Cultural Awareness of El Salvador
When we think of culture, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Many of us begin to envision how certain people or countries carry themselves in their daily routines. Whether it is in the way they cook, dress, celebrate certain holidays, or just other beliefs in general. Picture a country that at one-point war was so bad and constant that is was normal for women to cook for soldiers who are passing by their homes. It isn’t frowned upon to have a corrupted government because that is something they have had to deal with since their independence, and children as young as the age of seven are militants walking around with weapons in their hands, becoming social terrors. At least during the 1980’s
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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. 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
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.
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.
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
In 1979 Romero presented the pope with seven reports of kidnapping, torture and murder. By this time the amount of people being killed was more than 3000 per month and Romero could offer no more to El Salvador than hope and faith.
I am Garnet Gyaase and I am going to talk about the flag of El Salvador, and the meaning behind it. The name of my country is El Salvador. It is located under Guatemala and Honduras, in Central America. The flag of El Salvador was officially adopted May 17, 1912. The blue and white are the original colors used by the Provinces of Central America. The United provinces are now known as, Yucantan, Maya, Campeche, Belize, Izabal, Los Altos, Soconusco, Miskita, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. All of the provinces convened in Guatemala, and on July 1,1823, it declared the independence of the former kingdom under the name of” The United Provinces of Central America.” Above the volcanoes is a red Phrygian capon, and a staff before the golden sun, and the date of September 15th, 1821, independence was declared to be on that day.
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 a woman lay work were raped and killed by El Salvador’s national guard soldiers. Many of the innocent murders were
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
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.
Located on the Pacific Coastline, El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, and the most populated. The United States of America foreign policy on El Salvador is best explained by President Obama’s approach on Latin America where the United States is focused on economic growth and equality, energy and climate control, and regional and citizen security (Foreign Policy, 2012). This is best explained using the international level of analysis and neo-liberalism where the global structure and economic interdependence provides the foundation of America’s foreign policy. To ensure that one can see the transparency in United States methodology I will provide the history of El Salvador, the creation of United States interest in El
Since the inception of human civilization there have been countless cultures and societies which have helped shape the current world today as we know it. The modern human race dates back more than 200,000 years and in that time frame many cultures have risen to great virtue and success only to deteriorate or cease to exist altogether. First before examining one of these cultures we must know what culture truly means. The Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Culture Center defines culture as a “dynamic social system,” containing the beliefs, behaviors, values and norms of a “specific organization, group, society or other collectivity” learned, shared, internalized, and changeable by all members of the society (Watson, 2010). In
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
The Central American counties of the Northern Triangle: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are considered the most dangerous countries in the world that are not at war. The region is very unstable due to weak governments and gangs. The gangs in these countries rule the streets taking innocent lives, sex trafficking and rapimg women and children, while the government does little to stop them. The violence started at different times in these countries. In Honduras during the 1980s the right- winged rebel group, the Contras housed themselves in the country. El Salvador’s violence dates back to 1979 with the Civil war. This war was between the government’s military and the leftiest
El Salvador is a modest country in Central America. It is the smallest nation in the region but the most densely populated (Flemion). This small nation has endured many tribulations throughout its history. There has been an incessant amount of political and economic unreliability due to the stark inequality experienced by the working-class majority (Flemion). This bellicosity has been distinguished through unrelenting revolts, coups, and finally, through the culmination of the Salvadoran Civil War. This rich history filled with great friction and animosity truly displays many core principles of Historical Materialism, which is simply characterized as the theory that economic affairs account for non-economic experiences. The history of El Salvador
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.