Suchitlán Lake is about an hour-and-a-half drive from San Salvador, mainly along backroads. Once there, we board a small powerboat named la Esperancito, “the little hope,” to continue our pilgrimage. We traverse the serene lake, hugged by undulating shores, for over an hour. Finally, we arrive at our destination, the site where a village named Copapayo once stood.
We enter a semi-enclosed lagoon, bringing the boat to rest along a deserted rocky slope. Except for a white cross marking where U.S.-sponsored terrorism once took place, the lagoon is desolate.
One of our companions, a simple man of the land named Rogelio Miranda, walks to the front of our boat and, in a soft voice, begins to share his story.
Copapayo was an impoverished village of some 300 farmers situated at the crossfires of government and rebel troops during the Civil War (1979-1992). The hamlet was in an area controlled by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) guerrilla group.
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