Problem Statement
The twelve-year civil war in El Salvador displaced thousands from their homeland leading many to flee as refugees and from political persecution to neighboring countries like the United States. Today an estimated quarter of the Salvadoran population are living outside the country’s borders (Perla, 2009). Although Salvadorans in the United States have gone from a refugee population, it is evident that the long-term effects from the civil war are still present today. Today’s higher education system has yet to address those long-term effects by failing to understand the Salvadoran experience.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this study is to profoundly understand and explore the effects of trauma and war experience in
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Salvadoran Refugee Experience
During the 1980’s, the country’s civil war caused thousands of Salvadorans to flee their homeland in search of a more politically stable country (Menjivar, 2000). Ironically, despite the signing of the Peace Accords that ended the war almost two and a half decades ago, today thousands of Salvadorans still continue to seek safety and refuge in the U.S. and in other countries (Menjivar, 2000)
Historically, migration has played a key role in Salvadoran history yet events during the late 20th century increased the number of people emigrating out of El Salvador. In an attempt to escape the violence and repression caused by the civil war, thousands of Salvadorans fled to other countries where many ended up in refugee camps.(Menjivar, 2000) From the late 1970s onward, migration trends within and from El Salvador changed drastically. People became displaced after fleeing from conflict areas; “some fled to adjacent regions such as Honduras or Guatemala, and others crossed two international borders (to Mexico) or three (to the United States)” (Menjivar, 2000). Migration to the United States continued to increase drastically from the 1960s to 1980s. During the 1980’s thousands of Salvadorans fled in hopes of escaping the violence and repression caused by the civil war. Beth Baker-Cristales (2004) explains how the civil war displaced thousands of Salvadorans, many who were sent to refugee camps in
In 1977, the Guerilla, a group of rebels, started a wave of violence in El Salvador which included violating human rights and causing terror all over the country. Most of the political, social and economic problems in El Salvador arose once the people started fighting against the corrupt government. By 1980, the civil war erupted and the rebels took over the country with brute force. Finally in 1992, a treaty arranged between the rebels, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front referred to as the FMLN, and the government, whose aim was to hinder the violence in the country, only made violence more prevalent. El Salvador’s civil war left problems that El Salvador cannot solve alone, which explains why it needs an international community to
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
It is now obvious that countries in Central America have been plagued by civil war, economic crisis, election fraud to finally transition into a political system granting the population the freedom to elect their leaders. El Salvador is no different than Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras. One might notice that such issues arise due to political unrest in the region (Central America), thus creating a pattern of social, political and economic instability.
Being in war is definitely one of the most life changing events a person will ever have whether it be for the better or for the worst. Soldiers will witness events that are impossible to forget or see back at home in the states. Some soldiers may have even seen one of their best friends that they’ve known for forever get blown up into pieces right next to them, or they might even get one of their own limbs blown off of their own bodies, becoming handicapped for life. As a result of seeing something so intense like that, most soldiers are usually traumatized. In matter of fact, a great amount of soldiers are traumatized from the very beginning of being in war. It’s without a doubt difficult to deal with this but there are some ways where
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
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
After generations of oppression, there comes a moment when the people that are being governed unjustly must rise against their oppressor and end the tyranny that is being done to them, even at the cost of death. After centuries of enslaved people, set forth by Spanish colonization, in EL Salvador a social political system developed that placed power, authority, and, most importantly, land directly in the hands of a few Spanish progeniture families. This type of system exploited the indigenous people and uneducated farmers to plow the fields to produce cash crops that yielded a sizeable profit for those elite families. Several attempts by the native people and farmers to change the status quo was met with a decisive and crushing blow by a military
Esperanza and Estevan came across the border to escape the violence in Guatemala. They left for the safety of themselves, their child, and their friends. While with Taylor, Estevan describes the reasons why he and Esperanza left, “Three members had just been killed, including Esperanza’s brother, but seventeen were still alive. She and I knew every one of those seventeen, by name. Can you understand that this made us more useful alive than dead?” (Kingsolver, ch. 9). Esperanza and Estevan left Guatemala for their safety and they believed that Ismene, their daughter, would be better off with the government family that she was given to, rather than with them. Estevan and Esperanza were in danger of being killed by the local gangs and government because of the teachers’ union Estevan had formed. Estevan knew everyone in the teachers’ union and he was a target for the gangs and government, so he and Esperanza left to save their family and friends by fleeing so that no one knew where they were and no one could get hurt. Likewise families and individuals from the Middle East are trying to escape their homes and countries for safer land from the violence and war in the Middle East. A Syrian family left their home seeking safety from the bombings and violence in their home in Syria. The family escaped across the border into Jordan where they segregated the Jordanians and the refugee Syrians.
The 1980’s political sphere, as well as the failure of the United States to respond in offering refuge for the vulnerable, led to the rise of an unprecedented number of illegal migrants living in
Violence and political instability have been one of the leading causes of population displacements with refugees making up a substantial number of migrations in the last century. A perfect illustration of this has been the migration of Cuban and Haitians to the United States. The dislocation of political exile to foreign countries, USA, and Europe was a major phenomenon between 1970 and 1980. Immigration to the United States and Canada was on the rise in the 1970s and 1980s resulting from political unrest in Central American counties (Pellegrino 43). Social and political violence in Colombia, which manifested in the second half of 20th century, resulted in actual population displacement to neighboring countries as well as other continents.
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 modern form of migrant trafficking emerged as a concomitant of the rapid globalization of world economies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when technological innovation allowed for greater ease of movement of information, goods, and people. In addition to technological advancements, economic interdependence brought about by cross-border flows of commodities, services and capital created new markets in industries like resource extraction, textiles, and service, among others. While globalization laid much of the groundwork for development in the 20th century, it also played a role in determining the outcomes of issues like the first and second World Wars, from which many of the first major modern national security threats arose. These emerging concerns about national security and “migrant threat” to domestic well-being caused many states to and adopt more restrictive policies regarding the movement of individuals across state boundaries. In addition to the increased restrictions after the first and second World Wars, the restructuring of borders during decolonization and the dissolution of the former USSR created arbitrary, formal boundaries for movement that failed to account for existing trade patterns and social ties across borders.