Interpretive Conflicts in Solidarity Activism: Documenting the Children’s Drawings of the Columbus-Copapayo Sister Cities Project

• In Event: Interrogating the Role of Testimonio amid Violence and Resistance in Central America

Abstract

In 1987, Columbus City Council agreed to establish a formal sister city relationship between Columbus, Ohio and Copapayo, El Salvador. Between 1986 and 1992 – years of intense violence during the Salvadoran Civil War – groups of activists and clergy traveled from Columbus to El Salvador in solidarity, providing material aid and accompaniment to the residents of Copapayo. In 1992 and 1994, a teacher from Columbus City Schools brought two groups of middle school students to Copapayo, to provide students the opportunity to practice foreign language skills and travel abroad. During these trips, the students of Columbus and Copapayo exchanged letters and drawings that depicted the ways of life in the students’ respective city or town. The purpose of this investigation is to document the drawings given to Columbus students by the children of Copapayo, which depict images of militarized violence and massacre. The drawings were brought back to Columbus and were displayed publicly, to raise awareness among Ohioans of the violence in El Salvador. While these images bear witness to the violence experienced in Copapayo, the student exchanges also index the interventions of North American activists, and the complications, tensions, and interpretative conflicts that arise through solidarity activism.

Author

• Stephanie N Aubry, Ohio State University