“What Pegman saw” is a weekly challenge based on Google Streetview. You can read the rules here. You can find today’s location on this page, from where you can also get the Inlinkz code.
Santa Ana, El Salvador | Lopez Lopez, Google Maps
Saints and Martyrs
I pulled out my transistor radio ready for Archbishop Romero’s weekly sermon. My fiancée, Carlotta, wound her fingers through mine, her apprehension palpable. Would there be news of her brother? Would he be one of those on the grim lists of victims of torture and murder that the Archbishop read out?
I could hear other radios down the street – everybody listened, despite the ban, because this was how we, the poor and defenceless, found out what was happening.
Carlotta’s brother wasn’t mentioned.
A month later, the Archbishop was dead. A man burst into the hospice chapel where he was celebrating mass, and shot him twice. They say he forgave his killer with his dying breath. He’s a saint now.
And Carlotta? She and I joined the throng for the Archbishop’s funeral. As we drew near to the cathedral, the security forces fired on the crowd. My beloved, my dearest – dead…
Autumn Leaves 
Excellent write up 👍
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Srikanth
Thank you for reading and commenting. I’m glad you liked the story.
With best wishes
Penny
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great story. The ever-unfolding tragedy that is El Salvador. There’s a new chapter afoot even now. If history is any guide, it will be worse than ever (and the poor will suffer most).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Josh
Thank you for reading and commenting. The story of Archbishop Oscar Romero is long and emotionally complex. My 150 word story doesn’t begin to do it justice. I found it particularly appalling that the security forces fired on the crowd attending his funeral, killing 30 – 50 people – to this day nobody is sure of the number of casualties.
With very best wishes
Penny
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great job putting us right there among people dealing the personal anxiety and tragedies, caught up in larger forces that they have no control over, and yet they bear the worst of the consequences.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Joy
Thank you for reading and commenting. I’m glad my story took you among the people who suffer the tragedies of violent oppression.
With very best wishes
Penny
LikeLiked by 1 person
It makes sad reading. A smile for you, but not for history.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Crimsonprose
Thank you for reading and commenting. As you rightly say, a sad story. I wish it were completely fictional, but unfortunately the events described are true.
With best wishes
Penny
LikeLike
A most wrenching story that took and even more tragic turn at the end. Sadly, only too plausible of a chapter in El Salvador’s bloody history.
My apologies for taking so long to get to your story! I was at a workshop over the weekend.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Karen
Thank you for reading and commenting. I remember the martyrdom of Oscar Romero; a truly shocking event. He was canonised in 2018. Just as shocking, though, was the slaughter of between 30 and 50 members of the crowd that flocked to his funeral.
No apologies are needed for taking a few days to read my story! I hope the workshop went well, and was interesting.
With very best wishes
Penny
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh such a sad ending. And that saintly dishing out of death and forgiveness. Sigh. So many unspoken truths in this la’al story, Penny.
LikeLike
There are no saints without evil to oppose them, I guess. And each saint is but a token representing many wasted lives, who suffered the same evil, too. Nice writing Penny.
LikeLike