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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
In December of 1980 three women religious and a lay missioner from the United States were brutally raped and murdered by the Salvadoran military. This outrage brought international attention to the violence in El Salvador and led to a temporary halt in US military aid. The sisters were neither the first nor the most violently killed—8,000 people were massacred in 1980 and 45,000 between 1980 and 1984—but their rape and murder, the murder of Archbishop Romero in March of 1980, and that of six Jesuit priests in 1989 were consistently cited as evidence of the sheer brutality and impunity of the Salvadoran military regime. Killing priests and bishops and raping and murdering nuns signified quite simply that “nothing was sacred.”
Special thanks to the anonymous reviewers of this article for their detailed critiques, to Christine Kovic for organizing the LASA panel where I presented a preliminary version of the article, and to the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship on Religion in the Americas at the University of Florida, Gainesville for providing a supportive writing environment. My thanks go also to the Maryknoll Mission Archive.
1 Brett, Edward T., The U.S. Catholic Press on Central America: From Cold War Anticommunism to Social Justice (University of Notre Dame Press, 2003).Google Scholar
2 “For Two Nuns Needs of the Poor Hid the Danger,” New York Times, 7 December 1980, p. 9 and “El Salvador:. 1984,” NACLA: Report on the Americas, vol. XVIII, no. 2 (March/April 1984), pp. 13–47. A woman and her daughter were killed with the six Jesuit priests and accounts consistently referred to the massacre as the “murder of six Jesuit priests, their cook , and her daughter,” implying that these women's significance was exclusively in their association with the Jesuits.
3 Franco, Jean, “Killing Priests, Nuns, Women, Children,” in Critical Passions: Selected Essays, Edited and with an introduction by Pratt, Mary Louise and Newman, Kathleen (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1999), p. 15 Google Scholar
4 Ibid. p. 11.
5 Brett, Donna Whitson and Brett, Edward T., Murdered in Central America: The Stories of Eleven U.S. Missionaries (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1988)Google Scholar and Berryman, Phillip, The Religious Roots of Rebellion: Christians in Central American Revolutions (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1984)Google Scholar which provide background to the work of the women religious, represent two important exceptions to the accounts about the women religious who were killed in El Salvador. Recently the case brought by Bill Ford, Ita Ford's brother, has led to increased press coverage of the case. Gail Pellet, Justice and the Generals, Educational Broadcasting Corporation, 2002 provides some additional insight into the women and their case. Nonetheless, given their almost iconic status it is somewhat surprising how little information there was about the Sisters’ work and history at the time they were killed. The work seems especially limited when one compares it to that available on the Jesuit Priests murdered in 1989 about whom there is an extensive bibliography and a number of documentaries.
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9 Kovic, Christine, Mayan Voices for Human Rights: Displaced Catholics in Highland Chiapas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar Kovic demonstrates that theology and experience went hand-in-hand in transforming Catholic clergy and laity and provides an excellent analysis of Mayan Catholicism.
10 “Number of Sisters in the Congregation, Decade by Decade” 12 June 1995. Lists: Membership Statistics, H 1.4. MMA.
11 Tyler May, Elaine, Homeward Bound, p. 87.Google Scholar
12 New Horizons, 1947 Formation Program Vocational Literature AIO, Box 8, MMA. Tyler May, Elaine, Homeward Bound, p. 79 Google Scholar Suggested another explanation for the turn from career and toward family. “A survey of 5,000 women who graduated from college between 1946 and 1949 found that two-thirds had married within three to six years after graduation. Only half these women had been able to find the kind of work they had wanted and for which they had been prepared.”
13 “New Horizons,” 1947 Formation Program Vocational Literature, Maryknoll Sisters, A10 Box 8, MMA.
