Travel Reference
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La Gran Vía: Imagine a San Salvador where everyone's rich.
I ended up sharing a drink with a Salvadoran couple. It became clear that in my two
days of sightseeing, I had experienced more of San Salvador's pithy core than these res-
idents had in years. They peppered me with questions about their own city. As they con-
sidered it so dangerous to go downtown, it mystified them that an outsider had ventured
there.
I capped my Gran Vía night at the cinema, enjoying an American comedy alongside
Salvadorans for whom razor wire is a status symbol. Sitting in that air-conditioned com-
fort munching on popcorn, I thought back to Beatriz's dirt floors and handmade tortillas.
Actually experiencing contrast makes abstract lessons picked up in our travels not only
concrete and human, but lasting.
El Salvador, along with the rest of Central America, is evolving. Their fragile demo-
cracies are maturing. The revolutionary force in El Salvador (like the one in neighboring
Nicaragua) has morphed into a pragmatic and moderately corrupt political party that actu-
ally won an election. Hollow as that victory may seem, the brutality of earlier strongman
