No Thumbnail Available
Theologies of Resistance: Memorial Architecture in the Aftermath of El Salvador’s 1980-1992 Civil War
Details
- Supervisors
- Faculty
- Degree label
- Abstract
- Between 1980 and 1992, El Salvador has been in a continuous state of civil war. For 12 years, following the assassination of the Archbishop of El Salvador, Óscar Romero, the communist-supported guerilla fought the U.S.-sponsored military groups in an attempt to liberate the deprived population from the oppressive rule of their government. In the process, the military brutally massacred around 75.000 civilians, destroyed hundreds of villages in the departments of Chalatenango and Morazán and forced thousands of refugees to find shelter in the United Nations camps of Honduras. “Theologies of Resistance” investigates the consistent efforts of the reconstructed communities to keep and practice the memory of the Civil War. In the context of the apparent ignorance displayed by the authorities to proceed within the 4 successive stages of Transitional Justice: truth-seeking; the right to justice; establishing reparations for victims; and the guarantee of non-repetition in a reformed future; the traumatised population must cope with the war-caused distress without governmental support. By using bottom-up, participatory strategies that focus on healing the trauma and commemorating the ones who were massacred, these communities have grown into strong civic organisms which intend to honour the memory of their martyrs. The three memorials: Guinda de Mayo, Gualsinga, and Templo Memorial “Héroes y Mártires”, will become support for the development of 3 projects, within the guidelines of a method based on the economy of means and participatory design, towards 3 essential gestures which condense: the sacred, the mundane, the contextual, the historical, the functional, the efficient and the economic.