Juana describes the hardships involved in the guinda, during which finding food was a challenge.
- Chapter:
- Chapter 3: The Years of "Guindas"
- Interviewee:
- Juana
Transcription
[When you were fleeing, there must have been great need for food and medicine.]
There was none to be found, we weren't carrying any. Maybe someone had a first aid kit but it wasn’t enough. If a child had some type of pain the only thing we could do was to chew on some herbs and give that to them. That’s what we gave them for stomachaches. While we were walking we could only eat when we had a break from the enemy. Sometimes all we had was raw wet sorghum, which we gave to the children. When we had time. It was a bit dirty, because we would chew on it with our own teeth and give it to the children. But we couldn’t do anything else. So that's what we did. It was such a long journey. There was a tragedy when a group of people climbed up a rockslide, around the area of Los Alvarenga. They couldn’t cross the river. Some made it but others got caught in the crossfire. The soldiers were waiting for them there. They died. Some of us managed to defend ourselves and stay there. Then we went back the gap that we’d come down and moved towards Guayanpoque, to some caves. I remember my mother was sick and we crawled into a cave at dawn. That was right by the river and I remember saying to my mom,“My husband is lost! What But he was actually up at a high point keeping an eye out for the enemy. At around 6 p.m. my husband came back and said, “Let’s get out of here, the enemy has retreated.” There were about… let me see, about five people in our group, but I didn’t know them. I just knew a few were in the National Resistance (RN) and the People’s Liberation Forces (FPL) We passed by a place called La Junta, where I saw many people getting killed. But we just kept walking until we came to a house that soldiers had set on fire before leaving. We had managed to find some beans and a pan made from a jug. I had to cook the beans for the children using the coals of a house that had just been burned.