The Conscious Traveler: El Salvador
El Salvador sits right in the middle of the Central American backpacker trail. Often the route starts in either Mexico or Guatemala, goes through El Salvador, Nicaragua and concludes in Costa Rica. This trail is often done by European backpackers and can be done in the reverse, starting in Costa Rica and ending in Mexico. This trail is normally done over a 2-6 month span and oftentimes Honduras is bypassed because of apparent danger that from my experience is untrue. Costa Rica is a start or ending point often deemed too expensive, so, many backpackers don't spend much time there and the same with Belize. Ironically these two places are where you will find high levels of American vacationers that have only 2 weeks out of the year to enjoy to themselves due to the average Americans work schedule not allowing much free time and also American expat communities for the people that completely do not live in the U.S. any more, because although these places are more expensive than their Central American counterparts, they are still cheaper than the cost of living in the US, and are deemed more safe than El Salvador for reasons that are no longer true in the year 2024. Then there is Panama which I very rarely see people go to or talk about on this trail. Oftentimes Panama is used for the ferry/cruise that travels down to Colombia for travelers looking to continue their journey to South America. I will be dedicating an article to each of these countries including Panama, but for now I will be talking about El Salvador.
The Traveling Fair
When I arrived in El Salvador the carnival was in town, not the “Carnival” that it seems every country in Africa, South/ North America and the Caribbean celebrates for a month except the US and Canada, but a national carnival that traveled around each city in El Salvador stopping for a month each. I, to my enjoyment, picked a place to stay that was a block away from the festivities. I would go almost every night to enjoy a different part of the Carnival and eat some good street food. From my rooftop I would watch the nightly fireworks show with my new, but temporary neighbors. It was a great way to meet and get to know the people in the community I was living in.
I Won’t Be Playing Here Again
One night while strolling through downtown San Salvador I came across a spot playing house music loud enough to hear it from the outside. I walked in and it had an atmosphere that was reminiscent of a venue in an American city. I sat down and watched the old classic Looney Toons clips that they played on the tvs while I drank my tequila and listened to the music. This place clearly was for the elites of San Salvador and the international businessmen that came to visit them. I had a few conversations with a group that were dealing in textiles but switched to a different sector that proved to be more lucrative after the pandemic . The women there were the whitest women in El Salvador. If they were from El Salvador or were visiting, it did not matter. It was clear that the elites had chosen these fairer skinned European passing women as a status symbol.Which is unfortunate, Because the Salvadoran women were beautiful. I talked to the owner of the bar and found out his father had bought this bar for him after he had gone and studied in the US for a time. I also learned that they were looking for a DJ to play on the weekends. So being the traveling DJ that I am, I took this opportunity to sign myself up for the gig and maybe make some money while in a country that uses the US dollar as its currency.
That weekend I went in to set up for my set for later in the evening. I was being helped by an Argentinian man who had been working there behind the bar for the afternoon shifts. We started to talk about the places I had been to and if I plan on going to Argentina. I told him, yes, Argentina is on the list. As I started to name off the list of places I had been, Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, I got to Cuba and the Dominican Republic and that’s when he stopped me to tell me he hates Cuba and the Dominican Republic. He went on to say that he thinks that they speak Spanish like “absolute dog shit” and refers to them as dirty. He spoke at length about this, not even realizing the xenophobia that he is expressing. When I called him out on it he seemed to not even understand what I was talking about. To him it was just a diaspora war, sort of like in the international black community, but the reality of it is many people in Argentina are white skinned and are more recent descendants of European Fascists like German Nazis, which makes sense for him to be working in such an establishment.
Anyway, I set up and went home. Around 8 or 9 O’clock I head back to the spot and start to DJ. I put on one of my best sets I have ever done and even did an after party at one of the patrons houses. The bar owner still owes me about half of my pay to this day though. I never returned to do the other weekends either. It was not worth it. I can tolerate the self hatred and obtaining a white woman to boost your social status, because that’s personal to their identities and tied to their self hatred. I never want to work with that Argentinian guy again though.
Almost Had the Chance to Fight Again
Before leaving Guatemala I was told by my friend, Gabe, that there was this Central American Muay Thai card that I Should sign up for and fight in. At the time I was interested in the idea, but there was no way I could have spent that much time in Guatemala, there was too much that I had to go and see and experience elsewhere. Luckeliy I was able to get a second shot while in El Salvador, or at least I almost did. I walked into 300 MMA and hit it off with the group instantly. I got the most training in at that gym since I fought in Mexico. After about a week of training there consistently the coach Francisco asked me if I wanted to fight for the gym because the guy they were going to send had gotten injured if I remember correctly.
The great thing about Muay Thai in Central America and Muay Thai in general is that even on the international scale it is still a pretty tight knit and small circle. When Francisco called the promoter in Guatemala he had already known who I was because Gabe in Guatemala and other coaches had been posting videos of me on their Instagram and I had trained with a couple of his boys. He had a match for me pretty quickly and I was training hard every day because the fight was only in three weeks. I was training a bit too hard and not as smart as I normally do. About two weeks about from the fight I sparred with a kid about 18 or 19 years old. He swept me and when I went down my elbow bent the wrong way. If I had not been double jointed I would have snapped it. I nursed it back over the weekend and spent the next week working kicks and other strikes till my arm came back to use. I did all of this for nothing. About a week before the fights Francisco tells me the promoter let him know that my opponent is dropping out. Something about the fight was put on too close to train properly for it. I guess my opponent was right. I have a feeling I am going to be feeling this injury in about 10 or 20 years.
