The Ellacuría Tapes: A Martyr at Loyola

In May 1986, Loyola University Chicago awarded Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J., rector of the University of Central America in San Salvador and a well-known liberation theologian, an honorary doctorate. Three years later, he was one of the six Jesuits, along with their housekeeper and her daughter, brutally murdered in their shared home on the university’s campus. The tragedy of the Salvadoran Martyrs became an impetus for worldwide activism and solidarity with the peoples of El Salvador and a call for a broader movement to end U.S. aid to El Salvador. This movement was alive and well at Loyola. This exhibit reveals the ways in which faculty, staff, and students at Loyola responded to the conflict in El Salvador and the murder of Fr. Ellacuría and his fellow priests. Using archival footage of Ellacuría's visit to Loyola, as well as images and documents from a variety of sources, this exhibit shows how Loyola played a central role in the solidarity movement in the 1980s and early 1990s.