Immigration

         This will probably be my last post since I am returning home in two days!  Although I'm sad to leave all the friends I have made here I am excited to start PA school in June!

         Going a little off of my last post about immigration I wanted to end with a post about immigration truths and myths. 

         The other week we had a conference about immigration.  A Guatemalan woman spoke to us about her experience traveling to the US in the hopes of finding a better job to help support her family.  She detailed her journey through the harsh landscapes and conditions of the terrain.  She also explained how brutal some of the coyotes could be, by demanding certain favors in order to get them across the border.  She said she went days without food or water and sometimes would have to resort to eating flowers for some sort of energy.  Her story and also a book I have been reading called “They Take Our Jobs! And 20 Other Myths About Immigration,” got me thinking about all the misconceptions there are in the United States about why people immigrate and the problems it creates.  I will list a few here:

Myth #1:  Immigrants Take American Jobs

            “The first fallacy lies in the very concept of “American” jobs.  Today’s economy is so globally integrated that the idea of jobs having a national identity is practically useless.  In many industries, employers seek to reduce costs by employing the poorest, most vulnerable people.  They do this by moving to parts of the world where poverty and inequality create a vulnerable labor force, and by supporting policies that create poverty and inequality at home –including immigration policies that keep immigrants coming and keep them vulnerable. The second fallacy is the notion that immigration and immigrants reduce the number of jobs available to people already in the US.  Clearly the relationships between population size and the number of jobs available is not quite as simple as it might seem.  The number of jobs in not finite, it is elastic and affected by many factors.  Population growth creates jobs at the same time that it provides more people to fill jobs, and population decline decreases the number of jobs at the same time provides fewer people to work at them.  Population growth creates jobs because people consume as well as produce: they buy things, they go to movies, they send their children to school, they build houses, they fill their cars with gas, they go to the dentist, they buy food at the store and restaurants.  When the population declines, stores, schools and hospitals close, and jobs are lost.  This pattern has been seen over and over again in the US.”

Myth #2:  Immigrants Don’t Pay Taxes

            “Immigrants, no matter what their status, pay the same taxes that citizens do – sales tax, real estate taxes(if they rent or own a home), gasoline taxes.  Some immigrants work in the informal economy and are paid under the table in cash, so they don’t have federal and state income taxes, or social security taxes, deducted from their paychecks.  However so do some citizens.  Every time a kid next door baby-sits, or shovels snow, he or she is working in the informal economy. But workers in the informal economy don’t fare so well.  They don’t have access to any of the worker protections that come with formal employment, like minimum wage or health and safety regulations.  Workers in the informal economy can’t get unemployment insurance of workers compensation and generally get no benefits from their employer(like health insurance or sick leave or vacation time).  Many immigrants however do work in the formal economy, in which case they have all of the same tax deductions from their paychecks as citizens do.  Undocumented immigrants who work in the formal economy generally do so by presenting false social security numbers.  The Social Security Administration estimates that about three-fourth of undocumented workers do this.  Public commentary about this practice is quite angry, although the only ones who lose anything when using false social security numbers are the workers themselves.  Taxes are deducted from their paychecks – but if they are undocumented, they still have no access to the benefits they are paying for.”

Myth #3:  Immigrants Send Most of What They Earn Out of the Country in the Form of Remittances

            “ Remittances are a very important part of the global economy.  They often account for a larger portion of poor countries’ income than foreign aid does.  (Remittances refers to the money that immigrants send home to family members in the home community).  Some portions of the remittances go directly to family members and is sent on food, health care, clothing, home improvement, and education.  This kind of spending can have both local and global effects, since many of the products and materials used in these areas are imported.  When the money is spent locally, it can also help to improve the local economy.  Remittances, then, are one element in an extremely integrated global economy.  If we look only at the flow of remittances, it looks like a lot of money is leaving wealthy countries and going to poorer countries.  But if we look at the global economy as a system, remittances are just one small piece of a very complex, multidirectional flow.”      

If you are interested in reading about more myths, you should buy the book “They Take Our Jobs! And 20 Other Myths About Immigration,” by Aviva Chomsky.

Immigration is a very complex issue but if it weren't for the United States own doing there wouldn't be as much as there is today.  The United States needs to create a more fair playing ground for every country and stop taking and depleting resources from poorer countries and exploiting their land and people.  

Trip to El Salvador!

