A survivor of the Jan. 13 earthquake sits amid fallen grave markers in the town of Comasaguas. Relief organizations from around the world sent supplies to the area. CNS photo from Reuters

Chicagoans aid quake victims

By Michael D. Wamble
Staff Writer

“It was an ocean wave. The earth moved like the ocean, rising and shaking.”

That was how one of the thousands of El Salvadorian victims described the debilitating earthquake that rocked the region to his sister in Chicago.

Blanca Cruz Manzanares’ brother was one of the few people on the ground able to contact family outside the Central American nation, managing to avoid serious injury when the roof caved in on his family.

Hundreds of people were killed or remain missing as a result of the Jan. 13 jolt which measured 7.6 on the Richter scale. An estimated 750,000 were rendered homeless by the quake.

When additional reports of the massive quake reached Manzanares and other parishioners of St. Jerome Church, 1709 W. Lunt Ave., Jan. 13, an uneasy feeling of déjà vu washed over many.

According to members of the parish, which has a large El Salvadorian population, small rancheros (villages) outside the capital city of San Salvador, hadn’t yet fully recovered from devastation brought on by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

The violent shake set-off a landslide further destroying already structurally-weakened homes in the town of Santa Tecla.

“In Usulatán, my home village and smaller villages in the country, it was like they had been lifted up only to be knocked back down again,” said Manzanares.

But Manzanares, and many at St. Jerome have transformed their sorrow into action.

On Jan. 28, St. Jerome will hold an all-day El Salvadorian banquet and concert to raise awareness and relief funds to assist those in need throughout the predominantly Catholic nation.

The Salvadorian Choir of the Spirit will perform traditional songs and Catholic spirituals indigenous to the region at 2 p.m. Manzanares’ husband, father and sister are members of the choir.

The parish, said St. Jerome pastor Father Thomas Bradley, already has received financial gifts from a variety of sources.

“A group of landscapers from a suburban country club brought over $175. And these are not people from El Salvador. They have no relatives there,” said Bradley. “These laborers have so little yet they felt called to share what little they have.

Bradley continued, “The Anglo community also has been generous. Events like these can bring out the best in people.”

Several dozen donations have been deposited in a special El Salvador Relief Fund opened by the parish at LaSalle Bank, 7516 N. Clark St.

The first sketchy reports of the deadly jolt motivated fifth-graders at St. Luke School in River Forest to designate a mission project collection for Salvadorian quake victims.

In addition to money, local Catholics have donated items, through Union Latina, an organization based in the predominantly Hispanic Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood, that included thousands of shoes and other non-perishable materials for departments (or states) wrecked by the violent quake and subsequent landslides.

“We have been able to get in touch with people on the outskirts of town [San Salvador] so I know that 100 percent of the money raised will go directly to development services to help people in need,” said Bradley. The parish will send two to three members to the country to distribute goods collected.

“Unfortunately, what happened, we are told, is that roads leading into the city have been chewed up so there is little to no assistance to places outside the city where there is no food, no water or doctors, “ the pastor said.

Manzanares is concerned that relief might trickle slowly into areas like Usulutan, given the possibility of landslides complicating the difficulty of navigating the country’s rough terrain.

So far, she said, only a single helicopter has been sighted delivering relief to the region where eight people have died.

Usulatán is one of a dozen departments identified by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to receive aid.

Elena Segura of the archdiocesan Office for Peace and Justice, said numerous donations have been sent from area Catholics to be directed to CRS, at work to meet immediate needs: food, clothing, housing.

“Having worked through Hurricane Mitch, the CRS approach is to ensure the resources flow outside of the city to reach the poorest of the poor,” said Segura. “Everyone will benefit from donations received.”



To assist earthquake victims in El Salvador send financial contributions to: El Salvador Relief Fund, LaSalle Bank, 7516 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60626. Contributions also can be sent to: El Salvador Earthquake, 155 E. Superior St., Chicago, IL 60611.