Artwork in Photo: “Black Butterfly” by Juan Carlos Mendazibal
SOMArts Cultural Center presents Mourning and Scars: 20 Years After the War, a group exhibition February 1 through 28, 2013, curated by 2012–2013 SOMArts’ Commons Curatorial Residency recipient Roxana Leiva. Works of art in a variety of media, including paintings, video, textile sculpture and large-scale multimedia installations, explore the individual experiences of reconstruction and healing in the context of El Salvador’s postwar period.
Twelve Salvadoran artists artists now living in California and New York draw upon their various experiences and family histories to create poignant works that grapple with the trauma of persecution and exile, and reveal complex personal and bi-national identities.
Spanish
While most vocabulary is common, each country has its variations, for instance, for “corner store” and “soft drink”: In Guatemala, they are tienda and agua (water is agua pura). In El Salvador, they are tienda and gaseosa. In Honduras, they are pulpería (in the north called trucha informally) and fresco. In Nicaragua, they are venta or pulpería and gaseosa. In Costa Rica, they are pulpería and gaseosa although they could also be abastecedor and refresco or fresco,in Panama they are tienda and soda.
I agree with Mishtun, what a stupid and embarrassing source of “division” within a community. However by community I mean individuals to whom this matters in this vulgar manner (which at the moment luckily isn’t many.) Idiots.
I love the last lines the most.
(via mishtun)
![Women in Veracruz stand back as they try to pass food and water to Central American migrants riding the tops of freight cars bound for the United States. [via ilianation, la—serena]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8z2gef9VF1qbko6go1_1280.jpg)
Women in Veracruz stand back as they try to pass food and water to Central American migrants riding the tops of freight cars bound for the United States. [via ilianation, la—serena]
(via swinton)
From the always wonderful latimes tumblr,
Central and South American community thrives in the Valley: As the stream of Mexican immigrants to California slows, an influx of Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Ecuadoreans and Peruvians is changing the central San Fernando Valley.
(Mmm. Definitely getting pupusas for lunch today.)
Photo: Sidewalk vendors make and sell pupusas, a Salvadoran culinary staple, at Delano Recreation Center in Van Nuys. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times
Whenever U.S.E.U. has yearly meetings, the San Fernando Valley is always well represented. In particular Cal State University Northridge, as the LA Times noted 4 years ago,
Cal State Northridge has one of the largest groups of Central American students in the country, most of Salvadoran and Guatemalan descent. An estimated 3,500, or about 10% of the student body, were born in Central America or have immigrant parents who settled here, often near downtown Los Angeles or in the San Fernando Valley.
It’s also the first university, and I think the only university in the United States of America, to offer a degree in Central American Studies. It’s not much but it was fought for and it’ll continue to be vigorously fought for as long as we’re around. In other words, we’re here to stay in the San Fernando Valley.
Finally, what are you doing using forks and knives to eat your pupusas? You’re supposed to eat them with your hands.
Women and Violence in El Salvador, a slide show: http://nyr.kr/Q8mN46
PRI interviewed my friend Alex Sanchez, he’s a great guy.
Sanchez: The misconception is that these gangs started in El Salvador. These gangs originated in Los Angeles, in the streets of Los Angeles, by immigrant kids from the most part being Central American, primarily Salvadorians.
