El Salvador

This article is about the country in Central America. For the song by the English band Athlete, see El Salvador (song).

Republic of El Salvador República de El Salvador
Flag Coat of arms of El Salvador Coat of arms
Motto: "Dios, Unión, Libertad"  (Spanish) "God, Union, Liberty"
Anthem: Himno Nacional de El Salvador
Capital and largest city	San Salvador, El Salvador
Official languages	Spanish
Government	Republic
• President	Antonio Saca
Independence
• from Spain	September 15 1821
• from the UPCA	1842
• Water (%)	1.5
Population
• July 2006 estimate	6,822,378 (97th)
• 1992 census	5,118,599
GDP (PPP)	2005 estimate
• Total	$34.15 billion (93rd)
• Per capita	$4,700 (108th)
Gini (2002)	52.4 high inequality
HDI (2006)	0.722 high (101th)
Currency	United States dollar (USD)
Time zone	UTC-6
Calling code	5031
ISO 3166 code	SV
Internet TLD	.sv
Telephone companies (market share): Tigo (45%), Claro (25%), Movistar (24%), Digicel (5.5%), Red (0.5%).

El Salvador is a country in Central America, bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Guatemala and Honduras with a population of approximately 6.9 million people. El Salvador is the most densely populated nation on the American mainland and the most industrialized nation in the region.

Name

Its official name is Republic of El Salvador. In Spanish it is República de El Salvador. The country was named after the Spanish word for "The Saviour," in honor of Jesus Christ, and its territory was known prehispanically as Cuscatlán.

History

Main article: History of El Salvador

Colonial period

In June 1524, the Spanish Captain Pedro de Alvarado attacked Cuscatlán (land of beautiful jewels), which was populated by indigenous tribes, the largest being the Pipil. After seventeen days of bloody battles, many natives died. Pedro de Alvarado, defeated and wounded in his left hip, abandoned the fight and ran to Guatemala, telling his brother, Gonzalo de Alvarado, to continue with the conquest of Cuscatlán. Later, his cousin Diego de Alvarado, established the villa of San Salvador in April, 1525. In August of 1526, a Spanish base was founded in San Salvador; from there, the Spanish would combat the surrounding villages of Pipil Indians. Another attack on Cuzcatlán in 1528 ended in the demise of the Pipil and the hanging of their leader Atlacatl. King Carlos I of Spain granted San Salvador the title of city in 1546. During the following years, El Salvador developed under Spanish dominion within the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

Independence

Towards the end of 1810, a combination of external and internal factors allowed Central American elites to attempt to gain independence from the Spanish crown. The internal factors were mainly the interest the elites had in controlling the territories they owned without involvement from Spanish authorities. The external factors were the success of the French and American revolutions in the eighteenth century and the weakening of the military power of the Spanish crown because of its wars against Napoleonic France. The independence movement was consolidated on November 5 1811, when the Salvadorian priest, Jose Matías Delgado, sounded the bells of the Iglesia La Merced in San Salvador, making a call for the insurrection. After many years of internal fights, the Acta de Independencia (Act of Independence) of Central America was signed in Guatemala on September 15 1821.

On September 15, 1821, Mexico gained independence as The First Mexican Empire under the rule of Emperor Agustin de Iturbide, El Salvador and the other Central American provinces declared their independence from Spain and became part of the Mexican Empire. In 1823, the United Provinces of Central America was formed by the five Central American states under General Manuel José Arce. When this federation was dissolved in 1838, El Salvador became an independent republic. El Salvador's early history as an independent state was marked by frequent revolutions.

From 1872 to 1898, El Salvador was a prime mover in attempts to reestablish an isthmian federation. The governments of El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua formed the Greater Republic of Central America via the Pact of Amapala in 1895. Although Guatemala and Costa Rica considered joining the Greater Republic (which was rechristened the United States of Central America when its constitution went into effect in 1898), neither country joined. This union, which had planned to establish its capital city at Amapala on the Golfo de Fonseca, did not survive a seizure of power in El Salvador in 1898.

