December 2018 – Executive Director’s Reflections & News from El Salvador
From the Peace Mission’s Executive Director By Mary K. Stevenson My Trail of Tears Monday, October 29th, on my way to see friends of COAR in SE Tennessee, I, literally, drove on the Trail of Tears. That is the path the Cherokee marched when President Andrew Jackson forced them off their land and out to western […]
St. Romero! Canonized Oct 14th 2018
COAR ~ the Community of Oscar A. Romero Celebrates St. Romero’s canonization October 14th 2018 COAR is the oldest extant organization to bear his name ~ more: Celebrated in Rome! COAR’s Executive Director, Mary, and the Director of the Children’s Village, Marta, were in Rome with 60,000 (yikes!) other St. Romero (and Pope St. Paul […]
More About Cardinal Rosa Chavez
COAR, the Community of Oscar A. Romero, is the oldest extant organization in the world to carry the name of Oscar Romero with the approval of the Archdiocese of San Salvador. Oscar Romero will be canonized in the fall of 2018. Note from COAR’s Executive Director: On April 28th, COAR honored Romero’s long-time friend and […]
Gangs Threaten All Civil Society: Worst violence since the WAR
“The violence is terrible. Gangs occupy every inch of this country. If you are young and you enter a neighborhood where you don’t live, they will shoot you dead on the spot. It has not been this bad since the war! No one is safe” remarked Rebeca (name changed for her protection). During our last […]
The Next Generation: Facing Reality with a SMILE
Did you know that 53% of all Salvadorans are under the age of 25. One half of the population is college aged or younger. That is a huge population beginning to enter the work force but with little life experience to guide them and a society in which “home” may be a cinder block house […]
25 Years After the Peace Accords: Catholic Church Still Planting Seeds of Hope
The banners on several online Salvadoran newspapers have recently proclaimed that it is the “25th Anniversary of the Peace Accords”. In an act of national reflection, online papers have begun to dedicate space to a societal discussion of what has changed in El Salvador since the Peace Treaty. Surprisingly, most of the discussion refers […]
Possible Food Shortage: Central America Suffers Unusual Drought Due to El Nino
The climate in El Salvador is quite different from what we are used to in the northern MidWest. Our winter, roughly November thru April, is actually the Salvadoran summer. It is the dry and sunny season. There is almost no significant rainfall during this time of year. It is the beach-lovers paradise: tons of sun […]
Salvadorans love Korean Soap Operas! Who knew?
How many of you have flipped through the cable channels and stopped, ever so briefly, on a Mexican Soap Opera? Here in America, the Mexican Telenovela is ubiquitous. They are often the butt of jokes in movies and English-language TV shows. But, did you know that since 2004, Korean Soap Operas or “Doramas” have dominated […]
Oscar Romero “Smiles Down upon El Salvador” during his Beatification
May 23rd, 2015, over 250,000 Salvadorans flooded the streets surrounding the Divino Salvador del Mundo monument in the capital city to celebrate the beatification of slain Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero. The Archdiocese had constructed a temporary stage in front of the monument. Throngs of people lined the streets emanating outward like roots of hope from […]
Maybe Some Justice for the 4 Church Women?
At 1230pm on Wednesday, April 8th, 2015, former Salvadoran General Carlos Vides Casanova, walked onto the tarmac at the Comalapa International airport in El Salvador, a deported man – a man with an uncertain future. After 25 years in Florida, his deportation back to El Salvador was now a reality. Vides Casanova had been head […]