El Salvador: Hidden Opportunities in Business and Adventure
By Mark Monchek − March 04, 2010
The Opportunity Show in El Salvador:
The Salvadoran sun has passed behind the thatched huts and the indolent palm trees on the terrazzo at my hotel. My body has surrendered to the firm leather chair with wide bamboo arms. I peer out over the railing to the water rushing above the rock canopy at the far end of the pool. My day of traveling through the interior of Salvador is settling inside me. I seek to remember it gently, from my moment of waking until I stepped out of the well worn, plucky, dust-caked Nissan driven by my guide, and now friend, Mac Bernal.
When I booked the tour, I discovered that I would be the only one on this tour. What would it be like spending the day with someone I did not know and might not like? What would we talk about for eight hours? How confident and articulate was he as a guide? Was his English good enough to answer all the questions I would have? I decided to trust that whatever the tour was meant to be would match what I needed it to be. It turned out to be far more extraordinary than I could have imagined.
Every Great Opportunity Needs A Great Guide
So, let me introduce you to Mac Bernal. You have to start with his liquid hazel eyes and chubby, boyish face, both moving together to follow his facile mind. His eyes tell you, without pretense or agenda, his passions, his curiosities, and his delights. 35 years old, he joined the military at 15 and fought in the Civil War that took 75,000 lives and scarred the land and soul of this ancient place. Mac fought the guerrillas, many of who were also teenagers, and who were enlisted by birth, opportunity, or coercion to fight on one side or the other. He saw kidnapping, assassination, and terrorist bombings. After the war ended, he became a private bodyguard for business executives. When he was shot in the chest three times with bullet holes in his bulletproof vest, his mother berated him into quitting and told him to get into a field that required more mind and less body. Now he is a certified tour guide who has taken tourists from all over Latin America- from Tijuana, Mexico down to Patagonia at the tip of Chile. Three years ago CNN hired him for six months to take them all the way down the Pan American Highway, through the Amazon, where he looked into the open mouth of a slithering Anaconda and wondered if this would be his last tour. He speaks of his country with the greatest passion and the deepest sadness. If you ask him what he loves about El Salvador he will keep talking until you stop him. We talked, mostly about his country and his love for bringing it back to the greatness it once knew during the Mayan era, for close to eight hours. His dream is to build his own tour company, a full-service operation that provides an affordable and accessible way for people from around the world to experience the diverse gifts the country has to offer.
His knowledge, of El Salvador’s volcanoes and archaeological sites to the military, political and social history of the country, and finally, to tourist attractions, is astounding. I am as curious as they come but there was not a question that Mac could not answer in detail. What is most incredible is how he acquired his encyclopedic grasp of not only his own country, but much of the rest of the world. He has no computer at home and learns mostly through reading at the library, TV, and talking to anyone he comes into contact with. He had seen small, independent American films like The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, naming the actors Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman and Tom Hanks and telling me he had been to a small, romantic Mexican coastal village called Seowantanabe where Andy Dufresne, the character played by Tim Robbins, escaped to and Morgan Freeman followed when he was released from prison.
He knew a good deal about American immigration policy, the political and economic situation of every country in Latin America and most in the Caribbean. He loves the Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Ecuadorians, and Peruvians. They are very friendly and hospitable like the Salvadorans. He thinks the Brazilians are wild and crazy and half of them run around naked when they go to the beaches. They are becoming one of the world’s richest nations because of their vast natural resources including oil, gold, silver and natural medicines of the rainforests. But as they get rich they get greedier and greedier and are destroying the Amazon in the process.
Mac has no use for the Chileans and the Argentineans, finding them arrogant and not wanting to be associated with the rest of Latin America. He says that when it rains in Argentina the Argentineans come out of their homes because they think that God wants to take their picture.
Opportunity Can Be Taught
Mac rises each day at 4:15, and after a quick shower and breakfast boards the public bus from his small village near the Santa Anna Volcano for the 90 minute trek to San Salvador where his tour company is based. In the evening, you will find him either studying or teaching. He has gathered together 25 kids from town who want to learn English and he teaches them what they can’t learn in public school. Children from kindergarten through eighth grade go to school for a half day in two shifts because the government can’t afford enough teachers for full-day classes. Children are not required by law to go to school and many work to support their families. In 2009, the average annual wage for Salvadorans was $2,450 and the unemployment rate was 6.3%. The vast majority of Salvadorans live in simple huts, mostly without indoor plumbing and very few own cars.
Opportunity Is Sometimes Hidden Behind Myths and Misconceptions
When the Civil War ended in 1992, after 12 years of such violence that over 200,000 citizens left El Salvador, many of the guerrillas and government backed death squads reformed as gangs. There are approximately 13 murders a day in El Salvador, mostly among gang members in gang territories. While violent crime rarely affects tourists or law abiding Salvadorans, the country lives with the ugly reputation of being a dangerous place. Few outside the country know that El Salvador has a stable democracy with far less corruption then its Central American neighbors. For the past 18 years, since the end of the war, the government and businesses have been building roads, bridges, hydroelectric power plants, cell phone towers, Internet connectivity, shopping malls and industrial parks. Salvadoran workers are known to be among the most reliable and hard-working in the region. The government offers substantial grants and tax breaks to foreign companies who want to start businesses there.
El Salvador is a land of Opportunity. Our client, a New York-based apparel manufacturer, built a plant in a government sponsored free zone in 2007. They employ 250 workers at above minimum wage and have established a facility that is clean, safe and well ventilated. Employees receive vacation time and are paid overtime based on government laws which are strictly enforced. Workers are given bonuses for performance and offered promotions when they demonstrate consistent performance and leadership.
When the global economy comes back, El Salvador will be ready. The Opportunity Show is now sponsoring Mac’s 25 young people with an Internet connection, computers, software, books, and training. We are doing this because Mac Bernal believed in his country and we believe in Mac Bernal.
On my first trip to El Salvador in November of 2009, I was told that the country was a huge sinkhole of poverty- the remains of years of natural disasters and war. Besides cheap, reliable labor and great surfing, there was little else, said my colleague. I am so glad to have discovered a different view – glad they were wrong, and glad I didn’t listen to the dismal picture that was painted. Instead, I let the Opportunity that is El Salvador, show through it all.
2 comments
By Roselyn Agar March 13, 2010 at 6:56am
By Marilyn Knowles November 16, 2011 at 10:39am
Just completed a tour of El Salvador with Mac Bernal, accompanied by my sister and a niece. We were impressed with Mac’s knowledge and personality – our trip would not have been the same without him. These memories will last a lifetime.
Mark: I am moved by this story. In my two trips to El Salvador when I was a child I was impressed by the people’s resilience and became very grateful for the luxuries I had back in the US. My father’s family who is part Salvadorean lives on bare minimum yet are full of satisfaction. You can still see the beauty of the land even after all the destruction by the guerillas.
Lat year I started micro-lending to a lady who I beleive is a relative, through Kiva. Her name is María Del Carmen Mejía Flores who owns her own luncheonette. She has paid back $5.55 out of $25.00.
Let me know if there is anything I can help Mac Bernal. While I have not been there in years, there is some connection to the land and my culture.
Did you enjoy their specialty dish of Pupusas while you were there?
-Rose