This presentation examines El Salvador’s armed conflict (1981–1992) through the testimonies of sixty women who experienced wartime rape perpetrated by both state security forces and guerrilla forces. By documenting experiences frequently excluded from official and dominant historical narratives, the research contributes to a more inclusive understanding of the conflict and its enduring legacies. It highlights the critical role of oral history in processes of democratic transition, particularly in recovering voices marginalized by the Salvadoran Truth Commission and subsequent accounts of the war. More than three decades after the conflict, sexual violence committed by both belligerent parties remains obscured by partial truths and silences. Drawing on the experiences of women who spoke publicly for the first time, the presentation also addresses the ethics of testimony, recognition, and historical knowledge production. Finally, through the documentary Añil (Indigo), it proposes practices for returning research to participants and preventing revictimization and epistemic extractivism.
Paula Cuellar Cuellar is an attorney, historian, and Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas at Dallas, where she also serves as the Jacqueline and Michael Wald Fellow in Human Rights, Genocide, and Holocaust Studies. She earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of Minnesota, an M.A. in International Human Rights Law from the University of Notre Dame, and an M.A. in Human Rights and the Culture of Peace from the University of El Salvador. She also holds a J.D. (Licenciada en Ciencias Jurídicas) from the José Simeón Cañas Central American University (UCA). Before joining the academia in the United States, she worked for several years at the Supreme Court of Justice of El Salvador, first as a judicial clerk for the Constitutional Chamber and later as Director of the International Affairs Unit. Her research lies at the intersection of Latin American history, violence, memory, and transitional justice. Her work examines human rights violations and mass violence in Latin America, with particular emphasis on sexual violence perpetrated during armed conflicts, truth commissions, enforced disappearances, as well as processes of memory and accountability across the region. She is the author of the forthcoming book The Limits of Truth: Rape, Patriarchy, and Memory in the Aftermath of El Salvador’s Civil War (Vanderbilt University Press, 2028) and co-producer of the award-winning documentary Añil (Indigo) (2023), based on testimonies of women victims of sexual assault by both belligerent parties during the Salvadoran civil war. She currently serves as Co-Chair of the Central America Section of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) for the 2025–2027 term.