Bob Skloot was and still is a member of Beth Israel Center Synagogue in Madison, WI. In 1983, he was instrumental in convincing his congregation to partner with three other faith organizations–the Community of John XXIII, Covenant Presbyterian Church…
Mary Kay Baum is well-known and highly respected in the Madison area as a community organizer, lawyer, school board member, county board member, ordained minister and one-time Madison mayoral candidate. She has dedicated her life to social justice…
(l to r) María Chichilco, a Farabundi Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) guerrilla commander from Arcatao and Mary Kay Baum from Madison in late 1986. They met in San Jose Las Flores to exchange the official resolution making Madison and Arcatao…
In 1998, Maria Serrano (formerly Chichilco) (right) traveled to Madison and was happily reunited with her old friend, Mary Kay Baum. Unknown photographer
Mary Kay( left) was a guest of honor at MASCP’s 25th Anniversary. She is pictured here with Sue Lloyd, another long time supporter and active member of MASCP. Sue and her husband, the Rev. Art Lloyd, were both passionate supporters of CALA and…
Billy Feitlinger was elected to Madison’s Common Council 3 times in the 1980s. During that time, he served as President of the Council and was instrumental in drafting Resolution #42,209 naming Arcatao, El Salvador, Madison's first sister city. With…
Marc Rosenthal was on the staff of Community Action on Latin America (CALA) in 1983-6 and worked tirelessly to educate people in Madison about the reality in Central America and our country’s part in the torture, violence and disappearances there. …
Joe Szwaja played a key role in mobilizing Madisonians in support of the Madison-Arcatao Sister City initiative. As a graduate student at UW, he became involved with Community Action in Latin America (CALA), ultimately joining as paid staff. He,…
In 1983, Jenny Beatty was 21 years old and coordinator of the 18 month sanctuary of “Rogelio and Maria Gonzalez” (assumed names to protect their identity) and their four children in Madison, Wisconsin. The "Gonzalez" journey for sanctuary was due to…
Antonio Portillo was 28 years old when he fled Guatemala with his wife, Estella, and their four children. In this interview, Antonio recounts the horrific story of why they were forced to leave Guatemala from one day to the next and how they found…
This photo accompanied a news article in the Wisconsin State Journal on May 24, 1983. It shows the group of refugees in Madison Sanctuary Site #1 at a public sanctuary event at St. Francis Student House in Madison. (l to r in back) the Reverend Art…
Jenny Beatty, Antonio and Estella Portillo and Meg Skinner at a Sanctuary reunion in Madison in 2015. Meg was the first coordinator of the Madison Sanctuary Site and continued helping with the many activities needed to support the "Gonzalez" family…
The "Gonzalez" family was publicly introduced to the Madison community at Bethany United Methodist Church on Feb 19, 1984. The entire family was masked and were going by pseudonyms to protect their identities from the US, Guatemalan and Salvadoran…
This photo is of Bob Skloot in 1980. His daughter, Sarah's hands are on his shoulders. Sarah was 6 years old at the time and Bob had been on the Theatre and Drama faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1968. He continued to teach…
In the early 1980s when Marc was the staff person for Community Action on Latin America (CALA), they coordinated a program that brought Victor Rubio of the FMLN/FDR together with Neo Mnumzana of the African National Congress (ANC) to speak. The…
This photo was taken at MASCP's 25th anniversary party in the spring of 2011 in Madison,WI. The guests of honor were Augustin Menjívar, head of the Junta Directiva in Arcatao at that time, and these very early supporters of MASCP: (from left to…
This is a partial list of the presentations that "Rogelio Gonzalez" and his wife, "Maria Gonzalez" gave in Madison from Feb 1984-July 1985. Theirs was a public rather than secret sanctuary. This meant that they were willing and eager to tell their…
Copy of the official Madison Common Council resolution, #42,209, naming Arcatao Madison's first sister city. The resolution was authored by Rosa Escamilla, our first Latinx council member and was passed on April 1, 1986. The “Whereas” section makes…
Billy Feitlinger represented Madison's 6th district as an alder in the 1980s. He serve as council president in 1986, when the Common Council voted to formalize a sister city relationship with the town of Arcatao in Chalatenango, El Salvador
Billy Feitlinger has worked for social and economic justice for all throughout his adult life and he served Madison, Dane County and the State of Wisconsin in many ways over his long career in public service. He co-founded Common Wealth Development…
Joe Szwaja was elected to the City Council in a special election in 1986, and ran for reelection in April of 1987. While on the City Council, he continued his support of the Madison-Arcatao Sister City Project in new ways
Joe Szwaja’s experience with the Madison-Arcatao Sister City Project in the 1980s has continued to have an influence on his life. For example, in Seattle, where he now lives, he helped to form a kind of grassroots sistering affiliation with Nuevo…
Detail from Joe Szwaja's (left) campaign literature. Carmen Cruz (right), lived in Szwaja's district and was one of the people who was concerned about Arcato. Cruz worked hard with other activists to contact the US government and convince others to…