1. Apéndice A
Información histórica:
The Salvadoran Civil War (1980–1992) was a conflict in El Salvador between the
military-led government of El Salvador and the FarabundoMartí National Liberation
Front (FMLN), a coalition or umbrella organization of five left-wing militias. Significant
tensions and violence had already existed, before the civil war's full outbreak, over the
course of the 1970s. El Salvador's Civil War was the third longest civil war in Latin
America after the Guatemalan Civil War and the Armed conflict in Peru. The United
States supported the Salvadorian military government.The conflict ended in the early
1990s. Some 75,000 people were killed.
El Salvador is a small country located in Central America bordered by Honduras,
Guatemala and the Pacific Ocean. In recent years, it has been plagued by violence and
poverty due to over-population and class struggles. The conflict between the rich and the
poor of the country has existed for more than a century.
In the late 1880s, coffee became a major cash crop for El Salvador. It brought in 95% of
the country's income. Unfortunately, this wealth was confined within only 2% of the
population. Tensions between the classes grew, and in 1932 AugustínFarabundo Marti
formed the Central American Socialist Party and led peasants and indigenous people
against the government. In response, the government supported military death squads
which killed anyone who even looked Indian or may have been supporting the uprising.
The killing became known as La Matanza (the Massacre) and left more than 30,000
people dead. Marti was eventually arrested and put to death.
The struggle continued through the years. Both sides continued to fight back and forth in
an endless string of assassinations and coups. As the presence of guerillas existed, the
military reinstated the death squads in order to combat the rebel forces. In 1979, yet
another military junta overthrew the government. When the Junta made promises to
improve living standards in the country but failed to do so, discontent with the
government provoked the five main guerrilla groups in the country to unite in the
Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN).
In 1980, El Salvador's civil war officially began. The government-supported military
targeted anyone they suspected of supporting social and economic reform. Often the
victims were unionists, clergy, independent farmers and university officials. Over the
ensuing twelve years, thousands of victims perished. Some of the most notable were
Archbishop Oscar Romero (shot to death 1980), four US church workers (raped and
murdered 1980) and six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter (shot to death
at home 1989). The military death squads wiped-out entire villages believed to be
assisting the guerrilla efforts. In 1981, the military killed over 1,000 people in the village
of El Mozote. The first reports of the attacks were denied by both El Salvador and the
United States, but after the mass graves were uncovered, it was hard to deny what had
taken place.
As the military defended their stand of killing any alleged rebels, the FMLN also worked
to blow-up bridges, cut power lines, destroy coffee plantations and anything else to

2. damage the economy that supported the government. The FMLN also murdered and
kidnapped government officials. As time passed, guerrilla efforts became more advanced.
The FMLN progressed from using machetes and small pistols to using grenade launchers
and other imported arms. Their advances became more strategic and better planned.
The war persisted despite efforts from both sides to bring an end to the fighting. The
FMLN refused to participate in presidential elections, feeling that any election results
would be adjusted in favor of right-wing parties. The government refused to attend peace
talks organized by the FMLN.
In the end about 75,000 people died as result of the civil war between 1980 and 1992.
With the passage of time, more evidence of war crimes emerges and more former
government officials are prosecuted.
Apéndice B
Información del autor:
Roque Dalton García (San Salvador, El Salvador, 14 May 1935 – Quezaltepeque, El
Salvador, 10 May 1975) was a leftistSalvadoranpoet and journalist. He is considered one
of Latin America's most compelling poets. He wrote emotionally strong, sometimes
sarcastic, and image-loaded works dealing with life, death, love, and politics.
In 1970 Roque Dalton had become a recognized figure in the Salvadoran left. He tried
hard to become a revolutionary soldier, for which reason he participated in military
training camps in Cuba several times. He once wrote "Politics are taken up at the risk of
life, or else you don't talk about it".
Roque Dalton (1937–75) was the major literary figure and an important political architect
of the revolutionary movement in El Salvador. Dalton represents a new type of Latin
American writer: no longer the genial 'fellow traveler' of the revolution, like Pablo
Neruda, but rather the rank and file revolutionary activist for whom the intricate cabbala
of clandestine struggle-pass- words, safe houses, escape routes, forged documents,
sectarian squabbles- was as familiar as Parisian surrealism. A dangerous and difficult
profession, in which the event that seals a writer's reputation is often precocious
martyrdom.
Apéndice C
Información geográfica:
El Salvador:
http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en&q=map+of+el+salvador&oe=U
TF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-

