Fourteen second and third year law students returned January 10th from an eight day immersion trip to El Salvador where they studied the legal system. The trip was an intense educational experience with tremendous emotional impact due to the stories of the many Salvadorans with whom they interacted. According to many of the students, this was the best educational experience they have ever had. Professor Cynthia Mertens, who coordinated the Fall course entitled “Legal Systems in El Salvador” and who accompanied the students, agreed. According to Professor Mertens, “this was the best educational experience I have provided students in my 29 years of teaching law school. In fact, it was the best professional experience of my career as a lawyer.”
The trip was unique in that the students were truly immersed in numerous aspects of life in El Salvador, one of the poorest of the Central American countries and one that suffered numerous atrocities during a civil war that lasted from 1980 to 1992. During the first visit, we learned about a domestic violence program in the town of Suchitoto. The two women who started the program then accompanied the group to Copapayo, a remote village in the campo or countryside, where we met with the village council. Council members related the villagers’ experience of walking under cover of darkness to Honduras in 1982 to a refugee camp during the civil war, as their area was being heavily bombed. During the day, they hid under the vegetation, hoping to escape the ever-present eye of the military. The council carefully explained the role of the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees who arranged for their repatriation a couple of years later. The intricacies of the endeavor and the reality of the struggle could only be understood by listening intently to the story of those who had experienced it. Several hours later, the SCU students had a “real life” perspective regarding the role of the UN in a civil war, the politics involved in repatriation, and the hardships endured by innocent victims.
The village embraced us in a way almost incomprehensible to the “American” (U.S.) mind. We were a diverse group, which included many individuals who did not speak the language. Yet we were welcomed into the lives of the villagers. The families brought mattresses and light blankets from their simple dwellings so we could spend the night in comfort on the floor of the community building. There was no running water in the village, although electricity and even a T.V. or two were obvious. The serenade of the cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, roosters, dogs and cats awakening us about 5 a.m. is a sound none of us will ever forget.
The next day the village leader had us all board his little boat to cross the lake bordering the village. An elderly couple then led us on a rather long hike through the jungle to a make-shift graveyard where several of the young teenagers (including two of their own) from the village were buried, innocent victims of random attacks during the civil war. There, Tita, one of the women who runs the domestic violence center in Suchitoto, kept the group mesmerized with her stories of her life as a guerrilla during the war. Once again, we saw in vivid detail the realities of politics, greed, and misunderstanding, and the effect that misguided power can have on individuals.
After the weekend in the countryside, we began our study of the legal system in the capital of San Salvador. Two law professors, one criminal and one civil, and two law students from the National University introduced us to the basic structure of the Salvadoran legal system. The dialog and questions lasted late into the evening. After the professors left, the National University law students invited the SCU law students to join a group of their fellow students at a nearby bar. There more “informal” but valuable learning took place. In fact, several of the students found the experience to be such a significant part of their education that they repeated it several times throughout our stay in the capital.
Our encounters during the next several days are difficult to recapture. They ranged from meeting with union leaders and lawyers involved in the labor struggles of the maquilas (sweat shops – prevalent in El Salvador), to sitting in on domestic violence cases in a nearby small town where the judge was attempting to mediate very personal and complex family disputes. Poverty and unemployment obviously contributed to the problems faced by these family members. Before the hearings, the judge explained the procedures and law even though her calendar was packed. Court personnel took the time to explain many other aspects of the system.
Each day was filled with a wide variety of educational experiences. We met with a lawyer/legislator from each of the two major political parties, personnel at the U.S. Embassy, and lawyers involved in current human rights work, among others. The visit culminated on our last day in a two hour dialogue with Supreme Court Justice Mirna Perla who related some of the issues facing the legal system today. Justice Perla, a human rights lawyer during the war, continues to fight for rights of those unjustly accused and wrongfully imprisoned. We will always remember her courage and commitment to justice.
The law students agree that the immersion trip was one they will never forget. The psychological impact is impossible to put into words. The educational value will be difficult, if not impossible, to duplicate. Without a doubt, the experience changed the life of every student who participated. The law school, the profession, and the community will benefit from the perspective that these students will bring to their courses and eventually to the practice of law.
