Resurrection in El Salvador - Travel as a Political Act - page 139

While political murals are dangerous these days, indigenous Salvadorans—who call
themselves “people of corn”—celebrate their ethnicity instead.
El Salvador finally won its independence from Spain in 1821. The local victors were
not the indigenous people, but the descendants of those first Spanish conquistadors. They
wanted to continue harvesting El Salvador…but without giving Spain its cut. Indigenous
Salvadorans gained nothing from “independence.”
After the popular uprisings and massacres of 1932, indigenous culture was outlawed,
the left wing was decimated, and a military dictatorship was established. Those who spoke
the indigenous language were killed. Traditional dress was prohibited. After 1932, when
a white person looked at an Indian, the Indian's head would drop. To be indigenous was
to be subversive. And today, the word indígena still comes with negative connotations:
illiterate, ignorant, savage. If a Mestizo (mixed-race Latin American) loses his temper or
does something violent, rather than say, “The devil made me do it,” he'll say, “Se me salió
el indio” (The Indian came out of me).