Ita Ford
2877518
216716495
2008-06-02T21:57:47Z
72.80.194.185
/* Life and work */
{{Infobox Person
|name=Ita Ford
|image=
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|birth_name=
|birth_date=[[April 23]], [[1940]]
|birth_place=[[Bronx]]
|death_date=[[December 2]], [[1980]]
|death_place=[[El Salvador]]
|death_cause=[[murder]] by military [[death squad]]
|resting_place=[[Chalatenango]], [[El Salvador]]
|resting_place_coordinates=
|residence=
|nationality=
|other_names=
|known_for=
|education=
|employer=
|occupation=nun
|title=
|religion=[[Roman Catholic]]
|parents=
|relatives=William P. Ford, [[Austin Ford]]
|website=
|footnotes=
}}
'''Ita Ford''', M.M. ([[April 23]], [[1940]] - [[December 2]], [[1980]]) was a [[Roman Catholic]] [[Maryknoll Sisters|Maryknoll Sister]] missionary to [[Bolivia]], [[Chile]] and [[El Salvador]]. She worked with the [[poor]] and war [[refugees]]. On [[December 2]], [[1980]], she was tortured, raped, and murdered, along with fellow missionaries [[Maura Clarke]], M.M., laywoman [[Jean Donovan]], and [[Dorothy Kazel]], O.S.U. They were killed in [[El Salvador]] by members of a [[Military of El Salvador|military]] [[death squad]].
==Life and work==
Born in [[Brooklyn, New York]] on [[April 23]], [[1940]], Ford was the daughter of William Patrick Ford, an insurance man who took early retirement due to [[tuberculosis]], and Mildred Teresa O'Beirne Ford, a public schoolteacher. She had an older brother, Bill (1936-2008), and a younger sister, Irene. The family lived at 1023 57th Street in Brooklyn.<ref name="Here"/>
William Patrick Ford was related to the prominent Catholic publisher [[Austin Ford]], who immigrated to the [[United States]] after a publication calling for social justice in Anglo-Irish relations was banned in [[Ireland]]. Austin's son, [[Francis Xavier Ford]] (1892-1952), was the first seminarian to apply to the newly-established [[Maryknoll]] Fathers in 1911 and, after being ordained as a missionary in 1917, went to China, where he became a bishop and a martyr. He died in a [[Communist]] prison camp there in 1952, when his young "cousin" Ita was twelve.<ref name="Here">''"Here I Am, Lord": The Letters And Writings of Ita Ford'' by Ita Ford and Jeanne Evans (New York: Orbis Books, 2005) ISBN 1570756058.</ref><ref name="Bishop">[http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bford.html Bishop Francis Xavier Ford], accessed online December 11, 2006.</ref>
Though her mother taught in the public school system, Ita Ford was educated in parochial schools, beginning at age five in the Visitation Academy in Bay Ridge, run by the [[Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary|Visitation Sisters]], a semi-cloistered order. She attended [[Fontbonne Hall Academy]], a high school operated by the [[Sisters of St. Joseph]], where she worked on the school newspaper.<ref name="Here"/> Finally, from 1957 to 1961, she attended [[Marymount Manhattan College]], founded by the [[Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary]]. (Marymount Manhattan split from its mother school, [[Marymount College]], in 1961).<ref name="Here"/><ref name="IRTF">[http://www.irtfcleveland.org/Churchwomen_Biographies.htm Martyrs of Central America]</ref>
Following in her relative the Bishop's footsteps, Ford had confided in a high school friend at the age of fifteen that she not only wanted to be a nun, she specifically felt called to be a [[Maryknoll]] missionary sister.<ref name="Here"/> Even before her college graduation in 1961, Ford had a vocational counselor advising her about her fitness for Maryknoll.<ref name="Here"/> She formally entered the [[Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic]] at the age of twenty-one. Three years later, due to ill health, she had to leave the novitiate.
After working seven years as an editor at a publishing company, Ford reapplied and was again accepted by the Maryknoll missionary order in 1971.<ref name="IRTF"/> After serving briefly in [[Bolivia]] in 1972, she moved to [[Chile]] a short time before the [[September 11]], [[1973]] military [[coup]].<ref name="peacemakers">[http://www.peacemakersguide.org/articles/Ita-Ford.htm Ita Ford] Peacemakers biography</ref> Ford lived in a poor shantytown with Sister Carla Piette in Santiago, where they ministered to the needs of the people, especially those who lived in [[poverty]].<ref name="IRTF"/>
After spending a required "reflection year" in 1978—1979 before final vows in the [[United States]], in March of [[1980]], Ford moved with Piette from Chile to [[El Salvador]], arriving the day of [[Oscar Romero]]'s funeral.<ref name="peacemakers"/> In June of that year, they began working with the Emergency Refugee Committee in [[Chalatenango]]. In this mission, Ford worked with the poor and war victims, providing food, shelter, transportation and burial.
