Miguel Mármol: 1905-1993: Union Activist

Santos Mármol was determined that her son learn a trade rather than become a farm laborer. Unable to afford the teacher's training school, he apprenticed as a shoemaker. First in small shops in Ilopango, and then at the largest factory in San Salvador, Mármol received a simultaneous education in shoemaking and politics.

Soon he was making specialty shoes and living in the factory owner's home, where he read adventure novels and communist propaganda to his illiterate employer. Secret political meetings at the shop and home raised his political awareness. In 1921 Mármol became active in the liberal Constitutional Party in the town of San Martín, where his mother was a cook for the National Guard. When his political activities endangered both Mármol and his mother, the local National Guard commander protected them until the crisis passed.

Mármol opened his own shoe shop in San Martín, working on an egalitarian basis with his operators. The shop served as a front for both political activity and community recreation. However, this peaceful period came to an abrupt end when Mármol's enemies had him arrested for rape, charging that he was living with his first cousin, Carmencita. Rescued through his father's intervention, an embittered Mármol returned to work in a San Salvador shoe factory, where Carmen-cita joined him and became his wife.