“Mozote” Published
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Why did I write a book about the civil war in El Salvador? Good question. The idea started when I married a woman from El Salvador, then took a trip there. For some reason I became interested in the coffee plantations (fincas) that spread out on the flanks of volcanoes in El Salvador, where the climate favors the coffee plant. I read a book about James Hill, who came to El Salvador in 1889, married a Salvadoran woman and inherited her family's coffee plantations. Hill's idea to plant coffee beans near an active volcano in the town of Santa Ana was ridiculed. While Hill saw the economic potential of coffee, his vision was not widely shared. However, coffee eventually became a major cash crop in El Salvador. This led to the formation of an elite group of people in El Salvador, owners of coffee plantations. As time went on, in the 1920’s Marxism seeped into the work force, who questioned why their labor enriched the landed elite. In 1931 a military coup installed Maximiliano Hernández Martínez - vice president at the time - as president. He led the country into a military dictatorship. In January 1932, Agustín Farabundo Martí - the head of the Salvadoran Communist Party - led a peasant uprising. General Martínez responded with a bloodbath called ‘La Matanza’, the Massacre.
I actually first wrote this as a screenplay. The Bay of Pigs fiasco was a subject that had long interested me, and I thought it would make a good movie.