The enormous profits that coffee yielded as a mono culture export served as an impetus for the process whereby land became concentrated in the hands of an oligarchy of several hundred families. A succession of presidents from the ranks of the Salvadorian oligarchy, nominally both conservative and liberal, throughout the last half of the nineteenth century generally agreed on the promotion of coffee as the predominant cash crop, on the development of infrastructure (railroads and port facilities) primarily in support of the coffee trade, on the elimination of communal landholdings to facilitate further coffee production, on the passage of anti-vagrancy laws to ensure that displaced campesinos and other rural residents provided sufficient labour for the coffee fincas (plantations), and on the suppression of rural discontent.

The coffee industry grew inexorably in El Salvador. As a result the elite provided the bulk of the government's financial support through import duties on goods imported with the foreign currencies that coffee sales earned. This support, coupled with the humbler and more mundane mechanisms of corruption, ensured the coffee growers of overwhelming influence within the government. In 1912, the national guard was created as a rural police force. At the time, El Salvador was plagued with gang wars, and the national guard was very effective in stopping these ways.

Twentieth century

A bloodless coup led by General Tomás Regalado took El Salvador into the twentieth century. Regalado's peaceful transfer of power in 1903 to his handpicked successor, Pedro José Escalón, ushered in a period of comparative stability that extended until the Depression-provoked upheaval of 1931–32.

During WWII twenty-five to thirty thousand Jews were issued certificates of Salvadoran citizenship thanks to the work of Consul General José Arturo Castellanos [1] and his First Secretary, a Romanian Jewish refugee, George Mandel-Mantello [2]. In 2006 the documentary Glass House was first seen in public at the 10th Annual Latino International Film Festival in Hollywood. The film sheds light on a time in history when the nations of the world looked the other way at the plight of the Jews, all except for one small nation very far away from Hungary and Switzerland, and two of its diplomats in Geneva.

In 1930, General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, the country's Minister of Defense, took power in a coup d'état. Soon after, Martínez, now President, suppressed a 1932 revolt consisting of farmers and Indians in the western part of the country. The revolt was conducted by the newly formed Communist Party and its leader Agustín Farabundo Martí. The military conflict left more than 20,000 people dead in retaliatory massacres, which came to be known as "La Matanza". This marked the beginning of a series of de facto military dictatorships that would rule El Salvador until 1979, when General Humberto Romero of the Party of National Conciliation (PCN) would be overthrown in a reformist coup.

Under the authoritarian rule of Lt. Col. Óscar Osorio (1950–56) and Lt. Col. José María Lemus (1956–60), considerable economic progress was made. Lemus was overthrown by a coup, and after a confused period, a junta composed of leaders of the National Conciliation party came to power in June 1961. The junta's candidate, Lt. Col. Julio Adalberto Rivera, was elected president in 1962. He was succeeded in 1967 by Col. Fidel Sánchez Hernández. Relations with Honduras deteriorated in the late 1960s. There was a border clash in 1967, and a four-day so-called Football war broke out in July 1969. The Salvadorian forces that had invaded Honduras were withdrawn, but not until 1992 was an agreement settling the border controversy with Honduras signed.

In 1979, politician José Napoleón Duarte of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC, Partido Demócrata Cristiano in Spanish) joined a Revolutionary Government Junta in a coup against then recently elected President Romero. He became the head of state and also the leader of the Junta (Primera Junta Revolucionaria de Gobierno) in 1980. Duarte passed a land reform and redistribution law that forced all private landowners to restrict their holdings to 200 manzanas (1 manzana ≈ 6,400 m²); anyone holding larger amounts was forced to sell, and the land was then redistributed under various programs.

Having ousted the president, El Salvador rapidly deteriorated into a civil war, which would last for twelve years (1980-92) and claim the lives of approximately 75,000 people.

