El Salvador Perspectives

El Salvador has developed a new logo to brand itself when it goes out to seek foreign tourists and investors.   The new logo was designed by the consulting firm Interbrand who explains the concept : The new brand strategy is based on a previous study conducted by the El Salvador Government and further research carried out by Interbrand. It looks to “put El Salvador on the map as one of the new destinations and growing global economies,” says Interbrand.  A new visual identity also aims to increase international awareness of El Salvador and promote investment, exports and tourism in the country.  The logo centres on the letter “V” within El Salvador’s name and sees a “kaleidoscope” of colourful graphic icons related to the country – including a volcano, birds and waves – bursting out of it.  The logo also includes a tagline beneath the country’s name that reads: “Great like our people”. Indigo blue has been chosen as the main colour throughout the identit...

If you want careful observations of Salvadoran life from the perspective of a North American who spends lots of time in the country, read Linda's El Salvador Blog .    Her most recent post includes a series of photos of daily life she recently took out of car windows while travelling around the country.   Here is an example: Off of a dirt road in a very rural area, this family raises a few animals. Notice the yellow pig shelter. If you remember the old pay phones that used to take prepaid phone cards back in the '90's - then you remember those old yellow phone booths.  Yup, apparently they make great pig shelters. Salvadorans are experts at recycling things. See the rest of Linda's post titled  Just Click! And Keep Your Phone in Your Lap .

I have called him before the "dean of Salvadoran bloggers."   For more than eight years, Ernesto Rivas Gallont has posted multiple times per day on his blog, Conversations with Neto Rivas .   He offers insights and perspectives on news and politics in El Salvador, often rooted in his own acquaintance with the players involved. But before he was a blogger, one of the roles Ernesto Rivas filled was the ambassador to the United States from El Salvador during much of El Salvador's civil war.   After his arrival in Washington in March 1981, he often was called upon to act as an apologist for the actions of the country's army, actions which often included massacres and atrocities.   On orders of his superiors back in El Salvador, then ambassador Rivas denied his government's involvement in the massacre which occurred in December 1981 at El Mozote.   We now know that Salvadoran army troops from the US-trained Atlacatl Battalion killed more than 900 defenseless me...

An interesting and fun read is the relatively new blog What's Up El Salvador? . It's written by Nanelle, who along with her husband Andy have relocated from the US to El Salvador. From the blog's description: Join a 43 year old former Ballet Dancer and Police Officer, her Coffee Roasting, beer brewing, husband and their 5 year-old daughter on their move to El Salvador, as they head through customs, find a home, enjoy daily living and explore the country; advising you all the way. Living life in El Salvador as American expats and loving it. The blog is full of wide-ranging posts about life in El Salvador, as seen from the eyes of a family of newcomers. Nanelle updates the site very regularly and her writing style is breezy and fun. It's now one of my regular stops. Check it out.

Salvadoran blogger Omar Nieto, who writes at El Salvador's longest-running blog Hunnapuh , has begun writing some of his posts for translation into English at Global Voices . Omar recently wrote about Salvadorans' views of 19 years since signing of the peace agreements : Sunday the 16th of January marked another year of peace for the country of El Salvador. It has been 19 years since the signing of a peace agreement in Chapultepec, Mexico, which brought an end to a bloody civil war that had been going on since 1981. With the commemoration of the event came discussion. Political, economical and social commentators as well as bloggers have had something to say on the matter.... The current Catholic Archbishop of El Salvador, José Luis Escobar Alas , stated that although the ceasefire was a “blessing from God,” Salvadorans had still not found peace, but it was not too late to achieve it. Lamentablemente no tenemos todavía una paz estable, firme, duradera, bien afincada,...

Searching the Internet recently I came across the blog El Salvador: The Life . The site is "designed to help deportees and families of deportees (or anyone else planning to move to El Salvador) prepare for the process, what to expect and how to begin. This is not intended for tourist, but rather those planning to move." It has a number of posts about day-to-day life, including such topics as Internet access, the postal system, and plumbing. The most recent post provides a sample of grocery prices . Check it out.

I've been privileged to meet a number of commited young people from the US, who have relocated to El Salvador to serve in various ways. Some of them also write compellingly about their experiences. Danielle recently wrote: A friend tells of a recent experience leading a workshop for children in inner-city San Salvador. The children were asked to draw pictures of what they like about their community, and what they don't like. My friend asked a nine year old girl what she planned to draw for “dislike.” She replied in a soft voice: “I don't like that they kill people.” There are implications for this in a child's life. One: living in entrenched violence, you cannot leave the house after sunset. How many times has she seen the stars?... ( Read more ) Nick explored some of the theology which flourishes in the reality of El Salvador: The preference to serve the poor and the outcasts lies at the heart of liberation theology, which has long found its fertile ground in Central...

