Each group should consider developing a reading list for their respective area. Find some kind of resource or an individual that has traveled to your region that can assist you in developing a resource list. It’s quite helpful for travelers to have some sense of a countries culture and history. The following example is a reading list provided by ERD to groups traveling to El Salvador. If you are headed to El Salvador, feel free to use it.

Resources on El Salvador

READING

Inevitable Revolutions, the United States in Central America ; Walter LaFeber; Norton; 1993 (second edition).
This book covers the whole region of Central America, country by country, with historical and political analysis, and explorations in US involvement in the area. A basic text on the region, recently updated.

El Salvador, A Spring Whose Waters Never Run Dry ; edited by Wright, Sinclair, Lyle, and Scott; EPICA, 1470 Irving Street NW, Washington, DC 20010.
Testimonies of Salvadorans during the time of the civil war.

Forging Democracy From Below: Insurgent Transitions in South Africa and El Salvador; Elizabeth Jean Wood; Cambridge University Press; November, 2000.
Analysis of grassroots conflict in the formation of democracy.

The Religious Roots of Rebellion, Christians in Central American Revolutions ; Phillip Berryman; Orbis Books; 1984.
While dated, this book remains the best entry way to the role of Christian communities in Central America in the recent history of Central and Latin America (1960-mid 1980s). Best presentation on the rise of Liberation Theology in the south.

For those who read Spanish the best up to date religious, political, social and economic reality in El Salvador is the weekly pamphlet published by LAUCA, the Jesuit University in San Salvador, La Universidad Centroamericana José Siméon Cañas. This letter can be purchased through subscription and most university libraries have it.

ON TRAVELING OVERSEAS

Survival Kit for Overseas Living, L. Robert Kohls; Nicholas Brealey Publishing; 2001.
This is a good book to get an idea of culturalisms that we, as Americans, often have to overcome. It’s written with the idea that someone will be away for a long period of time, but has many chapters that can be useful for anyone going to another country for any period of time.

Successful Mission Teams, Martha VanCise; New Hope; 1996.
This book is specifically geared toward short-term mission work. It includes sections on how Americans can be most useful, as well as most harmful. Volunteers will find both books to be helpful in understanding different cultures and will find that many of the same points are reiterated throughout both books.

WEBSITES

www.thewitness.org
Click on Global Witness, their on-line magazine. The Witness is an independent monthly, coming from the Episcopal tradition, to connect theology and faith with social analysis and justice.

www.rtfcam.org
This is the Religious Task Force on Central America and Mexico.

VIDEOS

Esta Esperanza, Stories of Post War El Salvador ; 1996; Richard Breyer, producer. Available through EPICA, 1470 Irving Street NW, Washington, DC 20010

Romero; 1989; John Duigan, director. try your local library or Amazon.com. rated PG-13

Salvador ; 1986; Oliver Stone, director. Look for it at your local public library or buy it at amazon.com. rated R

Hidden in Plain Sight: 2003, John Smihula, director; Martin Sheen, Narrator (not rated)- documentary about the School of the Americas in Georgia. The school trains Latin American military leaders, and was shut down by a non-violent protest campaign in 2001 only to be reopened by congress that same year only with the new name Western Hemisphere Institute for Security.