Joe Moakley's Journey: From South Boston to El SalvadorIn November 1989 in El Salvador, six Jesuit priests and their two female housekeepers were rousted from their beds and shot as they lay face down on the ground. At first, the George H. W. Bush administration echoed the Salvadoran military's line that the rebels must have done it. When House Speaker Tom Foley tasked a senior congressman with investigating the murders, the people of El Salvador found an unlikely champion in the person of John Joseph Moakley, representative from South Boston. In Joe Moakley's Journey, Mark Robert Schneider charts one of the most unusual transformations in American politics. A native son of South Boston, Moakley was an effective and influential House member, whose greatest influence and legacy is, paradoxically, far from home in the fields of El Salvador and Central America. Though firmly, fiercely grounded in his hometown of South Boston--he never lived anywhere else--from the beginning of this investigation until his death in 2001, issues of Central American justice, peace, and economic development became Joe Moakley's cause. |
Contents
1 Chronicle of a Death Foretold | 1 |
2 Southie Was His Hometown | 16 |
3 From Curleys Boston to Kennedys America | 29 |
4 The Invisible the Blind and the Visionary | 43 |
5 Moakley versus Hicks | 60 |
6 The Man on the Barbed Wire Fence | 76 |
7 The Last Days of the Working Class | 99 |
8 Into Foreign Lands | 119 |
10 The Jesuit Murders | 160 |
11 Wellcom Senador Smoklin | 183 |
12 Death and Resurrection | 202 |
13 Return to Santa Marta | 225 |
14 Man of the Century | 241 |
Notes | 257 |
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activists administration African American announced antibusing author interview bill Boston Globe Boston Herald Bush busing campaign career Castro Catholic Central America city’s Clinton colleagues Congress congressional constituents Cristiani Cuba delegation Democratic district Dorchester El Salvador election Evelyn father field figure final finally fire first five Flynn FMLN Folder Fred Clark Gingrich Gomez Harbor Hicks House human rights immigrants Irish issue January Jesuit Jim McGovern Joe Moakley killed Kineavy knew LaRose later leaders legislative liberal Louise Day Hicks majority March Massachusetts mayor McCarthy McCormack military aid Moak Moakley and McGovern Moakley told Moakley’s murders neighborhood never November O’Neill’s October office officers officials party percent political president Press Reagan refugees Republican Roxbury Rules Committee Salvador Salvadoran school committee seat Senate September Shaevel South Boston Speaker Taunton Daily Gazette Ted Kennedy tion Tip O’Neill United Vietnam vote wanted Washington Whitfield William Bulger