Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
My four trips to Central America—each organized and led by Augsburg College's Center
for Global Education—have done much to shape my politics. It's fascinating how your
impressions of a place—and the place itself—can evolve over many years of visits. My
first trip, in 1988, took place during El Salvador's Civil War. By my second visit, in 1991,
the leftist people's revolution had been put down and US- and corporate-friendly forces
were in control. The third trip, in 2005—the primary focus of this chapter—was built
around the events memorializing the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop
Oscar Romero. And by my fourth trip, in late 2010, the revolutionaries were in power, but
seemed only to be proving that power corrupts—and the people were still grappling with
some of the same vexing problems. (Journals from my trips are online at
ricksteves.com/
politicalact
.) There's something about visiting Central America that stirs a certain traveling
soul. As some expats say about El Salvador, “It's like a low-grade herpes virus. It just gets
in you, and you can't get rid of it.”
For each of these trips, I had a week or two available for a vacation. I could have en-
joyed lying on a beach somewhere, but I chose to spend the time in El Salvador. Checking
in on a people who lost a revolution, taking the pulse of corporate-led globalization in a
poor country, collecting my impressions, and sharing them now is precisely what I con-
sider to be travel as a political act.
I realize it's odd, as a relative novice to Latin American travel, for me to have such
strong opinions—or any opinion—on these topics. Far from being an expert, I'm a classic
case of someone knowing “just enough to be dangerous.” It's clear: My passion is rooted
in the opportunities I've had to talk with and learn from smart, impoverished people living
in what I grew up considering “banana republics.” Frankly, spending time with the poor
in Central America radicalizes people from the rich world. I hope the following impres-
sions and observations not only share some of what I learned, but illustrate why choosing
a place like Managua over a place like Mazatlán the next time you head south of the bor-
der can create a more fulfilling travel experience.
