Research Paper on El Salvador: Culture and Agriculture in Central America

The Country and Its People

Located between Honduras and Guatemala, El Salvador covers an area of 8,256 square miles. Mountains separate the country into the northern mountains, central valleys and plateaus, and the southern coastal belt. Each section is associated with various crops grown in each which contributes to its cultural variations. The coastal region is known for cane, while the mountains are known for coffee. Corn and beans which are meant for private use and sale are grown in the central valleys. The central region, in which the capital San Salvador is situated, is where most activities are taking place. The farming activities in these divisions are the significant sources of labor and income for the Salvadorians. Other cities include Santa Ana towards the west and San Miguel in the east. El Salvador is the most densely populated and yet the smallest of all countries in Central America. The country hosts about 6.1 million people who are of mixed origins in terms of race (Boland, 2001). It is considered as the most racially mixed county in terms of race, in the western hemisphere. The inhabitants of El Salvador include the Native Americans from the North, Central, and South America together with their descendants. These people include the Lenca people, the Maya, the Cacaopera and the Pipil people. Other inhabitants include Latin Americans, Hispanic persons, and Ibero-Americans. Also part of this population are the mestizos, people of mixed races particularly between Europeans and those of indigenous American descent. The Mestizos make up 94% of the country's population. The Native Americans take 5% while those of European ancestry, mainly the Germans, the English and the Spanish take the remaining 1 percent (An Overview of El Salvador, n.d.). While people of African origin were brought to El Salvador in the sixties to work in the plantations, they intermarried with the locals and later assimilated fully. Because of that, Africans and their cultural practices do not exist in El Salvador. Many Salvadorians, including their scholars, are not therefore aware of African heritage, and the contributions they made to the mestizo culture. Most works of literature and cultural encyclopedias do not mention the presence of Africans in the country. The conventional view is that the ancestors of El Salvadorians were majorly Indians-Lenca, Pokomam, or Pipil, with some strains of colonial African slaves and their Spanish masters. These ancestral groups have blended and mixed entirely by blood and culture creating something different (Boland, 2001).

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There are so many reasons why El Salvador is different from many other six Central American countries. For instance, it is viewed as the only country without a Garifuna, Afro-Antillean or Miskito population. The nation's connection with Africans dates back to the time of Spanish colonial rule (Appelbaum, Macpherson & Rosemblatt, 2003). Even though migration also brought Africans to Central America later, they are assumed not to have settled in El Salvador. Because of this assumption, most Salvadorians know that their country is the only one in the region that does not have a black population (Akbar, 2018). This aspect is not entirely true because, for almost five centuries, the Salvadorian community mixed its bloodlines totally into one multiracial society (Boland, 2001). This is the reason why to even the most enlightened Salvadorians it is a daunting task to trace the cultures of the African descendants remotely. However, the rise of the mullato and Zambo communities provides a route through which culture can be viewed. Some slaves sought freedom through intermarriages. Zambos refer to individuals of mixed African ancestry and Native Americans. The mixing of the Spanish, the Africans, and the natives can be attributed to the rise of the mulatto and the Zambos. Due to slavery and unfair treatment by their masters, Africans preferred to marry Indian women who also preferred marrying the blacks so that their offspring or descendants would be born free (Akbar, 2018). So the Mestizos, the Mullatos and the Zambos including all other Native Americans people, intermingled with each other so much so that they created the mestizo population. When the colonial era ended, the population did not retain strong individual ethnic identities. When the country got independence in 1821, the Salvadorian population was 50 percent multiracial. Today, it is more than 90 percent multiracial (Boland, 2001). Therefore, the contribution of the Native Americans of Afro Salvadorians to the Salvadorian culture comes through a conglomeration of other ethnicities which have lived in El Salvador for years. Notably, the mix between Latin American and Native American cultures majorly bring up the Salvadorian culture. The Lenca, Maya, Cacaopera, and the Pipil people have all contributed to the nation's way of life (Appelbaum, Macpherson & Rosemblatt, 2003). The blending of various racial and ethnic groups means that studying Salvadorian culture the African route can be futile. However, the focus on the Mestizo, the mulatto, the Native American tribes and the Zambos should give useful insights with which the influence on the cultural evolution of Afro-Salvadorian Native Americans can be deduced.

