About
Founded in 2017, the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador collaborative research initiative is an international partnership of survivors, scholars, architects, artists, lawyers, museums, community organizers, local leaders, civil society organizations and mental health professionals who are committed to documenting the history of the Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992) and preventing future violence. Using decolonial and participatory methodologies, the goal of this initiative is to engage in high-impact, community-driven research projects, oral histories, and accessible knowledge-sharing activities that approach historical memory work holistically through the intersections of documentation, mapping, and testimonies; art, music, and theatre; intergenerational education; justice; mental health and healing; commemoration; environmental reparation; and local economic reconstruction. Led by civil war survivors, the research team consists of more than 150 members, including nationals of more than 20 different countries. For the team, recovering wartime narratives means working in solidarity with Salvadorans, reconstructing history from the bottom up, supporting intergenerational education, and using participatory methodologies.
Surviving Memory’s major projects include the co-design and co-creation of community history museums and massacre memorials; the co-creation of an interactive online map of massacres and immersive reconstructions of destroyed villages; the production of video and audio testimonies; the publication of more than a dozen community books, magazines, handbooks, fliers, and maps; the co-creation of community murals, sculptures, ceramics, embroideries and other art projects related to historical memory of the civil war; the co-production of commemorative theatrical performances; the digitization and preservation of archival materials; the recovery of traditional knowledge about foods, medicines, and materials; the co-facilitation of refugee memory conversatorios [group discussions], photovoice projects, mental health workshops, climate change and sustainability workshops, community capacity-building/training workshops, and other workshops related to the core research themes.
All research and arts-based projects are developed collaboratively to meet the needs of Salvadoran communities and seek justice and dignity for victims and survivors. Surviving Memory’s research is supported in part by a $2.5M Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) from 2021 to 2028. This grant was preceded by a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (2018-2022) and a SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2016-2028). In 2021, our team also received substantial funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the Ontario Research Fund (ORF) to establish two Oral History and Documentation Labs (one in the community of San José Las Flores in El Salvador, and one at Western University in Canada), to create mobile communication hubs with rural communities, and to purchase professional video cameras and high-resolution GPS equipment for massacre mapping. This research is also supported by significant matching cash and in-kind contributions from Western University (the host institution), as well as all of our formal research partners: KU Leuven, Aarhus University, Carleton University, University of Toronto, Asociación de Capacitación e Investigación para la Salud Mental [Association of Training and Research for Mental Health, ACISAM], AgWA architecture firm, Asociación Salvadoreña Canadiense [Salvadoran Canadian Association, ASALCA], Asociación Sumpul [Sumpul Association], Cáritas Chalatenango, Casa Museo Jon Cortina [Casa Jon Cortina Museum], Asociación de Comunidades para el Desarrollo de Chalatenango [Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango, CCR], Centro Arte para la Paz [Centre for Art and Peace], Comité de Memoria Histórica Sobreviviente de Arcatao, Chalatenango [Survivors Historical Memory of Arcatao, Chalatenango], FutureWatch, Global MINDS Collective, Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen [Museum of the Word and Image], and the Salvadoran District Administration Offices of San José Las Flores and Las Vueltas. Surviving Memory has also received generous donations and financial contributions from LiUNA Ontario Provincial District Council, LiUNA Local 183, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Loretto Sisters of Toronto, and the Arthur Fallon Memorial Fund.
Guiding Principles
Horizontal Governance: The overarching governance structure of the Surviving Memory research initiative is horizontal, consultative, cooperative, and consensus-based. All partners, partner communities, collaborators, and co-applicants are equal partners and have agreed to share in decision-making about research and research-creation priorities, knowledge-sharing activities, and resource allocation.
Participatory Methodology: As a community-based research initiative, Surviving Memory employs participatory and decolonial methodologies. All participants are respected as knowledge-holders, co-researchers, and co-creators, and the team accompanies communities through collaborative research processes that amplify the voices of survivors and meet local community needs.
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: The research initiative promotes equity, diversity, and inclusion in all activities and practices, which should be free of discrimination based on gender, age, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, education, reading/writing skills or economic status. Three committees focused on the interests of youth, women, and students provide feedback on issues of particular concern to their constituencies.
Holistic Approach: The approach to documenting the history of the Salvadoran Civil War is holistic and trauma-informed. The team strives to collaborate in innovative ways, with sensitivity to psychosocial contingencies, across traditional scholarly disciplines, sectors, communities, and borders.
HQP Training: Surviving Memory prioritizes training for students, medical residents, and postdoctoral scholars. The research team and institutional partners strive to integrate trainees into all aspects of their work, including research development, field research, workshop design and facilitation, transcription and translation, co-authoring and co-creation, and the development of integrated knowledge-sharing activities.
Community Capacity-Building: Surviving Memory prioritizes capacity-building in Salvadoran communities and partner organizations, including skills training workshops, support for local strategic planning, and the incorporation of community members – particularly youth – into the research teams.
Intergenerational Education: The team prioritizes intergenerational education and actively facilitates the bi-directional exchange of knowledge between youth and civil war survivors at community events, in school settings, and through the creation of books, films, artistic works, and education guides.
Accessibility: The team recognizes that there are varying levels of literacy in the partner communities and strives to make all the outcomes accessible orally through community meetings, videos and films, radio broadcasts, and audio voiceovers.
Open Access: All the outcomes, including scholarly publications, are open access and available in Spanish, English, and French through journals, books, the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador website, Maps and Open Data site, and the digital archive projects.
Project Sustainability: Over the course of the project, the team will work with partner communities and organizations on sustainability plans and strategic planning. The team will support grant-writing initiatives that will fortify local capacity to continue historical memory projects beyond the tenure period of the SSHRC grant.
Reducing the team’s Carbon Footprint: The team is committed to reducing the carbon footprint of the project by balancing the importance of face-to-face meetings and field research with environmentally responsible travel. The team will use video conferencing whenever possible. It will privilege research plans that require fewer international flights and longer stays, including long-term internships and fieldwork placements for trainees.
Construir la memoria [Building Memory] reflects on the collaborative design and construction of the Sumpul River Massacre memorial at Las Aradas.
