Silencing Memories: The Workers' Movement for Democracy in El Salvador, 1932-1963 Main Menu Welcome! Reflections of the life and times of Felíx Panameño: The Workers' Struggle in El Salvador, 1920 - 1934. Table Of Contents TOC Let them be heard! Introduction Purpose of Study Background Methodology The Roots of Forced Labor A Point of Departure Trade Unions and other actors New Era of Terror About Felix Social Control Transnationalizing Salvadoran Memories and Struggles Family Tree Felix Panameno Bio A Salvadoran Political Activist

Chapter Overview

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This thesis is divided in two sections. The first three chapters include an introduction to the study, which breaks down the different forms of silences that affect how the history of El Salvador has been constructed. This first section also includes historical background pertinent to the shaping of a worker’s identity and later examines the various ideologies through the lens of class, race and gender. The second section positions Felix Panameño within the struggle of the workers and political factions from the 1930s to the 1950s. Then, with Abuelita Letty’s testimony, El Salvador's political and social affairs are examined between the 1950s and early 1960s to highlight the repressive mechanisms of social control that had urban workers migrating. The last chapter concludes with a reflection on the repression that criminalized political activists to the repression that forced migration to the United States; exploring how the present is linked to the past and ways to better understand El Salvador today.

Chapter 1, Factors in Silencing Memories, introduces my study revealing the purpose of the thesis, a look at other studies related to my work, and the methodology used to accomplish it.

Chapter 2, The Roots of Forced Labor, traces the origins of the laborer from the time of conquest through the end of the 19th century to anchor labor struggles and resistance to the foundation of colonization. It covers the introduction of liberalism, which emphasized the individual over the collective, and concludes with an analysis of the long history of imposing identities and the exclusionary ideologies that over time embedded racial scripts, many of which are still used today.

Chapter 3, A Point of Departure examines the different ideologies making their way into the Americas that mostly conflicted with liberalism and imperialism, but at the same time invigorating the workers’ movement. These ideologies included communism and brought to the forefront political activist type figures such as Feliciano Ama, Agustín Farabundo Martí, Miguel Mármol, and Alberto Masferrer, and that led to networks with activist neighbors such as Honduran, Juan Pablo Wainwright and Graciela Garcia for example. Set against the literature and collective memory of this time period, the political and economic struggles of the unions, such as that of the zapateros (shoemakers), students and campesinos, must be understood within the expansion of capitalism and rise of security forces such as the National Guard.

Chapter 4, New Era of Terror focuses on the broad sociopolitical crisis of Central America leading to the assassinations of notable leaders of the struggle and, of course, La Matanza. Many of the workers who had incorporated themselves into the Communist Party often found themselves in exile, navigating through the corridors of el Triangulo Norte (the Northern Triangle) of Central America between Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador to collaborate, raise awareness, and for the more practical reason of making a living.[1] This section includes the many persecutions of Felix Panameño, and his family’s hardships through his political trajectory over the course of nearly twenty years.

Chapter 5 Social Control shows the U.S. and Latin America’s historical power relations that have fueled emigration North for decades. I highlight the counter-revolutionary movements to the political forces that began driving Salvadorans to migrate in the 1960s.

Chapter 6 on the Transnationalizing Salvadoran Memories and Struggles that explores how silences are carried across borders, and depending on when you entered the United States, how sociopolitical conditions and social movements can impact historical interpretation. Hence, a better understanding of the past opens up the space for resolutions.
 
[1] Villars, Lealtad y rebeldía, p. 203.