Maria Serrano
EL SALVADOR
(1950– ) Maria Serrano, born in El Salvador, was a young mother when she began organizing her fellow campesinos (farmers) to ask for land and rights from the corrupt Salvadoran government during the U.S.-backed civil war.
After being threatened and harassed by the military, Serrano fled to the hills with her family to join the guerrilla forces of the FMLN in their fight against the government. She quickly became a passionate and effective leader of the group. Serrano spent three years organizing peasants across the country.
In 1988, she granted a group of filmmakers access to both her personal life and the frontlines of the war, and in 1991 they created an award-winning documentary about her life called Maria’s Story.
After the peace accords, she became a legislator in the National Assembly and served her country as Minister of the Interior, where she continued her quest to bring dignity and rights to the poor of El Salvador.
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