3. 8&hq=&hnear=El+Salvador&gl=us&ei=gILHTbONAYTAsAPZxLiVAQ&sa=X&oi=geoc
ode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBoQ8gEwAA
Apéndice D
Información cultural:
Before the Spanish conquest, the area that is now El Salvador was made up of two large
Indian states and several principalities. Most of the area was inhabited by the Pipil.
Spain's first attempt to conquer the area failed as the Pipil forced Spanish troops to
retreat. In 1525, the district fell under the control of the Captaincy General of Guatemala,
a colony of Spain, which retained authority until independence in 1821. During the
colonial period, the Spaniards replaced the communal property of the indigenous
population with a system of private property. The encomiendasystem obliged Indians to
work for the Spanish in order to pay a large tax. At the top of the colonial hierarchy were
the Peninsulares, Spaniards born in Spain. Under them were the criollos, Spaniards born
in the Americas. The mestizos were people of mixed Spanishand indigenous descent, who
had some rights but could not hold private property. The indigenous peoples were
exploited and mistreated.
The first decades of independence saw uprisings by poor mestizos and Indians to protest
their impoverishment and marginalization. Before the cultivation of coffee was

4. introduced in the late nineteenth century, indigo was the principal export crop. In 1833,
an Indian rebellion of indigo sowers and cutters led by Anastasio Aquino demanded
distribution of land to the poor and the just application of the penal laws, the only laws
applied to the poor. The rebellion was crushed by the government. Thousands of rural
peasants were displaced as new laws incorporated their lands into large "modern" coffee
plantations where peasants were forced to work for very low wages. This created a coffee
oligarchy made up of fourteen families. The economy is still controlled by a wealthy
landowning caste (1 percent of the population still owns 40 percent of the arable land).
The civil war in the 1980s led to a huge population upheaval, with up to 40 percent of the
population relocating and close to 20 percent leaving the country. Estimates of deaths in
the twelve years of civil war have reached 80,000, including twelve thousand civilians
killed in 1981. In 1982, mutilation killings, particularly decapitations, of adults and
children were used as mechanisms of terror.
Much of that repression was in response to the political organization of the people in the
1960s and 1970s as workers, peasants, women, students, and shanty town dwellers
developed organizations to demand political and economic rights. Many political activists
felt that "legal" political organizing would not lead to political change and began
organizing the clandestine guerrilla units that formed the nucleus of the FMLN in 1980.
By 1979 the FMLN was perceived as a threat by the military dictatorship.
A new spirit of activism emerged within the Catholic Church. Rural peasants and church
workers formed Christian "base communities" and agricultural cooperatives in the 1960s
and 1970s. Progressive priests and nuns formed Bible study groups in which peasants
reflected on local conditions in light of biblical texts. This organizing was considered
communist and subversive and became a target of government repression.
A group of young officers staged a military coup and formed a cabinet consisting of
civilians from a wide spectrum of political parties. However, the military and the
oligarchy frustrated attempts at change. Three more juntas followed, but each was
incapable of implementing reform and stopping atrocities.
In 1980, the archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, who had become a forceful
critic of military oppression, was assassinated while saying Mass. This led many people
in the base Christian communities and political organizations to turn to armed resistance.
Five revolutionary armies joined together to form the FMLN.
In November 1989, the FMLN launched a bloody nationwide offensive, taking parts of
the capital. International coverage of the offensive increased the pressure for a negotiated
settlement to the conflict. On 31 December 1991, the government and the FMLN signed
an agreement under the auspices of the United Nations, and a cease-fire took effect in
1992. The peace accords called for military reforms including a reduction in the size of
the military, a new armed forces doctrine stressing democratic values and prohibiting an
internal security role, and the banning of paramilitary groups. The National Civilian
Police was established to replace the repressive National Police. Judicial, electoral, and
social reforms included land reform and government-financed loans for land purchases.
Ideological polarization between the two sides in the conflict has made reconciliation
difficult, and the government has failed to prosecute human rights abusers, or address the
social injustices. Many Salvadorans, especially rural peasants, do not trust the nation's

