Almost every corner was marked.
In one neighborhood, the telephone pole was painted with red, white and blue stripes ““ colors of the Nationalist Republican Alliance, also known as ARENA, El Salvador’s ruling government party for 20 years, said Jesse Melgar, a fourth-year political science student who returned from El Salvador last week.
In another neighborhood, the poles were red, the color of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, also known as the FMLN party.
It was a sight that was not too uncommon for any of the 33 students who traveled to EL Salvador in February as delegates from UCLA and several other public universities.
“It is almost like being in a war zone,” said Melgar, who is also the external vice-president of the undergraduate student government.
Their trip came just weeks before the country’s presidential election ““ set for March 15 ““ and allowed the students to immerse themselves for a week in their families’ home country.
The delegation was organized by the Union Salvadorena de Estudiantes Universitarios, which was originally founded in El Salvador in 2006 and has since grown to include students from several University of California, Cal State University and a community college campuses.
While in El Salvador, the student delegates spoke to other students, scholars and members of the community to gain perspective on life in a country they had come to know only through the media and family.
“It wasn’t something we talked about. It was sort of taboo,” Melgar said. Still, he added, the trip allowed him to finally overcome his anxieties about his father’s homeland and understand the country’s beauty amidst all of its turmoil.
“It is a beautiful place and, sure, it is tainted because of its bloody history, … but it’s a place that people really love and care about. It was a place misunderstood by me,” he said.
For many, the trip was an opportunity to learn more about their family’s cultural history while exploring the socioeconomic status of El Salvador.
While Nancy Zuniga, a fifth-year chemistry student and student delegate, tried her best to learn as much as she could from news sources and family, it was not enough.
“I needed that: that first-hand experience.”
Jessica Juarez, a fourth-year Chicana and Chicano studies student and delegate said that while she is half-Mexican and half-Salvadorean, she knew little about her Salvadorean culture besides the “pupusas” she often ate at home.
She said that for her, it was about “needing to see and find and live what it is like … over there.”
But while there, something happened.
It was no longer about learning for learning’s sake. It became something that everyone needed to try and change, Zuniga said.
“I just saw people flame up,” she said, referring to how students began to speak more freely about their views.
After traveling the country and speaking with fellow students from the club’s chapter in El Salvador, it became clear that the current situation in the country had to change, several students said.
The presidential election could signal an important change for the country. If the FMLN party candidate, Mauricio Funes, wins the presidency, El Salvador would join a growing number of left-leaning governments in Latin America. It would also break 20 years of a ARENA government, which came to power toward the end of the country’s civil war in 1989.
Zuniga said she remembers being slightly surprised at how so many civilians spoke openly about the corruption and inequalities in the country.
She said that, after seeing the great need for education, she felt even more compelled to help in some way.
“I already knew I was privileged, but not to that extent,” she said.
As their week-long trip came to a conclusion, it became clear that the everyone had been changed, Zuniga said. Now, she said, everyone felt they needed to spread the word about El Salvador and educate others about their experiences.
As part of that effort, the delegates hosted a debriefing session Thursday evening in Haines Hall where they shared their findings with faculty and students.
The event provided members in attendance, many of whom were of Salvadorean descent, a first-hand account of the country’s present situation.
After experiencing and seeing first-hand everything they did, Zuniga said it was hard to not try to do something.
“I heard a lot of people say that they had to rethink their future plans.”