A Second (1980) and Third Junta (1980-1982) quickly filled the vacuum and drafted a new constitution (1982).[3] The Third Junta appointed Dr. Álvaro Magaña as president and called for National Assembly and Presidential Elections. The PDC gained the majority of seats in El Salvador's National Assembly, and beat out Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) candidate Roberto D'Aubuisson for the presidency on June 1, 1984. This ushered in a new democratic era in the history of the country and with the re-election of Duarte, the first democratic transfer of power in more than fifty years.

During this time, President Duarte was receiving military aid from the United States to fight the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), while the FMLN was receiving aid from groups both in the USA and other countries (Europe, Cuba, Venezuela, Russia). Complicating the situation were the actions of the ARENA party, which was proven to have had ties with death squads that were active in the country at the time. In 1980, the assassination of four U.S. churchwomen by forces connected to the government shocked the world and led President Carter to suspend all economic and military aid, but the latter was restored at the end of that year to the dismay of human rights advocates. Finally, in the midst of increasing ineffectiveness, economic devastation, and a catastrophic civil war, PDC lost the 1988 elections and Nationalist Republican Alliance (Alianza Republicana Nacionalista, ARENA) candidate Lic. Alfredo Félix Cristiani was elected [4]. The war ended with a 1992 cease-fire and peace agreement between the government, the political parties and the FMLN. This agreement was brokered by US president Reagan and finalized by President George H. W. Bush.

One of the victims of the war was Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who, through his message of peace and equality for all Salvadorians, is believed to be one of the greatest apostles of the poor in Latin America. He was assassinated by Rafael Alvaro Saravia while celebrating mass on Monday, March 24 1980. Saravia had left the Salvadorian military in 1979 and began working closely with Roberto D’Aubuisson. D’Aubuisson, in conjunction with elements of the Salvadorian armed forces and far right Salvadorian civilians in El Salvador, Guatemala and the United States, founded the far-right political party ARENA, currently in power in El Salvador. D’Aubuisson organized death squads composed of civilians and military figures that systematically carried out politically-motivated assassinations and other human rights abuses in El Salvador.

According to the 1993 United Nations' Truth Commission report, over 96% of the human rights violations carried out during the war were committed by the Salvadorian military or the paramilitary death squads, while 3.5% were committed by the FMLN. The civilian population in disputed or guerrilla-controlled areas was automatically assumed to be the enemy, as at El Mozote and the Sumpul river. The opposing side behaved likewise, as when mayors were executed, the killings justified as acts of war because the victims had obstructed the delivery of supplies to combatants, or when innocent bystanders became military targets, as in the case of the United States Marines in the Zona Rosa section of San Salvador. During the war, a small group of fifty-five military advisers from the U.S. Military Group (MILGRP) helped to train government forces, which were heavily funded by the U.S. as well. In the meantime, the guerrillas of the FMLN were trained and funded by Cuban advisors and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, as well as supported by Western and several eastern European countries and the USSR itself, creating one of the last scenarios of the Cold War. After the fall of Communism in Europe, the conditions for peace negotiations were finally set. A ceasefire was established in 1992 when the rebels of the FMLN and the government of President Alfredo Cristiani of the ARENA party signed "Peace accords" on January 16, 1992 that assured political and military reforms and punishment for human rights abuses during the civil war; death squad activity was virtually eliminated and several of the military as well as the insurgent participants were granted pardons with the signing of the Peace Accords.

Politics

Main article: Politics of El Salvador

The political framework of El Salvador takes place in a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of El Salvador (Elias Antonio Saca) is both head of state and head of government, and of a multiform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Legislative Assembly. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

Departments and municipalities

Main articles: Departments of El Salvador and Municipalities of El Salvador

See also: List of cities in El Salvador

Departments of El Salvador

El Salvador is divided into 14 departments (departamentos), which, in turn, are subdivided into 267 municipalities (municipios). The departments are:

Ahuachapán Cabañas Chalatenango Cuscatlán La Libertad La Paz La Unión

Morazán San Miguel San Salvador San Vicente Santa Ana Sonsonate Usulután

Geography

Shaded relief map of El Salvador

The scenic Jiboa Valley and San Vicente volcano.