Wednesday, May 4^th

            We had to catch a 4:30am bus from Xela to the City and then a 10:30am bus from Guatemala City to San Salvador, El Salvador.  Both of the buses we took looked like they were about to fall apart from front to end.  The bus ride to El Salvador was long and uncomfortable because there was no air conditioning and the weather was hot and very humid.  Luckily I was able to sleep most of the way, but woke up sticky and glistening from the humidity J.  We arrived to the bus station Puerto Bus around 4pm.  Two private microbuses were waiting to take us and our bags to the next location.  We first wend to an organization called CIS, which stands for Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad (Center for Exchange and Solidarity).  CIS was founded in 1993 after the signing of the Peace Accords in El Salvador.  It was developed to promote people to people relations after the war. It also promotes human values and cultural exchange with individuals, delegations, representatives of private organizations, and government officials in order to strengthen solidarity and understanding of Salvadoran history and culture.  It helps strengthen community and integrated development programs, encourage the development and commercialization of Salvadoran crafts made by cooperatives, especially by youth, women, and ex-combatants and it deepens awareness and promotes the defense of human rights in El Salvador.  At CIS, we met a man named Oscar Garcia who gave us a basic overview of El Salvador and what we would be doing over the next 10 days.  We then met a woman named Christy who would be our tour guide for the entire trip.  We checked into the International Guest House which was our hostel for the first couple of nights.  

CIS organization logo

Christy - our tour guide for the entire trip

Thursday, May 5^th

            Today in the morning we visited the home and the chapel of Archbishop Oscar Romero.  Romero was a man who supported the poor during the civil war in El Salvador.  He fought for justice and encouraged peaceful reform but to the wealthy class he was seen as a friend of the revolution.  Romero risked his own life to defend the poor and the oppressed.  He is now a martyr and his image is very prevalent throughout El Salvador as a reminder to fight for what is right and stand up for the poor and oppressed.  On March 24, 1980 while celebrating Mass at a small chapel located in a hospital called "La Divina Providencia", one day after a sermon where he had called on Salvadoran soldiers, as Christians to obey God's higher order and to stop carrying out the government's repression and violations of basic human rights. Christy explained how he tried to get the US to stop sending money to El Salvador to support the war and shortly after he was killed and to this days the killers have not been found.  Christy then explained that Reagan had strongly supported the war in El Salvador and was giving $1.5 million to aid the war.  After visiting the chapel and his house we went to the San Salvador Cathedral and visited the tomb of Romero.  It was a beautiful place.  

Archbishop - Oscar Romero

Chapel where Romero was murdered

Romero's house

Outside the Chapel

San Salvador Cathedral 

Romero's Tomb

            We then went to Hospital Rosales and spoke with Doctor Virginia Rodriguez.  She gave us a tour of the open air hospital.  It was built in 1891 and caters to both men and women of ages 12 and up.  It is the main hospital of the whole country and treats a large group of patients.  The hospital is split into two sides, one for the men and the other for the women.  While we were touring, practically every bed in each room was filled.  It was very crowded and reminded me of a war film where one room has 20 beds, 2 rows of 10 and they are all very close to eachother.  She said the most crowded was the emergency and surgery departments.  She said there are only 8 beds but always a line to be the next person for surgery.  It was very interesting to see how healthcare works in a different country.  Patients are not charged anything to receive services and it only costs $5 a month for a person to attend Medical school.

Courtyard of Hospital Rosales

Dra. Virginia Rodriguez giving us a tour

            We then walked across the street to Parque Cuscatlan.  Which is one of the largest parks in San Salvador.  On the north side of the park there is a memorial wall “Monumento a la Memoria y la Verdad” –Monument to the Memory and Truth.  This granite wall has some of the names of about 25,000 people who died or went missing during the civil conflict of the 1980’s.  They estimate that in total 75,000 people died. There is also a mural next to the wall that represents the struggle of El Salvador and its people throughout time but how there is hope for a better future.

Memorial Wall

Mural of the history of El Salvador

            For dinner we ate out at a Pupuseria.  Pupusas are a famous El Salvadoran food which is basically a thick tortilla stuffed with different things like cheese, beans, meat and vegetables.  They are absolutely delicious!!! 

Delicious Pupusa!

