Alfombras

“Alfombras” (carpets) are a Salvadoran Easter tradition brought over by the Spanish when they colonized El Salvador back in the 1500s.

Alfombras are sidewalk mosaics made out of sawdust, salt, flowers, cut-up newspaper and other found materials. Alfombras decorate the streets where Easter processions are held and act as metaphorical adornments of Jesus’s path to the cross. (It’s probably no coincidence that the chief material used in creating an alfombra is sawdust.)

Families, neighborhoods and friends as well as municipalities and large organizations create alfombras; so some of them can be intricate, elaborate and systematically planned and executed, while others look more rustic and improvisational. Vendors sell wooden molds in the form of Saints or other religious symbols that can be filled with sawdust dyed different colors to create a neat and well proportioned alfombra. Or you can throw down a layer of sawdust, draw figures into it with a finger or a stick, and create your own design. The colors are achieved by adding anilin dyes to the sawdust.

Below I include a photo of the elaboration of an alfombra from Perquín, where I live. This one depicts Monseñor Óscar Romero, the “Liberation Theology” cleric who was murdered in El Salvador during the Revolution of the 1980s. He’s still a hero to Salvadorans, young and old, and in fact is rumored to be close to qualifying for Sainthood alongside recently Sainted John Paul II and John XXIII.

The alfombra below was created by Gloria and Edith of the tortillería where I buy my daily bread. Their alfombra won first prize in the yearly competition that takes place in Perquín. The symbolism is complex and includes Christ’s path to the cross (on the left), Calvary (top), three crosses and three candles, plus homages to the aforementioned Monseñor Romero, who—the alfombra’s symbolism implies—sacrificed himself for his people in a Christlike manner.

As you can tell, the values of the Revolution are still very much alive here in Perquín. Perquín and Eastern El Salvador were the main battlegrounds during the fighting. Virtually all of Perquín was destroyed by bombs and artillery, including the Catholic church, which has since been rebuilt to resemble the original church. Every year in August the community organizes a Winter Festival that celebrates the Peace Accords that ended the Civil War. It’s said that the rough outlines of the accords were negotiated in the shade of a mango tree in back of what is now The Museum of the Revolution, Perquín’s chief tourist attraction.