Leonel cultivated mystery, explaining that El Salvador was “a symphony of illusions.” He knew people all over the country and was consistently warmly received.įorché and many others wondered if Leonel was with the guerrillas or with the CIA. Leonel owned a small coffee farm, was an expert marksman, was a motorcycle racer and he had an interest in Formula One racing cars. For Forché, it remained unclear who Leonel was and what he was up to. Once in El Salvador, Leonel took Forché all over the country, introducing her to people from all walks of life, including high-ranking officials in the Salvadoran military. They lived in a regal style, utterly disconnected from the lives of the majority. On the other end of the spectrum, 30 or 40 super-rich families owned nearly everything in the country. Salvadorans typically worked from dawn until dusk but average household income was about $400 a year. Life expectancy was about 47 for men, a little higher for women. One in five children died before the age of 5, mostly of dehydration caused by dysentery. Houses were made of mud and twigs and things you would find in a dump. The overwhelming majority of the people were desperately poor. The realities Forché discovered were brutal. Leonel called what he was doing his “reverse Peace Corps.” Forché would be going to El Salvador not to help the Salvadoran people but to educate herself about Central American realities. He knew war was coming to his country and he hoped Forché, as an aspiring poet and writer, could explain his country to the American people. After three days of nonstop talk, Leonel persuaded Forché to go to El Salvador to learn about life there.

The book is also about a young woman growing up as she learns about a world far different than anything she knew existed.Īs a 27-year-old student living in California, Forché was approached by a mysterious man, Leonel Gómez Vides, who showed up at her door. Forché’s book is a riveting account about her time in El Salvador in the late 1970s when the country was on the verge of civil war.

But then I read Carolyn Forché’s memoir What You Have Heard is True. I had not planned to write about El Salvador.

Carolyn forche what you have heard