Friday, May 6^th

              This morning we met with Zenayda Canas who gave us a presentation on the mining issues that El Salvador is facing.  She explained a mining project called El Dorado which is being done by a Canadian mining company called Pacific Rim Mining Corporation.  They are mining gold and silver in El Salvador but are destroying the land, contaminating rivers and they use cyanide and arsenic to help separate metal from the rock which is destroying the community and putting people in harms way. However, the company states that the mine would be an environmentally responsible operation that would provide hundreds of jobs and economic development to one of the poorest regions of the country.  This statement is far from the real truth.  In June 2009 environmental campaigner Marcelo Rivera Moreno was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in Cabanas. In December 2009 two more activists (Ramiro Rivera Gomez on December 20 and Dora Alicia Recinos Sorto on December 26) that oppose Pacific Rim's activities in their home region were killed. Dora Sorto was eight months pregnant when she was shot dead, and her two-year-old son was also wounded in the attack.

                        After lunch we went to the National Assembly and met with Mario Valiente who is a representative of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) which is the conservative political party in EL Salvador.  ARENA had controlled the presidency continuously since 1989 before losing the 2009 presidential election to the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) which is the liberal political party.  ARENA was founded shortly following the assassination of Oscar Romero and is considered responsible for Romero’s killing.  Over two hours, we got to ask Mario Valiente questions about his political party and boy did he have some bullshit answers.  Everything was in Spanish and was very interesting to hear his false side.  I asked him what were the advantages and disadvantages of CAFTA which I already knew in the back of my mind but wanted to see what lies he would say.   CAFTA is a free trade agreement between the US, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The goal of the agreement is the creation of a free trade area, similar to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which currently encompasses the US, Canada, and Mexico. DR-CAFTA is also seen as a stepping stone towards the FTAA, another (more ambitious) free trade agreement that would encompass all the South American and Caribbean nations as well as those of North and Central America except Cuba.  In reality though this agreement has basically given more power to the US and screwed the poor people in the Central American countries.  He flat out said there were no disadvantages to CAFTA and that it has helped El Salvador tremendously.  He also kept saying that the left party represented socialism or communism and the right represented capitalism.  Another person asked a question about the effects of mining on the country and environment.  His answer was “If you don’t use what you have and your resources it’s a sin!”  I could not believe his answer.  He also said that as soon as you are born we all contaminate the earth with carbon dioxide and there is really no difference in us and mining.  He continued to say that nothing is free on this earth and everything has a price to justify the mining actions. We all kind of just looked at eachother in amazement.  He would also keep saying how bad the other party was for El Salvador.  He also said that Carter was the worst American president and Reagan was the greatest and if it weren’t for Reagan, El Salvador would be in an even worse state.  This statement makes no sense at all because Reagan sent 1.5 million dollars, everyday to El Salvador to help fund the war.  It was a very interesting experience needless to say.

Mario Valient - ARENA party

Inside the very formal room

Smiling because what he said was such a joke

            We then got to talk to Karina Sosa of the FMLN party.  The feel was very different.  Even the rooms had drastic differences.  The FMLN was very simple and basic with simple chairs and a table.  The ARENA room was very fancy, with very formal decorations and furniture.  There was a stark difference between the two candidates as well.  Mario had a very strong, manipulating voice and Karina was very soft spoken and not intimidating.  Karina basically gave an overview of FMLN.  The party one its first election in 2009.  FMLN is named after the rebel leader Farabundo Martí, who led workers and peasants in an uprising to transform Salvadoran society after the devastation caused by the eruption of the volcano Izalco in 1932. In retaliation, the military regime led by General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, who had seized power in a 1931 coup, launched an effective but brutal counterinsurgency campaign. Known as "La Matanza" ("The Massacre"), this campaign saw the killing of some 30,000 people under the guise of being supporters of the insurgency. A good number of those killed were peasants and members of the various indigenous groups that inhabited El Salvador. Thousands of innocent civilians were killed. After many struggles, hardships and killings, the FMLN candidate, Mauricio Funes, finally won the presidential election in 2009. 

Karina Sosa - FMLN party

Inside the much simpler room

National Assembly Building

Group shot outside the National Assembly

Saturday, May 7^th

            Today we visited a community on Espiritu Santo Island.  On the island we visited a women’s co-op and met with scholarship students that receive scholarships to go to school.  We all introduced ourselves and then the women told us about their co-op and how far it has come in the last couple years.  They also talked about a filter system that they put in place to help filter the water and it has had positive effects on the health of the community.   We then loaded up this big tractor trailer with people, food and water and we drove to a nearby beach.  It was a beautiful ride and we got to see the coconut tree plantation.  There were hundreds of coconut trees and it was quite a site to see.  It was an interesting ride because every so often I would hear other people yelling Rama! Rama! Which means branch.  I would quickly duck to avoid getting hit by a tree branch.  When we got to the beach we unloaded the food and quickly jumped in the water because it was so hot outside.  The water was just as hot and I felt like I was taking a bath but it was still nice to cool off a little.  We played in the water and played water tag with the kids.  We also played monkey in the middle and tried to build towers from standing on eachothers shoulders.  We then ate lunch with the community, gave them small gifts and left to head back to San Salvador for the night.  

