Salvadoran woman dies in DC Metro crash

In a sad reminder of how Salvadorans are touched by what happens in the United States everyday, yesterday the Prensa Gráfica announced that a 40 year-old Salvadoran woman, Ana Fernández, died in the tragic Metro crash in Washington, DC on Monday. Fernández, orginally from San Alejo in the department of La Unión, had been living in the United States for twenty years, and had just succeeded in bringing her eldest son to live with her in the United States. Ana Fernández leaves behind her loving husband of four years, Óscar Martínez, six children, her parents, and her five brothers and sisters. Fernández's husband gave an interview to a local news station, stating, "She was the center of our family, I don't know how to read or write."

SHARE sends its condolences to all of the victims of Monday's crash and their families across borders.

*Photo from La Prensa Gráfica.

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

Stop the raids and deportations!

Join the SHARE Foundation on Friday, May 1st, in Washington, DC to march for immigrant justice. This is a critical time for all those who support the immigrant community to mobilize and demand that President Barack Obama make good on his promise to put forward immigration reform legislation in 2009.

Our demands:

• Stop the raids and deportations
• Just and humane immigration reform
• End the 287(g) Agreements (no local enforcement of unjust immigration laws)

To join the march, meet at Malcolm X Park at 3PM (click here for directions) and at 4PM we will march to the White House.

This mobilization is sponsored by the National Capital Immigrant Coalition (NCIC). To endorse this action, contact David Thurston at dthurston@casamd.org.

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

Father Miguel Vasquez visits Kansas City to commemorate Oscar Romero

The article below provides coverage of Father Miguel Vasquez's recent tour to Kansas City, MO, sponsored by the SHARE Foundation, the Kansas City Sister Parish Committee, and St. Sabina Parish. Father Miguel (in photo at left), from Arcatao, El Salvador, spoke to the community about his memories of Oscar Romero, who was assassinated before he was scheduled to ordain Father Miguel to become a priest. Below is an article written by Kevin Kelly for the Catholic Key.

Father Miguel Vasquez Hernandez knew the four U.S. women missionaries who were raped and murdered by Salvadoran National Guard soldiers in December 1980.

As a newly ordained priest, he served the same poor in the same area of the country as did Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel and lay missioner Jean Donovan.

Father Vasquez also knew the six Jesuit professors at Central American University, who were slain execution-style on the campus in November 1989. They taught him when he was a seminarian nine years earlier.

But Father Vasquez also knew very well San Salvador Archbishop Oscar Romero, gunned down as he was celebrating Mass on March 25, 1980.

Like all bishops, Archbishop Romero took a special and personal interest in his seminarians, Father Vasquez told nearly 100 people at the annual memorial, held this year at St. Sabina Parish, for the archbishop who has become a symbol of service to the poor to the point of sacrificing life.

“When they killed Archbishop Romero, I devoted myself to working with the poor and the refugees,” Father Vasquez told the gathering March 20.

Now the pastor of San Bartolome Parish in an area outside of San Salvador that was hit hard by the civil war that raged through the 1980s, Father Vasquez said that Archbishop Romero remains alive in the people he serves.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

Romero Justice Week - Baltimore, MD Celebration with Bishop Rosa Chavez

In commemoration of the 29th anniversary of Archbishop Oscar Romero's martyrdom, SHARE's friends at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, Maryland Presbyterian Church, St. Andrew's By the Bay, St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church, and Govans Presbyterian Church held a procession and mass with their invited guest, Auxiliary Bishop of San Salvador Gregorio Rosa Chavez. Keep checking SHARE's blog for more reports and pictures from Romero events!

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

¡El agua es nuestra!

