Margarita describes a time during the 1986 invasion when she thought her husband had been killed.
- Interviewee:
- Margarita
Transcription
During 1985 there were invasions of Arcatao.
I didn’t want to be over there anymore, so I came here. At that time, I had another son, named Oscar. By 1985 I had two children, so it became difficult to move around. My life partner was also enlisted, so whenever there was a retreat, I was left all by myself. I felt desperate. But there were some opportunities to stay here in Arcatao, if you were strong. So I came to Arcatao, where I was faced with an invasion that they called “El Carreño”. I was here when that happened, and it was also very difficult. My partner had come back and stayed at the house so I could cook for him and he could take food with him. At that point, we were a bit more settled here. And that day, at about 5 a.m—well, I had woken up at about 4 a.m. to grind corn, and around dawn, at about 5 a.m. all the helicopters came. They all came at once, so by the time we heard them, we all had guns pointed at us inside our houses, and the soldiers were there. At that point, where could we run? It was difficult, because my partner went out behind the house, through a doorway that led to a house next door. There was a house that had a pile of cornhusks in it, because we’d been shucking corn. Since they barely got a chance to get away, they went into that old house because there were no people there. My partner and another comrade dove into the pile of cornhusks and stayed there. In the meantime, they took us to the church at gunpoint. The dough I was working on was left behind on the grinding stone and they took us all to the church. I was sure they had killed my partner, because right after he left, the soldiers were pointing their guns at us. So what could I expect? I was sure they had killed him. So they locked us up in the church and we were there the whole day until about 2 p.m. They killed a few of our comrades there too. They’d take them out, beat them, take them out of the community, and then kill them somewhere in the outskirts of town. They took the children aside, to try to get information from them: Who were guerrillas? Were there women who traveled outside of town? Or, who was their mom? They’d offer the children candy to trick them. I was so worried because my first son was already five years old. No, he was eight... He was already nine years old, the oldest. So of course he could say anything, especially if they were offering him candy and all that. Right? But thank God he didn’t say anything, he didn’t say “My mom’s partner was at our house.” He didn't say anything, but that’s how they tried to trick them, to see what they could get out of them, so they could kill more people, and get more information and so on. But at around 2 p.m., they started to retreat and the people began to return to our houses. As soon as I got back to my house, I told my other comrade: “I’m going to go look for Vicente." "Even if it’s just pieces that we have to gather up so we can bury him. Otherwise, what are we going to do?”
I was sure they had killed him. So when I first showed up back at the house, when they heard our voices, since they were there, they were so happy that we had also come back. They came out when I went to see them, and I just looked at them and couldn’t believe they were alive. I was so sure they had been killed. So that’s how we began to settle in Arcatao, and I ended up staying here. That invasion was in '86. And then, I thought I might be pregnant again, but I already had the three year-old, and another nine year-old. Oh no! How tough. So I just decided to leave for Mesa Grande.