Heading to the island on a lancha

Walking to the women's co-op

Riding in the tractor trailer - trying not to get hit by branches

Coconut Trees!

La Playa! (Beach)

 

Sunday, May 8^th

            Today we traveled to a community called La Loma that lies on a long ridge stretching south from the town center of the municipality of Comasagua.  We had to take an hour bus ride, then an hour ride in the back of a pickup truck and then about a 30min walk to the community because no roads access it because it is in the mountains.  When we got there, La Loma and another community were playing a soccer game against eachother.  We all sat under a big mango tree while the game finished up and the rest of the community started to filter into the main gathering area.  We then did introductions and met the community president, Adrian Martinez who was very glad to have us in his community.  The president has done many wonderful things for this community.  He has built two classrooms for the kids to learn in, latrines that are called dry latrines which separate the pee from the poop to create composting material for fertilizer and employed solar energy by giving each house a solar panel.  They also discussed a way to develop a water source for the community because as of now they have to make a 3 hour roundtrip trek down the steep mountain slope to get water everyday.  After the introductions we played a softball game against the women’s team.  Although none of us really knew how to play we surprisingly did pretty well and had so much fun!  A neighboring community was also there watching the game and were cheering our team on to win.  It was a great time and we all laughed pretty hard throughout the game and made us closer to the community.  

The two community schools

Kids playing outside the school

The president of the community giving us an introduction

            After the game and before the sunset our group split up in pairs for the night to stay in the families homes.  Bailey and I actually got to stay with the president, his wife and 14 kids!  Yes 14 kids!  Ranging from about 1 year to 20 years old.  The house was made from mud and sticks and the floor was dirt.  When we first got to the house the kids were pretty shy but they took are bags and set them down so we could sit and gather around there small black and white tv.  At first I was a little nervous about staying there because there were bugs everywhere, and clothes and random things scattered throughout the house.  I also looked down on the floor one time and there was a chicken with about 20 chicks just sitting in the middle of the house.  I couldn’t help but smirk a little because I thought “Well hey, I guess the more the merrier right?”  The mom made a delicious meal of carbs including potatoes, tortillas and beans.  One of the sons then showed us where we would be sleeping for the night and it actually turned out to be a decent room made from tin and had bunk beds.  I slept okay throughout the night despite random bugs crawling over me and the nocturnal roosters that started crowing at 2 in the morning.  In the morning we had breakfast with the family, ate mangoes from the large mango tree in the front of the house and played hide and seek with the little kids.  

Bailey and I's room for the night!

This turkey was mean!

4 of the 14 host siblings

Front yard of president's house

Monday, May 9^th

            After breakfast with the families we divided up into groups to teach the children English for a couple of hours.  It was very difficult to teach English because many of them didn’t even have a good foundation of Spanish and so it was hard to write out the English words and get them to memorize them.  Overall all though I think they appreciated just spending time with them and they also like that we could speak Spanish to them and not just teach English.  We then ate lunch and celebrated mothers day by giving them two piñatas.  We let the oldest women of the community swing first and it was awesome to see.  She whacked the piñata so hard and all the little kids ran to grab the fallen candy.  The president also surprised us with a show of dancers from the community.  They wore very pretty dresses and danced a very unique style.  After we said our thank you and goodbyes we started to pack up to start walking down the mountain to catch another pickup truck to take to the beach El Zonte.  The community was so nice and offered to carry our bags down the steep mountain.  I even had the oldest women grab my bag and start carrying it.  I felt so bad but the president explained that this was their culture and their way for helping and showing appreciation.  It was extremely nice.  Once we got down the hill we got into a pickup truck a drove to El Zonte beach, which was only about 30 mins away.  We instantly put on our suits and ran down to the water.  It felt so nice to finally rinse all the sweat and dirt from my body.  That night we ate dinner at the beach and stayed up talking and taking a late night dip in the ocean.

Special dance - the girl on the right was my host sister

Another type of dance

Pinata time!

Group shot with the community!

Hike down the mountain and they carried all our stuff!

