"El Salvador was a year into a civil war that pitted the paramilitary death squads, funded in part by the U.S. government, against Marxist-Leninist guerilla forces and the civilians who supported them. Since the United States did not recognize the Salvadoran civil war, and its role in it, those who fled to the U.S. were not granted refugee status and were instead considered economic migrants."
"It took Artiga three months to get to Austin, Texas, and another year-and-a-half to get to San Francisco, where he was given sanctuary at the Most Holy Redeemer Church in the Castro and devoted himself to the solidarity movement in his homeland. In March 1982, Artiga participated in a hunger fast at St. Boniface Church in downtown San Francisco to draw attention to the Salvadoran crisis, making the local news."
Jose Artiga fled El Salvador in June 1980 after learning that far-right death squads had targeted him and four college classmates, who were later killed. He traveled to Austin then to San Francisco, where Most Holy Redeemer Church in the Castro gave him sanctuary. Artiga joined hunger fasts and solidarity actions to raise awareness of the Salvadoran crisis. Berkeley clergy and congregations, including University Lutheran Chapel and four other churches, committed to offering sanctuary and formed the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant on March 24, 1982, to coordinate grassroots support for Salvadoran asylum seekers.
Read at www.berkeleyside.org
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