Click here to DOWNLOAD PDF

Jardín del Recuerdo
“A Flower For Every Death”
SITE PLAN
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM LA MATANZA”
Garden of Memories
The “Jardin de Memorias” (The Garden of Memories) will be a public monument to commemorate the Massacre of 1932 in Izalco, El
Salvador. This memorial garden is to be built on the sacred ground where thousands where buried in mass graves, allowing those who
died to become the seeds for a future of peace in El Salvador. The Garden will become the home of 10,000 or more flowers, a flower for
SITE PHOTOGRAPHS (above and below)
every death. These flowers will be planted in eight separate beds within one larger central bed, each smaller bed indicative of a different
location of one of the mass graves located in and around the town of Izalco. The central bed will be 2 meters wide and forty meters long,
the same dimensions as one of the mass graves. The garden will have a central sculpture, “One of the Fallen Ones”, a life-size figurative
sculpture of a single slain figure representing the 10,000 men and boys who were killed.
The site of the monument is located on the ruins of a church that fell during an earthquake in the 17th century and the remains of those
buried from the massacre in the heart of Izalco. It is currently an overgrown, open field enclosed by brick walls. The history of the event,
images of the massacre, testimonials of the survivors and poetry written by the generations that followed, will be inscribed along eleven
sections of the interior of these walls. These eleven sections will alternate with the remaining eleven sections which will serve as an
outdoor altar where visitors can place and light candles to remember those whose lives were lost. The 22 sections in total are symbolic
of the day that the insurrection began, January 22, 1932.
The peasant uprising of 1932, also known as La matanza (“The Slaughter”), was a brief, peasant-led rebellion that occurred on January
22 of that year in the western departments of El Salvador. The uprising was quickly suppressed by the government, then led by
Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, and whose army was vastly superior in terms of weapons and soldiers, who then proceeded to
execute anyone who stood against it. The rebellion was a mixture of protest and insurrection that ended in ethnocide, claiming the lives of
anywhere between 10,000 and 40,000 indigenous men and adolescent boys. For 75 years, the citizens of El Salvador purged all mention
of this tragic event for fear of prosecution. Now, only 25% of the Salvadorian population knows of the massacre. Today, with a more liberal
party serving the country, the scare has lifted and the time has come for the truth to be heard.
Since most of the people that participated in the uprising were of indigenous origin, a repression against anyone that looked like dressed
like or spoke native Nahuatl was killed by the army. This resulted in the loss of a culture for many decades. Only recently is the Nahuatl
traditions and language being reintroduced, practiced and taught in schools. A school of Nahualt is being created in the town of Izalco.
With this project it is being proposed that children of the local Nahuatl schools be fully involved in a program to use and maintain the
garden. It will be a place where the children and families can learn about science, botany and the history of the La matanza through
informative walls of the garden. The Garden of Memories will become a place of learning, healing and peace for all those who visit.
This project is in collaboration with the Mayor’s Municipality of Izaclo, the Feliciano Ama Foundation, the University of San Francisco, the
Sculptor Carlos Castillo and the Fiscal Sponsor Center for Critical Environmental and Global Literacy.
SKETCH BY CARLOS CASTILLO
SKETCH BY CARLOS CASTILLO
UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO DEPARTMENT OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE | ARCHITECTURE AND COMMUNITY DESIGN | COMMUNITY DESIGN OUTREACH - ARCD 400 | Community Partner: Carlos Castillo
History of the massacre on wall
PERSPECTIVE PLAN
Mounded flower beds mimicking mass grave
Sculptuire of a fallen one by Carlos Castillo
Hard stone walkway juxtaposing decomposed bodies below
Entrance with trellis
Staircase / Seating Area
BACK PERSPECTIVE
Professor: Seth Wachtel | Students: Daniel Conaty, Bezaleel Balan, Chelsea Buyco, Zohair Rizvi, Megan Agliam, Jessica Mathieson, Ana Munoz, Mike Keng-Lin Lu, Veronica Macalinao, Ariel Takata, Mike Jacinto
WINTER BLOOMS:
SUMMER BLOOMS:
Flor de Izote | Perennial
Thevetia Peruviana | Perennial
Red Bog Moss | Perennial
Chrysanthemum | Perennial
Orchid from | Perennial
Bedding Begonia | Annual
Layout of Plants
A. Bird of Paradise
E. Tabebuia Rosea
C. Flor de Fuego
C.
E.
H.
L.
L.
H.
B. Hibiscus
G.
J.
A.
M.
M.
G.
N.
N.
J.
B.
K.
Street
SECTION THROUGH MEMORIAL GARDEN
D.
K.
F.
K.
TIERED PLANTING BED DETAIL
D. Canna Lily
F. Alstro Emeria
H. Stephanotis Vine
L. Mandevilla Vine
I. Guava Tree
M. Corazon Chino
J. Sedum Spurium
N. Salvia Wagneriana
PERSPECTIVE SKETCH
G. Begonias
K. Orchid
SKETCH OF MEMORIAL SCULPTURE BY CARLOS CASTILLO