El Salvador

By:Alejandro Lopez

The population of El Salvador is 6,290,420. It’s known for being the smallest country in

Central America but even at it’s size, 8,123 square miles, it has the highest population

density in Central America at 884.4 people for every square mile.

Salvador Sanchez Ceren is

the current president of El

Salvador. He took office on June 1, 2014

thanks to a very close vote of 50.11%

to 49.89% over Norman

Quijano. Prior to becoming president, Ceren served as El

Salvador’s Vice President from 2009-

2014.

El Salvador has a long history of horrific earthquakes ever since 1576 which has

devastated the country and its people. One of the most severe earthquakes occurred

on October 10, 1986 killing between 1,000 to 1,500 people, injuring 10,000 people, destroying 60,000 houses, and leaving

200,000 people homeless.

The two main religions in El

Salvador is Roman Catholic and

Evangelist which make up 80% of the

country’s population.

Christians believe in a savior called Jesus

Christ which God had sent to earth to spread belief in Him

and their holy practice. This is very

similar to Evangelicals beliefs

and traditions.

The style of cooking in El Salvador is called Salvadoran cuisine, it's a mix of food from indigenous people mostly being made of corn, and includes dishes like the pupusa which is a tortilla stuffed with cheese and panes rellenos that’s a sort of sandwich made by a piece of bread being stuffed with any choice of meat, vegetable, and

condiments.

Futbol, also know as soccer, is the national sport of El Salvador. The El Salvador National futbol team, also known as La Selecta or The Select One, had their first official futbol

match in September 1921. La Selecta have made it to the FIFA World Cup

twice. Once in 1970 and once in 1982.

In the 1800’s El Salvador’s economy was largely supported by the export of coffee. Sadly most of their economic sources have been destroyed by natural disasters or corrupted by government. Their economy has grown dependent

on the money they’ve made from tourism and free trade. Another source of income comes from

Salvadorians living and working in other countries and sending money back home to their

families.

El Salvador’s national bird is the torogoz.

There are only eight species of sea turtles in the world! Four of them live off

the coast of El Salvador: the Leatherback turtle, the Hawksbill turtle,

the Green sea turtle, and the Olive Ridley turtle.