El Porvenir Landslide:

On the night of September 13th, 2002 after heavy rain and flooding, a hillside above the coffee-farming community of El Porvenir, in the municipality of San Lucas Toliman, Solola, came crashing down the slopes of the nearby Toliman volcano through the community, killing 37 people, including four families, and wounding many. The damage to the village was devastating, with the majority of housing destroyed or buried under hardening rocks and mud.

"It sounded like an earthquake," recalled Daniel Ajpop, a coffee farmer who lost a daughter and granddaughter in the mudslide. Villagers fled in panic to seek higher ground as their houses were engulfed. Those who could not escape in time were buried and many of the dead were children, caught inside their homes.

Thousands of rescue workers and villagers used tractors, picks, shovels and their bare hands in the search for survivors while chunks of wooden houses and corrugated iron roofs stuck out of the stream of waist-high mud. In the end, the community was left with an immense suffering and 37 of their family-members buried.

The disaster was exacerbated by illegal timber-cutting on a mountain-side above the village.

San Lucas Mission Land Distribution Program:

Because the families were displaced by a natural disaster, the Guatemalan government was legally obligated to respond, though re-building the former housing was impossible due to the site being declared a no-build, high-risk zone. Land to build on was either unavailable or too expensive.

Having nowhere else to turn, the community turned to the San Lucas Mission Land Distribution Program, a program which has distributed 3-acre plots of land to over 4,000 families throughout the past three decades.

There was a nearby plantation for sale, though extremely expensive at almost one million dollars. Attempting to respond to the desperation and urgency of the community, the San Lucas Mission began negotiating a price for the plantation – eventually settling on nearly $750,000.

Due to the generosity of donors, mostly in the US, the necessary funds were acquired to purchase the plantation in a low-risk area with nearby access to San Lucas. Likewise, there was enough land to resettle an additional two communities in high-risk areas: Tierra Santa and Toltoya.

With the purchase of the land taken care of, negotiations then began with the national government to provide infrastructure and housing. In an unprecedented partnership with the San Lucas Mission, the government provided – for each of the three communities – roads, housing, electricity, schools, and churches. Some of the labor to complete the construction was also provided.

Inauguration of the New Communities:

In an emotional address made to the communities on the day of the inauguration, Guatemalan President Oscar Berger stated this was the first time that the Catholic Church, National Government, and civil society had ever participated in the building and resettlement of so many families.

During the President’s address, three young girls of the communities held a sign in the crowd with the names of those who had died in the landslide. Discontinuing his speech, the President asked his guards to bring the girls and the sign onto the platform, where the rest of his time was spent in silence.

In Fr. Greg Schaffer’s homily, Fr. Greg commented that the 37 people did not die in vain, nor did they die and simply rest: instead, the 37 families petitioned and pleaded with God that their families be given safe homes and a new community.