Comité de Apoyo Pro Alfabetización

Members of the U.S. Educators for Peace in El Salvador holding a sign. Photograph by Tom Mattie

Photos and documents related to the Comité de Apoyo Pro Alfabetización. The Committee was formed in 1983 by Rachel Wyon and others in Estelí, Nicaragua where Lyon was living and working in solidarity with the Salvadoran popular movement in exile, including the Salvadoran Teachers Association ANDES 21 de Junio. The group continued their solidarity work from the Cambridge/Boston area, where Wyon was based.

The bulk of this small collection consists of approximately 100 photographs taken in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua between 1982-1985. One of the members of the Committee, Tom Mattie, traveled to Central America in 1985 and took photos documenting everyday life. Some of the subjects covered in the photographs include: family living conditions, group meetings, public events, rural education projects, marches, and the effects of the civil war. There is also a series of photos of Mélida Anaya Montes (aka Commander Ana María), who was a Salvadoran educator, guerrilla, and co- founder of the Popular Liberation Forces (FPL) that in 1980 merged with other organizations to form the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). The photos in the collection were given to the Committee for their solidarity work in the U.S. In addition, there is a small folder of documents from the ANDES 21 de Junio, the National Association of Salvadoran Educators, an issue of The Freeze, an adult literacy pamphlet, a flier for Tom Mattie and Wendy Shaull’s exhibit of photographs, and a script for a Comité do Apoyo Pro-Alfabetización educational slideshow.