Emigrating from Central America

Salvadoran civil war continues to affect its citizens.

The Central American caravan comes to the United States to escape dangers of their homeland.

The Salvadoran civil war began in 1980 and ended by the early to mid 1990s. Just because the war ended does not mean it did not have lasting effects towards its people. Especially to those that were born during the time of the civil war.

Aida Villalta was one of those that was born during the war and experienced it first hand. 

“When I was 12 the war was almost done… I saw everything, I saw dead bodies almost my whole life. When they killed people they would stick the head in a post and the body was all over the places… ”

Villalta was one who saw it all first hand, as parts of her family were involved in the war.

“My dad had family in the guerrilleros and my mom had family in the military.”

“After the war, it became unsafe because there were a lot of people stealing and a lot of crime and a lot of killing people, kidnapping people… It was maybe worse than the war itself,” Villalta continued. 

Even though the war ended when she was a little girl, Villalta still experienced danger as a young adult. She had many experiences that related to stealing.

“I was wearing one of the necklaces that my mom sent me… it was a very thin necklace, it was gold or silver I can’t remember, and I was wearing it, I forgot to take it off. When I was at the bus stop a guy came to me with a knife and said ‘take it off and give it to me or else’… An old man came and stood between me and him and I pushed the guy against the thief and ran and got on the bus.”

Villalta arrived in the United States in 1997 to get a better life and escape the dangers that she was facing in El Salvador.

It can be seen on the data table of Refugees and Asylees 2018, that can be accessed on the Department of Homeland Security website, that between 1989 to 1995, more than 100,000 refugees sought refuge in the United States each year. That being around the time where Salvadorans were coming to the United States to seek refuge. 

The table below shows the increase of Salvadorans that sought refuge that came in 2017 versus 2016. The numbers jump from 364 to 1,124. The numbers do go down in 2018 to 725 but that number is still high.

While the numbers don’t compare to the tens of thousands of refugees that came to the United States in the early 1990s, it shows they are still seeking to find a better life somewhere that isn’t their home country.

But Villalta is someone that feels that immigrants should stop coming to the United States, it’s not worth it.

“In here, it was good to make money years ago but now it’s like, I don’t know, it’s hard to even survive.”