El Salvador Perspectives

The Los Angeles Times chronicles the arrival from El Salvador of the band named Nuestro Angeles to march in tomorrow's Tournament of Roses Parade: A five-day trek from El Salvador to Pasadena was not supposed to be part of the Rose Parade route for the 230-member youth marching band Nuestros Ángeles de El Salvador. But plane tickets were out of the question after a big chunk of the band's funding fell through just weeks before the parade. What followed was an odyssey by bus that included thousands of miles on the road, plus two excruciating days in limbo on the border of Guatemala and Mexico. But they made it, rolling into town Sunday only hours before their slot at Bandfest, the annual showcase of Rose Parade bands held at Pasadena City College this weekend. Organizers said the show drew more than 5,000 people. "Uno, dos, tres -- brinca!" band members cried during the Salvadoran song "La Bala": "One, two, three -- jump!" Saul Perez, one of the b...

Several recent news stories in the US featured Salvadorans being deported from the US back to El Salvador. One story appeared in the Washington Post and described the situation of a family where the mother, who had arrived in the US from El Salvador illegally many years ago, was rounded up in an pre-dawn arrest by immigration authorities. Her husband and US-born children were left to face the holiday season without their mother. There was a Fort Worth Star Telegram story about a Salvadoran family which fled to the US San Miguel after they were targeted by gangs. They were apprehended crossing the border in Texas. The father was deported immediately, while the rest of the family now awaits a deportation hearing. Shortly after arriving back in San Miguel, the father was murdered in an ambush by the gang. The family now waits to see if they can persuade a US immigration judge not to send them back. In a different story involving fear of gangs and deportation, a Salvadoran gang memb...

The Los Angeles Times published an article this week featuring the work of a Salvadoran inventor, whose passion is creating a super-efficient, inexpensive wood stove suitable for use in poor households: SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — In a makeshift laboratory equipped with little more than a battered chair and a cheap kitchen scale, inventor Rene Nunez Suarez displays the contraption that has become his life's obsession. It's a stainless-steel cooker that uses about 95 percent less fuel than conventional wood stoves, with minimal pollution. It would seem a can't-miss technology in a country where millions still cook with wood and most forests have been destroyed. The device has garnered Nunez a prestigious environmental prize. It has earned him a U.S. patent. And it has won fans among some Salvadoran peasants who no longer spend a good chunk of their days hunting for firewood and then inhaling cooking smoke. It has also wrecked Nunez's marriage, alienated two of hi...

Photo of art work in La Palma, El Salvador, taken February 2004 I extend my wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all the readers of the blog.

On New Years Day, "Our Angels of El Salvador," a marching band made up of talented youth musicians from across El Salvador will represent the country in the 2008 Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, California. Be sure to watch for them in the parade coverage on January 1. La Prensa Grafica has a special section devoted to the band at this link .

The presidential race in El Salvador has lost a potential candidate in the center. Arturo Zablah sought to create a center-left alliance as an alternative to ARENA and the FMLN. However the small political parties of the center (FDR, CD and PDC) could never reach agreement on whether to form an alliance, and Zablah has now withdrawn his name from consideration. I would speculate that this probably helps Mauricio Funes more than it helps the eventual ARENA candidate. A Zablah candidacy in the center had a greater potential to lure away potential FMLN supporters than it did to lure away voters for ARENA.

For many views of the beauty of El Salvador (and not a few beautiful women in bikinis) you can watch the program El Salvador Impresionante -- Impressive El Salvador , airing on the Spanish language version of the E! Television network. It's a full length promotion by El Salvador's tourism authorities.