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SalvaCultura

Central american

politics, culture, and  analysis

SalvaCultura founder Featured in Remezcla On Central American Voseo

11/4/2016

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SalvaCultura founder Daniel Alvarenga was featured in Remezcla writing about Central Americans in the United States reclaiming voseo, an emblematic feature of Central American Spanish that clashes with the standard variety. This tension between the use of the pronouns "vos" and "tú" also reveals sociolinguistic tensions between Central Americans and Mexicans on the West Coast:
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"Growing up near LA, I was never taught voseo. In fact, my parents prided themselves in teaching me tuteo because it meant their child grew up speaking “proper” Spanish. And it meant I would fit in easier with my Mexican-American neighbors. To my family, speaking Mexican Spanish started on the perilous journey crossing through Mexico as a way to shield themselves from potential xenophobic violence. As Mexico deports a record number of Central Americans, the same is likely true today."
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#GrowingUpSalvadorian: Salvadoran American Twitter Represents

7/4/2016

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By Daniel Alvarenga
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Photo taken by Daniel Alvarenga at Central American Independence Parade in Los Angeles, 2013.
Salvadoran Americans came out last week to make #GrowingUpSalvadorian, a trending hashtag on Twitter. At its peak, it had 24,000 tweets and in the days following, many more trickled in. We’re the 4th largest Latinx group in the United States, and some say we are poised to be the 3rd. Despite that, we’ve gotten used to the fact that we’re invisible in US media in Spanish or English. The only regular representations I see of us is as MS-13 gang members, voiceless but never listened-to refugees, or any freakshow that makes us look exceptionally backwards (I see you Primer Impacto). This hashtag was refreshing because we weren't only representing ourselves, but also celebrating ourselves. I also couldn’t help but notice some recurring themes.  
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For starters, we cannot come to a consensus on what to call ourselves in English and how to spell it – Salvadorian, Salvadorean, or Salvadoran. If you’re writing an academic paper or news article, go with Salvadoran. It will make you sound proper and educated. The reality is that most people, including actual Salvadoran Americans, will use Salvadorian or Salvadorean—it just sounds natural to us. However, it is never and will never be El Salvadorian, El Salvadoran, or El Salvadorinian or you'll never be invited to the pupusería again and have to eat frozen Whole Foods pupusas over the sink alone for the rest of your life. 

When most Salvadorans don't know that Salvadorian or Salvadorean is wrong #growingupSalvadoran

— Chaya (@sarahdsntcare) June 30, 2016

When you cringe when people call you El Salvadorian ("el" means the in Spanish so you're saying "the salvadorian" □#growingUpSalvadoran

— Fatima Duran (@findingfati) July 1, 2016

When your most significant media representation is a misspelled hashtag #growingupsalvadorian □ pic.twitter.com/NYdyno0iLL

— SalvaCultura ✊ (@SalvaCultura) June 30, 2016
What brings together a people divided by the lingering politics of a brutal civil war, transnational displacement, and generational trauma? The answer is food: pan con chumpe, 100 lbs of contraband queso duroblandito – all watered down with a plastic baggie of kolashampan. 

Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years, Graduation, Birthdays #GrowingUpSalvadorian pic.twitter.com/5TEri1VKBM

— MANDA (@MadamSteamfunk) June 30, 2016

#GrowingUpSalvadorian the bestttttttt omg pic.twitter.com/Z6L8P1JPIM

— nicole (@feministmami) June 30, 2016

#GrowingUpSalvadorian only soda to get when you go to a Salvadorian restaurant pic.twitter.com/6DHIilFDYZ

— Aaron (@soriano_60) June 30, 2016
Other Northern Triangle folks from Guatemala and Honduras took up their own hashtags and reminded us Salvadorans that they share an isthmus with us. 

#GrowingupHonduran you love all of this pic.twitter.com/q0v7Mg4miX

— aleida Ally (@beysembaevay) August 1, 2015

But pollo campero is Guatemalan, y'all can't take that from us #growingupguatemalan https://t.co/eEAabh3T6s

— marlyn (@margr0d) June 30, 2016

Ha ha. Even though I'm Guatemalan these tweets are giving me life. #growingupcentralamerican https://t.co/1uJWX8KPAa

— Maya Chinchilla (@chachachapina) June 30, 2016

#GrowingUpHonduran #GrowingUpSalvadoran
Using the word "vos" instead of the word "tu."

— Dina Reyes (@dinareyes_0304) July 15, 2015
So much about being ourselves is speaking our rich Caliche Spanish and unapologetic voseo. It speaks for itself. 

#GrowingUpSalvadorian when no one understands what tf you mean when you say colocho, pajilla, chiniar, sincho, puchica, bolado, chele, etc

— Emely Valdez (@sailormouth7) June 30, 2016

#GrowingUpSalvadorian Going to a hispanic restaurant and asking for a pajilla(straw) and getting a confused face

— SACELY RRRIVERS (: (@Taaachhhi) June 29, 2016

#GrowingUpSalvadorian when your family are in el chisme and all you hear is them gasping or saying "fijate vos" "nombre vos"

— lesly (@leslys_) June 30, 2016

Your Mexican friends asking if you were speaking a foreign language with your own family. #GrowingUpSalvadorian #GrowingUpSalvadoran

— Dichos de un bicho (@DichosdeunBicho) June 30, 2016
When you're from Latin America’s smallest nation, there is so much that goes unsaid in mainstream Latinx media. There were astute observations all around. 