More than 52,000 Salvadorans have signed a petition in support of a constitutional amendment for the right to safe, clean water - and hundreds of those signatories marched in San Salvador to personally deliver the document to the Legislative Assembly, reports the Latin American Herald Tribunal. According to the World Bank, El Salvador is the worst country with regard to providing access to clean water, yet the Legislative Assembly has yet to approve the amendment. The article cites ARENA (National Republican Alliance) deputies as the source of most of the opposition to the amendment. The ARENA party has strong ties to private businesses that wish to privatize water resources. However, with ARENA's loss of seats in the Legislative Assembly, the possibility that the Legislative Assembly will approve the amendment looks more positive in May, when the new Legislative Assembly will take over.

SHARE Foundation supports Salvadorans' demand for universal access to safe, clean drinking water. Privatization, mining, contamination by factories, and lack of sanitation services threaten communities' access to water as well as the lives of Salvadoran citizens everyday. This year as SHARE celebrates the life and legacy of Monsignor Romero, we also ask our partners to raise awareness on water rights both in their own communities and abroad. To find out how you can support water rights in El Salvador, contact Sara Skinner at skinner@share-elsalvador.org.

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

Press for SHARE's Election Observation Delegation

The SHARE Foundation and its partners have been in the news of late! As Election Day in El Salvador nears, our grassroots partners are holding fundraisers to support SHARE's election observation delegation.

Over the weekend in Salem, OR, four college students showed documentaries that touch on human rights and social justice issues. The students were encouraged to take part of SHARE's delegation by Salvadoran Lutheran Bishop, Medardo E. Gómez, who visited Salem in October. Julie Silverman, a graduate student at Columbia University in New York, told the Statesman Journal that she sees this delegation as an "opportunity to make a difference in the lives of disenfranchised Salvadorans. Julia's sister, Bryn, plans to make a documentary of their experience. To read more about the event in Salem, click here.

On Saturday, February 21, in Washington, DC, a group of 16 American University students (see picture above) and their faculty advisor, Joe Eldridge, organized a concert and fundraiser for their delegation. The band, Nueva Cosecha, played traditional songs and pop songs, while guests munched on traditional Salvadoran cuisine. While the atmosphere was festive, the students were very serious about their participation in the upcoming delegation. José Henríquez, the co-student leader of the American University group, shared, "[The students] are learning the specific details of what it means to be part of an electoral observation mission, and the role that election observers play in a different country." To read more about the event in Washington, DC, click here.

For more Salvadoran election coverage visit the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections' blog.

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

FMLN Presidential Candidate to Speak in Washington, DC Tomorrow

Mauricio Funes, FMLN presidential candidate, will speak at the Wesley United Methodist Church in Washington, DC on Friday, December 12, 2008. The event, sponsored by the FMLN, will begin at 4:30PM, and Mauricio Funes is expected to speak at 5:30PM. SHARE Foundation is not co-sponsoring the event, but we encourage folks in the area to attend to hear what the presidential candidate has to say.

Wesley United Methodist Church is located at the UDC-Van Ness metro stop on the red line. The L1, L2, and L4 buses also stop near the church.

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

SHARE DC REACHES OUT TO SALVADORAN COMMUNITY

Following the guidance of one of our strategic goals, SHARE DC reached out to the Salvadoran community in Washington DC during Hispanic Heritage Month. The Washington DC metro area is home to the second largest Salvadoran community in the United States after Los Angeles, CA. With approximately 500,000 Salvadorans living in the area, they constitute the largest foreign-born population according to the 2005 US Census. Migration from El Salvador to Washington started in the 1970’s, increased in the 1980’s because of the civil war and continued to grow in the late 1990s and into this decade because of the harsh economic conditions back home.