Volcan de San Vicente

Survey marker at the summit of Cerro El Pital.

Main article: Geography of El Salvador

El Salvador is located in Central America. It has a total area of 8,123 square miles (21,040 km²), making it almost the same size as the state of Massachusetts. El Salvador is the smallest country in continental America. Due to its size it is affectionately called the "Tom Thumb of the Americas" ("Pulgarcito de America"). It has 123.6 square miles (320 km²) of water within its borders. Several small rivers flow through El Salvador into the Pacific Ocean, including the Goascorán, Jiboa, Torola, Paz and the Río Grande de San Miguel. Only the largest river, the Lempa River, flowing from Honduras across El Salvador to the ocean, is navigable for commercial traffic. Volcanic craters enclose lakes, the most important of which are Lake Ilopango (70 km² / 27 sq mi) and Lake Coatepeque (26 km² / 10 sq mi). Lake Güija is El Salvador's largest natural lake (44 km² / 17 sq mi). Several artificial lakes were created by the damming of the Lempa, the largest of which is Embalse Cerrón Grande (350 km² / 135 sq mi).

El Salvador shares borders with Guatemala (126 mi / 203 km) and Honduras (212.5 mi / 342 km). It is the only Central American country that does not have a Caribbean coastline. The highest point in the country is Cerro El Pital at 8,957 feet (2,730 meters).

Climate

El Salvador has a tropical climate with pronounced wet and dry seasons. Temperatures vary primarily with elevation and show little seasonal change. The Pacific lowlands are uniformly hot; the central plateau and mountain areas are more moderate.

The rainy season extends from May to October. Almost all the annual rainfall occurs during this time, and yearly totals, particularly on southern-facing mountain slopes, can be as high as 200 centimeters. Protected areas and the central plateau receive lesser, although still significant, amounts. Rainfall during this season generally comes from low pressure over the Pacific and usually falls in heavy afternoon thunderstorms. Although hurricanes occasionally form in the Pacific, they seldom affect El Salvador, with the notable exception of Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

From November through April, the northeast trade winds control weather patterns. During these months, air flowing from the Caribbean has had most of the precipitation wrung out of it while passing over the mountains in Honduras. By the time this air reaches El Salvador, it is dry, hot, and hazy.

Temperatures vary little with season; elevation is the primary determinant. The Pacific lowlands are the hottest and most humid region, with annual averages ranging from 25°C to 29°C. San Salvador is representative of the central plateau, with an annual average temperature of 23°C and absolute high and low readings of 38°C and 7°C, respectively. Mountain areas are the coolest, with annual averages from 12°C to 23°C and minimum temperatures sometimes approaching freezing.

Natural disasters

El Salvador lies along the Pacific ring of fire, and is thus subject to significant tectonic activity, including frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity. Recent examples include the earthquake on January 13, 2001 that measured 7.6 on the Richter scale and caused a landslide that killed more than eight hundred people; and the earthquake only a month later on February 13, 2001, killing 255 people and damaging about 20% of the nation's housing. El Salvador's most recent destructive volcanic eruption took place on October 1, 2005, when the Ilamatepec volcano spewed up a cloud of ash and rocks, which fell on nearby villages and caused two deaths. 

A landslide caused by one of the 2001 El Salvador earthquakes

El Salvador's position on the Pacific Ocean also makes it subject to severe weather conditions, including heavy rainstorms and severe droughts, both of which may be made more extreme by the El Nino and La Nina effects. In the summer of 2001, a severe drought destroyed 80% of the country's crops, causing famine in the countryside. On October 4, 2005, severe rains resulted in dangerous flooding and landslides, which caused at minimum fifty deaths. El Salvador's location in Central America also makes it vulnerable to hurricanes coming off of the Caribbean, however this risk is much less than for other Central American countries. There are also hurricanes that may come off from the Pacific, but these seldom affect El Salvador.

