Connected Diaspora: Central American Visuality in the Age of Social Media from September 14, 2020 to December 12, 2020 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Fiona Yang

The experiences of diaspora are varied and diverse, but one common factor can be historical trauma. Historical trauma, as defined by the US Health and Human Services department, is “multigenerational trauma experienced by a specific cultural, racial or ethnic group.” It is a term often applied to African Americans suffering the legacy of slavery and institutional racism; Jewish diaspora, suffering the effects of the Holocaust; and Native Americans, suffering from centuries of forced displacement. The initial source of trauma reverberates for generations – communities may continue to suffer from “unaddressed grief and behavioral health issues,” as well as a damaged cultural identity (HHS). 

The Salvadoran Civil War (1979 – 1992) is one such example of historical trauma, with repercussions for Salvadorians and its diasporic communities. In the 1970s, El Salvador experienced a period of socioeconomic inequality and political instability. The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition of left wing groups, rose against the military junta government (the JRG) in 1979; conflict continued until the Chapultepec Peace Accords were signed in 1992. After the war, the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador registered over 20,000 reports of politically motivated, violent incidents during the war. While the majority of those reports were attributed to the JRG, investigations concluded that both the FMLN and the JRG utilized extrajudicial killings, child soldiers, and other atrocities during the war. In addition to the human rights violations, economic and political turmoil continued in the decades after peace accords were signed. Poor economic conditions and a decade of militarization created power vacuums in which gangs and cartels flourished. 

Galileo Gonzalez’s piece Run (Napalm) deftly portrays the diasporic experience of historical trauma. While he himself did not live through the Salvadoran Civil War, his work “visually [interprets] oral stories from the Salvadoran Civil War” told by his grandmother (FA4). He further researches the weapons used during the war to flesh out his pieces. This piece, for instance, is titled Napalm, presumably after either his grandmother’s own experience or the general use of napalm firebombs during the Salvadoran war by government forces (NYT). The various forms of art in this piece – his grandmother’s storytelling, his own mixed media – exemplify the different ways each generation has processed and released this trauma. Run is also stylistically vague, loose – a reinterpretation of a story, rather than a photorealistic account of the war. The people are faceless figures, with cross-hatched shadows for faces. Buildings and fire are suggested through the use of orange, red, and pink smears; smoke is denoted by solid gray that fills up the entire background. There is a sizable amount of negative space in the foreground, evoking the sense of a fading memory. 

Historical trauma has different impacts on different communities, especially diasporic communities. In Gonzalez’s case, as an American-born citizen, he – like many diaspora – does not experience the direct impacts of the civil war on Salvadoran society. However, his grandmother’s accounts of the war have stayed with her, and now she has passed them on to him. His interpretation of her accounts – as imaginative pieces, instead of accurate accounts – are an insightful portrayal of how diasporic communities perceive and confront historical trauma. 

For more information on Connected Diaspora: Central American Visuality in the Age of Social Media and related events, visit https://thestamp.umd.edu/stamp_gallery

Further reading and works cited:
US Department of Health and Human Services, Definition of Historical Trauma
The New York Times on El Salvador’s Use of Napalm
The Migration Policy Institute’s Study on Post-War El Salvador
Galileo Gonzalez on FA4