Youth in El Salvador

This is an article that another CRISPAZ volunteer, Megan, wrote about youth in San Salvador . Though we don't work at the same site (she works at Fe y Alegria and I work at CFO), we work with some of the same kids. One of the communities that I work in is directly across from the school where Megan works. The description she gives of the neighborhood is exactly what I see when I go into this community every Wednesday night.

Here it is:

Against the Odds: Working with High Risk Youth to Build Peaceful Communities in El Salvador
By Megan Horton, CRISPAZ Volunteer

Esmeralda is a typical 16 year old Salvadoran teenager. She goes to school, has a boyfriend, and loves to listen to reggaeton music. Her living situation is also exceedingly common for Salvadoran youth: Esmeralda and her three siblings live with their aunt and cousins in a small two room concrete and aluminum house in a crowded neighborhood in Zacamil, Mejicanos, an impoverished urban city in the north of San Salvador. Her aunt, Rosa, mends clothes for a living and while she is able to provide for them, supporting a family of eight costs more than sewing brings in.

The community where they live in Zacamil is one of the problematic in San Salvador. Hundreds of houses, just like Esmeralda’s, all grouped together, in a very small area, each with about five to seven people per house. Here narrow alleyways spotted with cockroaches double as a front yards and a garbage disposal for residents. This is not the place for an idyllic childhood. Couple poor living conditions with high population density and problems are bound to emerge. Children are often neglected or used by caretakers as an escape valve; domestic violence is prevalent in these communities.

Esmeralda’s father is an undocumented immigrant in the United States, and her mother left the family behind to make her own living in the north of El Salvador. Many other parents have chosen similar paths, leaving their children with grandmothers, aunts, cousins, or neighbors in search of a better future. Unfortunately, family disintegration is the norm among urban poor in El Salvador. From this break down of the family unit coupled with poverty, lack of opportunities, and domestic violence, a new kind of war has emerged, a gang war.

In El Salvador today, there are two main rival gangs that thrive in poorer areas of the country; the MS-13 and the 18th Street gang. Both began in Los Angeles, increased in number thanks to the marginalization of immigrants and their children, many of whom were refugees from the war. These youths never found the path to a productive life in the US. As young adults many of them were deported back to El Salvador due to their involvement in gangs and crime. Once in El Salvador, a very different country, some youth found familiarity in the gangs, and they proliferated.

From the 1990s through today, gang violence has continued to grow. Today, gangs are just one of the many factors making El Salvador one of the most violent countries in the Americas and in the world. For many young people gangs continue to be attractive. Many youth join due to lack of a family structure (the gang becomes like their family), domestic violence, need for belonging, lack of opportunity, or simply, economic need. Other times they are left no other option.

In Zacamil, the gangs have a huge influence in the daily lives of the communities. The children and youth of these communities, like Esmeralda, are living in the middle of this new war zone. On one side of the street, the MS-13 gang is in control, while across the street, it’s the 18th Street gang that reigns. It is the families who live in these communities who end up suffering the consequences when the two gangs clash. Many of Esmeralda’s childhood friends joined the gangs at a young age, some as young as 7 or 8 years old, and have since been killed.

The Salvadoran government’s response to the gang problem has been repression. They have responded with “iron fist policies”- responding to violence with more violence. There are more and more military patrols. I have seen military tanks rolling down the streets and soldiers outside where I work with high-powered machine guns. The police have begun to arrest young people simply because they think they might be in a gang- “Illicit association”. A youth can be arrested simply for being with “suspicious looking” friends on the street. More and more youth are being associated with gangs, and young, poor Salvadorans are being demonized and dehumanized. This demonization and lack of opportunities has left most young people with two choices- they can either join a gang and become involved in delinquency or leave the country- migrate to the US.

Because of the government’s lack of constructive alternatives to the violence, a few non-governmental organizations are now working in the country to try and give youth like Esmeralda a third choice- become constructive members of society and to try to build more peaceful community life. One such NGO is Fe y Alegría (literally, Faith and Happiness), where I have been doing my accompaniment work as a CRISPAZ volunteer here in El Salvador. Fe y Alegría is a popular education and social promotion organization that works throughout the Americas.

