Founder of the Committee of Mothers — Mons. Romero COMADRES. This woman is one of those representations that El Salvador has as an example of courage and perseverance in the struggle for human rights for all people.
The price she paid for LA LUCHA (the struggle) was extremely high. Several of her children were captured, disappeared, tortured and others assassinated. She herself was captured and tortured. Multiple times she was threatened to death.
All of this did not stop her love for life. Her dignity never had a price, her courage, and many mothers like her, brought down the pride of the assassins and the torturers.
Alicia today turns into a star that will keep guiding us with her example, her entrega (selflessness/commitment) for life does not have sufficient words to describe it. But it can be measured by what she gave for this country. It can be weighed by the size of her sufferings, by the countless days in which she dedicated her energies to seek for the truth, to dignify the victims of the war. She said, “apologies cannot come alone; there is still justice to be made.”
As the Anaya Perla family and as the Colectivo de Derechos Humanos Herbert Anaya, we are in solidarity and grieve with her family, but in addition to that we grieve that we have lost a piece of historical memory of El Salvador, a legacy to our new generations. As human beings also, we have lost a heart full of compassion and a great example of courage.
Alicia, you are one of those people who we do not cry for; rather, we promise to follow your example.
(A translation with permission from the Spanish version written by human rights’ activist Rosa Anaya after the death of Alicia Garcia on August 11, 2010.)