14 A survey of the Maryknoll seminarians taken in 1945 indicated that in a little more than half the cases the seminarian's family on one or both sides was Irish while one of every four had a German background. Nineteen percent of the seminarians had a brother or sister who were also members of religious orders. Mr. Q Comes to Maryknoll, The Field Afar (April-May, 1945), pp. 38–39. In a 1978 survey of 204 Maryknoll Sisters ranging in age from 27 to 86, 45% of the respondents’ fathers and 46% of the respondents’ mothers had not completed high school, while for 20% of the fathers and 23% of the mothers high school was the highest level of education achieved. Chatfield, Joan, “First Choice: Mission, The Maryknoll Sisters, 1912–1975” (Ph.D. dissertation, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, 1983), p. 130.Google Scholar Archbishop Richard Cushing reported in 1947 that “In all the American hierarchy, resident in the United States, there is not known to me one bishop, archbishop or cardinal whose father or mother was a college graduate. Every one of our bishops and archbishops is the son of a working man and a working man's wife.” Quoted in James, Hennessey S.J. American Catholics: A History of the Roman Catholic Community in the United States (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981), p. 284.Google Scholar See also Greeley, Andrew M., The American Catholic: A Social Portrait (New York: Basic Books, Inc. 1977):Google Scholar Mcgreevy, John T., Parish Boundaries: The Catholic Encounter with Race in the Twentieth-Century Urban North (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997).Google Scholar
15 New Horizons, 1947.
16 Ibid.
17 Bemie Becomes a Maryknoll Sister, 1957, Formation Program Vocational Literature AIO, Box 8 MMA.
18 Maryknoll Sisters Directory 1952, 27, MMA.
19 Ibid. p. 1.
20 “Reception-Profession Questionnaire,” Reception-Profession Social Conventions, H7 Box 4, MMA.
21 Ibid. p. 29.
22 Sister Mary Ann Duffy, M.M. Interview by author. Maryknoll, NY, 29 December 1994. Sister Mary Ann asserted that this was the primary reason for the establishment of the school in Guatemala City and for another school established by the Maryknoll Sisters in Merída, Mexico. American nuns appear to have become so much a part of elite education in Latin American countries that they became subject to what amounted almost to parody. Alfredo Bryce Echenique, one of Peru's most important writers, included an extensive description of the Sacred Heart College, in his fictional account of Limeño elites, Un Mundo Para Julius (Lima: Peisa, 1970). See also Jeffrey Klaiber, S.J., La Iglesia en el Perú (Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru Fondo Editorial, 1996)Google Scholar for details about the role of foreign women religious in elite education in Peru. Berryman, Philip, Liberation Theology: Essential Facts about the Revolutionary Movements in Latin America and Beyond (Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1987), p. 21.Google Scholar
23 Sister Regina Johnson, M.M. Interview by author. Oaxaca, MX, 26 August 1995. Quote re: Father Lenahan from Maryknoll Sisters Monte María diaries, 17 March 17, H3.1 Box 68, MMA.
24 Marjorie, and Melville, Thomas, Whose Heaven, Whose Earth (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1971), p. 134.Google Scholar
25 The history of the United States intervention in Guatemala in response to what it perceived as a communist threat is too well-known to value recounting here. While it is clear that communists participated in the government, it is also evident that they did not control it. Moreover, the reforms introduced by Arbenz were moderate and represented the last chance of ameliorating through peaceful means the political and economic exclusion of indigenous people in the country. See Cullather, Nick, Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of its Operations in Guatemala, 1952–1954 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994);Google Scholar Gleijeses, Piero, Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944–1954 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991);Google Scholar Handy, Jim, Gift of the Devil, Susanne Jonas, The Battle for Guatemala: Rebels, Death Squads, and U.S. Power (Boulder: Westview Press, 1991);Google Scholar and Schlesinger, Stephen and Kinzer, Stephen, Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, Expanded Edition (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999).Google Scholar
26 Monte María Diary, 12 April 1954, MMA.
27 Monte María Diary, 12–14 May 1954, MMA.
28 Ibid.
29 Letter to Mother Mary Columba, 18 June 1954, MMA.
30 Monte María Diary, 4 June 1954, MMA.
31 Letter to Mother Mary Columba, 18 June 1954, MMA.
32 Burns, Kathryn, Colonial Habits: Convents and the Spiritual Economy of Cuzco, Peru (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1999).Google Scholar
33 Monte María Diary, 23 May 1954, MMA.
34 Monte María Diary, 11 July 1954, MMA.
35 Monte María Diary, 5 December 1956, MMA.
36 Monte María Diary 1 January 1957, MMA.
37 Monte María Diary, April 1955, and December 1953, 2 January 1957 vacation house, MMA.
38 Monte María Diary, 21 June 1956, MMA.
39 Monte María Diary, March 1958, MMA.
40 Monte Mara Diary, 1 May 1955, MMA.
41 Sister Regina Johnson Interview, Oaxaca, Mexico.
42 Letter to Mother Mary Columba from Sister Marian Peter, 6 December 1954. MMA.
43 Thomas, , and Melville, Marjorie Whose Heaven, Whose Earth 47.Google Scholar
44 Jacaltenango Diary February 1959 and Jacaltenango School, Box 8, Fl, MMA.
45 “Bringing Medicine to Guatemalan Indians, Box 8, Fl, MMA.
