The Veracruz Breakers

I've realized I haven't written to much about the actual youth that I am working with, besides the intro to CFO that I gave in the middle of February. So I'm going to write a little bit about one of the groups that CFO works with that calls themselves "The Veracruz Breakers." As in the break dancing boys from Veracruz (a neighborhood in Mejicanos).

The guys started working with CFO last year when the Parish began to allow them to use one of the community center spaces to practice breakdancing three times a week. On Thursdays they meet in CFO with Ada, Marcos and I to do workshops around themes like leadership, human rights or self-identity. They practice break on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 2-5 and they are GOOD. That is probably what happens from practicing as often as they do, added to the fact that they are very dedicated to the Hip Hop Movement. Today I went to see them dance as I had never been to the actual community where they live (the Parish itself is further down the hill closer to the Center of Mejicanos). At one point I asked Maicol (prounounced like Michael) where they got their songs. He told me that they get all their stuff off the internet at ciber cafe's. That's also how they learned all their moves, by looking it up on YouTube. What a crazy globalized world we live in where Salvadoran boys are using the internet to teach themselves to breakdance and to learn about hip hop culture. Maybe someday they will put their own video on YouTube and you can all see how good they are. Last year through CFO and a music group they know, they were able to produce a song about their lives in El Salvador. It's also very impressive.

Now I know a lot of people who relate Hip Hop to crime and delinquency, which is too bad since there is a lot of culture and history in the whole movement. Here in El Salvador, breakdancing and hip hop music has actually helped to keep these guys out of violence. You see, Veracruz or more specifically the colonia Montreal, where they live, has a lot of gang problems. There is a lot of violence and there is also a lot of police oppression directed towards young Salvadoran men. Especially anyone with a tattoo, or anyone who dresses a certain way. Most of these guys have had run ins with the police or with gangs. Almost all of them could't afford to go to high school. Almost all of them are unable to find work. A lot of them were raised by single mothers and have family in the United States. Today after I had English class with one of the guys, Saul, he told me about how the Earthquake in 2001 devastated this community, destroying homes and killing people. Many of them were not able to rebuild their homes for a few years as they recieved no governmental assistance.

Despite all of this, the guys are pretty normal teenage guys. Most of them are the age of my little sister (18), give or take a few years. So its very different from working with some of our other groups who are younger and have more girls. Sometimes its harder to get to know them because of this and I feel frustrated that culture, language and gender can be such barriers. But today was a good day. Seeing the neighborhood where they lived helped me understand a little more where they come from. Most of my time with them is spent at CFO where they all congregate on Thursdays and often drop by other times during the week. Right now, four of them are waiting to hear back from a scholarship that we helped them apply for to do a research project on youth in El Salvador. We'll see how it goes, though I think their application was pretty impressive. Maybe I'm biased though.

Anyway, thats a closer work at who I'm working with. Someday maybe I'll try to figure out YouTube and how to put a video of them on it. Until then, I hope my description was enough.

peace and love, -Laura