class last year to 34 people (33 were women) interested in starting their own business. We're in the process of interviewing these participants to see how their projects/plans are coming and any problems they have run into along the way. After compiling all their answers, the hope is that we'll be able to find ways we can improve the course for the next group. It has been an interesting and valuable process for me to be able to meet so many new and motivated people and learn about the struggles small businesses face. Not surprisingly, money and being able to take out loans is a big hurdle for many.

I'm excited to meet with the women's quilting group this coming Monday. They've been working on lots of projects over break, so be expecting pictures in my next update! Thanks so much for reading, and for your support! Sending much love to all,
Christine

End of the Semester Arts Event at the CCBN

Saturday was the end of the year Cierre Cultural at the Centro Cultural Batahola Norte. A crowd of several hundred people gathered to watch presentations of folkloric dance, children's theater, and music, in addition to a presentation by the beauty course, and the awarding of diplomas for the arts classes. It was a beautiful event!

Congratulations to all of the students, and to the teachers, staff, and administrative team for their tireless efforts throughout the year to make the arts program available and to make it so vibrant. The huge crowd at the Cierre Cultural was a powerful reminder that the impact of the CCBN is not only on the students that receive classes, but on their families and community as a whole.

Below are a few of the photos, and a short clip from one of the folkloric dance performances.