I remember my aunt told me this story years ago, when I was a little kid. I think I was seven when she told me. So to refresh my mind, I had to call my other aunt in Honduras to tell me more about the story, so she explained it to me and she told me some things I do not remember my other aunt telling me, but that is probably because I was a kid. But anyways, this is the story:
Years ago, in 1969, Honduras and El Salvador had a war. It was called “The Football War”. The war started because El Salvadorian people were migrating north to Honduras illegally. The population in Honduras was growing and there were way too many people. Those were political conflicts between the two nations. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Salvadorans had begun migrating to Honduras in large numbers. By 1969, more than 300,000 Salvadorans were living in Honduras. These Salvadorans made up twenty percent of the peasant population of Honduras. Many illegal Salvadorians were taking the jobs of Honduran citizens and the government of Honduras did not like that. It is called The Football War because soccer was one of the things that contributed to it. Even though "Football War" implies that the conflict was due to a soccer game, the causes of the war go deeper.
The World Cup was going to happen the following year in Mexico, in 1970. Honduras and El Salvador met in the second North American qualifying round for the 1970 FIFA World Cup. There were three games for the qualification of the 1970 FIFA World Cup played between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969. One game was played in the capital city of Honduras, in Tegucigalpa and Honduras won that game. That game was controversial because after the game, an eight-year old Salvadorian little girl killed herself by shooting herself in the heart. The second game played in the capital city of El Salvador, San Salvador, was won by El Salvador and that created a lot of violence on both sides. The last and most important game, which was played in Mexico, was also won by El Salvador by one goal with extra time. On the same day, 26 June 1969, El Salvador dissolved all ties with Honduras, stating that "the government of Honduras has not taken any effective measures to punish these crimes which constitute genocide, nor has it given assurances of indemnification or reparations for the damages caused to Salvadorans". This led to border clashes between the two nations.
More issues were territorial issues. El Salvador debated that part of what Hondurans said was their territory was actually Salvadorian territory, which was not true.
In the afternoon of July 14th, 1969, military action began. El Salvador’s Air Force attacked targets inside Honduras, killing civilians. War was never declared, and El Salvador surprise attacked Honduras. Salvadorian troops entered Honduras, destroying towns and killing civilians. To defend itself, Honduras sent troops to face the Salvadorians and the Honduran Air Force to stop the Salvadorian Air Force.
My grandfather was from El Salvador. He was born there and lived there until he was five years old. At the age of five, he moved to Honduras, to a small town close to the border with El Salvador. I am not sure if my grandfather or “abuelito”, as I called him came to Honduras legally. Well, He lived most of his life in Honduras and I think that the only time he was in El Salvador was when he was a baby and maybe he visited once or twice as an adult but he was technically Honduran. I know that he was a citizen of Honduras because my aunt told me, but I am still not sure about him going legally to Honduras.
In 1969, when the war began, the Honduran government ordered the people of El Salvador to leave Honduran land. If not they would be taken by the Honduran troops and taken to prison. What my grandfather did was hide.
My aunt says (she was a little kid during the war) that they could not sleep during the war because in the town they lived was really close to El Salvador. Every hour, they would hear planes flying over, dropping bombs close by. The Salvadorians were bombing every town they could. My grandmother, grandfather and my uncles and aunts would hide under their beds, afraid of the bombs, even though that was not the best place for protection, but that was the only thing they could do because they could not escape because there were Salvadorian soldiers everywhere.
A few days after the war began, Honduran troops pushed back the Salvadorian taking control over their towns and most of their territory again. Salvadorians still bombed the towns but not as before. Once the Soldiers from El Salvador were kicked out of the town where my grandfather lived, the Honduran soldiers went around the towns looking for Salvadorian people. My grandpa was in danger. The government had already told the Salvadorians to get out of Honduras.
The Honduran soldiers captured my grandfather, and put him in prison where they tortured him and many other Salvadorians found. They were hung on trees but not killed. They were not given food, and they were constantly hit by soldiers. We do not really know what my grandfather’s experience in prison was because he kept quiet when he came back. He did not say much about his experience. But I am sure it was not a good experience.
After the war ended, he was still in prison for two more months. He was freed after the two months and he was allowed to stay in Honduras since he was a citizen. In Honduras, things changed after the war. Salvadorian people were mistreated. My grandfather was mistreated by other men. He was insulted for being Salvadorian. Years after the war, Hondurans and El Salvador signed a peace treaty and after that, things started to get better for Salvadorians in Honduras.
I learned that there were conflicts within my roots. This connects to me because when I was younger, I grew up with this mentality of having negative thoughts against Salvadorian people, but when I grew older, I started to understand that we are a family. I did not see that when I was little. I did not even know my grandfather was from El Salvador, and I found out years after of his death. I never got to spend much time with him. I have only one memory of him with me. I was too young to remember more about him. He died when I was three years old.
I think that this story has survived in my family because that had never happened to anyone in my family before and has not happened to anyone since. My grandfather was also someone really important in my family, he was a role model. It has been passed from generation to generations because we, in our family need to know what our struggles have been and to remember what happened. What makes this significant is that my grandfather survived, if he hadn’t been lucky, he would have been killed like many other Salvadorians did. And yeah, that is my story.
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