Vilma Ayala Interview, History 150 Spring 2017, Conducted by Leonardo Ayala, March 6, 2017
The interview was conducted in person. There was no editing used and a digital audio recorder connected to Audacity was used. I connected the digital audio recorder connected to my laptop via USB cord. I made sure to tell my dad to not come into the room to keep a quiet and clear interview environment. Overall, there were no obstacles I had to overcome.
My mother, Vilma Ayala, is 48 years old presently and was born in El Salvador. She experienced the horrors of the Salvadoran Civil War. Her house was burned down and she was left homeless in rural El Salvador. Her town was one of the main ones to be affected so greatly even if the country was impacted as a whole. Such hardships and the violence from the upcoming gangs after the war led to her immigration to the United States when she was 20 years old. The Archbishop who was killed to spark the war was the bishop who conducted my mother’s first communion ceremony in the Catholic church.
The war was one of the most devastating events in recent history of Latin America. The effects of a civil war will always be felt as the citizens are killing their own countrymen and women. The war left 75,000 civilians dead in addition to the soldiers on both sides of the conflict. The assassination of Archbishop Romero, loved by many in the country sparked political unrest which began the civil war in El Salvador.
Works Cited MLA
“El Salvador: 12 years of Civil War.” The Center for Justice and Accountability. Accessed 26 Mar. 2017.
Chavez, Joaquin M. How did the Civil War in El Salvador end? 2015. Accessed 26 Mar. 2017.
LA: Have you ever experienced any sort of discrimination in this country?
Mrs. Ayala: No, thank God I have always had the luck to have in my surroundings very amiable people. The majority of the people that I have met have treated me very well.
LA: Can you tell me how difficult it was to leave your family in El Salvador?
Mrs. Ayala: Well it was very difficult considering that I come from a small family. After all we suffered because of the war, having to be separated again was very difficult for me but it was not a decision that I made for myself.
LA: What was the most difficult thing to adapt to here in the United States?
Mrs. Ayala: The most difficult thing for me was the language and it still is the language. When I came to the United States over the border through the mountains, I didn’t even imagine that it was a different language here, that I had to learn how to speak English. I arrived in California and I lived there for 10 years. Many people in California speak Spanish, so I really didn’t have the need to learn how to speak English. When I moved to Virginia, I had to learn after 10 years I had to start learning how to speak the language so I could do another type of job and it’s still difficult because for me English is very difficult.
LA: Can you tell me how different was El Salvador after the war?
Mrs. Ayala: It was different after the war because before the war, it was such a beautiful place, there was a lot of peace and a lot of harmony. The people were very amiable, we lived very calmly. After the war there was a gloomy mood, you saw much destruction, many orphaned children. The violence started to develop between the young men to try to survive in a way that before the war didn’t exist. The groups of gangs began forming. It was very sad seeing such a desolate place. People just wanted to get out of there.
LA: How was your experience of crossing the border?
Mrs. Ayala: For me it was a nice experience because it was like an adventure. When I was in El Salvador, because of everything with the war, we couldn’t go out to the street a lot or go to new places. It was difficult because I was surrounded by people I didn’t know, I experienced extreme hunger, I experienced fear of seeing drugs on the way, of seeing violent acts.
LA: How was your experience with the smugglers bringing you into the country?
Mrs. Ayala: Well when I was about to cross the border, there was patrol cars all around us looking for us. The smuggler placed me in a cave and I was left scared and alone listening to the helicopters. When the noise died down, I left the cave to look for them and I got lost. Then I went to another cave and stayed there and fell asleep and nobody ever came back for me. In the morning I crossed the line walking and I saw a border patrol car far away and they did not try to pick me up or much less. Until then was when I realized I had to speak English to come to the United States. In San Diego, I met a family who took me in and helped me by giving me a phone so I could call the smuggler who brought me and I was there for about six hours until they came to pick me up. After that when we were by San Ysidro, immigration showed up again and we had to cross the freeway going the wrong way running to escape from them and hide until they left. That was when the smugglers came back for us to take us to Los Angeles.
LA: What difficulties did you encounter on the way to the United States?
Mrs. Ayala: Well what we went through was that they didn’t give us food to eat, sometimes we’d have a whole day without food, we’d have to walk hours without water. We traveled in trailers where they took animals. Wed sometimes have to walk through mountain ranges without food or water. That’s what was so hard and sad for everyone I was with.
LA: Were you scared of the smugglers or the people you were with on the trip?
Mrs. Ayala: With the people from El Salvador, there wasn’t any fear. With the smugglers there was because they were using a lot of drugs and they were armed. But with me they never tried to disrespect me but it was scary to see them get drugged up and crazy when they were supposedly taking care of us.
LA: Can you describe the war from your perspective as you remember it?
Mrs. Ayala: Well first of all, I think war isn’t the solution for any conflict. I think it’s unjust from any way you look at it. There’s so much injustice, you don’t know who is who. The guerilla soldiers would come to our house and ask for food and we’d have to aid them and act like we were on t=their side because if we didn’t do that, they’d kill us. Then the government soldiers would come and do the same and act like we were for what the soldiers would do. I remember one time that they came to a family member of ours at night and they didn’t open because they were scared. So they started firing into the house until they got tired. At night when they told the army that the guerrilla soldiers were in the town, they’d get helicopters and start shooting into houses without caring if there were children, elderly people, women or guerilla soldiers in the houses. Whatever they saw, they shot at. I had an experience with my neighbor she was a young woman of 17 years of age, she was a college student. They would persecute college students and young people. She enjoyed listening to protestation music and this was prohibited for us. Listening to this music meant that we were guerrilla supporters. This girl didn’t listen when they told her she couldn’t listen to it and she kept listening to it. The soldiers kidnapped her, about 15 days later, they found her dead, tortured, violated and with a stick in her private parts. It was a very horrible occurrence, how they’d treat the people.
LA: Did anything ever happen to any family members during this war?
Mrs. Ayala: Well they killed a lot of my family members in the shootings from the helicopters and they joined the guerrilla to avenge the dead family. My cousin was a college professor and the national guards came and pulled him out of his house and took him to the station. My uncle was a sergeant of the guards and went to the station to look for him but they denied everything. Up to today we didn’t find him, dead or alive. We never knew why they took him, what they did to him, or if he did anything to be taken like he did.
LA: What made you say, I don’t want to live here anymore? What brought you to America?
Mrs. Ayala: Well I didn’t decide to come on my account. I was sent precisely due to all the violence of El Salvador. Because after the war the gangs were beginning to form. At that time I was about 20 years old and it was very dangerous for young people. They began recruiting young people and my god mother decided for me to come. The opportunity presented itself and they could pay for my trip over here. That’s why I’m here.
LA: Well thank you very much for this interview.
During the interview process with my mother, everything went smoothly and we experienced minimal interruptions. The interview was entertaining and I learned vast amounts about my mother’s past and helps me put a story with my mom’s face. I would have planned the interview more and tried to come up with better questions if I could do this over again. It did flow but at times I seemed to be going too much off the script. It felt much more natural to go off the script but I liked the preparation behind my scripted questions. When we went off track, I felt like it just added many useful details to support the story she was telling me.