Professor’s exhibition depicts tragedy of youth violence in El Salvador, April 17-Aug. 3

Event: The Harry Ransom Center will present “Adentro Hacia Fuera de El Salvador Inside Out,” a photographic exhibition of images taken by School of Journalism associate professor of photography Donna DeCesare.

A continuation of the Harry Ransom Center’s “Inside El Salvador Por Fuera” exhibition, “Adentro Hacia Fuera de El Salvador Inside Out,” features a selection of over 30 images by award-winning documentary photographer DeCesare. The exhibit starts by covering the end of El Salvador’s civil war, notably the murder of six Jesuit priests and the guerilla offensive in San Salvador in 1989 — events that increased international pressure for the peace accords. DeCesare’s images then form two narratives that trace the tragedy of youth violence from its origins in Los Angeles, where the Salvadoran diaspora community forms the second largest Salvadoran “city” in the world, and back to El Salvador. The first story follows Jessica Diaz as she attempts to break the vicious circle of violence trapping her family. The second story follows Edgar Bolaños, whose mother sends him back to El Salvador, naively believing he will be safe from the world of gangs that killed his brother in Los Angeles.

When: April 17-Aug. 3, 2008

Where: The Harry Ransom Center on The University of Texas at Austin campus (21st and Guadalupe Streets). Maps of the University of Texas at Austin can be obtained at www.utexas.edu/maps/main.

Background: After fifty years of military dictatorship in El Salvador, a coup d’etat in 1979 ignited a twelve-year civil war that became notorious for assassinations, disappearances, and death squads. After UN-brokered peace accords were signed in 1992, approximately 80,000 people had been killed (most of them civilians) and as many as 1.5 million people had fled the country. While the peace accords ended the armed conflict, they did not directly address issues such as poverty, health, safety and education. Today, the perpetuation of social ills has brought about a new kind of bloodshed: homicide rates are as high or higher than during the war and street gangs are widespread.

For more information, visit: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/2008/elsalvador/

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Contact:
Donna DeCesare