If you order your research paper from our custom writing service you will receive a perfectly written assignment on Poem. What we need from you is to provide us with your detailed paper instructions for our experienced writers to follow all of your specific writing requirements. Specify your order details, state the exact number of pages required and our custom writing professionals will deliver the best quality Poem paper right on time.
Our staff of freelance writers includes over 120 experts proficient in Poem, therefore you can rest assured that your assignment will be handled by only top rated specialists. Order your Poem paper at affordable prices!
Leaving the air conditioned airport at San Salvador, one steps into another world -- a sultry land of tropical forests, volcanoes, and towering thunderheads. The atmosphere seems to rise up from the verdant landscape of rolling coffee fields, banana trees, mangos and coconut palms, moisture steaming off the slopes of volcanoes, rolling all around you.
Once you catch your breath, there is an unusual aroma in the air, a virtual potpourri of tropical fruits and flowers and jungle. But there is something else in the air as well. It is difficult to identify at first, and is vaguely suggestive of marijuana. But no matter where one goes in El Salvador, there is that scent. It is the smell of a smoldering fire.
My family recently spent nine days in El Salvador, staying with relatives in the working class barrios of Santa Ana and San Salvador. My wife, a Salvadorean, left her family in 177, immigrating illegally to the United States where she hoped to earn enough money to support her mother and three brothers. When she arrived at the airport in San Salvador, it was an emotional reunion She had not seen one of her brothers for twenty years, and met many of her nieces and nephews for the first time. Her family had suffered incredible hardships in El Salvador during her absence, as had the entire nation.
During the civil war, which began in 180 and did not end until December 1, 1, members of the National Guard roamed the working class neighborhoods and countryside in their fatigues and battle helmets, murdering entire families suspected of supporting the guerrillas of the Farabundo Martí Liberación Nacional -- the FMLN (also known as El Frente). There was a curfew at night back then, and the songs of crickets were often drowned out by the screams of men and women who were tortured and mutilated by death squads who did their work with impunity. Children walking the dusty streets of their barrios on their way to school would often encounter the bodies of those they had heard screaming in the dark of night.
But things have changed since the peace treaty was signed five years ago. The National Guard has been disbanded, replaced by a National Police made up of former soldiers and men who had fought with the FMLN. The death squads have, with a few exceptions, disappeared as well, though many of those who organized them, including the man who murdered Archbishop Oscar Romero, remain free men. Policemen patrol the streets now, dressed in starched-white shirts and blue pants and caps, armed with pistols instead of M-16s. Though there are still some officers who are corrupt (as there are in all nations) for the most part the only people who fear the National Police are criminals, which include members of gangs, many of whom were raised in the United States.
Gangs are a growing problem in the cities of El Salvador Graffiti is often scrawled on walls in English, and members pledge allegiance to groups with names like the 18th Street Gang. Though there is no longer a curfew, most people dare not venture into the streets after dark, frightened by the activities of these criminal groups as well as others that are homegrown, composed of former soldiers and disgruntled guerrillas.
What Has Changed Since The End of the War?
Yet if you ask most Salvadoreans, many things have changed for the better since the end of the war. People can now say what they think without fear of reprisal. In fact, in the municipal elections of March 16, the FMLN -- now a legal political party -- won stunning victories across the nation, including the mayoral positions in the countries two largest cities, San Salvador and Santa Ana. In 180, at the beginning of the civil war, the FMLN was characterized an evil agent of international communism. Now, seventeen years later, the most popular politician in the country is Hector Silva, the young, handsome and charismatic mayor of San Salvador elected as the candidate of the former guerrillas. If the national elections were held today, Mr. Silva, a doctor born in the United States, would very likely be elected president.
But despite such political changes, some things remain the same as they have for a century. Women still carry large, heavy baskets full of fruits and vegetables on their heads, walking calmly down the street, their arms at their sides. They pause in the dusty barrios and struggle to lower the baskets to the ground where neighbors buy tomatoes and chiles, celery and parsley, jocotes, lemons, papayas, and green mangos, all in plentiful supply. And in the countryside -- even in a city like Santa Ana -- it is not unusual to see men leading a pair of oxen down the street as they haul hand-made carts full of corn, sugar cane, wood, and other goods.
Even The Parrots Have Disappeared
Then there are the changes. Before the war, flocks of parrots babbled madly across the sky in huge, green clouds. They are gone now, having fled the country during the war to havens in nearby countries like Costa Rica. Iguanas, once a common sight, are rarely seen now, as are armadillos. No one knows if they were captured and sold in foreign countries or if they were simply the main course at dinnertime for one too many poor families. Dormilona, a fragile magical plant that appears to fall asleep when touched, is also difficult to find these days, though before the war it was as common as weeds.
Deforestation has become major problem facing El Salvador and is blamed for changes in the climate, including diminishing rainfall. Many mountains and hillsides that were once covered by pristine forests have been clear cut, thousands of acres leveled by the government during the war in an effort to deny guerrillas cover. Much of what remains of the forests is gradually being leveled to clear the way for cultivation, while other tracts of land are cleared by industry, especially foreign corporations building new factories in special economic zones. Cotton, once one of El Salvadors leading cash crops, is another casualty of the changes that have affected the country.