This blog was recognized today as one of the three best blogs about El Salvador for 2009. The recognition came from Blogotepeque.com, a popular group blog and website. The top two blogs were the blogs of Neto Rivas and Hunnapuh , and I can certainly agree with naming those two blogs as the best about El Salvador.

After a three month absence from blogging, Stephanie is back writing at The Plantation Diaries . She is in the middle of the coffee and corn harvest at Finca de Angeles, and her recent posts share stories and pictures of the work. Here's an excerpt: After breakfast, the women strapped their baskets to their waists held by a sling around their neck. Beto called the women in the order they showed up. I was surprised to find out how well planned the work is. I was always under the impression that the pickers just worked an area, harvesting which ever tree suited them. The coffee trees like most crops are planted in evenly spaced rows. Beto assigned one women at the beginning of every row. That would be their work line for the day. Meanwhile the children ran around delighted to have such open spaces to play. Their only task in helping their mothers, was to carry spare empty sacks and water bottles. We do not employ child labor here! Before walking away from the field this morning, I ...

I came across a new blog based in El Salvador tonight. The Plantation Diaries is written by a blogger who goes by the name "La Finca," and she writes about her life managing a coffee plantation in El Salvador. The blog is well-written with some gorgeous photographs, like today's entry about fireflies: The fireflies are out tonight for the first time. It is winter here in El Salvador, and I am used to seeing these masters of illumination in the summer when in the states. The Northern winds are gusting and they are helpless to control their flight as they get knocked about in the air. They have taken refuge on the ground and there are hundreds of twinkling lights. One could imagine the stars have come for a visit. Read more here .

Salvadoran bloggers brought an independent voice to politics in El Salvador over the past 5 years, a voice which was not present in the last presidential election. David Mejia was part of live coverage given to the elections and the tallying of the votes by the Salvadoran blogosphere. He reflected on the importance of the internet and the election results: Esta vez me atrevo a decir con propiedad, el internet ha sido muy importante esta vez en las elecciones, debido a que el público joven, lo ha utilizado en vez de los medios tradicionales, y quiero felicitar a los partidos políticos por habernos tomado en cuenta en muchas ocasiones. No hay que olvidar que El Salvador esta vez tiene que estar más unido, dejar las diferencias, aferrarse a Dios para poder tener un mejor país, ya que todos unidos lo podremos lograr, y así poder lograr el verdadero CAMBIO, no solo cambio de gobierno, sino cambio de actitud. This time I dare say with propriety, the internet has been very important in th...

No more children burned, Don't buy fireworks. Salvadoran bloggers have been promoting a campaign to stop the sale of fireworks and the resulting burns and injuries to children. Although the government has considered banning fireworks , the popular, but dangerous, tradition continues. Shooting off fireworks is a tradition on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Each year, photos of children and adults injured by fireworks, appear in the press, illustrating the tragedy. Many Salvadoran bloggers have joined the campaign and are displaying the logo at the top of the post. I'm happy to add my name to the list. There is a partial list of participating bloggers at this post by Soy Salvadoreño.

I came across a new blog recently which focuses on El Salvador. It's called The El Salvador Gringo and has posts which focus on information for gringos traveling to El Salvador. According to the blog: The El Salvador Gringo is a frequent visitor to Central and South America. Watch this site for the latest in rumors, news and the latest hotspots in one of the fastest growing Central American countries. Recent posts have included residence permits, hotel and restaurant recommendations, places to visit, and local customs. The blog is part of a "Gringo" network of related blogs covering several countries in Latin America.

A computer file purportedly discovered on a laptop computer at a guerrilla camp in Ecuador, has bloggers in El Salvador wondering what impact it will have and what impact it should have on the upcoming elections in their country scheduled for March 2009. The laptop computer was taken in the Colombian army's raid on the camp of FARC guerrillas in Ecuador . In that raid the number two man of the FARC, Raul Reyes, was killed, and his computer seized. The furor in El Salvador started when the Spanish newspaper El Pais disclosed [es] that one document on the computer referred to a Salvadoran making an introduction in 2007 from the FARC to Australian arms dealers. The Salvadoran named was Luis Merino, a senior official of the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) and member of the Central American parliament. The conservative press in El Salvador played up the story with prominent pictures showing Merino beside the FMLN's presidential candidate Mauricio Fu...

