Photo: Shawn Robertson
Julio Rivera
Julio Hernaldo Rivera Guardado is one of the founders of the Surviving Memory project and served two terms as secretary of the Board of Directors of Asociación Sumpul [Sumpul Association]. He was born in El Picacho, La Laguna, Municipality of Las Vueltas, Chalatenango, El Salvador. He has lived in Nueva Trinidad, Chalatenango, since March 1991. He is married and has a son. He is a survivor of the El Rosario, La Laguna, and Sumpul River massacres. During the war, 20 members of his family were murdered. He survived the war by fleeing from one place to another because of the continued persecution by the Government Army. Once he was able to settle in one place, he collaborated in the guerrilla supply area. After his family was murdered, he left the country to take refuge in the Mesa Grande refugee camp in Honduras. In March 1991, he returned to El Salvador to settle in Nueva Trinidad. Once resettled, his first mission was as a member of a human rights committee to demand respect for the rights of the survivors and unmask all the abuses committed by the Government Army of El Salvador. He has served in the Catholic Church parish since 1991 in different areas: as a youth coordinator, a catechist (preparing for the various sacraments), a delegate of the word of God, as parish liturgy coordinator (for six years), a member of the parish council and, currently, as a member of the family pastoral parish team, working in spiritual formation. Since 2012, he has worked on historical memory as a member of the Comité de Sobrevivientes [Committee of Survivors], which years later became Asociación Sumpul [Sumpul Association], of which he was a founding member of the Board of Directors. Rivera has worked in the Centro Cultural Comunitario Nueva Trinidad [Community Cultural Center of Nueva Trinidad], serving children, adolescents and young people since 1997. Since 2000, he has been serving the elderly of his community (60 years old and up), providing them with moral support, attention, and food, thanks to the support of a sister parish in the United States.