Economy

Main article: Economy of El Salvador

The Salvadoran economy has experienced mixed results from the recent government's commitment to free market initiatives and conservative fiscal management that include the privatization of the banking system, telecommunications, public pensions, electrical distribution, and some electrical generation, reduction of import duties, elimination of price controls, and an improved enforcement of intellectual property rights. The GDP has been growing at a steady and moderate pace in an environment of macroeconomic stability since the signing of peace accords in 1992. A problem that the Salvadorian economy faces is the inequality in the distribution of income. In 1999, the richest fifth of the population received 45% of the country's income, while the poorest fifth received only 5.6%.

As of December 1999, net international reserves equaled US$1.8 billion or roughly five months of imports. Having this hard currency buffer to work with, the Salvadorian Government undertook a monetary integration plan beginning January 1 2001 by which the U.S. dollar became legal tender alongside the Salvadoran colón and all formal accounting was undertaken in U.S. dollars. This way, the government has formally limited its possibility of implementing open market monetary policies to influence short term variables in the economy. Since 2004, the colón stopped circulating and is now never used in the country for any type of transaction. In general, there was general discontent with the shift to the U.S. dollar, primarily due to wage stagnation vis a vis basic commodity pricing in the marketplace. Additionally there are contentions that, according to Gresham's Law, a reversion to the colón would be disastrous to the economy.

The change to the dollar also precipitated a trend toward lower interest rates in El Salvador, helping many to secure much needed credit for house or car purchases; over time, displeasure with the change has largely disappeared, though the issue resurfaces as a political tool when elections are on the horizon.

A challenge in El Salvador has been developing new growth sectors for a more diversified economy. As many other former colonies, for many years El Salvador was considered a mono exporter economy. This means, an economy that depended heavily on one type of export. During colonial times, the Spanish decided that El Salvador would produce and export indigo, but after the invention of synthetic dyes in the nineteenth century, Salvadorian authorities and the newly created modern state turned to coffee as the main export of the economy. Since the cultivation of coffee required the highest lands in the country, many of these lands were expropriated from indigenous reserves and given or sold cheaply to those that could cultivate coffee. The government provided little or no compensation to the indigenous peoples. On occasions this compensation implied merely the right to work for seasons in the newly created coffee farms and to be allowed to grow their own food. Such actions provided the basis of conflicts that would shape the political landscape of El Salvador for the years to come.

For many decades, coffee was one of the only sources of foreign currency in the Salvadorian economy. The civil war in the 1980s and the fall of international coffee prices in the 1990s, pressured the Salvadorian government to diversify the economy. The government has followed policies that intend to develop other exporting industries in the country as textiles and sea products. Tourism is another industry Salvadorian authorities regard as a possibility for the country. But rampant crime rates, lack of infrastructure and inadequate social capital have prevented this resource from being properly exploited and is still underdeveloped.

The government is also developing ports and infrastructure in La Union in the east of the country, in order to use the area as a "dry canal" for transporting goods from the Gulf of Fonseca on the Pacific Ocean to Honduras and the Atlantic Ocean in the north.

Currently there are fifteen free trade zones in El Salvador. The largest beneficiary has been the maquila industry, which provides 88,700 jobs directly, and consists primarily of supplying labor for the cutting and assembling of clothes for export to the United States.

El Salvador signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), negotiated by the five countries of Central America and the Dominican Republic, with the United States in 2004. In order to take advantage of CAFTA, the Salvadorian government is challenged to conduct policies that guarantee better conditions for entrepreneurs and workers to transfer from declining to growing sectors in the economy. El Salvador has already signed free trade agreements with Mexico, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Panama, and increased its exports to those countries. El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua also are negotiating a free trade agreement with Canada, and negotiations started in 2006 for a free trade agreement with Colombia.

