Rosa relates her experience of the 1986 invasion, which took place shortly after she and her family had resettled in Arcatao.
- Interviewee:
- Rosa L.
Transcription
It was when we came here, to Arcatao. The army came, to the plaza where the pavilion is now, the plane landed there, I mean the helicopter. It was... it was a difficult time. We had just arrived six days before. We had gone to clear the weeds from a house that was uninhabited, right, when the army came and they said to my mother, "You people didn't live here before, you just came here." So my mother said, "We didn't live here before," she said, "But we came to this house because we like it better." So the soldier was asking us questions, and he said to me, "Do you like Maggi brand soup?" he said. I said, "No, I don't like it," but I hadn't even tried it before. During my childhood I hadn't ever had any. "No, I don't like it," I said. "Aww, poor girl, she doesn't like it," he said. Our parents had taught us never to follow a soldier. So I said, "No, no, no, I don't like it." The child of another woman who was with us was crying and saying, "I'm afraid! I'm afraid!" "What's wrong with this kid?" said the soldier. "He has a fever," said the woman. But the child didn't have a fever, he was just afraid. During that time we were very afraid of them because we knew they were our enemy, and now they were in our house and they could kill us whenever they wanted. Yes.