a) Fiesta DC 2008

Each year, Fiesta DC, a non-profit organization sponsored in part by the DC Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs, organizes events during Hispanic Heritage Month. The largest of these events is Fiesta DC’s Latino Festival, which includes a parade of nations, a children’s festival, an arts and crafts fair, food vendors, music and dance performances, and a community-based organization information fair. This year more than 60,000 people attended the Festival on Sunday, September 28th. Therefore the Latino Festival is an excellent opportunity for non-profit organizations to reach out to the Latino community, particularly to Salvadorans. SHARE DC, with the support of the Salvadoran Allies Group (CISPES, Sister Cities, Voices on the Border and SHARE) and the Center for International Policy (CIP) had a booth at the fair to raise SHARE’s visibility among the Salvadoran community and to advocate for free and fair elections in El Salvador. To prepare for the event, the SHARE DC Grassroots Team asked and received contributions from the Salvadoran Allies Group and CIP to sponsor the table. Each organization was invited to send organizational materials and volunteers for the event. SHARE DC was in charge of coordinating the volunteers and materials, set up and take down the booth, and disseminate materials to festival visitors.
The day of the Festival, SHARE DC staffed the table from 8:00am to 6:30pm and handed out grassroots and advocacy materials to visitors. In addition SHARE DC took advantage of the opportunity to promote a petition in response to the presentation given by Salvadoran Minister of Foreign Minister, Marisol Argueta, at the American Enterprise Institute where she asked for U.S. intervention in the Salvadoran elections. SHARE’s petition, with all of the signatures, will be sent to President Saca to implore him to ensure that public employees do not use their positions to influence public opinion on who should win the elections, to ask Argueta to explain her statements, and to respect the sovereignty of the Salvadoran people. SHARE DC gathered 91 signatures for the petition at the festival, 20 people signed up for SHARE’s E-news, and 10 people took home SHARE’s 2009 Presidential Election Delegation flyer. SHARE DC also supported CIP’s campaign to promote investment in potable water in El Salvador, as well as, CISPES’ biking event. Most importantly, SHARE DC was able to speak Salvadorans living in the metro DC to show them that SHARE Foundation is walking in solidarity with their brothers and sisters back home.


b) Cutumay Camones Concert,

On Saturday October 4, SHARE DC had a table at the Cutumay Camones Concert. The band formed in May 1982 in El Salvador, taking the name of a town located in the Santa Ana Department, which was famous for a battle that took place a few days after the FMLN offensive in January 10, 1981. Currently, with most of their members living in the US, Cutumay Camones’ mission is to recover, through its music, the Salvadoran traditions and heritage.

The event was held in the Wesley United Methodist Church in Washington DC and was attended by a multitude of Salvadorans. The concert was organized by the Day Laborers National Network, Metro D.C. , Manuel Zapata Humanitarian Center and Salvadoran Cultural Association MILPA.

In just a few hours, from 8:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. SHARE DC was able to collect 44 signatures for the petition to protest the Foreign Affairs Minister’s statements, and has since gathered a total of 400.

In addition, SHARE DC handed out grassroots and advocacy materials, promoted the electoral delegations and networked with representatives of several Salvadoran organizations.



SHARE DC will keep reaching out to the Salvadoran community at future events in order to strengthen relations with organizations in the area and get Salvadoran-Americans involved in SHARE’s work.

c) Stop the Raids and Deportations: Emergency Response Protest of the Recent Raids in California

On Friday, October 10, 2008, SHARE DC participated in an emergency protest of ICE in response to the recent raids and detainment of over 1,157 undocumented immigrants. The protest took place in front of ICE National Headquarters and was sponsored by DC Alliance for Immigrant Justice, Metro DC Interfaith Sanctuary Network, Casa de Maryland, CISPES, DC Jobs with Justice, DC Students for a Democratic Society, the National Day Labor Organizing Network, and the Washington Peace Center. Over fifty people showed up with signs and banners and marched in a circle in front of the building as ICE employees left for the day. After the march, the group held a press conference in front of the building where representatives of each sponsoring organization spoke out against the racist, xenophobic attacks. Jean Stokan, former SHARE staff member, was the final speaker at the press conference. SHARE DC brought one of the SHARE DC interns, Lars Joon Flydal, to participate in the protest. Univisión televised portions of the protest and the press conference.