At National Assembly, CRIPDES Celebrates 25 Yrs of Sistering & Elects Directiva

On June 25^th, CRIPDES held its 27^th Annual National Assembly, at the Hospitalito La Divina Providencia, the site Monseñor Romero´s assassination 31 years ago. The event was attended by over 150 community leaders from all over El Salvador, as well as 18 members of the Cambridge  Sister City committee. The event featured a speech by Violeta Menjivar, former FMLN Mayor of San Salvador and current vice-minister of the Ministry of Health. Menjivar urged the crowd to continue to support the “government of change” in its slow but steady effort to improve conditions in the country and she listed the impressive achievements of the Ministry of Health.

Another highlight of the event was the section dedicated to celebrating the 25^th anniversary of Sister Cities. First, the CRIPDES Sur youth theater group performed a play created in collaboration with Sister Cities coordinator, Alexandra Early. The short play called, “Juntos Podemos”, covered the 25 year history of Sister Cities, from the meeting in Mesa Grande in which CRIPDES was formed, to the first delegations of US citizens to repopulated communities to protests in the U.S. against U.S. government intervention in El Salvador. The CRIPDES Sur theater group is supported by the sister city committee of Crystal Lake, Illinois and many of the stars of the group are CRIPDES scholarship students from Crystal Lake´s sister community Chilama.

After the play, Leigh Hardy, president of the Sister Cities board, addressed the crowd. Leigh spoke about growing up in the Sister Cities network because parents have been very active in the Cambridge committee since it began in 1987. Leigh referred to herself as one example of why Sister Cities continues to be important and relevant today, nearly 20 years after the end of the civil war. After Leigh´s tear-jerker of a speech, Jim Wallace, historic member of the Cambridge committee also expressed his continued solidarity with El Salvador. To finish up the section, Alex Early read a short summary of the advocacy work Sister Cities has done around the anti-mining fight & the human rights crisis in Honduras.

Finally, after a short lunch break, came the part of the day everyone was waiting for- the election of the new national junta directiva of CRIPDES. In preparation, all 6 regions of CRIPDES had held assemblies to vote for their proposals for the national directiva in the previous months. At the national assembly, 15 candidates lined up at the front of the room and the voting commenced. As a neutral party, Sister Cities participated in electoral commission and helped count votes. At the end of the assembly, the 7 members of the new junta directiva were announced.  The new junta directiva includes representation from all the regions of CRIPDES, historic and new leaders and even a mayor. The members of the new directiva are:

Marcos Galvez of UCRES

Gertrudis Mejia Mejia of the CRIPDES Sur team

Maria Juventina Ramirez Menjivar of the CCR in Chalatenango

Simon Antonio Amaya of CRIPDES San Vicente

Blanca Zulma Hernandez of the CRIPDES Sur team

Jose Rudecindo Abara of PROGRESO

Maria Edith Portillo of CRIPDES San Vicente

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