Miriam Ayala

Miriam Ayala is a founding member of the Surviving Memory project and served as the vice president of the Board of Directors of Asociación Sumpul [Sumpul Association] from 2018 to 2022. She was born in Las Minas, Chalatenango, El Salvador, where she still resides. She is single and has one son. She is a survivor of the Sumpul Massacre. During the war, 18 members of her family were murdered. After the Sumpul Massacre and the loss of many loved ones, she had no option but to join the guerrillas until the signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords. She spent the 12 years of the war in different positions, including messenger and command radist in the Chalatenango area. From 1993 to 2003, she worked at Radio Sumpul, a community radio station located in Guarjila, Chalatenango. She was president of her community association for 4 years. From 2006 to 2010, she was a member of the Board of Directors of the Asociación de Comunidades para el Desarrollo de Chalatenango [Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango, CCR], and she served as vice-president of the Asociación para el Desarrollo de El Salvador [Association for the Development of El Salvador, CRIPDES]from 2016 to 2020. She was vice-president of the mancomunal La Montañona (protected natural area in Chalatenango) on behalf of 3 communities: Guarjila, Las Minas, and Chiapas. Ayala served as a member of the Comité de Desarollo Local [Local Development Committee] in the position of treasurer in the Mayor's Office of Chalatenango, representing Las Minas. She has been a member of the Departmental Directive of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional [Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front- FMLN] for Chalatenango for 10 years. Currently, she is also a member of the FMLN Departmental Directive representing the Secretaría Nacional de Memoria Histórica [National Secretariat of Historical Memory], and she is also working as a promoter of Women’s Policy in CCR.

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