Tuesday, May 10^th

            We spent the entire day at the beach just relaxing, swimming, reading and napping.  It was quite nice since we had been on the go for several days on a strict schedule.  We even got to rent boogey boards and goof around in the ocean for several hours.  We also found a dead puffer fish on the shore and because we are all medical nerds we decided to dissect it and see what we could find.  It was actually quite fascinating but a little creepy because we were trying to avoid puncturing the liver which stores all the toxins it uses to kill its prey.  

A hammock I spent much time in reading and napping!

Pool and El Zonte Beach!

Hostel we stayed at, at the beach.

Wednesday, May 11^th

            In the morning we visited another community called Oscar Arnulfo Romero Community in Tonacatepeque. We spoke with Raul, the leader of the community and he gave us a background on the community.  This summary I found on the CIS website: The Oscar Arnulfo Romero community made up of 98 families, originating  from San Vicente, Usulután, Soyapango, San Martin, Chalatenango, among others, with the common thread that they are families without land, affected by the war, Hurricane Mitch, and the 2001 earthquakes, are poor, and excluded.   They came together to settle on this land, owned by the government’s “Social Fund for Housing” (Fondo Social para la Vivienda).   They chose the land to take over, knowing there would be the possibility to negotiate the settlement due to the Constitution which guarantees dignified housing (Art. 119). The “Social Fund for Housing” is set up precisely to respond to this need.   When the community members illegally settled on the land on March 28, 2005, they were met violently by the riot policy and four community members were thrown in jail.   Nonetheless, with nowhere else to go, the community was persistent in its action and would not be deterred.  One year later, March 24, 2006, it was recognized as a legal association in Tonacatepeque by the FMLN-led City Council and was legally recognized on April 26, 2006 when its bi-laws were published in the Official Diary of the Salvadoran Government.   The Government’s “Social Fund for Housing” recognized their settlement as legitimate when it offered them the option of purchasing the land in 2006.  FUNDASAL (Salvadoran Foundation for Development and Basic Housing), the oldest and most respected housing NGO in El Salvador, offered to finance the purchase of 6 manzanas of land (about 10.38 acres).  
            The community, with strong will and organization, worked together to get water and electricity installed in their tin-and-cardboard houses.   They went to the Government water utility, ANDA, which agreed to install water in the community in 2006.    The private electric company also agreed to install electrical lines, after the community went through all the legal and paper work.   In July 2006 the Social Fund for Housing promised the community members that they could stay on the land if they could come up with $8,671.94 per manzana which was verified in a meeting in October 2007.  In November 2007, FUNDASAL agreed to finance the purchase of 6 manzanas for $52,031.64; the community would pay them back at a manageable rate with no interest and doing the technical measurements and legal divisions of the land.   Things were looking good for the future of this humble community and their organization was paying off.  
            The community’s problems began when ARENA won the municipal elections and took power on May 1, 2006.   Since then, Mayor Gilberto Erroa has led an attack on the community and is pressuring them to change their name. The mayor says he will give them land, water and electricity if they change their name.   On principle the community is not willing to change their name; in addition, they see it as a trap, since they have legal recognition under that name, they would lose legal backing if they changed their name.  The community had an agreement the water utility ANDA and the electric company to provide utilities which the community would pay for.   Both utilities agreed, but as part of the legal process in El Salvador, they need the signature of local authorities -- in this case, the Mayor.   The Mayor, Gilberto Erroa, refused to sign the permission, calling the families in the community “usurpers and illegals”.   A false charge, given that by this time their possession of the land had been recognized by various government and non-governmental entities.   They have been fighting ever since to get their land rights and are working on refined land plans.  On March 25^th, 2011 they got the legally binding agreement in writing made by the Board of Directors of the Salvadoran Institute for Agrarian Transformation (Instituto Salvadoreño de Transformation Agraria - ISTA) making it possible for the 75 families currently living in Comunidad Monseñor Romero to move forward with a potable water project, and gain the title to their land and additional land for raising vegetables, setting up a community library and other communal purposes.   We also celebrated Bailey’s birthday with a piñata at the community!

Raul telling us about the struggles of his community

Giving rice, beans and sugar to each of the mothers of the community

Bailey's Birthday Pinata!