46 Jacaltenango Hospital: Preventative programs and Special clinics, compiled January 1966 Box 8 F1, MMA.
47 Mons. Hugo Martínez, Obispo de Huehuetenango, Maryknoll En Huehuetenango, 1943–1985.
48 Annual Report Jacaltenango for the Year Ending December 31, 1967, MMA.
49 Ibid.
50 San Pedro Necta, Maryknoll Sisters Diaries, March 1961. MMA.
51 Maryknoll Spiritual Directory, Maryknoll Sisters Heritage, p. 88, MMA.
52 Jacaltenango Diary Digest; January 1961-November 1961, MMA.
53 Jacaltenango Diary, June 1966, MMA.
54 Maryknoll Sisters Diary, Jacaltenango, Huehuetenango 1960. MMA.
55 Maryknoll Sisters Diary, Huehuetenango, December 1962-November 1963, MMA. Maryknoll Sisters were assigned to help prepare the national school exams.
56 Sister Rose Agnes, Superior, “Evaluation Colegio Monte Maria,” Monte Maria Diaries, 14 Febru-ary 1967, MMA.
57 Monte María Diaries, June 1956, MMA.
58 Monte María Diaries, November 1960, MMA.
59 Ibid.
60 “Guatemala's Seedling School,” Sister Mary Mildred, Monte María Diaries, January 1961, MMA.
61 Ibid., p. 108.
62 Monte María Diary November 1961-November 1962, MMA.
63 Ibid.
64 Monte María Diary November 1960-November 1961, MMA.
65 Monte María Diary November 1961-November 1962, MMA.
66 Bonpane, Blase, Guerrillas of Peace: Liberation Theology and the Central American Revolution (New York: toExcel, 2000), p. 2.Google Scholar
67 Javier Zavala was a Jesuit seminarian who subsequently left the order, but he was known among the cursillistas as “Father.” Personal communication with Margarita Melville, 11 May 2004.
68 Some Aspects of Monte Maria Work, November 1962-November, 1963. Monte Maria Diaries, MMA.
69 Ibid. pp. 147–148.
70 Marjorie and Thomas Melville, Whose Heaven, Whose Earth, p. 150.
71 Ibid. p. 152.
72 Ibid. p. 206.
73 Leigh, A. Fuller, S.J. “Catholic Missionary Work and National Development in Guatemala, 1943–1968: The Maryknoll Experience,” (Master's Thesis, New York University, 1971), p. 180–181.Google Scholar
74 Ibid. p. 182. Maryknoll Sisters Diary, Huehuetenango, December 1965-December 1966, MMA.
75 Ibid. pp. 175–176, Marjorie, and Melville, Thomas, Whose Heaven, Whose Earth pp. 203–206.Google Scholar
76 Macias, César, Mi Camino: La Guerrilla (Mexico: Editorial Planeta Mexicana, 1998), p. 160.Google Scholar
77 Eduardo Galeano, With the Guerrillas in Guatemala, Reprinted by permission from Ramparts magazine, September 1967, in Latin America: Reform or Revolution? Petras, James and Zeitlin, Maurice, eds. (New York: Fawcet Publications, Inc. 1968), pp. 370–380 Google Scholar; Marjorie, and Melville, Thomas, Whose Heaven, Whose Earth, pp. 250–251.Google Scholar Margarita Melville describes the occasion when she told César Montes about the encyclical which Maryknoll Sister Gail Jerome obtained a copy of to give to him to discuss. She reports having read the Galeano article.
