Del ejercito nacional al ejercito guerrillero

by Francisco Emilio Mena Sandoval

El presente libro es muy significativo en la historia de la producción intelectual salvadoreña, no sólo por su forma singular, sino por la trascendencia de su contenido. Según su título, pareciera que es una sucesión de anécdotas de la vida de un Capitán, Francisco Emilio Mena Sandoval, en donde se cuentan las virtudes y picardías del héroe, que por deshacer entuertos cambia de uniforme. Sin embargo, no es un anecdotario común; en el desarrollo de los capítulos, se evidencia la dimensión individual del personaje determinado por la estructura de poder real en El Salvador. He aquí su trascendencia.
Exigido por el dinamismo de las contradicciones de la historia salvadoreña, el Capitán Mena Sandoval se ve obligado a utilizar una estructura expositiva no lineal sino retrospectiva, en donde se da un vaivén continuo entre el presente y el pasado, con un lenguaje sencillo y denso al mismo tiempo; pero entendible por cualquier lector.
Este contenido trascendente, manifiesto en una forma muy singular aprehende la verdadera significación del devenir de la historia salvadoreña de los últimos quince años. El poder político de la Fuerza Armada, que la convierte en una casta privilegiada, cuya génesis se encuentra no sólo en su alianza histórica con la oligarquía, a la cual defiende con “honor y disciplina”, sino también por los estrecho vínculos con el gobierno norteamericano, el que le enseña a torturar al pueblo y a preparar fraudes electorales; la legitimidad de la lucha revolucionaria que está umbilicalmente unida con las entrañas del pueblo salvadoreño que representa sus intereses y aspiraciones.
Allí transcurre la biografía del Capitán Mena Sandoval, entre las filas de un ejército nacional, cuya estructura viciada y arbitraria quiso anularlo y frustrar sus metas, a través de una metodología bestial, y las filas de un ejército popular, que educa políticamente a sus soldados para que actúen no sólo efectiva sino conscientemente. 

390 pages, Paperback

Reviews

[Carlos Rene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mena Sandoval’s story is split into two parts, the first chronicles his single-minded desire to attend military school and then his career in the military until the failed coup of the military youth. The second part covers the emotional fallout of the coup and his insertion into the FMLN for the rest of the war. A fascinating story that follows an idealistic youth and his transformation into disillusionment. If one wanted to better understand the Salvadoran Civil War, and the various forces at work during that time, this book is a good piece of context.

This was the first book that I read, in Spanish, that is written by a Salvadoran author describing events that took place in El Salvador. After more than a quarter century of life, despite being the child of Salvadoran immigrants, I finally finished reading a book like this. It’s only made me hungry for more. There’s so much that I do not understand of the language, culture, and history that it almost feels like I’m studying something new, even though I constantly feel like I am in a perpetual Déjà vu moment. It’s wild that the only real window that I have had into viewing this place and its people has been my family. Knowing and understanding my ignorance is not the easiest pills to swallow, but it’s a fantastic starting point to where I would want to go.

Mena Sandoval’s memoir is not a phenomenal book by any means; the writing can be dry, repetitive, and uninspiring. There was a paragraph here and there that had me pleasantly surprised. The structure of the different chapters wasn’t clear, and they often felt disorganized, meandering from one point to the next. It took me a while to realize it, but this book was actually written before the end of the civil war and was a death sentence if someone saw you reading it during that time.

The account of events that take place here are all from the point of view of the author and it’s not clear how much of it is reliable. Events may not have unfolded the exact way that they did, nor intentions be the ones that were assumed. Most importantly, we get a rough outline of the general history and the Mena’s reactions to them. His raw emotion and viewpoints that drove him initially to enlist in the military and (as he sees it) the devotion to service that drove him to join the Guerilla forces during the civil war.

A bit on the family ties to this book. I can vaguely remember that I’ve seen this book lying around in the various dwellings that we have lived in since I was a child. From apartment, townhouse, rented house, and finally our own house; this book has lived in various bookshelves and table tops up and down the East Coast. It’s a noticeable thing, the front cover has a weirdly blue humanoid figure on its knees covering its face as if it’s seen one too many horrors in its life. From it, is a red spirit (the revolutionary spirit) rising from the depressed body into the heavens.
I wonder if it was intended to represent the struggle of the Salvadoran people. A story that continues to repeat itself and is paralleled in Sandoval’s story and the story of my family. Decades of perpetual violence and instability have taken their toll, yet we should continue to remain hopeful and realize that a better future won’t just arrive, it’s something that we are going to have to fight for.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

¿Que mueve a un oficial de un ejército de corte fascista a unirse a un movimiento revolucionario de izquierda? Este libro nos responde a eso, con la vida y proceso del Capitán Mena Sandoval. Nos lleva desde las barracas de la Escuela Militar en San Salvador, hasta las montañas del norte de Morazán, controladas por los movimientos revolucionarios.
Pareciera una historia inverosímil, de no haber sido documentado por varias fuentes. Lloré un par de veces por lo crudo que es