a beach, two volcanoes, and a history lesson

Today was our day off, and the Binational Center kindly took us around this tiny, beautiful country.  In just five hours we ate lunch and drank coconut juice at the Pacific coast:

visited a volcanic beach ten minutes down the road:

and then drove back past San Salvador to a double volcano.

Then we had a date with Paulino, though we had no idea who he was.

On a radio show the other night, we'd asked the host, Aida, about Salvadorean musical traditions.  To our surprise, she wasn't really able to tell us what Salvadorean music was.  But she suggested we talk to her friend Paulino.  The embassy got in touch with Paulino and arranged that he would meet us at the hotel at 6:30.  

We'd never actually talked to Paulino, but we bought some beer and wine, some cheese, avocados, rolls, and fruit, and set up a little dinner in Sarah's room.  When Paulino got there he was as confused as we were.  Apparently he was in the process of reapplying for a visa (he's been in a touring band for 30 years and has been to the States many times, but his visa expired) so he had called the embassy yesterday.  About five minutes later, the embassy called him and said "We want you to go to the Marriott and meet some American musicians."  He had no idea who we were or why he was meeting with us.  

Even funnier was the fact that he apparently always listens to Aida's radio show, and would have heard the very conversation that ended in our meeting, but for some reason he didn't listen this week.

Once we all figured out why we were there, the evening got really interesting.  We asked him about the traditional music of El Salvador and he explained that there really isn't any;  that's why Aida couldn't answer the question.  Apparently, until the 1880's, El Salvador's indigenous community centered around the production of anil, a natural dye.  They supported themselves by selling the dye, and their society was structured around families farming tiny plots of land.

When the Industrial Revolution occurred, and synthetic dyes were discovered, anil was no longer in demand.  The Spanish-descended rulers of El Salvador decided to transfer the farming system from anil to coffee plantations.  But there was one catch:  coffee takes four years to grow to maturity in its first harvest.  So only the rich families, who could afford to wait four years without income, could start coffee farms.

This divested the indigenous people of their land, and turned them into poor, landless workers.  For about fifty years they labored under these conditions, and in 1932 they revolved, on the 22nd of January at midnight.  

At this very moment, a volcano also erupted.

The uprising was crushed and the indigenous community decimated.  And that's why there are really no long-standing musical traditions here, save for some marimba.  

We talked for hours - Paulino basically teaching us Salvadorean history, and me translating as he talked.  Along the way he brought up Pete Seeger;  I mentioned that I'd played in a band with Pete's grandson, Tao.  "Tao who grew up in Nicaragua?" asked Paulino.  It turned out that as a little boy, Tao's mother had come to share a house where Paulino was living in Nicaragua.  So Tao and Paulino had lived together for a while.   Um.  WEIRD!!!

Despite our mutually confused beginning of the night, we ended up as great friends, played some music together, and got a dinner invitation for tomorrow night.  Really exciting because we've hardly been inside anyone's home in the last three weeks -- it's all been hotels, restaurants, schools, concert halls, airports and vans.   

Paulino also runs a major music festival here in El Salvador, so who knows, maybe with some luck we'll return.  Hope so.  I love this country.