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1. Who was Juan Romagoza?

Romagoza grew up in eastern El Salvador. He at first thought he wanted to become a priest, but later decided he wanted to become a doctor. He earned a scholarship and was able to attend medical school. After becoming a doctor, he was kidnapped and tortured. He suffered injuries that would prevent him from every performing surgery again. Family members helped him flee El Salvador.

2. What was La Matanza?

La Matanza was an event that defined modern El Salvadoran history. On January 22, 1932, agricultural laborers grabbed machetes and hoes and staged an insurrection against the country's coffee-growing elite, who had been subjugating the rural poor for decades. They endured starvation wages, arbitrary wage reductions, unjustified firing, evictions, and repression, which included being removed from their homes and having their homes burned. The revolt did not last long. The military intervened on the side of the landowners. Some 30,000 people were killed. For the next 40 years, the government used propaganda and claimed that the military had fended off bloodthirsty communist hordes. References to the events were removed from the National Library, and newspaper accounts were destroyed. Ever since then, a fear of communism gripped the nation. That fear led to any reform movement, no matter how justified or modest, being labeled as communist or communist inspired.

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