This past Sunday, Homies hosted a Vigil for the Commemoration of 100 Days of Peace since the Gang Truce in El Salvador....We created an Altar to give our intentions of peace. It was a beautiful ceremony for the people who were present and shared the same feeling of wanting to contribute to this truce.
Sadly, this truce has been widely received with doubt, skepticism and insecurity. It is understandable that the citizens of El Salvador, who have been paying the price of this violence for years, are doubtful and even afraid of what this truce means. I acknowledge that I am in a position of privilege in this matter, and I cannot tell anyone what to feel about their own experience with gangs.
However, it still makes me very uncomfortable (to say the least) that people who say they are allied with God and Jesus Christ are still speaking with hatred toward the gang members who are making this truce in the name of community.
Why is it ok for them to hate gang members, yet they seem to forget all the other murderers in the current equation? Why is it ok to hate gang members and not the politicians who continue to steal resources from the community? Why don't they call out the government, who in alliance with the United States, is responsible for the murder of thousands of people during the war?
Why don't they call out big businesses who continue to exploit Salvadoran labor, and send broken and tired fathers and mothers home to raise their children with crumbs? All these big businesses are allowed to brainwash our minds with advertisements that say we need all these products to survive - that's what "civilization" is. The same products and foods that are giving us physical illnesses like cancer, which puts us at the mercy of doctors who continue to cut and paste our bodies into bank accounts...without educating us on how to take care of ourselves. Why isn't anyone saying anything about that?
Gang members are a part of that fucked up society too, and the difference between them and you and me is that they decided to manifest that pain in a violent form...but it is still just a reflection of the society that is already there. Some people choose to follow what is acceptable in this unjust society, and it is much easier to make gang members evil and different from us, but the truth is they are our brothers, sisters, daughters, sons, cousins, uncles, aunts, mothers and fathers. They also have people who are dying in hospitals. They also have mothers and fathers who died in the war. They also lived in broken homes. They are also casualties of war, victims of an unjust society. So why is it so hard to believe that after all that violence, they can also make peace?
If you are a person who is allied with God, you understand love. If you understand love, you understand that it takes work - it takes mad work to make peace. It starts with you. It starts with me.
With that said, here are some words from brother Luis Rodriguez:
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