A Glimpse of El Salvador Have people ever heard about El Salvador? If they have, they probably heard about its high homicide rates and criminal gangs (CIA World). Unfortunately, the beauty of this Spanish-speaking country gets overshadowed by these negative traits. However, El Salvador has much more to offer such as its history, geography, culture, economy, and climate; characteristics that build up this Central American country. El Salvador’s history might contain harsh episodes, but they all ended in a peaceful agreement. For example, there is the country’s struggle for Independence. El Salvador became a Spanish colony after indigenous resistance was crushed (BBC News). At length, the country achieved Independence from Spain on September
El Salvador is a country known for its beautiful beaches, mountainous landscape, and coffee export. Unfortunately, this perfect picture is only a wall that hides the true violence that occurs in the country. El Salvador’s violence is an ongoing cycle, so how does today’s violence differ and compare from the violence in the 1980’s? The differences and similarities of violence in El Salvador from now and then involve root cause, political involvement, and economic issues.
Over the years, Salvadoran citizens have been experiencing a rise in homicides in their communities. A large portion of these homicides go unsolved and are a result of gang violence. El Salvador is ranked in the top three most deadly Latin American countries in the world. It has been consumed with violence that includes everything from gang violence, to political corruption, to police brutality, and even a declining economy, which is basically everything that can go wrong in a society bunched up into one small country. Interestingly enough, El Salvador has a history of conflict and subjugation. El Salvador is unique among its Central American neighbors not only because of its small size and dense population, but also geographically it is the
Imagine living in a country where you know you could die at any moment but don’t know how much longer till it happens. That was how much of the population of El Salvador used to feel when the government could not control the big coffee corporations. These out of control corporations, highly feared that the people would want to revolt against them so they hired murderers to kill innocent people to spread fear in the minds of the people of El Salvador. Fear, hate, and sorrow were the common feelings felt by the poor and innocent major population of El Salvador caused by the evil wrongdoings of the government during October 1979 – 16 January 1992. This is how the main character, Jose Luis, of the novel “Mother Tongue” by Demetria Martinez, felt before escaping his beautiful yet over constantly dangerous country, which depended on its cash crop, coffee beans to sell on a foreign market as the country’s main income. However, following the stock-market crash of 1929, a drop in coffee prices became apparent and affected everyone in El Salvador, but the poor especially. Making things worse, the glorious United States was funding the men whom were doing all the innocent killings with more weapons and money to increase their military power. So for Jose Luis the safe haven that he had escaped to was also blatantly funding the war that was killing so many innocent people he knew and had forced him to escape for his own safety. With nowhere else to go in order to find safety the United
The United Provinces of Central America). There is a scroll which states the national motto of El Salvador. Which is “ Dios, Unión, Libertad”. Which means, “ God, Union, Liberty”. All of that is surrounded by Laurel Garland, which is tied together under the National flag. Laurel Garland is divide into 14 different parts, which symbolizes the 14 Departments. I am going to list the 14 departments and some facts about them. The Ahuachapàn department , it is in the west of the country. The capital is Ahuachapàn. The Cabañas department, the capital is Sensuntepeque. It is one of the coldest regions in El Salvador. The Chalatenango department, it is located in the northwest of the country. It has 220,000 and more inhabitants in it. The Cuscatlán department, it is located in the center of the country. It has 200,00 and more inhabitants in it. The La Libertad department, the capital is Santa Tecla. It was classified as a department on January 28, 1865. The La Paz department, the capital is
There was a major split in the people of El Salvador, The rich and the poor. That is when the riot began. Many innocent people were killed by the government, as long as you looked apart of the massacre, the national guard would kill you. On December 3rd, 1980, Three nuns
To get a proper understanding of El Salvador’s civil war we need to begin in the 1930s, the Salvadoran government was generating a lot of profit from goods being sold, unfortunately the wealth was only given to 2% of the population. Augustin Marti formed the socialist party that led peasants and indigenous against the government. When the government heard this they gave the approval for military death squads, which would kill anyone who looked
El Salvador is a small and beautiful country in Central America bordered by Honduras, Guatemala, and the Pacific Ocean. During recent years, violence and poverty have plagued the country due to over-population and class struggles. “The civil war in El Salvador began in 1980 to 1992 due to discontent with social inequalities, a poor economy, and the repressive measures of dictatorship” (Wiarda, p. 213). There remains conflict between the rich and the poor, this has existed for more than a century and is still a big problem.
(Marx, 4).Therefore, Marx states that the way civilians are treated depends on production of goods and services. Therefore, it can be argued that citizens of El Salvador were subjugated during colonization because of the way cash crops were being exploited. Things slowly began to change when people revolted against this mode of production. Marx would argue that the Salvadoran Civil War began because of materialistic motives such as the change from feudalistic policies to more industrialized ones which is evident in its history. Marx argued that the mode of production
In the 1500s the first settlers settled in an area near the Gulf of Fonseca this territory would later be known as El Salvador. Soon after the territory was conquered by Spanish rule in 1524 and ruled by King Charles I of Spain until their independence in 1838 (Background, 2012). Struggling with the new found independence this new nation was curse with constant revolutions and over-turning of governments (Background, 2012). Situated in the middle of the fresh region called Central America this sovereign state had neither major resources nor growing economy, whereas other nations had an industry to depend on once the colonial power leaves this nation was forced to start from scratch.
In 1524, Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado neglected to seize area in light of the Pipil warriors. Be that as it may, in 1525 he returned and effectively vanquished the nation and named it El Salvador which English translation means, "The Savior". In 1811, the longings for freedom reverberated throughout the country, yet was quickly pounded by the troops sent by neighboring
As a result poverty grew and the conflict between the poor and the rich became a big problem El Salvador had to deal with during the 20th century. A Central American Socialist Party was born and lead people against the government and in response the government of El Salvador at the time supported military death teams who killed anyone who supported that party.
Throughout 1939-1971, El Salvador was run by a military-style dictatorship, causing those who had land and wealth to be stripped from them just because they could. According to Encyclopedia Britannica the persistence of this dictatorship can be partly credited to Augustin Farabundo Marti, who forced the Salvadorian Communist Party (2017). Proving to be a catalyst for conflicts for years to come.
Twentieth century El Salvador is made up of violence, suffering, and hardships. After the independence of El Salvador, the elite took control of this country which produced discontent amongst the lower classes. During the 1920’s this discontent grew because of political abuse and increased poverty. According to John Chasteen in Born In Blood and Fire, Salvadoran indigenous people were pushed into volcanic land by the
There are plenty of good things to be said about El Salvador, the Latin American country that sits in the heart of Central America, surrounded by volcanic mountains, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and a Pacific coast of startlingly beautiful beaches and rustic fishing villages.
Some countries are poor so they have to call on their fellow citizens who are working in foreign countries for help, while others are developing countries and do not have a strong enough economy so they then turn to their citizens who is working in different countries for help. Terrible disasters might be happening back to back and the country might not get the chance to recover so they depend on their citizens.