Olympia CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) and the Political Economy and Social Change program at TESC are showing:

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MARIA'S STORY
Thursday, 9/29/05
6PM, Lecture Hall 5, TESC
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We will discuss the history of the struggle in El salvador, the current struggle and the 25 year history of CISPES and what we can do about the present situation.

Produced by Pamela Cohen and Catherine M. Ryan Directed by Manona Wali and Pamela Cohen (52 minutes, 1990).

• "... documentary at its most illumi-nating and succinct... confronts us with our country's responsibility in the ongoing ordeal of Maria and her people while taking us way beyond political rhetoric." - Los Angeles Times
• "Through an extraordinary combi-nation of historical film, on-location footage and narrative, 'Maria's Story'...lets us understand why untold numbers of ordinary Salvadoreans, like Maria, have chosen to fight for a better life, if not for themselves, then for their children." - Tommie Sue Montgomery, Prof., Latin American Studies

Maria's Story is an intimate portrait of a thirty-nine-year old mother of three who is a leader in the guerrilla movement in El Salvador. Short and stocky, with ready wit and common sense, Maria Serrano is a down-to-earth woman whose passion for social justice dominates her life. Born into extreme rural poverty, she struggled for an education and, at fifteen, married her husband, Jose, who now shares her commitment to the disenfranchized. Maria represents a growing number of Latin American women on the forefront of social change.

The filmmakers spent seven weeks in Maria's temporary camp, under mortar fire and helicopter surveillance, to capture the story of the human side of this war.