Fiscal policy has been the biggest challenge for the Salvadorian government. The 1992 peace accords committed the government to heavy expenditures for transition programs and social services. The Stability Adjustment Programs (PAE, for the initials in Spanish) initiated by President Cristiani's administration committed the government to the privatization of banks, the pension system, electric and telephone companies. The total privatization of the pension system has implied a serious burden for the public finance system, because the newly created private Pension Association Funds did not absorb coverage of retired pensionists covered under the old system. The government lost the revenues from contributors and absorbed completely the costs of coverage of retired pensionists. This has been the main source of fiscal imbalance. ARENA governments have financed this deficit with the emission of bonds, something the leftist party FMLN has opposed. Debates surrounding the emission of bonds have stalled the approval of the national budget for many months on several occasions. The emission of bonds and the approval of government loans need a qualified majority (3/4 of the votes) in the National Legislature. If the deficit is not financed through a loan it is enough with a simple majority to approve the budget (50% of the votes plus 1).

Despite such challenges to keep public finances in balance, El Salvador still has one of the lowest tax burdens in the American continent (around 11% of GDP), and maintains a very good credit rating. Many specialists claim that it is impossible to advance significant development programs with such a little public sector aid (the tax burden in the United States is around 25% of the GDP and in other developed countries of the EU it can reach around 50%, like in Sweden). The government has focused on improving the collection of its current revenues with a focus on indirect taxes. Leftist politicians criticize such a structure since indirect taxes (like the value added tax) affect everyone alike, whereas direct taxes can be weighed according to levels of income and are therefore fairer taxes. A 10% value-added tax (VAT), implemented in September 1992, was raised to 13% in July 1995. The VAT is the biggest source of revenue, accounting for about 52.3% of total tax revenues in 2004.

Inflation has been steady and among the lowest in the region. Since 1997 inflation has averaged 3%, with recent years increasing to nearly 5%. From 2000 to 2006 total exports have grown 19% from $2.94 billion to $3.51 billion. During this same period total imports have risen 54% from $4.95 billion to $7.63 billion. This has resulted in a 102% increase in the trade deficit from $2.01 billion to $4.12 billion.  

Remittances from Salvadorans living and working in the United States, sent to family members in El Salvador, are a major source of foreign income and offset the substantial trade deficit of $4.12 billion. Remittances have increased steadily in the last decade and reached an all-time high of $2.547 billion in 2005 (an increase of 21% over the previous year), and approximately 16.2% of gross domestic product(GDP). Remittances have had positive and negative effects. According to a United Nations Development Program report, without remittances the number of Salvadorans living in extreme poverty would rise from 6% to 37%. While Salvadoran education levels have gone up wage expectations have risen faster than either skills or productivity. For example, some Salvadoran workers are no longer willing to take jobs that pay them less than what they receive monthly from family members abroad. This has led to an influx of Hondurans and Nicaraguans who are willing to work for the prevailing wage. Also, the local propensity for consumption over investment has increased. Money from remittances have also increased prices for certain commodities such as real estate. Many Salvadorans abroad earning much higher foreign wages can afford higher prices for houses in El Salvador than local Salvadorans and thus push up the prices that all Salvadorans must pay.  

As of September 2006, net international reserves stood at $2.02 billion. [5]

Tourism

Between 1996 and 2006, 7.3 million visitors mainly Central Americans, and some Europeans helped generate a record $1.7 billion. Most of the North American and European tourists are seeking out El Salvador's beaches and nightlife. More and more continue to be drawn by El Salvador's turbulent past. [6]

The latest tourist attractions in the former war-torn El Salvador are gun fragments, pictures, combat plans and mountain hideouts. Since 1992, residents in economically depressed areas are trying to profit from these remains.

The mountain town of Perquin was considered the "guerilla capital". Today it is home to the "Museum of the Revolution", featuring cannons, uniforms, pieces of Soviet weaponry and other weapons of war once used by the FMLN's (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) headquarters.

