Vietnam

Joey, Jose and I show our El Salvador pride

No not the country.  It’s a section in the Cuscatlán Stadium, home of La Selecta, El Salvador’s national soccer team where last week I attended a game.  I had been looking forward to the game for weeks.  Although El Salvador had been eliminated from World Cup qualifying the week before, there was still excitement in the air.  The game was a sold out.  It was a game for pride against Honduras.

When I went to buy a ticket I had a choice to make: Vietnam, or not Vietnam.  I had friends who insisted Vietnam was the real experience and I had to buy the $5 ticket that would get me into the “people’s section”, a sometimes explosive mass of passion, sweat and testosterone.  My host family and some other friends counseled against it.  They had always been too afraid to go into Vietnam.  Stories of assaults and general anarchy abounded. 

Of course, the choice was obvious.  Vietnam it was.

So a fellow classmate, Joey, and a new El Salvadoran friend, Jose, and I set out for the stadium and the 6:00p.m. game. I had a disposable camera in my pocket, so as to not risk losing my digital camera (hence the pics aren’t very good).  The afternoon started off well.  As we waited for the bus, a pick-up truck full of young Selecta fans stopped and offered us a ride.

Party in the truck...

 

Getting ready for the big game

 Outside the stadium

 We arrived at the stadium, grabbed a couple beers and then made our way into the madness.

Inside Vietnam, police on ready

As we entered, fans were doing something very familiar: rowing.  Everyone in Vietnam was sitting down, holding onto the shoulders of the person in front of them, and rowing front and back.  It’s one of the activities of the UW-Madison student section during home football games.  Good start.  I then looked around, and noticed the fences keeping the Vietnam section cordoned off, particularly from the section of 10,000 rowdy Honduran fans.  Maybe not so great a sign…  Nonetheless, I felt a rush of energy as we made our way to our seats (unassigned, of course). 

In other ways the scene also reminded me of UW football games.  There was immense pride, plenty of vulgarity, a joyous belligerence.  Plus many spectators had a pretty good buzz going.  But there were definitely also departures from the UW parallel, and these departures are what most define Vietnam.

As we walked to our seats, we got noticed.  As the attention of hundreds of fans turned our way, chants of “Gringo, culero!” began.  Gringo is a somewhat derogatory (but not really) name for white people, and culero is an offensive epithet for homosexuals.  Hands reach out to pull at our hair, and Joey felt drops of spit raining down.  I should say that, while offensive, the insults did come with a smile.  People weren’t angry; they were reveling in the culture of Vietnam.

In response, I did what came naturally: I looked up, smiled and waved.  Horrified, Jose grabbed my hand, pulled it down to my side, and hurried me along to our seats, like a mother scolding her mischievous child.  I guess I wasn’t supposed to respond that way.  But nothing else came of it and we made it to our seats where we were not bothered for the rest of the game.

Sitting in the first row of the second section, we had front row seats of the action: the treatment of other passers-by, not to mention a great view of the game.  The surprising number of women who were brave enough to sit in the Vietnam section endured a variety of slurs and chants.  Hondurans also endured a salute to their national anthem:

One or two finger salute, depending on your style

I think what was my favorite tradition had to do with the dress code.  All my friends told me the number one rule of Vietnam was to wear an El Salvadoran jersey, or at least something of a shiny royal blue.  I soon learned why.  Whenever someone walked by with an unacceptable shirt, the spectators would shout in unison “camisa, camisa!” or “shirt, shirt!”  It was expected that the offender would take off his shirt.  In most cases they did.  When they didn’t, the spectators would take it off for them.

Person getting draped with flag before his shirt was stripped off

As well as trash talking, there was trash throwing.  At Madison football games, people throw cups and trash and snowballs at opposing fans brave enough to sit in the UW student section; in Vietnam people would randomly throw bags of urine (luckily we did not get hit).  Plenty of trash was also flung onto the field at opposing players and the refs.  I hear that overall Vietnam used to be a whole lot worse when alcohol was served.  I can only imagine.

How I can most easily sum up the experience?  It was the epitome of Latin machismo, an over-wrought, testosterone-infused maleness that exists in Latin America and has equivalents elsewhere.  The term is a way of being generally critical of male behavior, but unfortunately is also used by men and women alike as a way of justifying male actions. 

