Fredelinda Antonia Recinos de Cerón
“Debajo de los balazos”
“Mire, ha sido duro. Nosotros salimos a huir de la guerra, ahí dejamos todititito, abiertas las puertas más bien dicho, todo, todo y todo se lo llevaron [el ejército]. En tiempo de la guerra atendí dos, una hembra y un barón, un 31 de octubre, debajo de los balazos, usted, debajo de los balazos. Hay no, viera, sí nos ha costado. Por eso nos fuimos para Palacios de San José Guayabal. Palacios de San José Guayabal es donde nos fuimos a hospedar, en el suelo dormíamos. Ahí vino un señor y le pregunto a mi esposo si yo iba atender el parto a esa señora y yo no quería, ‘No, yo no puedo bien’ y ‘no puedo bien.’ ‘Mira, ve a hacer la cacha,’ me dijo. Y fui, y aquellos balazos, BOOM, por un lado, BOOM por otro lado, y yo viendo, hay cómo hago. Antes no había plástico [para protegernos] siquiera, ni una sombrilla, sólo esos costales donde viene el abono—eso nos echamos encima y me fui con el señor y casi agachada teníamos que caminar lejos debajo de las balas. De ahí se dieron cuenta que yo había asistido ese parto y vienen a llamarme a otro parto, y cuando yo llegue el niño en un poquito de arena ya se había nacido, solo la placenta faltaba y yo le hice diligencia ahí para que la placenta saliera. Como yo ya llevaba el cordón y las tijeras ahí le corte y solo le eché alcohol y ahí le corte el ombligo al niño y yo le traje, chineando al niño y le dije a un señor que fuera a buscar una hamaca para que le fuera a traer a la señora en una hamaca. Ahí atendí como cuatro partos. Atendí a una primeriza que era mi sobrina.
De ahí se puso peor porque buscaba la gente el escuadrón [de muerte] y buscaban a los de Suchitoto, y nosotros éramos de Suchitoto… sin hacer nada, usted, sin deber nada. Entonces nos fuimos para Soyapango, pero en ese entonces no había la Universidad de Don Bosco, ni había Unicentro, solo cañales habían. Nosotros vivíamos hacia la orilla de la calle, ahí vivíamos pero eran solo cañales. Ahí tuve que atender otros partos también, como ya había atendido varios partos, ahí me hacía cargo. La que tenía me daba un poquito, pero la que no tenía, ‘Dios se lo pague’”
“Under the gunfire”
“Look, it’s been tough. We fled because of the war, we left everything there, left the doors open, rather. They [the army] took everything, everything and everything. Then, in the war, I attended two, a girl and a boy... On October 31, and I did it under the gunfire, under the gunfire. Oh no, it has been tough for us. We fled to Palacios de San José Guayabal. Palacios de San José Guayabal is where we went to find refuge, we slept on the floor. While we were there, a man came and asked my husband if I would deliver his wife’s baby and I didn't want to, 'no, I can't do it well' and 'I can't do it well.' 'Look, go do what’s possible,’ he told me. And so I went, and in the crossfire, BOOM, one side, BOOM on the other side, and me asking, oh, what do I do. Back then there was not even plastic [to protect ourselves], not even an umbrella, we only had those sacks that fertilizer comes in—that is what we put over ourselves for protection, and I went with the man and we had to walk very far crouching all the way down under those bullets. After that, people knew that I had attended that birth and so they came to call me for another delivery, and when I arrived the child had already been born in a little bit of sand, only the placenta hadn’t come out yet and so I did the process for the placenta to come out. Since I already had the scissors with me, I just put some alcohol and cut the boy's umbilical cord and brought the boy carrying him, and told the man to go find a hammock so that he could go to bring the woman in a hammock. I attended about four more births while we were in that place. I cared for a first-timer who was my niece.
Then it got worse because the death squads were looking for people, and they were looking for those from Suchitoto and we were from Suchitoto... Without having done anything, without owing anything. So we went to Soyapango, but at that time there was no University of Don Bosco, nor was there an Unicentro [shopping mall], there were only sugar cane fields. We lived towards the edge of the street; we lived there when there were only sugar cane fields. I had to attend births there too because I had already attended several births, so I was the person responsible for that there. People who had something would give me a little bit, but those who didn't have anything, ‘God will pay you.’"