Culture

Spanish is the main language in El Salvador. The Roman Catholic religion plays an important role in the Salvadorian culture. Important foreign personalities in El Salvador were the Jesuit priests and professors Ignacio Ellacuria, Ignacio Martín-Baró and Segundo Montes. Painting, ceramics and textile goods are the main manual artistic expressions. Writers Francisco Gavidia (1863–1955), Salarrué (Salvador Salazar Arrué) (1899-1975), Claudia Lars, Alfredo Espino, Pedro Geoffroy, Manlio Argueta, José Roberto Cea and poet Roque Dalton are among the most important artists to stem from El Salvador. Notable twentieth century personages include the late filmmaker Baltasar Polio, artist Fernando Llort, and caricaturist Toño Salazar. Amongst the more renowned representatives of the graphic arts are the painters Carlos Cañas, Julia Díaz, Camilo Minero, Ricardo Carbonell, Roberto Huezo, and many others

The local Spanish vernacular is Caliche.

Holidays

Date	English name	Local name
March/April	Holy Week/Easter	Semana Santa	Celebrated with Carnival-like events in different cities by the large Catholic population.
May 1	Labor Day	Día del trabajo	International Labour Day
May 10	Mother's Day	Día de la Madre
August 1–7	August Festivals	Fiestas de agosto	Week-long festival in celebration of El Salvador del Mundo, patron saint of El Salvador.
September 15	Independence Day	Día de la Independencia	Celebrates independence from Spain, achieved in 1821.
October 12	Columbus Day	Día de la Raza	Commemoration of Columbus' discovery of the Americas.
December 25	Christmas Day	Navidad	In many communities, December 24 (Christmas Eve) is the major day of celebration, often to the point that it is considered the actual day of Navidad — with December 25 serving as a day of rest.
November 2	Day of the Dead	Día de los Muertos	A day on which most people visit the tombs of deceased loved ones. (November 1 may be commemorated as well.)

Gastronomy

El Salvador most famous dish is pupusas.Pupusas are a thick, hand-made corn tortilla (made using masa de maíz or masa arroz, a maize or rice flour dough used in Latin American cuisine) stuffed with one or more of the following: cheese (queso) (usually a soft Salvadoran cheese called Quesillo), fried pork rind (chicharrón), chicken (pollo), refried beans (frijoles refritos),or/and queso con loroco (loroco is a vine flower bud from Central America). New stuffings are used by adventurous restaurants such as shrimp or ayote. Pupusas are from El Salvador, and were first eaten by the Natives there almost three millennia ago. Pupusas have become one of the most popular dishes in El Salvador and have captivated the taste buds of many world wide. Currently several restaurants that serve pupusas can be found in the United States of America. These have been built in areas with a growing population of immigrants. Also El Salvador has a wide variety of Chinese, Mexican, Italian and many worldknown gastronomies. One the most famous chinese restaurant is Celeste Imperio, which can be found at Ave. Boqueron Nueva San Salvador. A well known mexican restaurant is El Rincon Azteca o Tacos al Pastor.

Music

Main article: Music of El Salvador

Popular Salvadorean music is cumbia (a type of latino music) and so a fusion of that of the Native Pipil and Nahua people, and Spanish music. It contains different genres, such as salsa, chanchona, bachata, and more recently, hip hop, reggae, and reggaeton. Folk music is known for its melodies on the marimba. Musicians include Bobby Rivas and Jhosse Lora, and some of the more recent groups are Mecate, Heavy Clan, Pescozada, Son 3/4, Adhesivo, La Chanchona de Arcadio, Anastasio y los del Monte, Las Nenas de Caña, Alto Mando, and DJ Emsy, Marito Rivera, Alvaro Torres, los Vikings de Usulutan.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of El Salvador

