Maira Guardado
Maira Beatriz Guardado Casco was born in Chalatenango, El Salvador. She is the daughter of two ex-combatants of the armed conflict in the country, who were born in Copapayo and Suchitoto, Cuscatlán. Guardado’s family withdrew from the conflict and took refuge in Santa Teresa, Relocation 3, Chalatenango. The return changed the lives of her entire family since her parents decided not to go back to their place of birth and to start all over again in a different place. Her parents managed to raise their family of five, despite countless difficulties. Guardado is the youngest of the family’s three daughters. Her older sisters were born during the conflict. Guardado has a degree in Public Accounting, specializing in Business Administration, from the Andrés Bello University in El Salvador. She worked for eight years as a project manager at the Asociación Salvadoreña Ayuda Humanitaria PRO-VIDA [Salvadoran Association of Humanitarian Aid] in San Salvador, a project funded by the Ministry of Health of El Salvador focused on working with war veterans. In October 2022, she began a new stage of her life as the general manager of the local development association Centro Arte Para La Paz [Centre for Art and Peace, CAP]. Along with her sister, Guardado also manages and cooks in an event catering economic initiative in Chalatenango called Delicias Xiomy. In November 2023, Guardado added to her job as CAP’s general manager the role of project coordinator for international projects with Western University in Canada and the Inter-American Foundation (IAF) in the United States to safeguard and preserve historical memory.