Remembering the Fallen : El Salvador: Celebration of peace accord is tinged with memories of people who died during country’s civil war.

On a day meant for celebration, nearly everyone in the crowd of 3,000 at MacArthur Park took time to remember a relative or friend who had died during 12 years of revolution and civil war in El Salvador.

Seventeen-year-old Mario Roman sold tiny blue flags emblazoned with a peace dove; he remembered an uncle and a cousin who were tortured and killed by the army in 1980.

Nearby, Castula Candido, 78, joined the crowd in singing El Salvador’s national anthem. Then she recounted how two of her sons were killed by soldiers who dragged them out of her home.

“I pray that peace reigns in our beloved homeland, El Salvador,” the elderly woman said in Spanish, waving a white flag that she also used to shield her eyes from the bright afternoon sun. “I want to give thanks to God for this peace.”

Sunday’s rally commemorated the peace accords signed Thursday by the Salvadoran government and the rebel Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). The agreement brought a formal end to the war that devastated the tiny Central American country and sent hundreds of thousands of its citizens into exile.

Many of those exiles have settled in Southern California, creating a community of 400,000 in Los Angeles, the largest Salvadoran community outside that Central American nation.

“I am going to return to my country with my children,” said Roberto Calderon, 36, who had adorned his hat with an FMLN flag. “Democracy will be born in El Salvador and my country will become a cradle of freedom and justice.”

The largest ovation was for Father Luis Olivares, who led the audience in a prayer for peace. In 1985, as pastor of La Placita Church on Olvera Street, Olivares declared his church a sanctuary for Central American refugees.

Olivares said after his appearance that he felt weak--he is suffering from AIDS--and had almost been forced to cancel his appearance. Still, he seemed to draw strength from the crowd as it waved blue-and-white Salvadoran flags, red banners of the FMLN, and portraits of the late Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who was gunned down by a right-wing death squad in a San Salvador cathedral in 1980.

“How will we be able to look in the eyes of the men who killed our sons?” Olivares rhetorically asked the crowd in Spanish. “The Salvadoran people must show the world that it is possible. . . . Let us all make a commitment to continue to work for peace in El Salvador.”

In the spirit of reconciliation, the Salvadoran consul general in Los Angeles and the local spokeswoman of the FMLN were both invited to speak at the event.

Gladys Sibrian, the FMLN spokeswoman, delivered a rousing speech and raised her fist into the air to shout: “ Que viva El Salvador libre! “ (Long live a free El Salvador!) “ Que viva! “ the crowd shouted back.

Vice Consul Lucas Asdrubal Aguilar, representing the government, was expected to appear. He did not show up at the scheduled time, however.

Finally, a frustrated Isabel Guevara took the microphone and asked the Salvadoran diplomat to “please come to the bandstand.” This drew a few jeers from the crowd, where supporters of the guerrilla army were in the clear majority.

“Please, please, companeros, let’s behave ourselves,” Guevara called back from the podium. “At the moment (the vice consul) arrives, we will welcome him,” she said. “We will wait for him here.”

A rebel supporter in the audience then called out, with a touch of sarcasm: “Let’s clap so that he comes!” The vice consul was nowhere to be found, but the audience broke into polite applause nonetheless.