5. political leaders.
Salvadoran national identity is comprised of a mix of indigenous and Spanish influences
expressed in food, language, customs, and religious beliefs.Indians were at the bottom of
the social hierarchy in colonial times and subject to massacre and exploitation well into
the twentieth century. Ninety-seven percent of the population in El Salvador is now
"mestizo." However, those who have more indigenous features suffer some
discrimination and are referred to by the derogatory terms "indios" (Indians) or "negros"
(blacks).
About half the population lives below the national poverty line, able to buy food but not
clothing and medicine. Over half of these families live in a situation of extreme poverty.
Forty-seven percent of the population does not have access to clean water.
The difference between the incomes of the most wealthy and the poorest are extreme and
increasing. The poorest 20 percent receive only 2 percent of the national income, whereas
the richest 20 percent receive 66 percent. The distinction between the rich and poor is no
longer ethnic, as the vast majority of the population is now mestizo (about 97 percent).
The rich have more access to American goods and typically dress like Americans. They
also have access to education at home and abroad and often speak English, as well as a
more grammatical form of Spanish.
Read more: Culture of El Salvador - traditional, history, people, clothing, women, beliefs,
food, customs, familyhttp://www.everyculture.com/Cr-Ga/El-
Salvador.html#ixzz1LpoirRjt
También, los estudiantes pueden buscar más información sobre la cultura salvadoreña por
este sitio: http://www.salvaide.ca/salvadoranculture.html
Apéndice E
Información sobre la Guerra Civil en los Estados Unidos:
The American Civil War (1861–1865), also less commonly known as the War Between
the States (among other names), was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven
Southernslave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the
Confederate States of America, also known as "the Confederacy". Led by Jefferson
Davis, the Confederacy fought for its independence from the United States. The U.S.
federal government was supported by twenty mostly-Northern free states in which
slavery already had been abolished, and by five slave states that became known as the
border states. These twenty-five states, referred to as the Union, had a much larger base
of population and industry than the South. After four years of bloody, devastating warfare
(mostly within the Southern states), the Confederacy surrendered and slavery was

6. outlawed everywhere in the nation. The restoration of the Union, and the Reconstruction
Era that followed, dealt with issues that remained unresolved for generations.
Apéndice F
Como Tú
Por Roque Dalton
Yo como tú
amo el amor
la vida,
el dulce1 encanto de las cosas
el paisaje celeste2 de los días de enero.
También mi sangre bulle3
y río por los ojos
que han conocido el brote de las lágrimas4
creo que el mundo es bello
que la poesía es como el pan
de todos
Y que mis venas5 no terminan en mí
sino en la sangre unánime
de los que luchan por la vida
el amor,
las cosas,
el paisaje y el pan,
la poesía de todos
Apéndice G
Preguntas de comprensión:
1.) ¿Cómo es la poesía similar al pan?
2.) ¿Cuál es un símil en este poema?
1sweet
2heavenlylandscape
3bloodboils
4thathaveknowntheburst of tears
5veins

7. 3.) Escribe tres adjetivos que describen el tono del poema?
4.) ¿Qué puede simbolizar “enero” en el poema?
5.) Explica la cita: “Y que mis venas no terminan en mí, sino en la sangre unánime de
los que luchan por la vida…”
6.) ¿Dónde está el apóstrofe? ¿Por qué usa un apóstrofe?
7.) ¿Dónde están los imágenes en el poema? ¿Qué representan?
8.) ¿Qué es el mensaje del poema?
Apéndice H
¿Cuáles símbolos están en esta foto? ¿Cuáles conexiones puedes hacer entre la foto y
el poema?

8. Apéndice I
Haga un dibujo de cómo interpretas el poema:

9. Apéndice J
Haga tu propio poema sobre un tema que te interesa. Puede ser un poema sobre un
tema político, un tema social, o un tema cultural.
Apéndice K
Haga un resumen sobre las diferencias y las semejanzas entre la película, Voces
Inocentes y el poema, “Como Tú”.