In the end, I felt badly for women, gay people, and for the fans who tolerated the environment simply because they couldn’t afford better tickets.  I sat next to Oscar and his three boys, who just wanted to enjoy the game. 

Oscar, sporting an Italia jersey

 

Look, I love sports.  I understand the value of sports as a channel for our emotions, and I definitely get the passion that comes from rooting for your home team.  Spectator sports offer an opportunity for men to be boys (and sometimes women to be girls, though they seem to save themselves the embarrassment), to show their love for their team, and to let out their frustrations from other aspects of life.  If the Packers lose, I am despondent for days.  I wish that weren’t the case, but it’s true.  There is something tribal in all of us and sports are a means to express it.  However, in my opinion, Vietnam would do well to make itself over.  Not going to happen anytime soon, but I am sure most El Salvadorans would appreciate it.

While El Salvador played hard and outplayed the visitors, La Selecta unfortunately lost the game, 1-0.  On the upside, the Honduran squad qualified for the World Cup for the first time in over twenty years.  Since El Salvador had already been eliminated, so the mood wasn’t terribly sour.  Fans left smiling for the most part, freed of a little bit of stress after a rowdy night.  Despite my cultural commentaries, I did have a lot of fun.  I was glad to have experienced Vietnam and cheered on La Selecta.   

And the evening ended as it had begun.  The kind souls who brought us to the stadium waited for us after so they could drive us home.  To me, these people represent the Salvadoran society I have experienced.   

Las Pandillas – “The Gangs”

One of the first words I learned in my first language class in El Salvador was “pandillas”, or gangs.

I knew vaguely of the pandillas in El Salvador, having lived for three years in Washington, DC.  MS-13 was reported to be proliferating in the region and often made the news.  I knew that some of the gang members had roots in El Salvadoran.  El Salvador was exporting gang activity to the U.S.  That was my basic understanding. 

Of course, like with most issues, the reality is actually more complicated.  To speak in economic terms, what if I told you that the U.S. has actually been a net-exporter of gang activity rather than the contrary?  But that would be too simple as well. 

How the Pandillas Came to El Salvador
During El Salvador’s civil war in the 1980s, a flood of immigrants fled the violence to the United States.  Many came to Los Angeles, arrived without a community or any economic opportunities, and found themselves sequestered in that city’s ghettos.  Threatened themselves by violence, some children of the immigrants organized themselves into groups and made their way into the gangs.  

The 18th Street gang (called “dieciocho” or “18”) is considered the largest in Los Angeles.  In a perverse manifestation of an otherwise positive phenomenon, it was the first gang to break the racial barrier in the U.S., with members from all racial backgrounds.  It is, however, a primarily Latin gang, and after initial battles the El Salvadorans made their way in alongside the Mexicans and members of other Central American heritages.  18 has upwards of 20,000 members in Los Angeles County alone.  MS-13 (the 13th Street gang), which is the gang I recall was spreading in DC, is believed to be a splinter group of 18 and a bitter rival.  Gang members can often be spotted by their tattoos.  

Real subtle, dude

After the El Salvadoran Peace Accords in 1992, the U.S. government began deporting gang members of El Salvadoran origin back to their home country, and in 1996 passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which increased the rate of deportations.  Over 30,000 alleged gang members were deported to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras between1998-2005.  These individuals took their craft with them back to El Salvador, along with their rivalries.  They had grown up in Los Angeles, in many cases spoke only halting Spanish, and often had no family but each other.

Today, the pandillas are a powerful and destructive force in El Salvador, with some 25,000 members in a country of about 6 million.  They are largely responsible for the approximately 10 murders that occur in El Salvador per day.  To put this in perspective, the same murder rate in the U.S. would translate into over 200,000 murders per year, compared to the 16,000 we currently suffer.  The gangs have evolved and now re-export members to the States.  They have moved from petty crime to sophisticated drug trafficking operations and mass extortion.

