El Salvador Carolina Rivera Analysis

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A Collection of Memories Dalia and Carolina Rivera both grew up in civil war. A bloody civil war, from1980-1992, in El Salvador that was responsible for the killing of many innocent people and for the separation of families. Both struggle to find their place, identity, and the role they play in a country that is dangerously chaotic. The book written by Rivera, …after…, in which Dalia is the main character, is in itself a collection of her own memories that form a physical testimony to how Rivera refuses to be oppressed. El Salvador’s civil war and its government might have forced her into exile, but even so Rivera does not back down from the fight and instead decides to put her memories on paper. By doing this she resisted intimidation, she …show more content…

It is her need to survive mixed with her determination to not be controlled by the government that pushes her to fight the government by participating in a guerilla. It can thus be said that the government’s actions to stop young adults/students from joining the guerilla movement has the opposite effect on Dalia. Although Dalia can’t be said to be one of the most radical and fully involved guerilla member, her small acts of defiance are enough to convince us of her rebellion. This is seen in her effort “to spread the word that the guerillas are luminous, alive and fighting in the mountains” (p.14) through graffiti, spreading pamphlets, and announcements on buses. No matter how small her involvement was with the guerilla it was still dangerous. For we only have to look to see what became of some of her friends, who did the same things she did, to understand the risk she was taking. “…I think about Dora surrounded by military and shot to death in el parque Cuscatlán---and of Trompita, the musician, his body burned and disappeared by chemicals, a favored military tactic to horrify the people” (p.14). Violence, we now understand, is clearly part of Dalia’s everyday life, but all these memories she grows up with serve to show her who she must fight against. Despite all the violence and all that this war has taken from her, we continue to see Dalia grow into a woman who knows what side she stands

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