After the death of Piette in a flash flood on [[August 23]], [[1980]]—a flood which nearly cost Ford her own life, saved only by Piette's help in pushing her from the overwhelmed vehicle—Ford was joined on the mission by [[Maura Clarke]], a [[Maryknoll]] sister who was already in El Salvador in contemplation of a mission assignment. Altogether, Piette and Ford had worked together in Chile and El Salvador for eight years, until their deaths barely three months apart in 1980.
==Murder==
In November 1980, Ford and Clarke attended a regional assembly of [[Maryknoll]] Sisters in [[Nicaragua]]. At the closing liturgy on [[December 1]], [[1980]], Ford read a passage from one of Archbishop [[Oscar Romero]]'s final homilies: <blockquote>"Christ invites us not to fear persecution because, believe me, brothers and sisters, the one who is committed to the poor must run the same fate as the poor, and in El Salvador we know what the fate of the poor signifies: to disappear, be tortured, to be held captive - and to be found dead." [http://www.irtfcleveland.org/Churchwomen_Biographies.htm]</blockquote> The following day, [[December 2]], [[1980]], Ford and Clarke boarded a plane to return to [[El Salvador]]. They were picked up by missionaries [[Dorothy Kazel]], an [[Ursuline]] sister and [[Jean Donovan]], a Roman Catholic [[laity|laywoman]]. Several members of the National Guard of [[El Salvador]] stopped the vehicle they were driving after they left the airport in [[San Salvador]]. The four women were taken to a relatively isolated spot where they were tortured, raped, and murdered by the soldiers.
Ita Ford and the other missionaries joined the more than 75,000 people who would be killed throughout in the Salvadoran Civil War.
==Subsequent history==
According to the [[Maryknoll]] Order:<blockquote>“The U.N.-sponsored report of the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador concluded that the abductions were planned in advance and the men responsible had carried out the murders on orders from above. It further stated that the head of the National Guard and two officers assigned to investigate the case had concealed the facts to harm the judicial process. The murder of the women, along with attempts by the Salvadoran military and some American officials to cover it up, generated a grass-roots opposition in the U.S., as well as ignited intense debate over the Administration’s policy in El Salvador.
In 1984,, the defendants were found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The Truth Commission noted that this was the first time in Salvadoran history that a judge had found a member of the military guilty of assassination. In 1998, three of the soldiers were released for good behavior. Two of the men remain in prison and have petitioned the Salvadoran government for pardons.” [http://www.maryknoll.org/MARYKNOLL/SISTERS/ms_marty4ani.htm]</blockquote>
Ita Ford's brother, attorney Bill Ford, has spent over 25 years using the U.S. court system to try to obtain justice for his sister and the other three murdered women. He has worked closely with [[Human Rights First]] (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) on federal lawsuits to try to bring Salvadoran generals to answer for the murder of the women, and, in other cases, for the torture and murder of members of the Salvadoran poor.<ref name="HRF">[http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/about_us/award_dinners/2003_dinner/bios_speakers.htm Human Rights First 25th Anniversary: Bios] biography of William P. Ford, accessed online December 11, 2006.</ref>
The head of the National Guard, whose troops were responsible for the murders, Gen. [[Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova]], went on to become Minister of Defense in the government of [[José Napoleón Duarte]].<ref name="IRTF"/> After their emigration to Florida, Vides Casanova and his fellow general, José Guillermo Garcia, were the named defendants in the suit brought by Bill Ford on his sister's behalf.
In 1998, Human Rights First was able to interview four of the five National Guardsmen in prison in El Salvador. All four stated that they had been ordered to kill the women by their superior officer, Subsergeant Luis Antonio Colindres Aleman, and all four stated Colindres Aleman had said he was acting on orders from above. According to HRF's letter to the current Secretary of State, [[Madeleine Albright]], "Colindres Aleman was the only convicted Guardsman to refuse to speak to us. Each of the four Guardsmen we interviewed maintained that only Colindres Aleman knew who issued the superior orders, and each believed that he was maintaining his silence because of fear or financial benefit, or both."<ref name="HRF-MA">[http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/media/2001_1996/albrightlac.htm] HRF to Madeleine Albright, April 3, 1998; accessed December 11, 2006.</ref>
==Film==
The murders of the four women, including news footage of their exhumations, are covered in the 1982 documentary '''Roses in December''', which focuses mainly on the life of [[Jean Donovan]], the laywoman.<ref name="AFSC">[http://www.afsc.org/newengland/bigcat/ttl.php?FID=229 "Roses in December" details] at [[American Friends Service Committee]] lending library; accessed online December 9, 2006.</ref> This documentary won the Interfilm Award at the 1982 [[Mannheim-Heidelberg Internationales Filmfestival]].
