a week in san salvador

so i've been in san salvador for a week now. i've been staying with an elderly couple, who are very nice. the grandmother cooks very well and even showed me how to make a typical salvadoran food called pupusas, which are basically fat, small tortillas stuffed with cheese, bean, and/or meat and dry pan fried until the cheese melts inside. i've also been treated to homemade tamalitos, smaller sized tomales with no meat inside, and of course the many fresh fruits and vegetables that abound in the tropical climate...mmm piña! i also went to a friend's birthday party on saturday, and had some german style potatoes in some kind of vinegar, which was great. we had a few drinks and danced cumbia, banda, salsa, and reggaeton through the night. i'm still horrible at all of itt, but it's fun. the climate is warm and sunny, and the people have been very friendly to me.

in the mornings i have been going to small group spanish classes, during which we're not only learning more of the language but also about the history of el salvador's civil war, which lasted from 1980-1992. my teacher is very knowledgeable and has shared a lot so far about his experiences during the war. he also did some translation of interviews for a univ of chicago research project. he told us one story of a small town that was situated next to the leftist rebel camp at the time. as a warning to anyone who might have been thinking about joining the revolution, the US-backed government army murdered 6 unarmed teenagers one night. one of them was a 4-month pregnant girl. they killed her by slicing open her stomach, ripping out her unborn fetus, and allowing her to die slowly. they decapitated one of the boys and hung his head on the entrance to the public school. one of the stories that the teacher translated was about another woman. she, along with 40 other civilians who were not involved in the war were hiding in a river from the US backed government soldiers looking to recruit young boys and perhaps murder the rest of them. when the armed forces were close, her young baby started crying, so she pushed her baby under the water to stop him from crying in order to save the group from the army's attack. by the time the army left, her baby had died. it was a typical policy to murder civilians as a way to scare people away from joining the revolution, and the us ovt knew that as they poured a staggering 6 billion dollars of aid in during war years, a great deal of which was used for military purposes.

you can get a little bit of perspective of what it was like for the families during the war by watching a very good and powerful movie called Voces Inocentes. although this movie may downlplay some of the inexcusable wrongs committed by the guerrillas, including some murders and military recruitment of minors as well, the UN Commission for Truth in El Salvador found that a full 85% of complaints of murder, torture, and dissapearances could be attributed to agents of the government, including the death squads. Only 5% were attributed to the leftist guerillas, the FMLN. The state and deathsquads were funded and had the verbal political backing of the US government, just as in similar cases in central america such as with our interventions in guatemala and nicaragua. you can find out more about us intervention in latin america by searching around online. there is a lot of info and plenty of perspectives out there. but be wary of documents demonizing the left simply because some of them had a communist perspective. if we are truly for democracy, we must respect others' choices for their own government. in fact, it was the US and the right wing government of el salvador who were committing the vast majority of human rights violations. we must take responsibility for what we've done.

there are countless other stories like the ones above. at least 75,000 people were killed during the 12 year civil war, with the vast majority of murders and human rights violations being attributed to the US backed army (although some violations were indeed perpetrated by the guerrillas). in the most recent presidential election, the US meddled with the democratic process by making threats to the salvadoran public should they vote for the left leaning side, specifically by threatening to diminish the ability of salvadoran immigrants to send remitances back to their family. currently, about 6 million people live in el salvador, and a full 3 million other salvadoreños work in the US, accounting for a massive portion of their economy.

the next round of parlimentary (congressional) elections are coming up in march, and i have been invited by the school to be an election monitor. the elections should be interesting, as this week a long time leader of the left, schafik handal, died of a heart attack, reawakening the public 's desire to act in the interest of old issues, especially that of the rampid poverty that exists despite the US's claims that free trade will cure all. this is a massive event for el salvador, as many people loved schafik for his dedication to the people. the right wing party is most likely getting scared by the public turnout to his wake and funeral. i went to one of the viewings/protests last friday, and took some very short video clips of it. the song in the background is Sombrero Azul, a classic revolution song that is sung at most political and cultural events throughout the country. there are people gathered in the plaza civica to see the body of schafik, with people standing in trees and on the tops of trucks for a view. a sunday mass apparently eclipsed this population by many many more, and ex president of nicaragua daniel ortega apparently came to visit, which i unfortunately missed.

during the afternoons, i have been going to some locations of political and historical interest, including the church where archibishop oscar romero was assassinated, most likely by a US-trained terrorist. at his public funeral, the national guard, the US backed national guard, dressed in almost identical outfits to those of hitler's soldiers, used their machine guns to rain bullets down on the people in mourning, just as they had done at student demonstrations and other massacres as well. other massacres included the incineration of babies and dismembering, among other atrocities. we also saw the sight where 6 jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were murdered by the right wing goverment in 1989. this was considered by many to be the straw that broke the camel's back, and i believe us military aid finally ceased at that point, but i believe it recommenced as the left leaning party campaigned on a communist platform including agrarian land reform, a common fear of the small group of wealthy elite that control most of the country's wealth while the poor coffee farmers struggle to survive. i have posted some pics of these places, but haven't labeled them yet. however if you want to get a preliminary look, please go ahead.

for now, i'm off to have dinner with the family. in a week i head to a rural community an hour from the capital, where i'll teach english twice a week and probably help with the election monitoring in march. i'll also be looking for teaching jobs in other parts of latin america for april. i'll try to take more pictures and post something less morbid next time.