Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador has incorporated youth into its programs – as facilitators, co-researchers, participants, artists, and trainees – since the project was founded in 2017. Intergenerational education is one of Surviving Memory’s eight core themes, and the Youth Committee is a key contributor to the horizontal governance structure. Many of the projects are designed with intergenerational education in mind. At the same time, the project recognizes that intergenerational education is multi-directional, and includes mutual learning and understanding between generations. Youth has worked with survivors and international team members on a number of foundational projects, including the Sumpul River Massacre Memorial, the massacres map, the community books, exhibitions, and commemoration events.

Surviving Memory also works in collaboration with the Catholic Church of Chalatenango, which recognizes the pastoral importance of the memory initiatives promoted by survivors and other social organizations since the end of the armed conflict. Since 2021, the diocese of Chalatenango, through the Cáritas office, has directly joined the efforts to promote historical memory in the department. In doing so, it encountered the challenge of the generational change that the region is experiencing and, in dialogue with survivors, made intergenerational education the transversal axis of all its historical memory initiatives.

Among the fundamental pillars of its intergenerational approach are:

1. The creation of intergenerational networks for exchange and training, such as:

• The Red de Museos Comunitarios de Memoria Histórica Chalatenango [Chalatenango Historical Memory Community Museums Network]

• The Raíces artistic collective, which was founded in 2021 and brings together young people and adults from Guancora, Nueva Trinidad, Arcatao, La Laguna, and San José Las Flores

• The Memoria Viva artistic collective, which was founded in 2022 and brings together survivors and youth from Las Vueltas, La Ceiba, and five communities in the Las Minas cantón

2. The development of the spirituality of memory, through ritual spaces that enrich commemorations and memory events.

3. The promotion of intergenerational education processes such as film forums, training workshops with parishes, the creation of the cultural project for the Casa de la Masacre de Guancora [Guancora Massacre House], intergenerational meetings, etc.

4. The promotion of an intergenerational approach to memory in the diocese of Chalatenango.

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