Migration Interview Project : Human Geography 230

had to prepare and cook the food that the men obtained.   Most of the time, they

Americas Watch. 1991. El Salvador’s Decade of Terror: Human Rights since the Assassination of Archbishop Romero. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

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 Great Migration was a massive movement of African Americans from the South to the North from 1863 to 1960. The largest spike in this migration occurred from about 1910 to 1920.

Given these circumstances, El Salvador’s economy was largely shaped by the Guatemalan elite. Although, Guatemala had size and power, El Salvador was able to resist takeovers but it left them tough and often violent, leaving the perfect atmosphere to foster El Salvador’s gangs. Likewise, El Salvador has also had a history of violence because of the Salvadoran Civil War that lasted from 1979 to 1992. This civil war took the lives of approximately 80,000 soldiers and civilians in El Salvador (Wood, 1). The Civil War separated families as some were granted temporary protection in the United States during the war, and while others lived as undocumented migrants. Once the war ended, many migrants were sent back to El Salvador where conditions were not good. With a government recovering from a war, gangs saw an opportunity to build and start battling for territory. There are an estimated 25,000 gang members at large in El Salvador, while roughly another 9,000 are in prison (Guillermoprieto, 2). The two major gangs that rule El Salvador are MS13, which stands for Mara Salvatrucha, and Barrio 18, which references “18th Street” in Los

Agriculture and trade were the basis of the economy. A wide variety of things were grown. The predominate crop was maize. However, beans, squash, pumpkin, chili peppers, tomatoes, frijol, yucca, cocoa, tobacco, avocado, and sapota were grown and traded. The goods were taken to major cities and traded for things like cloth, jade, pottery, fish, deer meat, and also salt. All of these were traded by canoe. They also domesticated dogs and

The Massacre at El Mozote as told by Mark Danner takes place El Salvador. El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America. It shares borders with Guatemala and Honduras. El Salvador is divided into 14 departments and El Mozote is a village in one of the Departments called Morazan. According to the author, the Salvadoran Civil War 1979-1992 was a conflict waged by the Military led Government of El Salvador and coalition of left-leaning militias or guerillas called the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN).The FMLN was supported by peasants and indigenous Indian people. The United States supported the El Salvador Military government.

For twelve years (1980-1992), El Salvador suffered this brutal civil war and saw some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin American history. The government refused to attend peace talks by the FMLN and the FMLN refused to participate in elections knowing it results would be rigged. The military tried to kill all suspected rebels and the FMLN damaged anything that supported the government’s economy. Throughout the war there was so much human rights violations such as subjecting civilians to torture, forced disappearance, extrajudicial killing, mutilation, mass rape, massacres, summary executions, landmines and indiscriminate bombing. As the result, by the end of the civil war about 75,000 people were killed, sadly most of which were civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time. The intensity of military repression and constant fear provoked massive northern migration to the United States. By the mid-1980s almost one-fifth of the Salvadoran population was living in the United

My father travel by foot in the hot weather of the desert (page 3) .Many Cubans (balseros) that’s how they were call. Their only way to travel was by ocean they use wooden rowboats, makeshift rafts and automobile tires lashed together with ropes.(Gonzalez ,page 108). Just like my father they had a 50, 50 chance to make it to their destination safe without losing their life’s .Even with that in mind they risk it all to simply accomplish the dream for something better for family and in some cases it was better than to

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

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.

The Reagan administration substantially increased both military and economic aid to El Salvador. The civil war raged on in El Salvador, fueled by U.S. aid to the Salvadoran military. The government harshly repressed dissent, and at least 70,000 people lost their lives in killings and bombing raids waged against civilians throughout the countryside. The country's infrastructure had crumbled, and the nation. The government military also start force recruitment to the children who are already twelve years old for becoming the child soldier. so does the geurillas.

The dictionary defines immigration as coming to a foreign country and making it a permanent home. In an article on the Migration Information Source website, Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova report about thirteen percent of the U.S population consists of immigrants, (Zong, Batalova). Some U.S. citizens do not think America should allow immigrants to cross the border. Probably because U.S. citizens now, aren 't being treated how we should and now they can just cross the border and get privileges that American citizens can 't receive. Looking at the bigger picture, there is no definite way to prevent them from crossing the U.S border. Usually immigrants cross the border in hopes to improve their lives and their family 's lives. Do they affect our society and costs, such as economic costs? Of course they do, but the percentage of immigrants in the United States will only keep rising. If you think about it, immigrants can be a good thing. Those that cross the border look for the benefits of the American economy such as job opportunities, education, and even freedom. As the United States assists them, we profit from them as well. For example, cultural diversity, a variety of cultures and religions, or cultural diversity.

As a man says in the very first minut of the documentary; "Some people leave their countries to find a better future, but instead of finding a better future, they come across things, things they would never expect to find"

Many people migrate from one country to another or within a country. There are different reasons why people migrate and there are also things that can stop humans from moving, humans signify it as barriers. Many people have complex issues mentally and physically when they migrate, there are also factors that attract or drive out people from a place.