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International Elections Observation Mission: Day Eight
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
By J.R. Claeys
Maria's family and home in the background.
Maria's family and home in the background.
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Maria stayed up late last night preparing tamales to cook this morning over a wood fire. She invited us to join her family for breakfast this morning in their humble home in San Salvador.
Maria's story is one of a survivor. There are no victims in her home. Her house outside San Salvador was destroyed in the earthquake of 1984. She came to San Salvador penniless with her young children and lived on top of a trash dump, slowly building a home from the scraps of material she found. Eventually, she had saved enough to make a floor of concrete. Then came block walls and a tin roof. Years later they would tap into electricity. For over a decade she hauled water from far away for her family to drink. Finally, she would have electricity of her own, then running water into her home.
Maria's grandkids on the sidewalk outside Maria's home.
Maria's grandkids on the sidewalk outside Maria's home.
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Her eldest daughter died of lupus, leaving her granddaughter, Andria, without her mother. Maria became her mother. And in an act of courage that too few possess, she returned to school with her own children, and recently completed the ninth grade. When asked why she would go back so late in life, she pulled Andria closer to her and said that she is doing it to be able to teach this little one. To give her granddaughter the opportunities that she did not have.
It would be very easy for Maria to look at her home or her life's struggles and blame others. The government, the community, God. Instead, she invited us into her home with pride. She, and so many in her neighborhood, have a familiar story. They started with nothing. They built themselves up out of unimaginable poverty. And they have made a better life for their children.
Maria's son, Arsenio, is studying education administration at the national university. He will be the first in the family to graduate from college. From no money and no home, to a college graduation in one generation.
To understand why voter turnout in El Salvador was nearly 70 percent, one only needs to look at the stories of survival that come from the adversity the people have faced. Some walked for miles in pouring rain to polling stations to vote on Sunday.
Our reports to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal have now been submitted. Since there is a change in leadership for the country, we will have to wait to see if any of our recommended reforms are adopted to prevent voter fraud in the future.
We left Maria's home after breakfast to return to Kansas.
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