Cuscatlan

Before El Salvador was called El Salvador, it was called Cuzhcatl (in spanish: Cuscatlan) - which means 'land of precious things'. To me this seems both beautifully truthful and tragic in light of many of the country's current realities.

I've been in El Salvador for a few days now and we have certainly been busy. I have been attempting to do my job well, keep up with the assigned readings for the class on liberation theology and still stay connected to the students, with whom I now live. The house dynamic has been good and I actually love getting to be part of the class. It's pretty amazing that we get to read about this stuff (the war, development of liberation theology, etc...) and then go out and meet people who were there, who were influential, who can speak to us about it first hand.

I'll attempt in some of my posts to tell bits of their stories, but I thought that first off, I'd share some context. This truly is a fascinating place that is undoubtedly connected to the United States and our reality in more ways than most of us realize. When I learn some of this stuff I'm just embarrassed that I didn't know it before...and as I learn it, it just makes me want to know more about here, and so many other places that go shamefully unmentioned in our media and our formal education.

If you've got a few minutes read the facts below and welcome to my second leg of the journey.

- El Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. (approx population: 6.7 million people).

The War:
- El Salvador experienced an internal conflict/civil war for 12 years officially (from '81-'92)
- Approx 76,000 people died in the war.
- Truth commissions after the war reported that approximately 85% of the killings and disappearances were committed by the military and 10% by the guerrillas (the rest unknown).
- During the civil war the military of El Salvador received an average of 1.5 million dollars in aid from the United States per day.

Economy:
- El Salvador has used the American dollar as its currency since 2001.
- The average minimum wage is $183/month and the cost of living for a family of 5 is approx: $740/month.
- An estimated 1,000 Salvadorans immigrate to the United States each day.
- many predict this number will increase dramatically (even double) if the left political party loses the upcoming election in March 2009