            We then drove to another town called Cinquera.  Cinquera itself was completely destroyed during the war. It was deserted at a certain point because it was destroyed and totally dangerous. In 1991, a year before the peace accords, 31 families organized and decided to repopulate the town. They entered in the dark of night (their own home, their own town) and supported by an organization called CRIPDES among others, they started to rebuild houses out of the materials of destroyed ones... they embarked on the process of cleaning up, rebuilding, and getting back to the business of living. and there they have been ever since. The town still felt pretty deserted and kinda eerie. There are pieces of bombs and war planes mounted as monuments in the little town square. Some kids were climbing on them like they were a playground. The facade of the old church still exists, as the people protested against it being torn down.  We ate a quick lunch and then met with Don Pablo who is a major community organizer and one of the few elders to survive the war.  He gave us his testimony of the civil war.  He talked about Cinquera before the war and how it produced Indigo to sell to England and how the people were very poor with houses made of bamboo with no tables and chairs and how nobody except the military had shoes.  Everyone was suffering from starvation and many kids suffered from Rheumatoid arthritis and anemia from poor nutrition.  Although I don’t have time to write everything he said I will summarize the critical, heartbreaking points.  He explained that the government supported unfair wages and conditions by the employers of the area, and how it suppressed any solidarity movements of campesinos (the poor)--which were branded as communist. The taking up of arms by the illiterate campesinos was a last resort, after they decided that they could not be pushed around and persecuted forever, and this led to the decade-long and bloody war.  Many people were killed and many innocent people were killed because of the sole reason that they looked “suspicious” to the government.  The government would torture and rape men, women and children and cut them in pieces and display them around the town to show a sign of what would happen if people acted out.  He explained how he was captured and tortured 3 times and was finally able to get out of prison with the help of international solidarity workers.  He also explained how the 3^rd time he was capture his children thought he would die, so they decided to join the guerillas and fight back.  4 of his 6 children died and one came back with physical and psychological problems and committed suicide.  It was a sad story but I was thankful that he shared it with us.  I was amazed to find out that the civil war is not taught in the schools and many young El Salvadorans don’t think it even occurred because there are no teachings about it. 

Church in Cinquera

Remnants of the war

Don Pablo giving his war testimony

Thursday, May 12^th

            In the morning we hiked the ecological park in Cinquera. This preserve is a strange relic of the civil war... people mostly deserted this area during the war, because the fighting was so intense, and so the land that once was cultivated ceased being so in the late 70´s, early 80´s. The forest took over. As mother nature does. A group of citizens have decided, now, to protect the land as a reserve. It is no longer farmed on, but rather, preserved as an area of biodiversity in an otherwise mostly environmentally screwed landscape. The reserve receives no government money whatsoever. It is completely funded and supported by community members, and by international aid organizations. We took a super hot and muggy walk around in the forest and there were lots of beautiful trees and butterflies, and a beautiful stream. There were also some relics from guerilla encampments during the civil war. We saw the remnants of a ¨kitchen´ that they used where they cooked their food and funneled the smoke underground so as not to be detected by the armed forces. We also saw an old encampment which served as a place to sleep and treat the wounded. At the end of the hike we got to swim in a pool of water from a waterfall.  

After a long and sweaty ecological hike we got to take a dip in the water!

            In the afternoon we met with Father Dean Brackley at the University of Central America who is a well known theologian and educator.  He was born in New York but came to El Salvador after the death of 6 Jesuits killed in El Salvador in 1989.  He talked to us about liberation theology and how many people in El Salvador look to the church for answers because it played such an important role during the war and fighting back against the government.  He also talked about immigration and gave us stats.  He said 60,000 El Salvadorans migrate every year and  how 190 people a day are deported back to El Salvador which costs the US $600 per person to deport back.  He said instead of wasting money to keep deporting the same people back that the solution is for the US to create sustainable open development.  One quote I really like from him was: “ Immigrants are not being seduced by the “American Dream,”  they are being repelled by the nightmare in their own country.”  I thought this quote was very correct and that in order to curb immigration, the US needs to stop sucking all the life and resources out of poorer countries because they people have no other choice but to try and survive by any means necessary.  It was great meeting with him to get an American perspective and I learned a great deal from him.

Dean Brackley

            After we spoke with him, we went to the store and bought snacks for our long journey home to Xela.

Friday, May 13^th

            We left San Salvador at 5am and got to Xela at 5pm and was pouring rain.  Which I have to say I’ll take the rain over the hot, sticky humidity and bugs.  Overall, the trip to El Salvador was very eye opening and I learned so much from every interaction and experience I had there.  It feels so good to learn new things but is also frustrating at the same time because I feel like the more I learn the more I realize how much I don’t know about the world.  I guess it’s a lesson for myself to keep my eyes open to everything and be willing to learn from everyone and every experience because everyone and every place has a different story! 

Host brothers! Oh so cute!

Sunset at La Loma!