System, Group, and Power: Chapter One, Text Seven

A Lush and Well-Kept Garden

In 1916, a public-relations pamphlet about El Salvador proclaimed:

“One of the major obstacles our agriculture has faced is the deplorable system in which national land was divided into common land and communal holdings, making both the land and the workforce unproductive...Now, the landscape offers the traveler a sight resembling a vast chessboard through which the many rewards of fertile land can be admired, from the highest peaks to the beautiful valleys and plains. El Salvador offers a view which reminds us of a lush and well-kept garden, with the entirety of its land cultivated, even on the highest peaks.”

Here are some facts about life in this “lush and well-kept garden” six decades later:

• 2% of the population controls 60% of the land.
• 96.3% of the population possesses 12 acres of land or less.
• In 1975, 58% of the population earned 10 dollars or less each month.
• 70% of children under five years of age are malnourished.
• The rate of calorie consumption per capita is the lowest in the hemisphere.
• Illiteracy affects 42.9% of the population.
• The infant mortality rate is 60/1000 live births (compared with 25/1000 in Cuba).
• 64% of the urban population lacks sewage services.
• 45% of the population lacks a regular supply of drinking water.
• Income per capita of El Salvador is the lowest in Central America.
• 8% of the population receives 50% of the national income.
• The majority of the rural population has work for only a third of the year.
• 45% of rural unemployment and underemployment is permanent. 

Armstrong and Shenk, 1983, p. 17-18.