Another thing that has changed since the war is the virtual disappearance of the Pipiles -- descendants of the Mayan people who built pyramids and great cities long before the Spanish Conquest. Prior to 180, in towns and villages like Sosonate and Panchimalco, descendants of the Pipiles sold their wares in the town squares and on the streets. They wore brightly colored clothing and spoke the same tongues as their ancestors -- indigenous languages with names like Nahuatl. The Pipiles were one of the main targets of the Matanza of 1, a massacre of ,000 peasants by General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez, one of El Salvadors many dictators. General Martinez murdered peasants in the tens of thousands in order to crush a planned revolt organized by Farabundo Martí, the Salvadorean revolutionary from whom the FMLN derived their name.
Despite the Matanza of 1 and other acts of repression, the Pipiles still managed to survive. But during the 180s, many were finally forced to conceal their backgrounds once and for all, fearful of the brutal persecution exacted against suspected enemies by the government and its soldiers. Rather than risk extermination, many Pipiles learned to speak Spanish and to dress as other Salvadoreans do, the men wearing button-down shirts and slacks, or cotton pants and tee shirts, the women simple blouses and skirts. With the exception of certain areas in the countryside controlled by the guerrillas during the war, the only visible remains of the once great Pipil people are the pyramids, ruins, and digs visited by tourists and studied by archaeologists.
Radio Venceremos
During the war, a broad spectrum of people opposed to the dictatorship supported the FMLN. One of them was Marvin Galea, who broadcast from Radio Venceremos (We Shall Win), the clandestine radio of the guerrillas. Mr. Galea lived in the mountains in close proximity to the high command of the Frente. Today he works in San Salvador, still broadcasting from Radio Venceremos, which like the FMLN is legal now. However, Radio Venceremos is no longer affiliated with the former guerrillas, and Mr. Galea, an independent journalist, is critical of some of his former comrades. While in San Salvador, my wife and I interviewed him.
Mr. Galea and the station where he works is yet another example of the changes in El Salvador. Though one might expect revolutionary portraits of Che Guevara in the lobby of a station that broadcasts Radio Venceremos, there are none. Instead, there are album covers and pictures of Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and many popular salsa groups.
Though critical of what he referred to as some corrupt members of the FMLN, Mr. Galea is hardly a supporter of ARENA, the right-wing party whose leaders -- in particular, the late Roberto DAbuison -- were the architects and directors of The Repression. Once a target of the National Guard and death squads himself, Mr. Galea can now broadcast his thoughts freely throughout the country -- not an insignificant change for a man who once was forced to seek sanctuary with the guerrillas in the mountains.
The Twelve Apostles of Santa Elena
Mr. Galea points to the recent arrest of Roberto Mathies Hill, one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the country, as further evidence that things have changed. Mr. Hill was arrested for bilking at least $155 million from depositors who participated in what has been described as a savings and loan scam. Mr. Galea reminded me that for a century, his country was ruled by an oligarchy commonly referred to as the fourteen families. Up until the elections in March of this year, it was inconceivable that a rich man would ever be charged, much less arrested, for a crime, especially if it involved corruption. Mr. Galea suggested that the arrest of Mr. Hill and others implicated is not simply the result of political changes that have occurred. In our interview, he said the unfolding scandal reveals a growing split between what was the ruling oligarchy and a new elite commonly referred to as The Twelve Apostles of Santa Elena, a name coined from an elegant neighborhood in San Salvador where many members of the new rich live.
According to Mr. Galea, investment bankers created new financial institutions when the formerly state-run banks were privatized during the administration of Alfredo Cristiani. They made their fortunes from investments which were the result of millions of US dollars sent to El Salvador by ex-patriots living in the United States, and by personally appropriating US tax dollars sent as aid to the right wing government during the war. Mr. Galea also speculated that these financial institutions may have profited by the laundering of hundreds of millions of narco dollars.
As these new financial institutions grew, interest rates soared. According to Mr. Galea, if a small businessman was to go to a Salvadorean bank and apply for a loan today, the interest rate could reach levels as high as 5%, though banks pay only 7% interest to those with savings accounts. Credit card holders are charged as much as 60% interest, an amount that Mr. Galea pointed out would be illegal in the United States. Such extraordinary rates are do, in part, to the fact that there are interlocking board of directors in El Salvador, meaning that a banker can sit on the boards of two or more different banks. Another reason Salvadorean banks are virtually free to do business as they choose is that there are no foreign banks in that nation.
The first case of massive fraud involved a company named Fumi Export, according to Mr. Galea. He alleged that 40 million Colones, or roughly 4 1/ million dollars, disappeared. Many people who had invested their life savings were devastated by the scam, and some committed suicide. But it wasnt until a financial institution called Finsepro/Insepro went broke that the banks and other establishments began to be investigated. Apparently, in the Finsepro scam, many of El Salvadors most illustrious families lost millions. Mr. Galea believes that the growing investigation of fraud reveals a rift between what remains of the so-called fourteen families, and the Twelve Apostles of Santa Elena. This breach is also reflected in the ARENA party.
In any event, many working people and the poor credit the FMLN for the investigations and can barely contain their joy at the prospect of wealthy men going to jail. Visiting the working class barrios and slums, one can understand why.
Please note that this sample paper on Poem is for your review only. In order to eliminate any of the plagiarism issues, it is highly recommended that you do not use it for you own writing purposes. In case you experience difficulties with writing a well structured and accurately composed paper on Poem, we are here to assist you.Your research papers on Poem will be written from scratch, so you do not have to worry about its originality.
Order your authentic assignment and you will be amazed at how easy it is to complete a quality custom paper within the shortest time possible!
