For tickets or sponshorship opportunities, click here.
To sign up to volunteer (either set-up on November 8 or during the event on November 9), click here: https://signup.com/go/dbvKrme
Share the Facebook event here
BUY RAFFLE TICKETS and BID ON AUCTION ITEMS until 8pm on Sunday: https://go.rallyup.com/commemoration-irtf-2025
This year we mark the 45th anniversary of the sacrifice of four US women missioners in El Salvador. Jean Donovan and Sister Dorothy Kazel (from Cleveland) were brutally killed alongside Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke by US-sponsored military in El Salvador. Within a few months after that horrific tragedy, people of faith and conscience in Cleveland founded IRTF as a way to carry forward their legacy—taking action in solidarity with oppressed and marginalized communities as they struggle for peace, dignity, and justice.
On Sunday, November 9, 2025, we will also commemorate the lives of human rights defenders in Central America and Colombia lost this past year for their brave outspokenness against injustices in their communities. Our guest speaker (and music performer) Sebastián Torogós will talk about the incredible challenges facing the people of El Salvador and the connection to their collective memory of the war years of the 1970s and ‘80s. The country is experiencing its most severe threats to democracy since the civil war ended in 1992. The “State of Exception,” now in its fourth year, has led to more than 400 deaths among the 90,000+ incarcerated in a massive arrest sweep by police and military, which includes the indefinite detention of political dissidents. El Salvador now has the highest incarceration rate in the world, even topping that of the United States.
SCHEDULE
4pm.......social hour, music, light appetizers, raffle
5:30pm...interfaith ceremony to commemorate lives lost this year (and the sacrifice made in 1980 by Jean Donovan, Ita Ford, Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazel)
6pm........guest speaker & music performance by Sebastián Torogós from El Salvador
7pm........sit-down dinner. Individual tickets; discounts for group tables of 8 (options: vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free)
LANGUAGE INTERPRETATION
-will be available both in person and online (English to Spanish/Spanish to English)
Special Guest from El Salvador: Sebastián Torogóz of Los Torogoces de Morazán
IRTF is pleased to host Sebastián Torogóz of the social movement folk music band Los Torogoces de Morazán on Sunday, November 9, 2025, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Benito Chica Argueta, better known as Sebastián Torogóz, was born in the rural cantón El Zapotal in Joateca, Morazán, El Salvador. He was the fourteenth child of his parents, Francisco Chica and Cástula Argueta. From an early age, around nine, he began playing guitar at home; his siblings were part of a chanchona (a rural string ensemble) that performed at family celebrations and community events. In El Zapotal during his youth, Sebastián joined community Christian reflection groups that later became part of the Christian Base Communities movement (Comunidades Eclesiales de Base), which embraces liberation theology as central to their theory of change. There he participated in courses on first aid and community health, blending spiritual reflection with social praxis. In 1978, he formally joined the armed struggle via the Ligas Populares 28 de febrero (which later became part of the People’s Revolutionary Army, or ERP). In June 1981, Sebastián and fellow combatants founded Los Torogoces de Morazán, the musical group that became closely associated with the community radio station Radio Venceremos (“We Shall Overcome” radio) and the cultural resistance during the Salvadoran war.
Sebastián Torogóz recently co-authored a book with Padre Juan Vicente Chopin (priest, theologian, educator). Their project holds historical memory work at its heart, as well as international solidarity efforts between the United States and El Salvador. The book explores Sebastián’s experience during the armed conflict in El Salvador, the material conditions and oppression that led to it, and includes lyrics from many of Los Torogoces’ songs with contextual explanations. It also features contributions from internationalists such as Rogelio Ponseele, a Belgian priest integral to the formation of the Comunidades Eclesiales de Base, and includes poems and other writings.
On Sunday, November 9, 2025 in Cleveland, Sebastián Torogóz will frame his presentation within a liberation perspective, offering political, social, and cultural context that connects resistance movements in El Salvador, past and present, with current struggles in the U.S. and the broader Americas. He will incorporate music as a tool of popular education, with select songs introduced alongside their historical and political significance. Sebastián will engage the audience in dialogue that highlights solidarity networks, both historic and ongoing, and invite us to reflection on how to strengthen them today with cross-border collective calls to action.
IRTF is grateful to our partners in Chicago, the Alma de Izote Collective and CRLN (Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America) for making this Midwest book and music tour possible.
TICKETS, SPONSORSHIPS, VOLUNTEERS
For tickets or sponshorship opportunities, click here.
To sign up to volunteer (either set-up on November 8 or during the event on November 9), click here: https://signup.com/go/dbvKrme
QUESTIONS?
promotions@irtfcleveland.org or 216 961 0003