For example, the gangs extort money from bus drivers across El Salvador.  Since those who refused to pay at first were killed, it is believed that the vast majority of drivers are now paying off the gangs.  Also, if a retail business is seen to be doing really well for itself but has no customer base El Salvadorans tend to believe it is just a front for money laundering.  In the malls, for instance, there are scores of expensive electronics outlets that you’ll rarely if ever see a customer step foot it.  It does seem odd. 

I have not personally experienced or witnessed any gang activity during my ten weeks in San Salvador, but this is not to say that their presence is not felt everywhere.  Three of my classmates have been on buses where gang members have mounted and taken up a “voluntary” collection to pay for the funeral of one of their fallen brothers (though interestingly they, the foreigners, were not asked to give).  In a country where most commercial transactions are done in quarters, people pulled out dollars.

Most of the activity is localized in neighborhoods of San Salvador such as Apopa and Soyapango, but the gangs’ reach stretches throughout the country.

So why don’t the government and the police do something? 
As you know, I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist, but this is where the situation gets even more complicated.  During over fifteen years of one-party rule which extended from the Peace Accords in 1992 until earlier this year, the government adopted theoretically popular but ineffective set of policies to curb gang violence including “Mano Dura” and “Super Mana Dura” (Super Iron Fist).   Unfortunately, the policies were often used to crack down on civil liberties and opposition voices rather than to reign in the gangs.  And the gangs were seen as useful agents for the government when opposition figures caused trouble.                                                                                                      

 

Super Duper Mano Duro?

There is a widespread belief – and some would say fact – of connections between the gangs, the police, and high levels of government.  Most people of means are protected by private security forces and therefore don’t have the political will to compel the government and police to change.  And those security firms are owned by both the country’s most powerful political figures and individuals who give a lot of money to political campaigns.  The firms make a lot of money when there is insecurity, and so political figures benefit from the insecurity. 

This may be why there are more private security personnel than police in the country (some people have told me the ratio is 3:1, but from some brief online research the figures I found said 22,000 private security personnel compared to 16,000 policemen and women).  Everywhere you walk in San Salvador there are security contractors guarding homes and business, in uniform with large guns strapped over their shoulders.  It’s an interesting question.   Are there so many private security forces because of the violence, or is the violence perpetuated as a result of a reliance on private security?  I imagine there is a symbiosis between the two.   

You talking to me?  I need a license for this gun?

That the now-opposition Arena party is now railing against the new FMLN government’s inability to stop gang violence is simply a sign of the continuing political potency of the gang issue.  There are few issues, if any, that concern El Salvadorans more.

Who is a gang member?
For some it is clear – tattoos.  It is illegal to be a gang member, yet gang members often sport tattoos announcing their allegiance.  Thus, the Arena government used to arrest and detain individuals on the basis of their tattoos.  However, most were eventually released without charge due to lack of evidence of any actual wrongdoing. 

For others, there are no clear physical signs of membership.  What is clear is that there are so many gang members that have imbedded themselves into the fabric of the society that extracting them is a Sisyphean task.  How a community fights this phenomenon without tearing itself apart, I don’t know.

To add to the violence and confusion, there are other people who actually pretend to be gang members to benefit from the culture of fear.  A person extorting you for money sounds a like scarier when they say they are a member of “18”.  Would you ask for ID? 

NRA’s Dream World
Charleston Heston would have loved El Salvador.  Guns are really easy to get, as are licenses.  Don’t have a license?  No problem!  Of the private security firms I mentioned above, one-third have unlicensed weapons.  The U.N. has estimated there are over 450,000 firearms in El Salvador, 60% of them illegal.  Security firms, gang members, and average citizens all have pretty easy access to weapons, I am told.  The new government is trying to crack down, but I don’t have any sense of how successful they have been thus far. 

La Vida Loca

About a month into my stay in El Salvador, the country was gripped by the news of the assassination of famed French documentary filmmaker Christian Poveda.   Here is his obituary in the UK Guardian.

Poveda had spent years living among and researching the 18 Gang and its heavily tattooed members.  His goal was to try and help viewers understand "… why a child of 12 or 13 joins a gang, and gives his life for it."  The week before the release of his film in France and days before his death, Poveda expressed concern to his friends and family that some gang members and the police weren’t happy with the film, pirated copies of which were already floating around the country.  He was shot in the head by a gang member on September 2nd.  Said a Salvadoran photographer, quoted in the obituary above, “Christian is just one of the 10 who will die today... If you look long enough down the throat of the lion, he will eat you."  

