Ángela Luz Barahona de Avalos
“A veces piedra con piedra machucaba el cordón del niño”
“Yo en la guerra empecé a asistir partos. Pero primero con mi mamá, yo bien jovencita, atendiendo un parto de gemelos. Yo aprendí viendo a la partera, la que me asistió a mi, y cuando asistimos a mi mamá, vi cómo lo hacía... Pero esa vez, ya había nacido el primer bebé cuando la partera llegó, como eran gemelos. Tenía como trece años cuando asistí a mi mamá con los gemelos. Después de eso salimos para la guerra cuando yo tenía como diecinueve años.
Yo andaba de cocinera de los guerrilleros y a veces con la gente de masa, y ahí es donde había necesidad porque salían varias muchachas embarazadas, o con la gente de masa andaba alguna embarazada. Yo tuve que asistirlas, sin nada, solo andaba unos hulitos. No andaba tijeras, a veces piedra con piedra machucaba el cordón del niño.
En la guerra me casé, me enviudé, y después yo me asistí sola. Yo tuve dos [hijos] antes de la guerra, los otros dos los tuve durante el conflicto. Yo sola me asistí durante la guerra, en una cueva, debajo de una piedra. Solo estaban ahí mis niñas. Después de que yo me asistí sola, otras compañeras y compañeros que andábamos ahí me buscaron y yo asistí a las que salían embarazadas en la guerra. Después nos fuimos para Mesa Grande [un campamento de refugiados en Honduras]. Venimos [de regreso a El Salvador] en el retorno del 87 y de ahí empecé a asistir de nuevo. Me buscaron porque se dieron cuenta de que yo asistía partos.
En la guerra... Me mataron mi esposo, me mataron una niña, bastante familia. Mis hijas se quedaron baleadas, a una le quedó una esquirla. Mi hija tenía once años cuando la balacearon. Yo tenía una esquirla pero ya me salió. Me quebraron las manos también.”
“Sometimes between two rocks I’d cut the baby’s umbilical cord”
“I started to attend births in the war. But first with my mother, I was very young, attending a birth of twins. I learned by watching the midwife, the one who atended my birth, and when we attended my mother’s, I saw how she did it... But that time, the first baby had already been born when the midwife arrived because they were twins. I was about thirteen when I attended my mother with the twins. After that we left for the war when I was about nineteen years old.
I was a cook for the guerrillas and sometimes with the gente de masa [civilians who traveled with the guerrillas for protection], and that is where there was a need because many women got pregnant, or there would be a pregnant woman with the gente de masa. I had to attend their births, with nothing, all I had were a few strips of cloth. I didn’t have scissors with me, sometimes between two rocks I’d cut the baby’s umbilical cord.
In the war I got married, became a widow, and then I attended my own birth by myself. I had two [children] before the war, the other two I had during the conflict. I attended my own birth during the war, in a cave, under a rock. Only my girls were there.After I attended my own birth alone, other comrades who were there sought me out and I attended those who got pregnant in the war. Then we went to Mesa Grande [a refugee camp in Honduras]. We came back [to El Salvador] in the return of '87 and from there I started attending again. They sought me out because they realized that I could attend births.
In the war... They killed my husband, they killed my daughter, a lot of family. My daughters were left shot at, one was left with a shell splinter in her. My daughter was eleven when they shot at her. I had a shell splinter but it came out. They broke my hands too.”
