Salvadoran author, Vanessa Núñez Handal, who lives in Guatemala, has written an exceptional book about the civil war in El Salvador. Below is a brief synopsis.
The civil war in El Salvador (1979-1992) was perhaps the last to be labeled by either side as a “cold war” conflict. While the Berlin wall was being torn down, and Mikhail Gorbachev was espousing the policies of glasnost ("openness") and perestroika ("restructuring"), the United States government was providing large amounts of military aid to the repressive government of El Salvador to battle rebels it labeled as communists.
Caught in the middle of this conflict were middle class urban families like that of Natalia, the protagonist of “God Was Afraid”. Natalia looks back upon her childhood during the war, feeling shame that her parents rigidly followed the government’s anti-communist line, while also recognizing that doing anything less likely would have led to either exile or death. The story of Natalia, her family and friends is told as a series of essays about experiences during the war and reflections about it afterward. It is an extraordinary in-their-own-words account of the Salvadoran civil war and the open wounds left by it that may never heal.
I found her book so moving, I wanted to share it with my English speaking friends. So I contacted the author and ended up translating it myself, finishing my first draft in February of 2015. So far we have not found an English-language publisher, but maybe some day!
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