Page 50 - Marlie Burton Roche : Landscape and Bread

WHERE PEOPLE
DISAPPEAR FOREVER
1988 MIXED MEDIA /
INK / PAINT / PAPER
CM. 26 X 20 / IN. 10 X 8

ROQUE DALTON POET AND REVOLUTIONARY

Roque Dalton was a poet, political activist, and a member of the revolutionary armed forces of El Salvador.
Throughout his life he remained true to his conviction that a poet could, and should, be committed, in all aspects of
his life and work, to the struggle for change when the society in which he lives is discernibly unjust. His life was
tempestuous. Twice he was captured, imprisoned, and sentenced to death by the Salvadoran authorities for his political

activities, and twice he escaped execution. He never vacillated from his belief that revolution in El Salvador could only
be achieved through armed struggle and in the 1970s he asked to be admitted into the ranks the Fuerzas Populares de
Liberación FPL. But the forces leader, Comandante Marcial, refused him admission, saying that he should join the

revolution as a Marxist poet and writer rather than as a combatant. However, Roque made contact with another faction
of the revolutionary forces, the Ejército Revolutionario del Pueblo ERP and there he was accepted as an enlisted
member. In 1973 Roque re-entered El Salvador in disguise, having altered his appearance and using false documents.
He dropped out of sight and became part of the clandestine world of guerrilla activity, where he was able to combine his
passions of poetry and revolutionary struggle.

But circumstances within the ERP made things difficult for him. Roque contended that a juncture must be established
between the militant rebel forces and the mass organizations that were by then becoming a compelling aspect of the

struggle. He was denounced as a traitor and accused of trying to split ERP. He was condemned to death and executed
on May 10th, 1975, shortly before his fortieth birthday. His death, not his actions, led to a division within ERP and some
members broke ranks to form another faction, Fuerzas Armadas de Resistencia Nacional FARN. Sadly, and ironically,
Roque’s policy of generating direct links between the clandestine bodies and the mass organizations came to be the
approved line for all the principal revolutionary politico-military forces in El Salvador. His death led to martyrdom and

his literary reputation has grown substantially over the years with the publication of his posthumous works.

46 MARLIE BURTON-ROCHE LANDSCAPE & BREAD