For Two Remote Salvadorian Villages, the Iraq War Hits Close to Home

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Perhaps more importantly, the United States poured in millions of dollars in aid money after a devastating earthquake hit western El Salvador in 2001. If a poor man remembers the most recent act of kindness the most, then there should be no mystery as to why the mayor of Tacuba and his constituents all but worship the United States. For this village is a stronghold of Acosta's party -- put simply, the pro-American political option in this country. Just contrast the state of the ARENA party's headquarters with that of its rival, the FMLN party. On a sunny day in early April the ARENA stronghold's doors are open to the public, just two blocks away from the clean and inviting Parque Central. Nearby on the street local boys jam out to boom boxes, and soldiers sit on doorsteps, cradling their automatic weapons in their laps and relaxing in the midday sun. There is life here.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town the FMLN revolutionary party's headquarters are closed and padlocked. Paint on the building is chipping away, and the whole place looks abandoned. Next door is a sleazy discotech where an obese, sweaty woman in a tight skirt dances by herself next to an overbearingly loud jukebox. Outside on the street a skinny dog lies in the dirt.

Walk up and down the streets of Tacuba and one can't help but notice several dozen houses lined with sparkling new coats of white paint that stand apart from the others like immaculate churches in the slums. Near the front door, each house boasts a U.S. Aid plaque in, naturally, the colors red, white and blue. These are homes that American money built after the old ones were completely destroyed by the earthquake.

"The people here already lived in great poverty," Acosta continues. "Many worked in the coffee plantations, but when the price of coffee fell the families suffered. There is no other source of income.

"And then the earthquake destroyed so much. If it weren't for our friends in the United States ..."

Not to mention the Salvadorians who now call themselves Americans. Largely to escape the civil war, nearly two million live in the land of opportunity, and almost every family here knows someone in the United States. Acosta, himself, has a brother and three nephews in Los Angeles. And the family that runs the Mama and Papa Guesthouse, where tourists in Tacuba stay, married their daughter to an American colonel who was stationed in Ahuachapan in the late 80's to train the Salvadorian military. They now live in North Carolina, and happy pictures of the colonel in uniform, the bride in her white wedding gown, and two lovely, dark-haired children now adorn the living room's walls.

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