Pupusas on top of the world

So I made it to San Salvador safe and sound despite traveling through Honduras during a military coup. I actually didn´t even notice there was a coup happening, nor did I know anything about it until Walberto and Larry from CBC told me when they picked me up at the Tica Bus station.

Before arriving here, I spent a lovely 4 days in Managua visiting friends in Barrio Walter Ferretti and La Centroamerica. I´ll post pictures next time, as I don´t feel comfortable yet wandering around San Salvador with my camera. There has been a lot of gang violence in the barrio in the last year- basically, if you´re a teenage boy, your life is in danger just sitting outside of your house. Last week, a 19-year old was killed with a machete by members of Los Perros, although he wasn't part of any gang himself. Despite this, I got to meet my friend Gustavo's new 3-month old baby girl, take everyone out for pupusas, get caught up on gossip, and eat my friend Tere's unbeatably delicious pollo asado, tostones and frijoles molidos. Being in Managua felt like being home again, with the intense heat, chaotic streets and hot sticky school buses belting out clouds of exhaust. And it was so nice to spend time with everyone there.

Here in San Sal, Larry and Walberto gave me a wonderful welcome. First they dropped me off at my apartment in a pretty upscale neighborhood right behind the Chilean embassy. It´s probably the nicest place I've lived in all my travels in Central America. After resting for a couple of hours, they took me out for pupusas in Los Planes, a hilltop scenic overlook of the city surrounded by tiny pupuserías with wooden tables set up on the sidewalk. Larry and Walberto are perhaps two of the most warm and welcoming people I've ever met. I immediately felt comfortable with them as we talked about the coup, the work of CBC, and life in San Salvador and Managua. This week I'll be my orientation week, so I'll post more about CBC's work later on. Saludos!

Introduction

Hello all! I wanted to start this blog to be able to keep in touch with everyone about my experiences this summer working with Centro Bartolome de las Casas in San Salvador, El Salvador. I was able to organize this internship through the University of Chicago's Human Rights Fellowship program. I knew I wanted to work with an organization doing gender-based violence prevention work and a colleague suggested looking into CBC. The organization is run by a small and brilliant team who I feel very lucky to be able to work with and learn from. They do a variety of community development programs assisting communities in overcoming the trauma of the very brutal war that took place from 1980-1992 (the US funded a lot of human rights abuses in this war).

One of the programs they run is called Escuela Equinoccio Masculinities Program. The program seeks to "recreate more equal and inclusive relationships between men and women characterized by environmental sustainability and reflection about what it means to be a man. The program addresses knowledge of the body and sexuality as well as the social repurcussions the traditional construction of masculinity, with great influence of machismo, has for both women and men." I'll be supporting this program as well, although I'm not yet sure about the details. I'm sure I'll be writing more about the war and about the programs at CBC.

The pictures here are from the historic inauguration on June 1st of the first left-leaning president of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes of the FMLN. There's more info about El Salvador and the elections on the website for the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, www.cispes.org.