Life is funny sometimes.
A few weeks before our trip, we went over to my dad's house for dinner
together with Julio's mom. Our families
are very close. My family was one of the
first families Julio's family met when they arrived in Canada about 21 years
ago. Both our fathers were FMLN
supporters during the war. And we both
knew that both our fathers were captured and tortured as political prisoners
during the war. What we did not know was
that our fathers were both rescued by the same man, Father Gregorio Rosas
Chavez, so that they could come to Canada as refugees. Julio and I were both so shocked
to discover this connection because we had never heard of this story before!
Father Gregorio helped countless political prisoners by
advocating on their behalf together with some human rights groups to negotiate with the Salvadoran Army during the war. His compassion and solidarity with the
Salvadoran people is legendary. We knew
we had to make an effort to try to meet him while we were here and thank him
personally for helping free our fathers, because without his help, who knows
where we and our families would be today. Julio was at the age where the state military was recruiting child soldiers. My mom had to deal with the stress of caring for 5 small children on her own after my dad fled to Canada. There are many possibilities to where our life paths could have taken us. This just happens to be ours.
Today, we got to thank Father G.
We went to the church in San Salvador where my cousin Nelson told us he works from. We saw a sign on
the main gate that said appointments would not be granted until after
Christmas. We were bummed. But then, a young boy came to the gate and
asked who we were. We told him we were
visiting from Canada and wanted to meet with Father Gregorio to thank him for
helping our fathers during the war. The boy asked us to
wait. Two nuns came out shortly and let us into
the church courtyard. They told us
Father G was just about to start afternoon mass, but that he had agreed
to say a quick hello.
He looked younger than we both imagined. He asked who our fathers were and he totally
remembered Julio's late father, who was very active with the church at that
time. I told him he helped my dad around
1983-1984, and he said that at that point, things were really bad and there
were many people being captured and tortured and he remembers helping many
people get released. We told him we were
visiting from Canada and we wanted to personally thank him for everything he
did for our fathers. He humbly gave us
his blessings and said he was happy to know we had returned to our
homeland. With that, we hugged him and
said good bye.
It happened so quick.
Julio and I both wanted to ask questions, like how it all happened and
why our fathers were chosen to be let go when others weren't. I guess life is just like that sometimes,
things happen for a reason. Both our
fathers were blessed enough to be released so they could come to Canada, when
so many others could not. We keep
hearing from people about how they suffered and witnessed so many horrible things during the war, things that we only got small glimpses of or that we learned about as we got older. And I guess it just makes us think how
unbelievably lucky and blessed we are to have been able to leave when we did, so that we
could live in peace and have a better chance at life. It's all so humbling and so mystifying. It makes you ask the question "Why me?".
Even though our meeting with Father G was brief, we felt
such a deep sense of accomplishment and gratitude. My
dad and Julio's mom told us before we left that Don Jeremias (Julio's late father) would be so happy and proud of
him going back to El Salvador and that he would also be so pleased to know that
him and I would get to experience this moment together. I believe Don Jeremias was definitely with us
today and I believe he is very proud of Julio too.
This was definitely one of those life moments we will never forget. =)
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| Father Gregorio Rosas Chavez |
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