Ashford interview for Erina Duganne_(link)
ARTISTS CALL TIMELINE
Spring 1979 – military junta in power installs itself in power, enabling paramilitary death squads directed through its political wing, the ARENA party. Many leaders of the ARENA Party are officers of the El Salvadorian National Guard and were trained by the US Army’s School of the Americas.
March 1980 ““ Archbishop Oscar Romero is assassinated by death squad while giving Eucharist in the cathedral of San Salvador
Dec 1980 – The torture and murder of three Maryknoll nuns and one layperson by the military on their return to El Salvador from Nicaragua causes an international outrage.
Dec 1982 – Ray Bonner of the New York Times reports on the El Mozote Massacre in which the El Salvadorian National Guard kills 800 to 700 rural farmers and their families.
June 1981 – NYC and other American cities are becoming inundated with artists and writers from Central and South America in exile from the political repression in their home countries
Winter 1982 – CISPES (the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) and other solidarity organizations organize to bring national attention in the US to atrocities committed in Central America under US sponsorship.
June 1982 ““ “LUCHAR: An Exhibition for the People of Central America” opens at Taller LatinoAmericano and established links between NY art world, solidarity activists, and political movements of Central America.
May 1983 – INALSE (The Institute of El Salvadorian Arts and Letters in Exile) in established in New York and begins organizing with other artists and cultural organizations initiating Artists’ Call.
Summer 1983 ““ Artists Call sends first letter to wide list for artists and cultural workers asking for support. A tremendous response signals the potential for a nation wide effort.
December 1983 ““ The US Congress passes the Boland Amendment that prohibits the government form funding anti-Sandanista contras in Honduras.
January 1984 ““ Artist Call announces six months of exhibitions, events and demonstrations in a full page ads in the NY Times. All proceeds from the following six months of events go to
-Â Â Â Â Â Â 30 galleriesm, three museum and two atl spaces
-Â Â Â Â Â Â all the work was for sale, 100% proceeds goping to artist in Nica and elsavador.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â GM produces Timeline,
-Â Â Â Â Â Â the covers of arts, artforum, art and artists, voice etc.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â protest exhibitions and benefits in over 20 otjher cities
-Â Â Â Â Â Â 12 evenings of poetry spread over 4 months
-Â Â Â Â Â Â performance art and thetre in 12 NY venues
-Â Â Â Â Â Â musical performances across the city.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â street action in SOHO, then the art world’s “mainstreet”
March 1984 – NYC Artists’ call events wind down, and by the beginning of 1985 over $120,000 of material support is sent to the Association of Nicaraguan Cultural Workers, INALSE, and other cultural groups representing the region.
July 1984 ““ Artists’ Call representatives and others from around the world go to Nicaragua to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the revolution.
Feb 1985 – Final proceeds from Artists’ Call are distributed. Artists Call NYC disbanded.
Nov 1986 ““ “Weapons for hostages” dealings of Reagan’s National Security Council is revealed after a weapon contractor’s airlift crashes in Nicaragua, John Poindexter, Secretary of the NSC resigns and Oliver North, clandestine director of the illegal operation, is fired.
March 1988 – A US pecial prosecutor indicts North and Poindexter; the former eventually released due to an immunity clause in his testimony to Congress, the first George Bush will pardon the latter.
Jan 1992 – The Chapultepec Peace Accords are signed in Mexico City, establishing FMLN vs. ARENA party elections in El Salvador.
March 2004 – Antonio Saca, candidate of ARENA party, party of D’Aubusson, party of SOA elected to president after rumors of US repraisals against El Salvadorians living in the states.
Feb 2005 – Maryknoll nun Lil Mattingly is sent to jail for trespassing in as part her participation in the effort to close the US Army’s School of the Americas which has now changed in name to the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.”