My Father's Life Story

Christian C.

Period 1

May 3, 2012 

My Father's Life Story

       My dad, Elmer Cruz, was born in Cuscatlan, El Salvador on May 20, 1962. He is the oldest of five brothers. When he lived in El Salvador, when he was around seventeen, had to take care of his brothers and make sure they did all the tasks her mother gave the. His mom worked at the market selling fruit and vegetables and his dad worked fixing roads so he was never at home. He was around seventeen when the civil war broke out. “Significant tensions and violence had already existed, before the civil war's full outbreak, over the course of the 1970s” (NCW). The war was not that bad where my dad and his family lived but he saw things he’d never seen before. They used to go to San Salvador every weekend to get some food and stuff for the house. It was really dangerous to go to the capital at that time because many people got killed every day but it was more like a necessity for them to go there and buy cheaper food. “Countless disappeared and More than 75,000 people were killed” (ES). A few years later, my dad decided to come to the United States and work to help his parents and brother.

Civil War in El Salvador

       The Salvadoran Civil War (1980–1992) was a conflict in El Salvador between the military-led government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or umbrella organization of five left-wing guerrilla groups. Significant tensions and violence had already existed, before the civil war's full outbreak, over the course of the 1970s. El Salvador's Civil War was the second longest civil war in Latin America after the Guatemalan Civil War. The United States supported the Salvadoran military dictatorship. The conflict ended in the early 1990s. Countless disappeared and More than 75,000 people were killed.

          Since the early thirties, El Salvador had been ruled by the military with support from the country's landed elite. Military leaders had been pro-fascist during World War II, but by the 1950s at least some of them were leaning more toward the values of those who won that war. Some younger officers had reformist views, and, beginning in 1956, a military-civilian coalition took power, led by a reform-minded lieutenant colonel, José María Lemus. El Salvador’s agricultural elite and more conservative military officers said the government was influenced by Communism. Castro took power in Cuba in 1959, and, in January, 1961, these more conservative officers took power in a coup and announced their anti-Communist and anti-Castro convictions. The new regime promised elections, and in 1962 the junta’s candidate, Lieutenant Colonel Julio Adalberto Rivera, was elected president, and he was succeeded in 1967 by Colonel Fidel Sánchez Hernández. 

Works Cited

Gentleman, Marvin E. "Salvadorian Civil War." Fsmitha. 15 Aug. 2001. 13 Apr. 2012.Digital