Cynthia Stone, Spanish

Reflections on the Holy Cross faculty trip to El Salvador (January 4-11, 2013

Introduction

      On the pages that follow, members of a group of faculty who participated in an immersion trip to El Salvador offer their reflections on the experience. While the Chaplain's Office at Holy Cross has been leading student trips to El Salvador since 2008 (see Cintia García's piece, pp. 28-34), the first faculty trip was organized this academic year by Associate Dean Margaret Freije and Thomas Landy, Director of the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics, and Culture.

     The group, consisting of twelve faculty members representing eight disciplines-Melissa Boyle in Economics; Thomas Doughton in Interdisciplinary Studies; Judith Chubb and Loren Cass in Political Science; Mary Conley, Justin Poché , and Stephanie Yuhl in History; Margaret Freije in Mathematics; Ronald Jarret in Chemistry; Thomas Landy in Sociology; Visiting Jesuit Fellow Arul Raja in Religious Studies; and Cynthia Stone in Spanish-began meeting in October 2013 to reflect on Jesuit traditions connecting faith, education, and social justice. In January, the group travelled to San Salvador and spent eight days meeting with representatives from the University of Central America (UCA), Christian Base Communities, the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly, the US embassy, Maryknoll priests and lay missioners, survivors of the1983 massacre of peasants in Copapayo, in the Department of Suchitoto, and touring key sites in the history of the struggle for human rights in El Salvador, much of it grounded in centuries-old faith traditions.