78 Macias, César, Mi Camino, p. 160.Google Scholar César Montes was the nom de guerre used by César Macias during his years in the guerrilla struggle in Central America. In March, 1967 César Montes's brother, whose wife taught at Monte María and who had led a totally apolitical life, was tortured and murdered. Fuller, Leigh, “Catholic Missionary Work and National Development in Guatemala: The Case of Maryknoll,” p. 189.Google Scholar When César Montes use of Maryknoll facilities became public knowledge it was deeply resented by many of the Maryknoll sisters whose work was threatened by their association with the movement. See interview with Penny Lernoux, MMA. Margarita Melville (Sister Marian Peter) emphatically denied that she allowed Montes or others to use the convent, insisting that they only stayed at one of the three sites of the Crater student center. She also suggested that Montes had taken a bit of dramatic license in recounting their first meeting when he claimed that Sister Marian coolly lit a cigarette and requested a whiskey. She denies ever having been a smoker. Personal communication with the author, 11 May 2004.
79 Galeano, Eduardo, Guatemala: Occupied Country. Trans. Cedric Belfrage (New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1967), p. 24 note.Google Scholar
80 Melville, Thomas, “The Church of Tomorrow,” quoted in Fuller, p. 168.Google Scholar Another Maryknoll priest, William Woods, also promoted a resettlement program in Ixcán. Woods was killed in an airplane accident on 20 November 1976. Many attributed his death to the military and suggested it was a direct response to his role in resettlement in a region which became known as the “Zone of the Generals” because of the high number of land grants taken over by high ranking military officials. The military also targeted many Catholic Catechists in this region. See Ricardo Falla, S.J., Masacres de la Selva: Ixcán Guatemala (1975–1982) (Editorial Universitaria: Guatemala, 1993), pp. 17–20;Google Scholar Edward, T. and Brett, Donna Whitson, The Bill Woods Story: Maryknoll Missionary in Guatemala (Maryknoll: Available through Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, 1988);Google Scholar and Edward T. and Donna Whitson Brett, Murdered in Central America.
81 Marjorie, , and Melville, Thomas Whose Heaven, Whose, Earth, pp. 258–259.Google Scholar
82 “Revolution is Guatemala's Only Solution” Statement by Father Thomas Melville from National Catholic Reporter, January 31, 1968. Reprinted in Galeano, , Guatemala: Occupied Country, pp. 149–159.Google Scholar
83 The Bradford Case, Guatemala—1967, Sister Marian Pahl, 1988. Archives Middle America, Box 8, F15, MMA.
84 Berrigan, Daniel, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Boston: Beacon Press, 1970), p. 53.Google Scholar
85 Jonas, Susanne and Tobis, David, eds. Guatemala (New York: NACLA, 1974), p. 4.Google Scholar Margarita and Thomas Melville would both continue to engage in activism and scholarship to draw attention to the violence in Guatemala. The couple completed their doctoral degrees in anthropology by doing research in Chile where they arrived just before the overthrow of Allende and remained among the few American citizens who stayed in the country after the coup. Their presence was aided by their residence in the remote region of Temuco where they lived in a Mapuche community. They subsequently returned to the United States where Margarita -Melville obtained academic positions first at the University of Houston and subsequently at the University of California, Berkeley.
86 The New York Times 21 January 1968.
87 José McNiell, Interview by author. Jacaltenango, Guatemala 19 July 2004.
88 February 4, 1968, “Talk by Archbishop Mario Casariegos, Monte María, H3.4, Box 8, F–15, MMA.
89 Berryman, Philip, Christians in Guatemala's Struggle (London: Catholic Institute for International Relations, 1984), pp. 18–19.Google Scholar
90 Sister Pat Roe interview by author. Monte María, Guatemala City, 18 August 1995.
91 Levine, Daniel, ed. Religion and Political Conflict in Latin America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986)Google Scholar and Peterson, Anna, Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion: Progressive Catholicism in El Salvador's Civil War: Progressive Catholicism in El Salvador's Civil War (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997)Google Scholar suggest the direct relationship between increased repression and support for guerilla movements in Central America. In 1979 the New York Times blamed the “army-backed regime of President Romeo Lucas Garcia for radicalization of the opposition; the main beneficiaries of repression appear to be the nation's two leftist groups, Guerrilla Army of the Poor and the Organization of People in Arms both of which are growing in strength and popularity” suggesting that the direct relationship between increased repression and increased support for the guerillas was recognized even at the time. New York Times, 21 January 1979, 2:3, Sanford, Victoria, “From I Rigoberto to the Commissioning of Truth: Maya Women and the Reshaping of Guatemalan History,” Cultural Critique, No. 47 (2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
