Students donate funds, time to earthquake-stricken El Salvador

  During spring break Alberto Gutierrez
(left) and Visal Nga help move wood that will be
used to rebuild houses in El Salvador. They were among the seven
members of Conciencia Libre who traveled there to aid people after
devastating earthquakes.

By Michaele Turnage
Daily Bruin Contributor

For first-year political science student Dania Portillo, news of
earthquakes in El Salvador brought back images of children running
when a similar quake struck the country in 1986. That quake
instantly left 300,000 people homeless.

Portillo, who came to the United States when she was 13, was one
of the seven members of Conciencia Libre who traveled to El
Salvador during spring break to deliver aid and support to
earthquake victims.

The students began raising money and gathering clothes for
survivors after two major earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks
hit El Salvador earlier this year.

A 7.6 magnitude quake on Jan. 13 and a 6.6 quake that hit
exactly one month later devastated the country, killing 1,149
people and leaving 1,000 more injured. The quakes also destroyed
150,000 homes and left 180,000 damaged.

The trip also gave the seven delegates the opportunity to learn
about El Salvador’s education system, its women’s
movement, economic history and struggle for social justice.

“We are going to El Salvador to educate ourselves about
the struggle in Latin America,” said political science
student Morelia Baltazar, who organized the trip and fundraising,
before leaving Los Angeles on March 23. “We are going to
learn and bring it back to the community.”

Conciencia Libre raised approximately $3,000 to donate to
earthquake victims. Students raised money individually, at the
March 10 Raza Womyn’s conference, and at a recent fund-raiser
at Shakey’s Pizza Restaurant.

Baltazar’s mother, who works at a high school, helped
organize fundraising among high school and middle school students,
including those at Coachella Valley High School and John Kelley
Middle School.

Delegates, who paid for their own plane tickets and housing
accommodations, donated the $3,000 to the mayor of Cuzcatlan, to
distribute to towns that needed the most aid.

Although their monetary donation was small in comparison with
those from the European Union and the United States, who have
pledged to donate $50 million and $100 million in earthquake relief
respectively, delegates agreed their support was sincerely
felt.

“Just our presence there was very meaningful for
them,” said Portillo, who was encouraged to go on the trip by
her teaching assistant and trip organizer Hector Perla, a political
science graduate student.

Among the delegates’ greatest fears in making the trip was
that there would be another earthquake. These fears were realized
when a strong aftershock struck during their stay.

“When we were there, there was a 5.9 earthquake,”
Portillo said.

When the aftershock hit, the delegates experienced the panic the
El Salvadoran people feel with each additional earthquake.

“Some people think the earthquake is the end of the
world,” Portillo added.

Despite the ever-present danger, delegation members said they
learned valuable lessons from the experience. Each day, they
traveled and visited different El Salvadoran organizations.

“Everything we have learned in school has been
theory,” said Visal Nga, a second-year chemical engineering
student. “When we were there we put the theory into practice
and we were able to see people apply the theory to their
lives.”

Delegates visited many sites during their trip, including a
school in Candelaria that had collapsed in one of the earthquakes,
killing several students and a teacher.

Portillo spent time with her uncle, who took her to see the
devastation at Las Colinas, the epicenter of the Jan. 13 quake.

Before the earthquake Las Colinas was somewhat like Bel-Air,
Portillo explained. The richest people built their mansions on the
hillside and the poor people lived in dense housing below. But the
mountain was made of sand, not rock, making a very unstable
foundation for homes. When the January earthquake hit, a massive
landslide sent the homes of the rich flying down the mountain to
land on top of the homes of the poor.

“The portion of the mountain where those rich people lived
is not there anymore,” Portillo said. The debris of the homes
of the rich buried the homes of the poor. Both rich and poor
residents were buried alive.

According to Portillo, rescuers could not attempt to rescue the
poor people because they were buried so deep in the ruins.

Several towns, including San Agustin, Berlin and Armenia
disappeared in a similar fashion after landslides caused by the
Jan. 13 earthquake, which is regarded as the worst natural disaster
in El Salvador’s history.

Despite the destruction, the students were inspired by residents
carrying wood that would be used to rebuild homes in San Rafael
Cedros.

“Even though they may be hurt, they are still willing to
help build houses, and still willing to carry wood,” Portillo
said. “There is a willingness to change their
lives.”

The students and alumni arrived back in L.A. Sunday night.

“It was a beautiful experience ““ painful and very
touching,” Portillo said.

With reports from Daily Bruin wire services.