I highly encourage everyone to Netflix La Vida Loca.  It is raw, and while violent is not overly graphic.  It is a sobering window into the gang culture of El Salvador, and leaves the viewer with a sense of - conspiracy theories aside - just how terribly difficult this issue will be to overcome.

El Salvador’s Currency

Yes, the U.S. Dollar.


El Salvador is one of three countries in Latin American that uses the U.S. Dollar – the others being Ecuador and Panama (four other independent nations also use the dollar: East Timor, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau).  The country made the controversial move in 2001, when the government unexpectedly announced one day in November that the country would be phasing out the colón (named after Christopher Columbus) and phasing in the dollar. 


The government at the time argued certain benefits would come from dollarization.  First, they felt that the dollar would help keep inflation in check (since dollarized countries tend to be more restricted in the amount of currency then can print, hyperinflation is a rarity).  Second, the move was also meant to boost investors’ confidence in the economy, reduce interest rates and increase foreign direct investment, and spur economic growth.  Indeed, foreign direct investment has climbed from $1.97 billion in 2000 to $2.6 billion in 2004.  Next, it was seen as a way to force the country to diversify its economy by financing public debt through ways other than printing money.  What is more, so much money is already sent in remittances from the U.S. in dollars – totaling more than one-third of the El Salvadoran economy – that simply having the dollar as a currency simplifies matters.


However, the move was deeply unpopular at the time and remains so among most El Salvadorans I have interacted with (though in full disclosure I don’t know many people from the upper class who might feel differently) for a number of reasons: 


• Prices spiked for every day goods during the turnover.  This is similar to what European countries have experienced with the changeover to the Euro; 
• The 8.75 colón to $1.00 exchange rate was tough to calculate while both currencies were still in circulation.  I’ve heard some stories about people struggling to figure out the conversion, leading to lots of wasted time and a run on calculators.  All through the streets, people could be seen punching in numbers - to such a degree that I imagine that among the greatest beneficiaries of dollarization were calculator manufacturers;
• For people who were illiterate, the new money was incomprehensible, at least for a time (they had relied on the colors of the previous currency as evidence of a bill’s denomination);
• El Salvadoran exports became more expensive than products from non-dollar countries, hurting local manufacturers;
• All of a sudden (and still) people had images on their money that meant absolutely nothing to them.  Can you imagine if the U.S. all of a sudden adopted another country’s currency?  It would be quite strange.  I have always been proud to look at our money and see great leaders like Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington staring back.  Sure, the cryptic symbolism on the reverse side might be a little confusing at times, but I like that our currency speaks to our history.  Of course, the primary objective of a currency is not to serve as an expression of national pride, but it is an added bonus; 
• Many people seem to see the changeover as simply another example of a corrupt, out-of-touch government making policy to benefit the wealthy (it’s hard to overstate the extent to which class comes into play in El Salvador, with its history of authoritarianism and incredible inequality).  I’m told there was a limit on the amount of colóns that could be exchanged into dollars in a day, which made both money laundering and getting your money out of the country quickly in case of political instability more difficult.  
• Many El Salvadorans are wary of giving the U.S. more control over decision-making in their country (of which we already has plenty).  They see dollarization as a loss of soverienty, for El Salvadoran monetary policy is now essentially made in Washington, DC.
• Finally, there’s no evidence that the change has measurably affected the lives of the poor, except to make consumer goods more expensive for them. 

I think the economic growth decision must have been the linchpin for the ruling party at the time (if not the corruption – I’m not in a position to say), for El Salvador had pretty stable inflation at the time and was not anywhere near a crisis.  While it could still turn out for the best, this quote from Latin American Politics and Society seems to echo most of the articles and reports that I found:


“GDP growth has averaged 1.9% over the past five years -- the most sluggish of any Central American country... Although this predicted growth may indeed take place in the future, the data collected thus far demonstrate that El Salvador did not need such a drastic measure and that the policy is not generating the expected economic growth.”


So the decision is still up for debate, though few talk seriously of going back to the colón.   The dollar is here to stay. 

