Culture Report

Culture Name 

salvadoreño

Alternative Names

Salvadoran,Guanaco

Identification. El Salvador "the Savior," was named by Spanish conquistadors. Guanaco, a type of bird, is a slightly derogative nickname used by other Central Americans and some Salvadorans.

Spoken language.Almost all residents speak Spanish, which was brought in by the conquistadors. Before the Spanish, the area was inhabited by the Pipil’s. Very few Salvadorans now speak the indigenous language, which virtually disappeared after 1932, when General Maximilio Hernández Martínez suppressed rural resistance by massacring 30,000 mostly Pipil’s. Those who survived la Matanza ("the massacre") hid their Indian identity by changing their dress and speaking only Spanish. Some remnants of the Pipil language remain in everyday Salvadoran Spanish.

Religious Beliefs. El Salvador is 75 percent Roman Catholic but has a growing Protestant movement. The Catholic Church returned to its traditional conservative stance after the end of the civil war. Among Protestant denominations such as Pentecostal have had the largest growth. 

But what I think that it is horrible that  El Salvador's spoken language is Spanish. The Spanish came to our country to kill our people and they pushed us to speak their language. They also forced their  culture on us, and they made us lose our indigenous ways. But the past is in the past now, but it still upsets me how the Spanish took our indigenous people.

Culture.(n.d.).El Salvador N. America. Travel Documents Systems. Retrived December 9,2010,fromhttp://www.traveldocs.com/sv/culture.htm