[[Mari Gorman]] played Ita Ford in a 1983 television movie, ''Choices of the Heart'', which has been criticized for lacking clarity about the political context of the women's killings.<ref name="IMDB">[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085332/ "Choices of the Heart"] detailed review dated 2005; accessed online December 10,2006.</ref> Despite that, the movie won the 1984 [[Humanitas Prize]] in the 90-minute category. [[Melissa Gilbert]], [[Helen Hunt]], [[Martin Sheen]], and [[Mike Farrell]] were among the cast members.
The [[Florida]] federal civil court case (''Ford v. Garcia'') brought by Bill Ford and Human Rights First on behalf of all four women is profiled along with a similar case (''Romagoza v. Garcia'', re attacks on Salvadoran citizens) in a 2002 film, ''Justice and the Generals.'' This documentary by [[Gail Pellett]] was completed in the time frame between the 2000 trial of the generals in ''Ford'', and the 2002 rejection of the women's families by the federal appellate court, first airing on [[PBS]] on [[February 1]], [[2002]].<ref name="PBS">[http://www.pbs.org/wnet/justice/about.html "Justice and The Generals"] 2002 film on [[PBS]] by Gail Pellett; accessed online December 11, 2006.</ref>. It won the 2002 [[Amnesty International]] Film Festival (Vancouver) and the 2003 Award of Merit in Film from the [[Latin American Studies Association]]. It is distributed by First Run / Icarus Films.<ref name="FRIF">[http://www.frif.com/new2002/jus.html "Justice and the Generals"] documentary synopsis at First Run / Icarus Films; accessed online December 11, 2006.</ref>
==Writings==
In October 2005, [[Orbis Books]] published ''"Here I Am, Lord": The Letters and Writings of Ita Ford'' by Ita Ford and Jeanne Evans, ISBN 1570756058.
In 2005, a planned biography of Sister Carla Piette was announced. As they worked together in Latin America for nearly of a decade, the Piette book, when published, will contain much biographical information on Ita Ford.<ref name="Piette">[http://www.friendsacrossborders.org/articles/MissionaryworkinElSalvador.htm Visitors see impact of missionaries' work in El Salvador] 2005 article by Brian T. Olszewski for the [[Catholic Herald]].</ref>
Footage of the murders is also in Frank Dorrel's collection of mini documentaries including ''School of Assassins'' that tells of the school of the Americas as it trains assassins. Students of the school where convicted of the crimes against the Maryknoll nuns.{{fact|date=February 2008}}
==References==
<references/>
==Further reading==
*''Hearts on Fire: The Story of the Maryknoll Sisters'', Penny Lernoux, ''et al.'', Orbis Books, 1995.
*''Ita Ford: Missionary Martyr'', Phyllis Zagano, Paulist Press, 1996.
*''The Same Fate As the Poor'', Judith M. Noone, Orbis Books, 1995.
*''Witness of Hope: The Persecution of Christians in Latin America'', Martin Lange and Reinhold Iblacker, Orbis Books, 1981.
==External links==
*[http://www.pbs.org/wnet/justice/law_background_ford.html Ford v. Garcia Trial Background]. Legal history section of PBS website on "Justice and the Generals" presentation in 2002. Accessed [[October 7]] [[2005]].
*[http://www.mauraclarke-itafordcenter.org/ The Maura Clarke – Ita Ford Center of Brooklyn, New York].
*[http://www.maryknoll.org/MARYKNOLL/SISTERS/ms_marty4ani.htm Martyrdom in El Salvador] Maryknoll Sisters website. Accessed [[October 7]] [[2005]].
* [http://www.fssca.net/projects/martyrs/wiki.html Plant a Tree in Ita Ford's Memory] Memorial program in El Salvador in honor of the four churchwomen; accessed December 9, 2006.
* [http://www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/reports/el_salvador/tc_es_03151993_intro.html Report of the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador] (1993) accessed online December 9, 2006.
{{Persondata
|NAME=Ita Ford
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Catholic Martyr of El Salvador
|DATE OF BIRTH=[[April 23]], [[1940]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH=The Bronx, New York
|DATE OF DEATH=[[December 2]], [[1980]]
|PLACE OF DEATH=El Salvador
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Ita}}
[[Category:History of El Salvador]]
[[Category:Catholic martyrs of El Salvador]]
[[Category:Christian missionaries in El Salvador]]
[[Category:Christian missionaries in Bolivia]]
[[Category:Christian missionaries in Chile]]
[[Category:Irish-American religious figures]]
[[Category:Maryknoll]]
[[Category:Assassinated activists]]
[[Category:People from Brooklyn]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic activists]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic missionaries]]
[[Category:American Roman Catholic nuns]]
[[Category:1940 births]]
[[Category:1980 deaths]]