Workshops
The Refugee Memory Conversatorios are a series of community-based photo exhibitions, workshops, testimonies, musical performances, and community curation projects that document experiences of displacement during the civil war. Developed in a collaboration between Salvadoran historical memory committees and scholars at Western University, the conversatorios explore themes such as the departure from El Salvador; daily life in Mesa Grande, La Virtud, and Colomoncagua refugee camps; women’s experiences; the role music; popular organization; the role of the church; international solidarity; and the repopulation movement. Photos and children’s drawings in our exhibitions come from the archives of international NGOs, peace delegates, and aid workers who visited the camps, including Oxfam Canada, Dr. Meyer Brownstone, Linda Dale, Tom Gabriel, Dan Heap, and Bruce Cockburn.
This initiative is based on a pilot project called “Survivor Refugee Memory in Post-Civil War El Salvador,” a photo exhibition and program of refugee memory workshops organized in January 2017 in the community of Milingo in the municipality of Suchitoto, El Salvador. The pilot project was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Montana State University, and Western University. The idea for the pilot project was jointly developed by Dr. Amanda Grzyb (Western University), Rosa Rivera Rivera (Arcatao’s Historical Memory Committee), and Dr. Molly Todd (Montana State University) in Arcatao, El Salvador in November 2015.
Milingo
January 2017
Our pilot project included a commemorative visit to the site of Mesa Grande refugee camp in Honduras, a photo exhibition, and three days of refugee memory workshops in the Suchitoto community of Milingo. The project was organized by community leaders Ángela Velasco, Alba Serrano, Sonia González Castellano, and Noé Vladimir Hernández in collaboration with Western University, Montana State University, and Canadian NGO, SalvAide. The project was supported by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant and funding from Western University and Montana State University. The major outcome of the project is a community photobook published by Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen, entitled Memoria Viva: Photographs and Testimonies About Life in La Virtud and Mesa Grande Refugee Camps, 1980-1992.
Copapayo
April 2018
Our second community exhibition and refugee memory conversatorios were organized by the Copapayo ADESCO in collaboration with Western University and SalvAide. A major outcome of the program was an intergenerational soundscape exhibition, Silenced Memories, made by community members in a collaboration with Ecuadoran artist Ulises Unda Lara and anthropologist Beatriz Juárez. The project was supported by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Office of the VP Research at Western University.
Sitio Cenicero
2018-2020
This long-term project, based in Sitio Cenicero and Copapayo, documents the history of prewar and wartime Copapayo -- including the Copapayo Massacre, displacement, and repopulation – through a series of conversatorios and individual testimonies. The project is led by Sitio Cenicero resident Otilio Ayala, with scholarly support from Jaime Brenes Reyes and Dr. Amanda Grzyb, and financial support from Western University and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Las Vueltas
May 2019
Our third community exhibition and refugee memory conversatorios were organized by Miriam Ayala, Vice President of CRIPDES and Vice President of the Sumpul Association, in the community of Las Vueltas, Chalatenango. The project was supported by funding from Research Western, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Western University Humanitarian Award.
