During the Internal Armed Conflict, the community of Santa Maria Dolores took refuge in Mexico. On October 20, 1996, as the war was drawing to a close, the community left Mexico. Yet, when they arrived at their lands, they found other people living there. Because the new inhabitants refused to leave, the community had to find new land upon which to settle. As they waited, they settled in shacks close to a cemetery in Playa Grande (Ixcán). 

 

A member of the community describes what happened next: “I remember very well when they started shooting. All of the families said “hide,” and we hid where we could until it ended. But the family of a little girl didn’t succeed in hiding and they killed her.”

 

That little girl was Elena. When the community found their new lands, they became Santa Elena Veinte de Octubre in honor of the little girl who had been killed while waiting with her new family for new lands.