First Rotary Speech (and in Spanish!)

I gave my first Rotary speech today to my host club, Club Cuscatlán, my first ever public speech done entirely in Spanish.  Unfortunately I neglected to ask anyone to take pictures during my speech and PowerPoint presentation, but I can report that it went well.  The approximately 40 minutes of speaking and questions went smoothly and won praise from the (albeit unconditionally supportive) audience of about 20 members.  I focused my speech on four topics: a brief history of Connecticut, Hamden and New Haven; an introduction to the Hamden Rotary Club and their projects in Hamden, CT and around the world; an overview of the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship Program, accompanied by a strong pitch for the Cuscatlán Club to sponsor local students; and finally an overview of social entrepreneurship and the impact organizations like VisionSpring are having in El Salvador and around the world.  


There were some times when I found myself reading my notes a bit – something I try hard to avoid when public speaking – but overall I was pleased with the performance.  I am already working on revisions and improvements before my second speech next week.  I have already scheduled five more speeches to other Rotary clubs in San Salvador and Santa Ana, and am in the process of scheduling speeches at local universities in order to promote the Rotary Scholarship Programs.

Sarah’s Visit and Sightseeing

I was thrilled to get a visit from Sarah this past week.  In addition to fitting in Spanish classes (to which Sarah accompanied me, building on her already solid Spanish), we paid visits to El Tuncon, the surfer beach I referenced in an earlier post; Lago Coatepeque, a beautiful crater lake in the west of the country; and El Pital, El Salvador’s highest point.  Gotta love small, accessible countries.

We started the week by relaxing on the Playa del Tuncon, or "Pig Beach":

El Tuncon, a quiet surfing hamlet

On the way to the beach...

Once again, Sarah proved herself to be the quick one, pointing out that the rock actually does look like a pig - a pig on its back

Sarah's "Baywatch" moment

Whoa Bro!

Sarah and me

At Lago Coatepeque, we hiked to the summit of the Santa Ana Volcano (an active volcano whose last eruption was in 2005) and took in fantastic views of the volcano’s crater:

View of Cerro Verde and Izalco Volcano on the hike to the Santa Ana Volcano

Me trying to keep up with Sarah, with view of Lake Coatepeque in the background

Sarah peers into the crater

Sarah and me above the Santa Ana crater

Great view of Lake Coatepeque

Storm brewing at dusk in front of our hotel

We also did a little canoeing around the lake and did some swimming:

In San Salvador, we celebrated Sarah’s 30th birthday with my host parents Rosa and Angel, our good friends Rafa, and my Japanese host step-brother Také.  

Here’s us singing rousing renditions of “Feliz Cumpleaños” and “Queremos Pastel” (“Happy Birthday” and “We Want Cake”):    

Také, Rafa, Angel, Rosa and Sarah

Next, Sarah and I hiked to the top of the San Salvador Volcano, this one long since dormant.

San Salvador Volcano

Then, this past weekend we hiked to El Salvador’s highest point.  To be honest, it was a little anti-climatic, what with the cloud obscured views and the barbed wire fence running over the marker at the summit, but we did enjoy a nice hike.

To El Pital or to The Clouds?  A false choice.

At El Salvador's highest point (2730m)

Sarah reaches the top.  Whew!

Seriously, this is the only view from the summit

Can you say, LOST?  You could almost hear Rousseau's message playing... "Il est dehors..."

Sarah takes a ride on the zip line

A nicer view from near the summit

Finally, we toured around the famous city of La Palma.  La Palma is an eclectic art enthusiast's dream, and is where Fernando Llort, El Salvadoran painter of world fame, founded what is called “Naïve Art” and formed local cooperatives to learn the style and make a living from it.  From the Lonely Planet: “These bright, primitive images of mountain villages, campesinos [villagers] or Christ images are painted on anything from seeds to church walls.”  Incredibly, 75% of the town makes a living through this art form.  Here’s a selection of sights from La Palma.  


Seriously, almost everything becomes art in this town:

Garage Door

Brick wall

Telephone post

Decorative park wall

Sidewalk

Park bench

Building in town

Restaurant wall

And yes, municipal garbage truck (see top of truck bed)