Summary Of Background: Roots In The US

As the words of our founding fathers, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is the American dream that many pursue, whether immigrated to the United States or born here. Within Demetria Martinez’s book, Mother Tongue, a novel, the character named Jose Luis flees from El Salvador to the United States in order to escape it’s brutal civil war. His choice to flee El Salvador and enter the United States under a false name places him in a difficult situation, both in his moral abandonment of his home country El Salvador, and for crossing the United States border illegally. The position of Jose Luis can be dissected into the need for borders, the asylum process into the U.S., the reason why politicians reject immigration, and the potential

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

Today’s violence in El Salvador consists of ruthless gang members. According to CRS (Congressional Research Service) about 30,000 kids have joined the maras and it will continue to increase. Due to the gang violence, children are fleeing the country to prevent from becoming victims or recruited, furthermore families are streaming into the U.S to seek asylum. Alike today, El Salvador experienced the same immigration crisis back in 1980 when the civil war was the cause for Salvadorans to immigrate to the United Sates. Repression and violation of human rights was the root cause, now gang violence is the root cause striking a similar pattern of the effects of violence. In 1980, El Salvador’s right-wing government had death squads to kill citizens for suspicion of supporting a social reform. Military soldiers attacked many villages, including El Mozote in which men, women, and children were tortured and subjected to sexual violence.

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

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

Each year, thousands of Central American immigrants embark on a dangerous journey from Mexico to the United States. Many of these migrants include young children searching for their mothers who abandoned them. In Enrique’s Journey, former Los Angeles Times reporter, Sonia Nazario, recounts the compelling story of Enrique, a young Honduran boy desperate to reunite with his mother. Thanks to her thorough reporting, Nazario gives readers a vivid and detailed account of the hardships faced by these migrant children.

The Civil War in the early 1980s in El Salvador cost the lives of about 100,000 people. Besides, two million people are reported to have immigrated to the United States, due to the uncertain political and social conditions there. A big chunk of the refugees arrived and settled in the Rampart area of Los Angeles. They needed low cost housing and employment. That area was already afflicted with gangs and crimes. For the local population of Mexican-Americans, this was the most unwelcome development. The combustible youth immigrants from Salvador took the problem of their survival in response to the victimization at the hands of local gangs, as a serious challenge and formed a new gang by name Mara Salvatrucha,

About eleven years after the Massacre took place; a survivor named Rufina Amaya Márquez came forward and shared her story, an eye witness account of what happened at El Mozote (Danner 7). Much of the world, including the United States refused to believe her (Danner 8). The United States knew the Salvadoran government and the military were fighting left-wing rebels, who, they believed to be pro-communist, but when Rufina’s story appeared on the

and Mexican governments and awareness campaigns carried out between 2013-2014 successfully sent the message to residents of the primary sending countries in Central America. However, Central American men, women and children continue to travel north into the migrant trail and across Mexico. The analysis of The Beast Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail by Oscar Martinez offers concrete, systematic evidence of the relative weight crime victimization plays in the migration decision. The Beast allows us to understand why these individuals continue to make the trip when seemingly fully aware o the dangers involved and supports to suggest that no matter what the dangers of migration may be in the future it is preferably to a present-day life of crime and violence endured in the Northern Triangle. Having such knowledge of what motivates Central Americans to consider migration and understanding the influence of this prior knowledge in their decision for immigration along with an understanding of how preceding U.S. and Mexican efforts to deter immigration grants the United States government to understand immigration patterns and a possible solution for mass migration crisis. The current migration dilemma and book proposes the possibility of a different attempt on behalf of the United States government to deter migration from the Northern

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

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

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.

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.

El Salvador has been a part of countless wars, whether it be with other surrounding countries that continue to invade, or their most recent civil war that took over 12 years to resolve and their present war with gangs. My family was unfortunate to be personally affected by the 12-year civil war that took place during the late 1970’s. My mother explained to me how socially accepted it was to feed the countries soldiers who passed by, this became part of their culture to do so now as explained by Every Culture (2017). Some women stayed home to look after their children, sow, and cook. Other women chose to arm themselves and become militants as well. It became accepted to see both women and children join the troops during those chaotic times. In 1979 to 1981, an estimated 30,000 people were killed by death squads formed by the anti-government organization known as Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) as explained by Info Please (2017). The United States Army sent their Green Berets to help intervene and

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