Bloggers in El Salvador have taken up the cause of justice in the nine year old murder case of Katya Miranda. This young girl was murdered in 1999 in a crime of shocking depravity. The facts of the case are recounted in a video interview of Katya's mother and available on YouTube. Katya's mother left her two daughters at the home of her paternal grandfather along El Salvador's coast with a promise to pick them up in the morning. Yet when morning came, nine-year-old Katya was dead -- raped, beaten and murdered. Despite the presence of members of her father's family and their employees at the home, nobody claimed to have seen or heard anything. The father, grandfather and other male relatives are high-ranking officials in El Salvador's military and the National Civilian Police. Many believe that the investigation of the crime was haphazard and incomplete, but eventually Katya's father, grandfather and two employees were charged with the crime in 2000. ...

The intersection points of blogging and journalism are many and varied in El Salvador. Journalists are bloggers. Bloggers write about journalists and vice versa. Although El Salvador is a country where most people can't spend significant amounts of time online, the ever-growing number of bloggers in El Salvador is starting to influence public debate. Discussions about the role of blogs were sparked when the conservative El Diario de Hoy newspaper ran a piece titled Cybernetic Proselytism (es) which warned of supposed dangers from blogs including "disinforming, disorienting and denigrating," all resulting in prejudice to democracy. In particular, the writers of the article warned that blogs were going to be used inappropriately by political parties leading up to national elections. Jorge Ávalos, a blogger who also is a journalist employed by El Diario de Hoy , responded with with a quotation from Álvaro Rivera Larios in the digital periodical El Faro: Pero es obvio q...

A bloody street protest one year ago led to the passage of an Anti-Terrorism Law in El Salvador. The alleged cop-killer in the disturbances outside of the University of El Salvador has been arrested, and the Anti-Terrorism Law is being used -- to prosecute protesters demonstrating against the government's water policy. The Salvadoran blogosphere has had much to say about this turn of events. On the 5th of July 2006, a demonstration outside the University of El Salvador turned deadly violent as a sniper shot at riot police, killing two and wounding several more. (In the Salvadoran media that day's events are now known simply as 5-J). After a year long manhunt, the alleged sniper Mario Belloso was apprehended on July 2, 2007, with an orgy of media coverage in the Salvadoran press which has yet to end. The aftermath of Belloso's capture has journalist blogger Jorge Ávalos concerned. Soon after the capture, he notes that ruling ARENA party officials were trying to make ...

There are 22 months to go before the March 2009 elections for President and National Assembly in El Salvador, but already the campaign is a major theme in the Salvadoran blogosphere. The current round of comments were triggered by a political rally led by president Tony Saca, where he made comments which many described as "war-like." Blogger Hunnapuh takes note (ES) of Tony Saca's call to the governing right-wing ARENA party faithful to create an army of "nationalist soldiers," with Saca warning that "he that sleeps loses, there can be no vacations." According to Hunnapuh, Saca is "walking with a warlike and provocative discourse which contradicts his pose as a conciliator who is open to dialog and reconciliation." Echoing a theme seen on several blogs, Hunnapuh views Saca's proselytizing as flatly illegal and in violation Article 81 of El Salvador's Constitution which forbids political campaigning more than 4 months before the p...

If your only source of news was the main Salvadoran newspapers, you might have missed the story. The sole survivor of a notorious massacre of civilians during El Salvador civil war passed away on March 6. On December 6, 1981, Rufina Amaya, had somehow managed to escape from the government troops who systematically rounded up and savagely murdered the elderly, the women, the men, the children and the babies in her village, including her 8 month old child who was ripped from her arms. This war crime, known as the El Mozote massacre, led to the deaths of as many as 1000 campesinos in and around the village of El Mozote in Morazan province. Both the Salvadoran government and the US government which was supporting the regime in 1981, denied that a wholesale massacre of civilians had taken place. After the war, the UN Truth Commission validated the details as have subsequent investigations . The story of the massacre and the subsequent denials were detailed subsequently by journ...

What Salvadoran bloggers are saying: Recent events involving the murder of four Salvadorans in Guatemala have dominated the blogosphere in El Salvador. On February 19, three members of the Central American parliament (PARLACEN) from El Salvador's ruling ARENA party were found murdered in Guatemala along with their driver. The group had been traveling to a working group meeting of PARLACEN. The bodies were found in a rural area outside of Guatemala City, in the burned out shell of the vehicle in which they had been driving. Among the dead was Eduardo D'Aubuisson, son of the founder of ARENA. Initially the reaction in the Salvadoran blogosphere was to call for restraint [ES], avoiding a rush to judgment, and calling for an in depth investigation [ES]. Jjmar wrote that no one should seek to take advantage of the murders [ES] for political gain, whether to further the political polarization in El Salvador or to gain a benefit in the 2009 election campaign. Fears of a political mot...