Infustructure and Mass Modernization
Out of all the Cities in Central America, besides San Jose and maybe downtown Panama City, San Salvador has some of the best infrastructure I have seen. The availability of things and the vast amount of places to check up on your health, buy quality items and other things is a day and night difference compared to places such as Managua in Nicaragua or San Pedro Sula in Honduras. These cities have facilities and infrastructure, but it is not on the scale of San Salvador. I have made it this deep in the article without mentioning the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele. He is to thank for the cleaning up of El Salvador and the placement of all of its resources, but change at this scale and in this timely manner does not go without consequences. I will get to that part later.
Due to the mass urbanization and size of San Salvador, most places in El Salvador can feel as if they are the outskirts of the metropolitan area. Oftentimes it can feel as if you never really escape San Salvador. When you get the chance to get to an area of El Salvador where you can be deep in nature it can be an experience like no other. Me and my dog would go to the national parks and spend endless hours there. Oftentimes if you head into a piece of nature in El Salvador it is connected to a national park due to them needing to hold onto any sort of nature that is still there. With that said, they have beautiful waterfalls and although I have not seen for myself, amazing volcanoes. If you are into nature though I would say there are many other places to go in Central America that will blow your mind in a way El Salvador does not have to offer in the same capacity. The beaches in El Salvador are perfect for surfing and most of the people I know go there for that exact reason. The beaches are not the prettiest though. Most surfers head to rock beaches and the ones that regular travelers go to are what I would consider black sand beaches similar to Northern California around Marin County, just with more peaceful waves and less bugs. I am no beach snob and think every beach has something to offer, but I have spoken with others that think the beaches of El Salvador, outside of surfing, are pretty mediocre.
One negative about El Salvador and also other Central American countries as well, is that there is an obsession with the U.S. and how the U.S. does things. I would bet if I were not an American the Argentinian bartender would disapprove of me being there for being black, or resembling Hispanic people that he deems as dirty. I bet the Salvadorian bouncer wouldn’t have even let me in. That is the interesting thing about many places in Latin America. A friend of mine in Haiti used to tell me his biggest dream was to marry a white woman and move to the U.S. I don’t want to focus on individuals though because it is more of a systemic issue when it comes to this western obsession. The use of bitcoin as a viable legal tender. The mass surveillance, which in some part is due to what most people would think or consider as high crime, is really in many ways just these countries trying to prove to the west how safe they are in the western lense. The mass amounts of gated communities that have little to no benefits and all the frustrations that come with lack of privacy. The armed police officer in military attire on each corner and in each store. All of these things are not only signs of totality, but they are done in some part to simply show the US and Western European countries that they should have a seat at the table.
Who to Thank, or Who to Blame
President Bukele is loved by the Salvadorian people. They akin him to Jesus Christ and photoshop his face onto Christ's body and put it onto t-shirts. In many ways for the average person this praise is, or at least seems warranted. He cleaned up a country plagued with hyper gang activity where children would get killed going to school and men would be killed for not joining. Women would be kidnapped and used for whatever the assailants wanted to use them for. And within less than half a decade Bukel came in and cleaned that up. He made El Salvador safe for the people. He built infrastructure and modernized the country. Cleaning up the country is not what is wrong with Bukele and I understand why people praise him. The issue is within the way he has done so. Bukele has gone on a mass incarceration tirade in El Salvador arresting anyone and everyone who even closely resembles a member of MS13 or any other gang. This has led to the mass incarceration of innocent people being profiled for the way that they look. Some reports up to 60,000 people are wrongful incarcerated in Salvadoran prisons. The people that are free are completely okay with that unless they have some sort of idea or set of beliefs that will help them realize this is fascism and the beginning days of a dictatorship. Actually he willingly calls himself the “cool dictator”. He already has changed and shaped the laws for him to serve another illegal term in office. The people of El Salvador are in danger and are going to be in more danger in the near to distant future. The hyper surveillance of the state on its people have led protesters to be arrested and jailed due to protesting the regime being illegal. James Baldwin once said in a conversation with Nicky Giovani-
“You can not call Spain a powerful nation, you can not call Franco a powerful man. He has a whole nation in jail, but that is not power”
-James Baldwin
The same can be implied for El Salvador and Bukele.
Urbanization Leading to Harsher Climate
On another note although the hyper modernization of El Salvador feels like a good thing, it is in many ways absolutely the wrong thing for its people. While in El Salvador I felt an insane difference in temperature and intensity of the sun. Now on one hand I did just leave Guatemala which is at a higher elevation and is much cooler because so, but on the other hand while in El Salvador I asked if I was wrong for feeling the temperature is out of control for the area and many people told me it used to not be that way, but due to the hyper modernization and the cutting of trees for glass buildings and concrete and asphalt streets and sidewalks the feeling of the temperature rising has kicked in and El Salvador is a small country. What happens in San Salvador and other rural areas affects the lives of pretty much all Salvadorians. Not to mention that because of this mass modernization El Salvador has to import most of the food that they eat, because vast amounts of farmland has been destroyed to make way for highways and other forms of infrastructure. While I was in Nicaragua I helped out at a Finca and all of our plantain and banana were shipped to El Salvador due to them not having enough of their own.
Finale Thoughts
Going back to Bukele being a dictator, he exudes many of the traits other dictators had in the past when they first started out. The not giving up of power when it is time for you to give up power, the over policing and mass incarceration of innocent people based on what they look like, the status of being some sort of god by the spared class. All of these are signs of a fascist dictator, for certain a dictator in his early days. The people for the most part are on his side, but that day when their rights are also stripped in the name of security or in the name of modernization they will finally try to rise up, but it may be too late.
