Breakfast at Los Olivos, small café by the Hilton Princess, not far from the Sheraton, still in the plush Zona Rosa... (Scrambled eggs and 2 latte: US$12.00 with tip – not cheap!)
This being Monday and museums being closed (I would have liked to go and see MARTE art museum next door, especially that it is managed privately!) I went to visit the Centro Monseñor Romero on the Campus of the Universidad Centro Americano (UCA) not too far away (taxi ride: $5 each way). This is where 6 Jesuits, the housekeeper and her daughter were assassinated in November of 1989, during the civil war. They have pictures of the corpses, as they were found – some were found in the residential garden of the Jesuits – pretty gruesome! They were apparently tortured before being killed. There is a commemorative plaque now in the garden. In addition, the Centro has a room dedicated to memorabilia related to this assassination and other ones before (the times were difficult for the lower clergy who showed some sympathy for the poor...)
Rather incongruous that it happened there, in a center dedicated to Monsignor Oscar Romero, who had been assassinated for his so-called leftist leanings some 9 years before – one single shot, straight to the heart, from the back of the church, while he was celebrating the mass, giving communion to his parishioners! (This is when some of the Latin American Roman Catholic clergy had espoused the so-called Liberation Theology – the practice of religion based on the belief that Jesus Christ would have sided with the poor unjustly exploited, had he been around then…, a theology that was denounced by the right – and in due course by the Vatican! – as being too close to Marxism…). There is a film about the archbishop, Romero (1989); the archbishop is played by Raul Diaz, the Puerto Rico native who died 5 years later of liver cancer – see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098219/
It would appear that the murder of the Jesuits was carried out by the military. There was a trial in 1991 and, while there were many on trial, there was only sufficient evidence to condemn 2 officers (30 years of imprisonment) who were liberated a couple of years later, as a result of the general amnesty declared in 1993, to avoid a “witch hunt” after the end of the civil war. Last year though (22 years after the assassination!) the Spanish National Court (5 of the 6 Jesuits were Spanish) issued an international arrest warrant for 20 formerly high-ranking leaders of the Salvadoran military for their alleged role in the massacre (see Time magazine article that follows: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2075110,00.html). See also the following: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murdered_scholars_of_UCA#Victims. I don’t know if the warrant has ever been enforced…
Lunch at CITRON (in San Salvador, before leaving for Los Caracoles). It has a reputation, as “the most exciting, original and adventurous restaurant in San Salvador…”(Frommer’s Nicaragua and El Salvador, 2011). Early lunch, so we are alone in the place; sit at a table that gives on the open garden, probably the best table in the joint – a very elegantly-designed, if not simple, place, I might add. Owner and chef Eduardo (Harth?) – a young American from Washington (probably the state) who opened this place 6 years or so ago – helped us in the main course selection: “Atun Sashimi Encrustado”, the cold sesame tuna for Cynthia (with a reduction of hibiscus and a pickled vegetable), and “Calamar Gigante Asado”, a steak of calamari for me (with plantain chips, and 2 sauces – papaya and mango), plus a bottle of Italian white wine (“Dogajolo Blanco”, 2010). We shared a wild raspberry dessert (“Copa de Frambuesa del Parque”, raspberries that could have been picked on volcano slopes, if we are to go by what we read somewhere). All dishes very original and simply delicious – a true gourmet lunch! It falls in the category of “expensive” places - $96 for 2 but no appetizers – not that bad, if to compare to what we would have paid in Toronto for the same meal! (www.restaurantecitron.com)
San Salvador, February 13, 2012