Fe y Alegria’s center in Zacamil is a unique one, completely dedicated to providing peaceful and beneficial alternatives for the children and youth in the communities. The Fe y Alegría [Educational Center for All] in Zacamil effectively serves as a before and after-school program. Here, we give the children and youth help with their homework and offer artistic workshops such as dance, painting, and carpentry. But most importantly, we let the kids just be kids; they can run around, jump rope, play tag, and of course, there are always soccer games. Instead of being cooped up in their houses or out on the streets getting into trouble, they have a place to be, a place to learn, and a place to receive positive reinforcement that people do care about them and want them to succeed.

In addition to the Fe y Alegria Center, a number of staff also dedicate time to issues in the streets. I have recently joined this group. We focus on building relationships with the community. We go to the homes of the more troubled kids to listen and talk to their mothers, or, in majority of cases, their guardians. We work toward building trust and understanding in hopes that some healing can take place. More than anything, it is giving an ear to these families and letting them know that people care about their problems.

Working with Fe y Alegría in Zacamil has opened my eyes to the troubles of youth in El Salvador. It has given me the opportunity to get to know young people such as Esmeralda, who have gotten a poor lot in life, but are now trying and improve their situation. Fe y Alegría is respected within the communities and seems to have a positive effect on the students. One youth, Eduhuey, has described it as “my second home. But I prefer to be at Fe y Alegría than my actual home.” While the situation of violence and delinquency begs for better policies all around, a better way to deal with crime, youth development, economic policies that allow Salvadorans to make an honest living in their own country and parent their children, Fe y Alegría is taking small steps to make changes in the community. It is helping these youth to break the cycle of violence that has gripped their country . Having youth who refuse to fall into a life of violence sets an example for the rest, and hopefully fewer young people will see gang life and violence as better than their own.

La Palma

La Palma, Chalatenango, El Salvador

About five weeks ago, I went up to the town of La Palma in the northern part of El Salvador to do an interview with the artisans in the Semilla de Dios Cooperative. If you have ever bought any wood carvings from 10,000 Villages that comes from El Salvador then it most likely was made at Semilla de Dios. The Cooperative was started in the late seventies by famous Salvadoran artisan Fernando Llort. Llort is credited for creating the style of art that has made La Palma famous. It is characterized by brightly colored paintings of nature, people and homes to represent Salvadoran campesino culture. He began to train people from La Palma in this style of painting. Now, over half the population of La Palma are artisans and travellers often pass through the town to buy the art. A few years ago, the European Union helped finance the painting of walls, houses and phone poles in the La Palma style to promote tourism. The people who don´t create art, run businesses fueled by tourism.

Though there are a number of artisan workshops in La Palma, Semilla de Dios is the most famous one and it has been run for years successfully as a cooperative by all the people who work there. I took a number of pictures of the people at work in the Cooperative. It especially interests me because I have seen these wooden crosses and other painted woodwork sold in Cincinnati, St. Louis and other parts of the Unites States. It was pretty cool to see where all this art was coming from.

Here is the link to see the pictures that I took in La Palma and at la Semilla de Dios:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2098096&l=dfd39&id=33307557

An article about the environment in El Salvador

This is an article from La Prensa Latina about Deforestation in Central America.

Forests Disappearing in Central America

San Salvador, May 13 (Prensa Latina) The absence of combined Central American policies to protect forests is alarming some governments there.

The vice presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras met in the Montecristo Park, a forest reserve shared by the three countries to boost a joint conservation plan.

In Honduras, for example, in spite of government measures implemented by President Manuel Zelaya, such as the presence of troops in the forests for protection, forest fires and wood trafficking continue.

Such a situation endangers flora and fauna in affected areas, particularly in the north, but also reduces drinking water reserves that supply dozens of communities.

In addition, the soils have been degraded, provoking a reduction of food crops. To date there have been 580 forest fires that have consumed 18,000 hectares of Honduran forests, according to the country's State Forests Administration.

Guatemala has suffered 2,500 forest files that destroyed about 100,000 hectares of forests. Estimates show that 95 percent of those fires were caused by arson.

