This book is an effort to contribute to the preservation of historical memory in El Salvador. It describes the tragedy of a civil war that lasted almost two decades and took the lives of over 75 thousand people, gives voice to key actors of that period, a complicated task for people unaccustomed to talking about themselves and analyses the hopes of the Salvadoran people for a new nation and a durable peace. The book is dedicated in a special way to Rufina Amaya, a poor peasant woman born in the small village of La Guacamaya in the northern province of Morazan, who lost all that she loved on December 11th of 1981 in the massacre of El Mozote, considered at the time to be one of the worst crimes against humanity in the western hemisphere. The book is also dedicated to all of the people of El Salvador and from other nations, from all social sectors, ages and creeds, who suffered from the horrors of that violent period. May it serve as a light for those still living and as proof to the generations to come that hope still lives in El Salvador.