Salvadorian Foods and Culture

The Salvadorian cuisine boasts of various influences especially by the Spanish and Amerindian cuisines (Long, 2015). The predominant dish in Salvadorian food is corn, but other varieties including beef, chicken, and pork are also eaten in El Salvador. Chicken or turkey is always marinated before roasting using Pipil spices. Panes relleno also known as a submarine sandwich or hoagie is a stuffed bread whose origin can be traced to Italy. Seafood is another commonality in El Salvador whereby shrimp, clams, snails, squids, and octopus form part of the delicacies. Also loved by the locals include the Pupusa which is a stuffed tortilla comprising of rice or corn flour that is also stuffed with pork, cheese or any other fillings. Being a primarily agricultural nation, El Salvador consumes refried beans, yucca frita, and deep fried cassava roots. This is commonly served with prickles consisting of onions, carrots and cabbage toppings. Pollo encebollado-chicken and onion food- is another delicious delicacy consumed by the locals. The food contains chicken that has been simmered with onions (Long, 2015). Loroco which is an edible flower bud that is considered by the vegetarians, who can also take a type of squash called ayote. Influenced by the Mexican-American affiliations, Carne guisada, which is a sauced beef served with carrots and potatoes, is enjoyed by the Native Americans of El Salvador. Carne asada is usually a grilled steak typically served with chimol, a kind of Salvadorian salsa. The rich foods enjoyed by Salvadorians include spices with Indian and Spanish origins (Boland, 2001).

Performance Arts, Music, and Dance

The Salvadorian music consists of a mixture of sounds from the Lenca, Cacaopera, Pipil, Maya and Spanish music. Some of the songs influenced by these peoples include gospel songs that they use in religious occasions like the celebration of Christmas because the majority of El Salvador is Christian. Other sons are used to celebrating holidays including feasts days set aside for the saints. It is common to hear both rural lyrical and satirical themes in some of these songs; the vents are culturally motivated by various aspects with links to traditions of each group. The infiltration of Mexican, Cuban and Colombia music in El Salvador especially salsa has made social occasions so memorable and enjoyable for the Salvadorians. Traditional musical instruments include xylophones, flutes, scrapers, drums, and gourds (Wade, 2000). Guitars and other modern instruments have only become popular in the recent past. Additional musical repertoire includes the marcha, Danza, and pasilla. The country has a rich culture musically with songs ranging from folk to mesmerizing contemporary sounds. Native Mesoamerican indigenous music is at the center of the Salvadorian cultural identity. Salvadorian hip hop/rap, reggae, and rock have also grown over the years becoming popular among the Salvadorian youth (Olsen & Sheehy, 2017).

The ethnicity and race of Native Americans of Afro Salvadorians contribute to the performing arts such as dance, music, and drama. Folk and popular music in El Salvador is greatly influenced by many ethnicities including Africans who were taken there as slaves. The marimba, which is the national folk instrument, has its origin from Africa. It found its way to Guatemala before the rest of Central America including El Salvador during the colonial period (An Overview of El Salvador, n.d.). In both form and style, all tunes and melodies played by the marimba in El Salvador are representative of African, American, as well as European influences. Strong connections can be observed between Salvadorian popular music and dances, with those of western, African and Central America. Cultural observers have linked Salvadorian popular social dances with the Afro-Caribbean dances and rhythms. This suggests that the inhabitants of El Salvador adopted such cultural aspects from earlier inhabitants. Wade (2000) observes beyond doubt that black people or Africans naturally know how to dance and likens this to the blacks in Colombia who embody dances and performances. The author attributes certain Salvadorian dance moves to its native descendants from the African origin. Salvadorian popular events are not complete without cultural dances, music and other traditional performances especially the Afro-Caribbean dance moves (Akbar, 2018). In the center of these events are some music such as the Cuban rumba-Bolero, the Merengue of the Dominican Republic and the Cumbia from Colombia.

Dance is one of the significant aspects of the Salvadorian culture. The dance of Christians and the Moors indicates a fusion of the Mayan culture and that of the European influence. Because the Mayans are indigenous Mesoamericans, they believe in the supernatural being as well as the demons and all these beliefs are embodied in their dances. During such performances, dancers dress up in attires symbolizing the period of the Spanish conquest. The costumes include huge masks bearing decorations done with antique coins which are usually placed around dancers' heads. They also adorn boots while carrying swords as they march to symbolize a crucial part of their history (Akbar, 2018). The dances are occasionally planned to coincide with religious festivals especially those associated with Catholicism. In these dance performances, the moors, clowns, Christians, and demons are engaged in fights while wearing masks and assuming animal characters. The "Negritos de Cacaopera" translated as from Spanish as the black people from Cacaopera, is a popular dance in El Salvador which is associated with people from African descent (Olsen & Sheehy, 2017).

A lot of dramatization is involved in these dances with each particular bearing importance to the Salvadorians. There are various native dances including the dance of the Chapetones which reminds people of that descent of the Spanish stories (Ferreira, 2007). The dance of the mare involves men dressing mares and picking up fights with others. In the dance of the tiger, a few men who set out to hunt a tiger. One of the performers has to dress in a piece of clothing that resembles a tiger. Other dances include that of the lance, little bull, and wild pig (Wade, 2000). These dances are symb...