Illegal felling of trees is another factor that jeopardizes forest diversity, according to institutions such as the Olanch Environment Movement.

El Salvador is considered the nation with most deforestation problems in the Latin American continent. Official studies indicate a 90 percent loss of vegetation and barely two percent of the original forest vegetation.

Open air mining, expansion of agriculture, and use of forest mass for fire and indiscriminate felling are among the lists that is leading this country to desertification.

Now there is a new problem with the destination of huge crop areas to produce biofuels.

Guatemala isn't far behind. Every year it loses 73,148 hectares of forests for different reasons but particularly through human activity.

According to statistics revealed by the environmental profile of that country, 11 percent of natural resources have been lost in the past 10 years, nationwide.

The United Nations Environment Program has repeatedly warned that the region is facing disaster through the increased rhythm of deforestation. It also warned of the need to interrelate conservation, economy and trade to improve the quality of life of their people and the sustainability of natural resources.

The S.O.S. is beginning to be heard. The Monday meeting marks the beginning of joint action of the governments in favor of actions for conservation at least in the region shared by the three that has a population of 750,000 inhabitants in 45 municipalities.

Roque Dalton

Besides being Mothers Day on May 10th, it was also the 33rd anniversay of the death of Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton. I went to a concert in the Centro to commemorate the day and listened to music ranging from Hip Hop to Reggae to Heavy Metal. Not surprisingly, my favorite by far was the Reggae Groups. While sitting there in the park, a street kid came up to us and asked for money to buy food. I bought him a sandwich instead and he sat with us and ate it. A bee started to attack him and he freaked out and started thrashing and ducking from it. A number of people close by started laughing and pointing it made me sad. A few weeks ago I was at a home for street kids who are recovering from drug addictions as most kids who live on the street are addicted to sniffing glue. The kids at this house seemed like normal little boys! I think the kid who ate his sandwich with us had some addictions and he was really dirty and didn´t wear shoes. Its amazing how easy it is to look at a kid differently who is dirty and begging than a kid who is clean and playing soccer with you. When he got up and left he shook our hands and said "Gracias." Ironically, one of the later reggae groups sang a song they had written about street kids and it talked about how easy it is to ignore them and refuse to give them money because you don´t know if it will go to buy drugs.

Relating this back to Roque Dalton...all the groups had pretty cool social messages like this one and it was inspiring to think about how art is used in so many different ways to express beliefs and inspire societies. I will close with my favorite poem by Dalton called "Como tu" or "Like You"

Como Tú (1975)
Por Roque Dalton

Yo como tú
amo el amor,
la vida,
el dulce encanto de las cosas
el paisaje celeste de los días de enero.

También mi sangre bulle
y río por los ojos
que han conocido el brote de las lágrimas.
Creo que el mundo es bello,
que la poesía es como el pan,
de todos.

Y que mis venas no terminan en mí,
sino en la sangre unánime
de los que luchan por la vida,
el amor,
las cosas,
el paisaje y el pan,
la poesía de todos.


Like You
By Roque Dalton
(Translated by Jack Hirschman)

Like you I
love love, life, the sweet smell
of things, the sky-
blue landscape of January days.

And my blood boils up
and I laugh through eyes
that have known the buds of tears.
I believe the world is beautiful
and that poetry, like bread, is for everyone.

And that my veins don’t end in me
but in the unanimous blood
of those who struggle for life,
love,
little things,
landscape and bread,
the poetry of everyone.

Life on the Salvadoran Bus

I take bus to get most places in El Salvador. Sometimes I am lucky to get a ride from someone with a car or in the CRISPAZ or CFO truck. But mostly, I bus it, or I walk. I feel like you are faced with a lot of reality of the bus in El Salvador.

