Using the Arts to Build Community and Overcome Trauma

Last summer I traveled to El Salvador with the goal of immersing myself in community-based peacemaking.

by Emily Landes

As an intern at Centro arte para la paz (Art Center for Peace), I taught piano, poetry, and meditation, and facilitated workshops on nonviolence and stress-reduction.

A community art center, Centro arte’s mission is to use the arts to bring together the community of Suchitoto, El Salvador — a community still feeling the effects of the twelve year civil war.

In some ways the violence of the civil war continues today in the form of gang violence. I had the humbling experience of attending the funeral of one of my co-worker’s cousins. He was murdered by gang members.

Through this experience I found that if violence is left unaddressed it creates a ripple effect in the lives of individuals and in the community. That is why it is so important for organizations like Centro arte to create safe communities and work with those suffering from trauma.

Because the classes at Centro arte are free and open to the entire community, I had the opportunity to work with students who had a wide variety of interests.

In each of these interactions, I encouraged my students to pursue their own interests. For me, this meant teaching Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” to at least four of my piano students. But it was all worth it when I got to watch them perform at a concert to celebrate their achievements at the end of the summer.

While I only made a small impact, I learned that peace is not always a grand process involving international treaties, but instead that peace can be fostered in feeling valued and supported by community, and in recognizing the good in each individual.

Emily Landes, Arts & Sciences ‘15, was a recipient of the Marquette University Center for Peacemaking’s M&J Fellowship for Peace.