The Story of No Mas

In the spring of 2004, I met with the director of Creighton University's Center for Service and Justice to discuss how we were going to mark the 15th anniversary of the the Salvadoran martyrs that coming fall. One of the ideas I offered was a staged reading of Piezas para un Retrato, a book compiled by Maria Lopez Vigil that combined the words of Monsenor Romero with stories and memories from the people who knew him. It wasn't a perfect fit and when I left her office that day, I was setting off to write a play about the Salvadoran martyrs.

For an entire summer, I compiled writings of the martyrs I wanted to include in the show: Fr. Rutilio Grande, SJ (the first priest to be killed); the four North American churchwomen (Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Dorothy Kazel, and Jean Donovan); Monsenor Romero; the six UCA Jesuits. I was unable to find anything from Celia and Elba Ramos, who were killed along with the six UCA Jesuits, but I was able to find pieces from survivors of the massacres at El Mozote and at Rio Sumpul. I translated the Spanish sources into English and tried to get to the heart of each of the martyrs. I asked a Salvadoran friend to write about his family's experience at El Mozote (he and his parents had left the town before the massacre, but he lost many members of his extended family in the massacre).

And then, inspired by Creighton's 10th anniversary webpage, I contacted various Jesuits around the university to ask them to contribute their reflections on the loss of their brothers. The response I received was incredible and overwhelming. All told, six Creighton Jesuits shared their reflections, including our president. Once I had the reflections, I spent the next month revising and editing the script.

Auditions were held in early September and a cast of 17 people was assembled and rehearsals took us right up to the show. Many of the people involved in the show had connections to El Salvador: one had just returned from a four-month study abroad there, several had done Creighton's immersion trip, and two of the actors had spent time in jail as a result of high risk civil disobedience at the School of the Americas.

The show premiered at Creighton University on 15 November 2004, with a crowd of over 200 people in attendance. Over $400 was raised that evening to support a non-profit working with Salvadoran youth. A follow-up at Creighton was performed in March 2005 in honor of the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Monsenor Romero. On 2 December 2005, a variation of the show was performed in St. Paul, MN, sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet to mark the 25th anniversary of the assassination of the four North American churchwomen. In November 2007, Weston Jesuit School of Theology's Social Justice Commission and its Social Justice Committee sponsored a performance, to help raise funds for the school's delegation to the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice/SOA vigil and the delegation to El Salvador. And last fall, in November 2008, the show was performed for the first time at the new Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.