To give some background, there are two main types of busses. Big busses and little busses (microbusses). The big ones are mostly used school busses like I remember from grade school. The micros can be anything from smaller versions of the big bus or big vans. The micros are crazier and go faster. There is usually a driver and a person who jumps off at everystop and yells "CENTRO, CENTRO, SUBA SUBA, UNA CORDA, UNA CORDA" (Downtown, Downtown, get on, get on, a quarter, a quarter). The drivers tend to race each other and chase down customers, especially if they are the same number. Most are decorated with stickers or paint about God and Jesus or with women´s names. There are usually safety warnings and rules written in English. Sometimes there are bullet holes in the windows and they are usually dirty. Music on the busses can range from Ranchero to Reggaeton to American 80´s music. Sometimes they are so crowded that everyone is standing and some people are almost hanging out the door. Sometimes they are almost empty.

Bus passengers can be anyone. Men and women in business suits, mothers with small children, elderly people, students, mothers, fathers, children. Pretty much anyone who can´t afford to have a car, which is most people. Usually strangers don´t talk to each other. But it is not uncommon for a stranger to offer to hold your bag if there is no seating and you are standing and they are sitting next to you. Nor is it strange for strangers to give a hand to people who trip or drop something. Passengers can be anyone who pays the 25 cents.

Then there are the vendors. The people who make a living by selling things on the bus. They climb on the bus and the drivers never charge them. There are the common men, women and children yelling "CHICLE, CHICLE, CARAMELOS, CAREMELOS, AGUA, AGUA, PUPUUUUUSAS, PUPUUUUUSAS, MANGOS, MANGOS, CAPUCHINO, CAPUCHINOS" (Gum, Gum, Candy, Candy, Water, Water, Pupusas, Pupusas, Mango, Mango, Ice cream cone, ice cream cone). Then there are the newspaper vendors who stand up front and read sections of the paper in a loud voice to get people interested. Or the the people who pass out Mickey Mouse sticker, ballpoint pens and religious postcards and then stand in front of you and give you a big sales pitch before recollecting what they past out in hopes that some people will want to keep these treasures now that they have held them in their hands. Or the people who stand up in front and try to sell you a natural medicine that cures everything from obesity to cancer. These people can be anyone from small children, young women, old women, old men, young men, anyone, anyone. And people always buy from them. Even the guys selling the cancer medicine. Who knows if its to support the 8 year old kid trying to sell gum or if they really wanted that special pen. Both I think. I know I have bought from the vendors for both reasons.

They other category of people I will call the performers. This category includes my favorite people to see on the bus and some of my least favorite people. The least favorite is the people who stand up front and start to scream loudly about what will happen to all of us if we don´t accept God. Sometimes this includes a personal account. Sometimes the person is also selling cards with God phrases. They will stand up, yell for twenty minutes about sin, then sit down and wait quietly for the bus stop. Most people don´t even really seem to notice them. My favorite category is the musicians. Like the guys who play the guitar and the Andean music. I ALWAYS give them money because I enjoy it so much that I feel like I would be stealing if I didn´t. The other day I heard by far the best street performers I have seen here, two young guys playing guitar and singing Led Zepellin.

The last category is the beggars. Like the vendors and the performers, they are allowed on the bus without paying. Usually it is obvious they are homeless or living in very poor conditions. Sometimes they are disabled, or missing limbs. Sometimes they are children or parents with children. Sometimes they give a testimony about what has happened to them. The children don´t usually give a talk. A lot of them are addicted to sniffing glue, a habit common among the homeless here as it dulls pain and hunger. The really moving thing is how many people give money. I guess in a country where so many people struggle to get buy, its harder to place blame on the beggars and the homeless, its easier to see oneself in their shoes.

Salvadoran busses can be dangerous. I know so many people who have been robbed or pickpocketed on busses. Sometimes silently, sometimes violently. I have heard horror stories about acts of violence happening on busses that I sometimes take. I try to avoid taking the bus at night with this in mind. Or at least taking the bus alone at night.

Why am I writing all of this? Because I feel like I am constantly confronted with the Salvadoran reality on busses. Whether its the drivers, the passengers, the vendors, the performers or the beggars. Sometimes I imagine where these people will go when they get off the bus. Will the candy vendors make enough money to buy dinner for their family? Especially with the rising price of basic foods like beans or flour? How does the man preaching God feed himself? Where will that child sleep tonight? Sometimes I say a quiet prayer as these people step off the bus I´m on and onto a new one, a prayer that what they earn will be enough. Or I wonder about the bus driver. Have the gangs threatened him? What has he seen? Where does he live? I wonder, I wonder.

