María Teresa Tula

María Teresa Tula
Born	23 April 1951 Izalco, El Salvador

María Teresa Tula (born 23 April 1951) is a Salvadoran political writer and activist associated with the group COMADRES. This group supports those who have been subjected to forced disappearance or political assassination in El Salvador.

Tula was born in Izalco on 23 April 1951. She was brought up by her grandmother and attended school for less than two years before she had her first child at fifteen whilst she was living with her brothers, sisters and step-siblings. She met José Rafael Canales Guevara who was a blacksmith when she was sixteen. Guevara was arrested for organising workers against their employers. Tula joined the group called COMADRES which created protests against the government. Comadres had been set up with the support of Archbishop Romero and it was a support group for the relatives of those who were forcibly disappeared or killed. Romero was himself killed in 1980 as was Tula's husband. Tula's husband's body was found with a bullet wound to his head two days after people, who said they were the police, took him away to help with a robbery enquiry. Tula's husband was said to have been a witness to the crime. Friends said that she should not reclaim her husband's body but Tula defied their advice. 1980 was the year that the government and the opposition became entrenched. The political and military opposition were subject to the death squads who killed 1000 people per month. After the death of her husband, Tula worked full-time for COMADRES, who themselves became a target. Some of her fellow activists were captured and killed, but COMADRES did not shy away from controversy and their workers visited dumps to photograph bodies so that families would know the fate of the "disappeared". Tula was given a specific warning of her own fate by an escaped prisoner of the government.

Tula left for Mexico with her four children in 1982 where she continued her activism in Mexico City. Tula's resolution was strengthened in 1984 when her organisation was given the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Award. This award is given to those who show courage and have made a significant contribution to human rights in their country. Up to 1985 she toured Canada and Europe talking to feminists and others about the cause. She visited at least eight countries and during this journey she realised how the ideas of feminism could be used in her country.

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