“Stations of the Struggle” Exhibit Tours Madison Churches, April 8 2008

From the Madison-Arcatao Sister City Project, Madison, Wisconsin:

This spring, in collaboration with several Madison churches, the Madison Arcatao Sister City Project (MASCP) presented “Stations of the Struggle,” a traveling art exhibit during the 2008 Lent season. The Stations of the Struggle exhibit honors the fact that the people of our sister city of Arcatao, El Salvador do not have to look far in their history to see parallels to Christ’s pain and struggle depicted in the traditional Stations of the Cross. Healing from a long and violent civil war, the people of Arcatao have undergone their own struggle and continue to stand up for their human rights in the face of oppression.

As some of you may know from visiting other Salvadoran sister cities, on the walls of the church in Arcatao are painted the Stations of the Cross, depicting the persecution, painful walk to Calvary, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This is a common feature of Catholic churches worldwide. In Arcatao, the people have added a parallel story: their own. Painted next to each station’s mural of Jesus is a mural of an event significant to the human rights struggle of Arcatao.

In August of 2006, Madison delegates from the Movement Building Delegation traveled to Arcatao and were moved by this powerful depiction of truth and healing. Photographer Roland Torres, a member of this delegation, captured the essence of these paintings in his photographs. Community members and MASCP members organized the printing and display of the exhibit pieces from the original photographs Mr. Torres took last year.

MASCP collaborated with 3 local churches to host the traveling exhibit, as each church chose to draw attention to the exhibit in their own way during various times of mass, service, and alternative reflections. Each church hosted the exhibit for approximately two weeks, where church members and the general public could witness the display of photographs that shed light on the past struggle of the people of Arcatao. Materials accompanied the exhibit, explaining that oppression and human rights struggles are not things of the past for the people of El Salvador; rather that, even today, various forms of oppression have reared their heads in the disguise of remilitarization, mining of the lands, and privatization of basic needs.

The Stations of the Struggle traveling exhibit depicts the context in which the people of Arcatao live. The photographs were interpreted often as heartbreaking and tragic. However, the final station depicts an image of rebuilding, hope, and resilience. The Stations of the Struggle exhibit allowed us – MASCP members, community members, church members – to witness the determination of the people of Arcatao to heal from the past and organize to build a more just future.