Violence

A big downfall about living in El Salvador is the violence that lives in most places of the country. It is considered to be the second most dangerous country in Central America. Gangs are a huge part of the violence, in fact the biggest part. They form inside small poor communities and then spread their members throughout the whole country, controlling specific areas and getting into fights with other gangs for control of that area. There is an average of 30 murders per day in El Salvador most, if not all, committed by gangs. The worst violence is in the poor areas of the country, the cities that have the most poverty tend to be the ones that have the more gang problems because young boys fall into the trap of joining them because of lack of education and guidance. This does not mean that violence does not occur in the capital, where I'm from, it does, and it is huge. Gang members are hidden everywhere: stop lights, dark alleys, parking lots, and even super markets. So even though they are hidden, they’re in front of our noses. This type of intense violence is why people don’t understand how I can live in this country. Do I live in fear? Yes. Am I also very used to it? Yes. I, as well as most of the other 7 million people living in El Salvador have learned to live around this great issue that lives in our home. Literally, live around it. We know well what places are safe to go and what places are best to stay away from, and according to this knowledge we move in the safest places and directions. It might get tough having to avoid certain places because the gangs decide to choose that place that specific day to rob people, but it’s a small price to pay for safety. The community does a great job at alerting the others of what is happening in certain areas, like if someone is robbed at a certain red light on a certain street, half of the country will immediately know not to go near there. This is because of the consciousness that going through that is horrible, and we don’t want to give the gangs the feeling they’re winning. It’s small things like this that make it a bit easier to get by. Though I’ve gotten used to this way of living, it’s still very sad, and I wish there was something to fix it.