Most people in El Salvador life their lives barely getting by each day. The economy has gone downhill ever since the civil war which started in 1979. Minimum wage now is roughly $150 a month. The price of food and other goods are rising, sometimes even surpassing our prices in North America. These people don't have many options. Although it is difficult people seem to manage.
There is a variety of different lifestyles that could be found in El Salvador, it all depends on what job you have and where you live. If you work selling goods in the marketplaces you have to get up early in the morning to walk to the marketplace and try and find a good spot. You then stay in your spot for the majority of the day. When you get home you usually have to take care of children, fix dinner, or make more goods to sell the next day. For a farmer the lifestyle is different. You tend to grow your crops for the majority of the year, then go to market to sell them two or three times a year. A farmer also doesn't have to worry about food. They usually take some of the food they have grown for their families before selling the rest. They also have livestock, which they sell or use themselves.
The main food in El Salvador is tortillas or breads. They can be eaten with almost everything. They can be eaten with everything from cheese and eggs to soups and salads. That is why they are usually eaten everyday with every meal. El Salvador also has many traditional dishes. There are many soup dishes such as "sopa de pata" and "sopa de chicharon" which usually consist of many herbs and spices. There are also dishes such as pupusas and tamales, which are made with certain flour made from corn. The beverages usually consist of fruit juices, such as marañò n, pineapple, and coconut. There is also horchata, which is a mix of spices, peanuts, and various other ingredients.
The streets are full of crime in El Salvador. I'm not only talking about petty theft and other such crimes but also about gang violence. There is a major gang problem in El Salvador. They steal money from small businesses and people with stands in the marketplace. People enter into gangs from the time they're 9 or 10. Gang members have killed people for staring at them fummy or acting better than them. The witnesses usually never testify for fear that the gang will target them or their families. This makes it so a lot of the gang members who have commited a crime to still roam free. The ones who are captured don't stay in prison long, though there are some life sentences many of these criminals have connections to the outside world and continue to reak havic. Though these gangs are very dangerous they are only in certain places, so they aren't found everywhere in El Salvador.
© Karen Ramos 2008