By Valerie Schmalz
The feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord is the national holiday of El Salvador. On August 7, natives of El Salvador and other prisoners incarcerated at San Quentin celebrated a national holiday that has been observed for five centuries in what is now El Salvador’s capital, with a Catholic Mass, traditional food, songs, entertainment, and fellowship.
“This is a beacon of hope,” said Edwin Chavez, a primary organizer incarcerated at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Friday’s event, held one day after the Aug. 6 feast of the Transfiguration, was the second annual “Celebration Dedicated to the Divine Savior of the World” cosponsored by the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Restorative Justice Ministry.
Edwin Chavez, one of the main organizers and master of ceremonies of the El Salvador celebration at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. (Photo courtesy David Greenwald/Davis Vanguard)
In the Transfiguration, Jesus shows himself as the son of God to the Apostles Peter, James, and John. The feast celebrates Jesus as God, the Divine Savior, the central tenet of the Catholic faith and harks back to the Catholic Spanish conquerors of Central America.
“I talk to God every day. I ask for his guidance, what can I do?” said Chavez, now in his 50s who was incarcerated as a teenage gang member from El Salvador who could barely read or write. He now holds multiple degrees and is a leader at San Quentin.
“It is an honor to share our joy and our heritage,” Chavez told the men and guests gathered in a meeting room in what just a few years ago was a maximum-security prison. It is now a rehabilitation center geared to preparing prisoners with the skills necessary to live productively outside prison walls.
Incarcerated men at the El Salvador celebration during the singing of the national anthems of El Salvador and the U.S. (Photo courtesy David Greenwald/Davis Vanguard)
The event helps showcase “what the world needs to see, we’re human,” said Chavez.
Often Hispanic heritage is focused on Mexican traditions, so the El Salvador event is particularly special, Chavez said. And it brought together not just the Salvadoran men in the prison: two of those who participated from the Archdiocese are originally from El Salvador: Julio Escobar, leader of the Archdiocese’s Restorative Justice Ministry, and the Mass celebrant, Father Armando Gutierrez.
To organize the day Chavez and compatriot Arturo Melendez worked closely with the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Restorative Ministry coordinator Escobar and San Quentin’s administration.
Escobar, a prime organizer with Chavez and Melendez, spoke at the event, telling the men: “You carry a light within you…Your story is not over. God sees more in you than the world sees.”
Julio Escobar and Father Armando Gutierrez. (Photo courtesy David Greenwald/Davis Vanguard)
The day began with Mass celebrated in the prison chapel by Father Gutierrez, who is the Archdiocese’s judicial vicar, pastor of St. Finn Barr and chaplain to the San Francisco Fire Department.
Incarcerated men made up a rousing choir of musicians at the Mass and also provided entertainment at the lunch of traditional Salvadoran food of pupusas, tamales, rice, and beans with flan for dessert. Mission Dolores Basilica recruited traditional dancers who entertained during the meal. A color guard made up of incarcerated veterans opened the celebration with flags of the U.S., El Salvador and California and the singing of the national anthems of the two countries.
At the Mass, Father Gutierrez spoke and prayed alternately in Spanish and English. In his homily, he told the men, “We all have different struggles, we all have difficulties, we all have challenges.”
Men at Mass in the prison chapel at the start of the day. (Photo courtesy David Greenwald/Davis Vanguard)
Father Armando Gutierrez speaking to those gathered at Mass in the prison chapel. (Photo courtesy David Greenwald/Davis Vanguard)
Speaking to the men, he said, “Some of you question, ‘How come I have to be here? How come I have to be here at all?’”
But Father Gutierrez said, “This is not wasted. Embrace self-denial: God’s will not my will.”
“What happens then—we make space for God in our heart,” Father Gutierrez said. Only in God can we “find strength to live a good life. That is why Jesus says, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’ … In Jesus Christ we see the plan of God for us… (Jesus) is the one who gives us the life no one else can.”
–Valerie Schmalz is director of the Office of Human Life & Dignity.