I read in the paper on Sunday that the bus fare was going up from 25 cents a ride to 30 cents to to a hike in gasoline prices. I can only imagine what that will bring...

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

Romero quotes

Oscar Romero (1917-1980)


We must not seek the child Jesus in the pretty figures of ourChristmas ribs. We must seek him among the undernourishedchildren who have gone to bed tonight with nothing to eat, amongthe poor newsboys who will sleep covered with newspapers indoorways. December 24, 1979



When we say "for the poor," we do not take sides with one socialclass, please note. What we do, according to Puebla, is inviteall social classes, rich and poor without distinction, saying toeveryone: Let us take seriously the cause of the poor as thoughit were our own -- indeed, as what it really is, the cause ofJesus Christ, who on the final judgment day will call tosalvation those who treated the poor with faith in him. "Whateveryou did to one of these poor ones -- the neglected, blind, lame,deaf, mute -- you did to me." September 9, 1979



Everyone who struggles for justice, everyone who makes justclaims in unjust surroundings, is working for God's reign, eventhough not a Christian. The church does not comprise all of God'sreign, God's reign goes beyond the church's boundaries. Thechurch values everything that is in tune with its struggle to setup God's reign. A church that tries only to keep itself pure anduncontaminated would not be a church of God's service to people.The authentic church is one that does not mind conversing withprostitutes and publicans and sinners, as Christ did -- and withMarxists and those of various political movements -- in order tobring them salvation's true message. December 2, 1978



What good are beautiful highways and airports, beautifulbuildings full of spacious apartments, if they are only puttogether with the blood of the poor, who are not going to enjoythem? July 15, 1979



The church in Latin America has much to say about humanity. Itlooks at the sad picture portrayed by the Puebla conference:faces of landless peasants, mistreated and killed by the forcesof power, faces of laborers arbitrarily dismissed and without aliving wage for their families, faces of the elderly, faces ofoutcasts, faces of slum dwellers, faces of poor children who frominfancy begin to feel the cruel sting of social injustice. Forthem, it seems, there is no future -- no school, no high school,no university. By what right have we cataloged persons asfirst-class persons or second-class persons? In the theology ofhuman nature there is only one class: children of God. March 2,1980



Many would like the poor to keep on saying that it is God's willfor them to live that way. But it is not God's will for some tohave everything and others to have nothing. That cannot be ofGod. God's will is that all his children be happy. September 10,1978



The great need today is for Christians who are active andcritical, who don't accept situations without analyzing theminwardly and deeply. We no longer want masses of people likethose who have been trifled with for so long. We want personslike fruitful fig trees, who can say yes to justice and no toinjustice and can make use of the precious gift of life,regardless of the circumstances. March 9, 1980



Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not thesilence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violentrepression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of allto the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It isright and it is duty. In it each one has a place in thisbeautiful family, which the Epiphany brightens for us with God'slight. January 7, 1978



God in Christ dwells near at hand to us. Christ has given us aguideline: "I was hungry and you gave me to eat." Where someoneis hungry, there is Christ near at hand. "I was thirsty and yougave me to drink." When someone comes to your house to ask forwater, it is Christ, if you look with faith.In the sick person longing for a visit Christ tells you, "I wassick and you came to visit me." Or in prison.How many today are ashamed to testify for the innocent! Whatterror has been sown among our people that friends betray friendswhom they see in trouble! If we could see that Christ is theneedy one, the torture victim, the prisoner, the murder victim,and in each human figure so shamefully thrown by our roadsidescould see Christ himself cast aside, we would pick him up like amedal of gold to be kissed lovingly. We would never be ashamedof him.How far people are today -- especially those who torture andkill and value their investments more than human beings -- fromrealizing that all the earth's millions are good for nothing, areworthless, compared to a human being. The person is Christ, andin the person viewed and treated with faith we look on Christ theLord. March 16, 1980



Quotes taken from http://www.justpeace.org/romero.htm