"I'm Salvadorian" "That's the same thing as Mexican " #GrowingUpSalvadorian pic.twitter.com/xBtaQDB4K2

— emiy (@emily_anaya) June 16, 2016

#growingupSalvadorian getting roasted on every time a soccer event is on because you're Salvadorian

— ♥️بریجت (@Bvxvo_) June 30, 2016

#GrowingUpSalvadorian having to wait hours at the airport cause they won't let your Tia out with 6000 pounds of queso

— Hispanic Folk (@High_Life_Joe) June 30, 2016

I hate the #GrowingUpSalvadorian hashtag. Its literally so relatable that I feel exposed lmao

— baby (@kingfidias) June 23, 2016
SC
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The Gentrification of Pupusas: frijol con queso, but hold, Detain, the Salvadorans!

3/18/2016

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By Daniel Alvarenga
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A pupusa in its natural habitat. Suchitoto, El Salv.
​The first time I saw white people in a pupusería was on my first trip to San Francisco's Mission district in the mid-2000s. Growing up in inland Southern California I had never in my life seen a nuclear White family venture into the hood to have the fried, flat delicacy of my people. As they walked in, my Salvadoran-American guides to The City scoffed something about “displacement and invasion” under their breaths – this wasn’t a scene of first contact. 

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Mini-Doc on Afro-Oaxaqueños by Afro-Salvadoreño

1/30/2015

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Undergrad Anthro-Linguist and friend of Salva Cultura Andy Amaya spent several months in 2014 traveling through Mexico, with a special focus on learning from and conviviendo with African descendant people in Oaxaca. Andy is of Afro-Salvadoran heritage and felt compelled to make a DIY mini-documentary titled “Así somos los negros”  shedding light on lives of Black people in Mexico. Watch the full 26 minute video above and read more about Andy Amaya below.  


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SalvCultura Editor Jorge Cuellar Goes to United Nations World Conference on Indigenous Peoples

9/30/2014

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PictureIn Feb. 2014, Jorge Cuéllar served as an electoral observer in the Salvadoran presidential elections. Pictured with world-renowned indigenous rights activist Rigoberta Menchu.
On September 22-23, SalvaCultura news editor and doctoral student Jorge Cuéllar participated as part of a Yale delegation of indigenous students to the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples hosted at United Nations in Manhattan. As part of this excursion, Cuéllar served the role as observer of the deliberations and proceedings, and was witness to energetic and moving presentations by important political and indigenous leaders such as Rigoberta Menchu, Evo Morales, Oren Lyons, Enrique Peña-Nieto, Sauli Niinistö, among others.


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Check Out These Central American Films at The San Francisco Latino Film Festival Sept. 19-27

9/19/2014

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The San Francisco Latino Film Festival starts today Friday September the 19th and will be going on through to 27th. This year they will feature films from three Central American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Guatemala.


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SalvaCultura News Editor Jorge Cuellar will moderate an open mic at the UN World Conference on Indigenous People

9/16/2014

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New York City people check it out!
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This Week in Central American News September 15th, 2014

9/15/2014

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Central American Women Crossing Mexico Face High Rates of Sexual Abuse

An informative piece by Fusion asks “Is rape the price to pay for migrant women chasing the American Dream?” The articles notes that 80% of Central American women crossing Mexican territory on their way to the United States experience sexual assault. The scenario is something all too common, and largely goes unaddressed when talking about the migration experiences of Central Americans. In it’s opening line, the video article captures some of what entails women’s migratory experience, “Before they can reach the American Dream, many migrant women have to survive a Mexican nightmare.” Not every Central American woman makes it to the US, and in many Southern Mexico towns, there are local underground economies based on trapping these women into sex work.  Watch the video and read the article here.

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Words of Revolution: a  New Documentary on Salvadoran Hip-Hop 

8/29/2014

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It’s easy to make the connection between the dissemination of hip-hop in El Salvador and Salvadoran gang culture: Mara Salvatrucha, named the world’s most dangerous gang by National Geographic, has its origins in Los Angeles around the same time LA gangster rap was blowing up. However, the complete picture is more complex than that, and a new documentary titled Words of Revolution aims to shed light to the trajectory of Salvadoran hip-hop. The film showcases how Salvadorans use hip-hop to articulate the generational trauma of civil war and migration. SalvaCultura had the opportunity to chat with the filmmaker, Junior Gonzalez, and talk about the new film.

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Rescue Salvadoran Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans History! 

8/27/2014

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A grassroots LGBTQI organization AMATE El Salvador (Action for Memory and Support for Equality in El Salvador; the acronym also spells out “love yourself” in Spanish) is seeking to create an archive of LGBTQI Salvadoran history. The goal is to document the queer history that has always existed in El Salvador, but due to religious conservatism has been violently repressed for centuries. El Salvador currently has no hate crime legislation and has one of the highest rates of homicide in the Americas. The country fought a 12 year revolutionary struggle in the 1980s and LGBTQI people have often been left out of that history. What was it like to be out during that tumultuous era? They aim to find out and interview 10-12 veteran LGBTQI advocates and community members between November and February about their life stories.

In an effort to curb the costs of archiving and preserving materials and testimonials, AMATE is seeking the public’s help in raising $3,000 to continue their efforts.  Help create a more inclusive El Salvador. For more information, please watch their video and visit their Indiegogo page.

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