In September, house members of Ramos House in Washington D.C. and Casa Celina Ramos in San Diego, were reminded of the importance of their house patron, and how both Elba and Celina Ramos are exemplary of faith in action, and the four core values of JVC.
Elba Ramos, along with her husband Obdulio and daughter Celina, were living in El Salvador in 1989, amidst the country's civil war. Both Elba and her husband were born and raised in El Salvador, and together with two children were living in San Salvador on the Jesuit-ran Central American University campus. While living there, Elba worked as a housekeeper and Obdulio as a watchman and gardener. Their daughter Celina was attending high school at the time.
It is not clear as to what events started the country’s civil war in 1980. Some believe that a 1979 failed coup, a military order to avoid war, served as the catalyst for the thirteen-year civil war. Others believe that it was the murder of Archbishop Óscar Romero in 1980 that truly marked the start of the conflict. At the time of his death, Romero was serving as the Archbishop in San Salvador and was an advocate against social injustice. The civil war was fought primarily between the El Salvadoran government and the Marxist rebel group, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, and was marked with a great deal of injustice and violence.
On November 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests, Frs. Ignacio Ellacuria, Ignacio Martín-Baro, Juan Ramón Moreno, Amando López, Segundo Montes, Joaquín López, along with Elba Ramos and her daughter Celina, were murdered by the El Salvadoran government in the home of the Jesuit priests on the San Salvador campus. The government ordered the killing of Fr. Ignacio Ellacuria, who was most outspoken in his attempt at ending the civil war through peace processes, which was declared as a threat to the military. In turn, the military ordered that he be murdered and that there be no living eyewitnesses. In all, it is estimated that almost 75,000 civilians were killed in the conflict before a peace agreement ended the war in 1992.
It was by accident that Elba and Celina were in the home of the Jesuit priests the night of the murders. Because of possible military threats to the campus, Elba and Celina were encouraged to take refuge in the home of the Jesuits. Following the murders, Obdulio, husband, and father, planted two yellow rose bushes for Elba and Celina and six red rose bushes for the Jesuit priests. Obdulio continued to care for the roses and the gardens at the university until his passing in 1994. Pictured is Obdulio near the roses:
