Volcanic Lakes & Parks of Peace

This morning we travelled across the breath-takingly beautiful Lake Atitlan, to reach the town of Santiago Atitlan.  The lake is completely surrounded by mountains and 3 volcanoes, and reaches unknown depths, making it easily one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  The beauty of the landscape was nothing however, compared to the beauty of the people we met and learned about on the other side of the lake.

We went first to Parque de la Paz (Peace Park), where the holiness of the ground was tangible.  The park, surrounded by half-constructed cinder block buildings and shanty shacks, is a memorial built on the site of a massacre.  On December 2nd 1990 (during the violent conflict of the civil war), a group of local men decided that it was time for the violence to stop, at least in their town.  They marched from the Catholic Church to the military base, asking for peace, and when they arrived, the military opened fire on them, killing 13 and injuring 22 of the marchers.  The memorial stones honoring the dead show that the marchers were in their 60's, 40's, 20's, and even as young as 10.  The government responded by banning the military from the town, but the reparations they promised never arrived.  I felt and hope I don't ever stop feeling humbly grateful, that I cannot fathom what life must have been like here (just a couple years before I was born), to make 13 year olds march to their death, asking for peace.

After Parque de la Paz, we went to La Iglesia de Santiago Apostol.  During the civil war, the Catholic Church stood in solidarity with the poor, which automatically made them an enemy of the state.  Padre Fransisco Stanley Apla's Rother was a Catholic missionary from Oklahoma, who came to Santiago Atitlan during that time, learned Tzutujil (the indigenous Mayan language), and devoted himself to the needs of the people.  He worked passionately to improve access to, and the quality of education, and although he received many death threats, he stayed with his people.  His dedication and love-filled work resulted in his martyrdom, assassinated by a death squad.

In our evening reflection time we talked about Moses' call (Exodus 3:1-12), and what makes ground holy.  I found today that ground can be made holy through God's presence, and who else has stood there in the past.  The level of not only faith, but conviction evident in the peace marchers and the Catholic priest from Oklahoma challenges my imagination, and inspires me to humility.

- Rebecca Coryell