From 1980-1992, El Salvador was torn apart by a brutal civil war, the legacies of which still linger today. The war claimed the lives of at least 75,000 civilians, many of them the victims of scorched earth massacres that wiped entire villages from the map; according to a United Nations Truth Commission, over 85% of these crimes were attributable to Salvadoran state forces and their aligned death squads. Yet decades later, no one has been held responsible for ordering these atrocities. Many Salvadorans are still searching for information about the fate of lost loved ones, seeking to recover their remains for reburial, or striving to honor their memory without fear of reprisals or recrimination. Read more about the history of El Salvador.
HOW TO USE THE ARCHIVE
The Unfinished Sentences Testimony Archive contains more than 170 excerpts of oral histories from 48 individuals. You can browse testimonies grouped by broad historical themes by clicking on the “Chapters” link or the chapter headings on the front page. Click “Search” to browse all videos and sort by subject or location, or search for a specific word or phrase in the video transcripts.
Click the title link above the video frame to see more information about a video, including subject and location tags, summary, and a full transcription. Clicking an individual’s name will show all published excerpts of their testimony. Clicking a subject or location tag will show all videos with that tag. You can also view and share videos via YouTube by clicking on the title in the video frame.
All videos are presented with audio in Spanish and subtitles in English. Unfortunately, we are not currently able to provide subtitles in Spanish; however, all videos are accompanied by a full text transcript in Spanish and English. Click the “English” and “Español” links at the top of the page to switch languages.
Please contact info@unfinishedsentences.org to report any technical issues or major errors in translation, transcription, or subtitling.
RESOURCES FOR USERS & INSTRUCTORS
Glossary – Coming soon!
Reading List – Coming soon!
Lesson Plans – Coming soon!
ABOUT THE ARCHIVE
Interviews with war survivors in the communities of Arcatao and San Antonio Los Ranchos in the department of Chalatenango, El Salvador, were conducted during 2013-2014 by students and staff of IDHUCA and UWCHR, with the collaboration of the Historical Memory Committee of Arcatao. Learn more about us. Free, prior, and informed consent was sought from all participants before conducting interviews, and all testimony excerpts included in the archive were individually approved for publication by the participants. All interviews were conducted with the support of psychologists trained in community-based approaches to trauma and healing. Some names have been changed and images have been obscured at the request of the participants for their privacy and security.
Due to the nature of the experiences discussed in the testimonies, some users may find the contents of the archive disturbing: topics include violence, rape, torture, death, and severe hardship. On the other hand, the archive also features narratives of resilience, survival, and mutual assistance in triumphing over adversity.