Esperanza describes the difficulty of finding food after military operations and explains what living conditions were like in the guerrilla camps.
- Chapter:
- Chapter 5: Guerrilla Experiences
- Interviewee:
- Esperanza
Transcription
For example, after the "Guinda de Mayo", the soldiers wiped out everything they could find, and people were left without food. The people that could move went to loot kitchens, anywhere corn or grain was stored. They looked for it wherever they could find it, so that people wouldn’t starve to death. At least we had beans. When there were crops in the farms, they would cut the corncobs because people needed to be fed. They called it a requisition, although nowadays it would be considered stealing. Today, if you haven’t grown your own food and you go take the corncobs from other people’s farm, it means you’re stealing. Back then it was a requisition, which meant taking from whoever had enough to eat and giving it to someone who didn’t. But it was all because of the situation, because they wouldn’t let us have what we had. If they found a farm they would cut down all the corn, and the beans too. That's how we survived during 1983 and 1984. By 1985, there were fewer large operations and we were able to farm again. We harvested grain and formed a collective. The collective helped feed the popular forces and also the masses when we had nothing to eat.