Culture of El Salvador
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El Salvador is predominantly a Roman Catholic country. During the war the government assumed that the Catholic Church supported communism because it sympathized with the poor, and it targeted the Church for violence. Many fled the religion either because they feared for their lives or because they were unhappy with the Church's affiliation with the opposition. Protestantism, especially Evangelism, offered a welcome alternative. Other churches include the Baptist and Pentecostal.
Spanish is the national language. Many men, mainly between the ages of 20 and 40, learned some English in the US during the war. Indigenous languages have died out in daily use, but there is some academic interest in preserving the Nahuatl language of the Pipils.
Most of the music on Salvadoran radio is standard pop fare from the US, Mexico or other parts of Latin America, but there's a small underground movement of canción popular (folk music), which draws its inspiration from current events in El Salvador. Poetry is popular, and well-known writers include Manlio Argueta and Francisco Rodriguez.
The village of La Palma has become famous for a school of art started by Fernando Llort. His childlike, almost cartoony, images of mountain villages, campesinos and Christ are painted in bright colors on objects ranging from seeds to church walls. The town of Ilobasco is known for its ceramics, while San Sebastián is recognized for its textile arts.
El Salvadorans chow down on a standard daily fare of casamiento, a mixture of rice and beans. Another mainstay is pupusas, a cornmeal mass stuffed with farmer's cheese, refried beans or chicharrón (fried pork fat). Licuados (fruit drinks), coffee and gaseosas (soft drinks) are ubiquitous. Tic-Tack and Torito are vodka-like spirits made from sugar cane and are not for those who cherish their stomach lining.
