Richard L. Canas

Decade of Iron: the Prequel to Jaguars-a Tale of El Salvador Richard L. Canas

Immigrants from El Salvador! When did this exodus begin and for what reason? Why does this tiny, hard working and diligent country seem to produce generation after generation of displaced persons? Much of the answer can be traced back to a period of Salvadoran history long forgotten; to a time when tens of thousands of peasant workers, not all of whom had rebelled against their patrons, were systematically slaughtered by the iron-fisted military government of the day. Unwittingly, that peasant revolt launched twelve years of tyranny that set the pattern for governance in El Salvador for the decades to come. Two mystical leaders emerged from the massacres of January 1932. One, stubbornly influenced by self-taught occult beliefs, led the ruling military government for the next twelve years, while the other, quixotically led a tenacious insurgency bent on overthrowing the callous fascist at any cost. Caught in the middle of the political struggle were the young idealistic professionals, members of an emerging middle class. The story covers this period, and unfolds through the eyes of one of these professionals, a conservative psychiatrist, who chronicles the persecution and subsequent exile of his best friend. In the process, he exposes the enduring dilemma of security-minded patriots: The need to maintain public order and the in alienable rights of innocent people to be protected bythe same laws. It seems no one has yet found a solution that does not sacrifice one for the other. It is a timely tale that addresses the enigmatic question asked by second-generation immigrants: Why am I here?