[8] El Salvador created a new system similar to the Mexican case called United for Solidarity to take advantage of the remittances and invest the money well in projects for the community.

[11] All this movement and shift was due to the fact that the Spanish wanted to increase the productivity and profitability of coffee cultivation, therefore the government sold off communal lands, where a large number of indigenous Salvadorans resided.

Coffee exports were controlled by a small group of local elites, and the labor force was made up mostly of displaced peasants who were indigenous in origin.

[10] According to William Stanley, this massive migration to the U.S. was a result of political violence as much as it was the deteriorating economic conditions in El Salvador, but this is disputed by other scholars.

[13][10] Stanley wrote that political violence was an "important and probably the dominant motivation" driving Salvadoran migration to the U.S., but in 1990 Richard Jones argued that "...this statement is too strong.

The migrants may have been persons from nonconflictual zones who were forced to emigrate when refugees from elsewhere in the country displaced them or because of general economic deterioration.

[14] Almost a decade later this issue was brought up in the 1990 class action lawsuit, American Baptist Church v. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh.

Elana Zilberg addresses these happenings in her writing, even children were not exempt from horrible events, "They[youth] had seen tortured corpses and severed body parts...boys no more than twelve years old were forcefully conscripted into the army.

Another issue why Salvadorans migrated to the United States was when the horrific earthquake happened, and the program known as "TPS" stands for Temporary Protected Status, opened.

Salvadoran Spanish consists of many Native American/Indigenous words from the Lenca and Pipil language that survived the European conquest and rule of El Salvador.

Traditionally, Salvadorans are Roman Catholics, but since the civil war, there has been a notable increase of Evangelicals or other Protestant denominations in the country.

During the civil war, some members of El Salvador's small, but vibrant Jewish community immigrated to the United States,[27] mostly settling in the Miami and Los Angeles areas.

[33] The national dish of El Salvador, pupusas, can be found in DC's major league sport stadiums such as Nationals Park (MLB), D.C. United's Audi Field (MLS), FedEx Field (NFL), and LA Galaxy's Dignity Health Sports Park ( as well as hundreds of other locations throughout the Los Angeles, DC, Maryland, Virginia metro area.

Most asylum seekers cannot visit El Salvador, even for a loved one's funeral, without losing their legal status in the United States.

[70] Jorge Guadron and Miriam Ventura became the first Salvadoran Americans elected to the New York State Democratic Committee for the 6th Assembly District in September, 2014.

[71] This situation is slowly changing, however: Carlos Vaquerano, the Salvadoran community affairs director of CARECEN, was named to the board of Rebuild L.A., organized to help the city recover from the L.A. riots in 1992.

[72] Jorge Guadron and Miriam Ventura are the first Salvadoran Americans elected to the New York State Democratic Committee for the 6th Assembly District in Long Island.

Many refugees fought for the right to organize under repressive conditions in El Salvador, and they brought dedication, even militancy, to American unions.

In a 1990 Los Angeles janitors' strike, for instance, Salvadoran union members continued to march and demonstrate even under the threat of police violence.

Amid the 2004 Salvadoran presidential elections, the right-wing ARENA candidate Tony Sacas received backing from the U.S. Republican party.

[79] This pressure from the large Salvadoran population in Washington and surrounding states, eventually even won the support of two congressmen, Howard Berman (D-California) and Raúl Grijalva (D-Arizona).

The majority of the refugee community is thought to favor the left, and the absence of their votes is believed to have helped the right-wing party ARENA win the Salvadoran presidency in 1989 and 1994.

An Obama visit to El Salvador symbolized its acceptance of the new government and show to other Latin American countries that it will maintain strong ties despite the change of regime.

Remittances account for twenty percent of El Salvador's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which makes the economic ties with the United States even more important.

Salvadorans who reside in the United States benefit as well from El Salvador's accommodation as exemplified by the American government's consistent extension of the TPS.

Despite the high level of violence, El Salvador has transformed itself into a stable democracy and a success story in economic development.

U.S. policy towards the country promotes the strengthening of El Salvador's democratic institutions, rule of law, judicial reform, and civilian police; national reconciliation and reconstruction; and economic opportunity and growth.

El Salvador has been a committed member of the coalition of nations fighting against terrorism and has sent 10 rotations of troops to Iraq to support Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Salvadoran troops have earned a reputation as an effective and professional military force for their participation in international humanitarian missions to Lebanon, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Sudan and Haiti.

Most are private businesspersons and their families, but a small number of American citizen retirees have been drawn to El Salvador by favorable tax conditions.