File:DSCN4716.JPG

Salvadorean girls

El Salvador's population numbers around 7 million people. 90% of Salvadorans are mestizo (mixed Amerindian and Spanish origins), 9% are White and live mostly in the Capital and northeastern La Union and Chalatenango. The white population is mostly Spanish, but there are also some of French, German, Swiss, and Italian descent), El Salvador is 1% indigenous, mostly Pipil and Lenca. Very few Amerindians have retained their native customs, traditions, or languages, especially in the wake of the deliberate government-inspired 1932 massacres. El Salvador is the only Central American country that has no visible native African population because of its relative inaccessibility to the Atlantic slave trade. In addition, General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez instituted race laws in 1930 that prohibited blacks from entering the country. Among the few immigrant groups that reached El Salvador, Palestinian Christians stand out. Though few in number, their descendants have attained great economic and political power in the country, as evidenced by President Antonio Saca and the flourishing commercial, industrial, and construction firms owned by them.

Spanish is the language spoken by virtually all inhabitants, although English is spoken by a small number of people in the capital. English is primarily spoken by deported gangsters (see MS-13) of Salvadorian origin removed from major U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, as well as by professionals or workers in the tourist industry. The country's people are majority Roman Catholic, at least nominally, although Protestantism is rapidly growing and by some estimates is now practiced by as much as one-third of the population.

The capital city of San Salvador has about 2.1 million people; an estimated 42% of El Salvador's population live in rural areas. Urbanization expanded at a phenomenal rate in El Salvador since the 1960s, driving millions to the cities, and creating growth problems for the cities around the country.

According to the most recent United Nations survey, life expectancy for men was 68 years and 74 years for women. Education in El Salvador is free through ninth grade. The national literacy rate is 84.1%.

As of 2004, there were approximately 3.2 million Salvadorans living outside El Salvador, some of whom are undocumented immigrants in the United States. Many other Salvadoran-Americans are legal immigrants, many becoming citizens or residents through the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. The USA has traditionally been the destination of choice for Salvadorians looking for greater economic opportunity. Salvadorans also live in nearby Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Other countries with notable Salvadoran communities include Canada, Mexico, the Cayman Islands, Sweden, Italy) and Australia. The majority of the expatriates emigrated during the civil war of the 1980s and due to adverse economic and social conditions.

Bibliography

• Bonner, Raymond. Weakness and Deceit: U.S. Policy and El Salvador. New York: Times Books, 1984.
• Danner, Mark. The Massacre at El Mozote: A Parable of the Cold War. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.
• Vilas, Carlos. Between Earthquakes and Volcanoes: Market, State, and the Revolutions in Central America. New York: Monthly Review Press. 1995.

See also

• Military of El Salvador
• Salvador (film)
• Salvadorean diplomatic missions
• Water supply and sanitation in El Salvador
• Scouting in El Salvador

External links

• Encyclopaedia Britannica, El Salvador - Country Page
• Template:Dmoz
• Grupo de Usuarios GNU/Linux de El Salvador (Linux user group El Salvador)

Government sites

• Casa Presidencial (Website of the President)
• Asamblea Legislativa (Website of the Legislative Assembly)
• Ministerio de Defensa Nacional (Ministry of Defense)
• Fuerza Aerea Salvadoreña (Air Force of El Salvador)
• Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Ministry of the Environment and Natural resources)
• Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
• Ministerio de Economía (Ministry of the Economy)
• Ministerio de Turismo (Ministry of Tourism)
• Corte Suprema de Justicia (Supreme Court of Justice)
• Procuraduría para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (Office of the judge advocate general for the Defense of Human rights)
• Banco Central de Reserva de El Salvador (El Salvador's Central Reserve Bank)

Salvadorian media

• News sites
  • Asociación de Periodistas de El Salvador
  • El Diario de Hoy
  • La Prensa Grafica
• Television sites
  • Canal 12
  • TCS
  • Canal 21
• Business and Info sites
  • Paginas Amarillas y Directorio Negocios(Yellow Pages)
  • Clasificados El Salvador. Compra y Venta(classifieds advertisements)