Where am i from?
Hello everyone,
What a lovely week is been. I took some much needed time off this week. It made me feel like I didn’t get to accomplish anything this week for sure. I got to catch up on some editing but that was about it. It’s something I need to get use to for sure. As I was editing I came around this photo and I loved the sunset colors. I been exploring around where I live lately as I haven’t been able to go to the park. I live across a big airport and I been trying to capture a good photo of the airplanes in that sunset lighting. This week all the attention has been on the eclipse. I wanted the opportunity to photograph it but unfortunately I could not afford the equipment needed to get that wonderful shot. Hopefully I can get the opportunity to photograph the next one. Usually, my walks out in nature inspire my weekly blogs but since this week I couldn’t go explore I got to thinking. As I was breaking my head trying to figure it out I remembered the reason why I started this blogs in the first place. The idea for this website came to me towards the end of last year and it came to me as I was speaking to a nice gentleman. He is a writer and he was asking me what I love to do in my spare time. I told him without a second thought I love to write and do photography. He asked me why I hadn’t look into writing a book and I know eventually I want to get there but monetary wise I am not there. He suggested to me that I try to find a way to share stories and build my writing skills from there. That same day I was watching a video on YouTube learning about a setting on my camera when an ad came up. In the ad they mentioned blogs and that’s when this idea came to me. I realize that I am a very shy person when meeting people but this has allowed me to show you my interest and my thoughts. I also have seen how much i’m improving in my writing and in my photography. I hope that you are enjoying them as well just like I enjoy writing them. I do plan to write a book I have 2 stories in my mind that I want to tell so I hope I get to accomplish that in the near future.
This week I want to share a couple hopes and dreams I wish to accomplish in the future. One is definitely writing a book I have so much to share about my life which I hope to tell and inspire. Second I hope to be successful in my photography so I provide for my family even with my MS. Third I want to eventually get to a position to help st. Jude children’s hospital. I will go into a bit more detail in a soon. I first want to tell you the fourth dream I have which is to photograph and capture moments in time to show the natural beauty of our world from the street corner to the wildlife that surrounds us. I wish to show beauty through my camera lens. I think of my photography as a form of art. My artistic side is what you see in my portfolio. I love every second of the chase for that perfect shot. It’s such a rewarding feeling when you look at all your photos after a shoot and see just what you envisioned come to life in a picture. I love what I do and I feel like I found my calling. One of my main goals since I was a kid was being able to help kids in need. My little brother passed away 6 days before he turned 1 year old. Since then I always dreamed to get to a point in my life where I am doing well for myself enough to at least donate monthly. My brother has shaped a lot of what I am today. I know he is always with me and I feel his approval in my calling. It’s for that reason I want to show my story through photographs and show you the beauty i’ve encountered. I am hoping to one day return to my country of El Salvador. I will return but with a goal. A goal to capture its wildlife from the small birds to the big predators that call my country its home. But why stop there when I can capture all the beauty my country has to offered from its architecture to the beautiful landscapes that surrounds it. My country has a lot of beauty to offer from tourist spots to the people that surround them. You are sure to have an amazing time. But it wasn’t always a safe place.
El Salvador is a small country in Central America. Fourteen states make up this small little country and because of how small it is, it’s deserving of its nickname “pulgarcito”. Which means smaller than your thumb. I was born in the state of San Miguel. But most of my family lives in the capital which is San Salvador. Our national flower is the Izote flower, due to its usefulness and versatility its use in many different ways from textile, alcohol and even our food. Our national bird is the torogoz which is a very colorful bird, if you get a chance look it up on google. If you’ve heard of pupusas before then you have definitely heard of my country before. We are well known for pupusas and if you haven’t tried them yet what are you waiting for? With all that being said why do I say that it wasn’t always a safe place? If you have heard of El Salvador you either heard of our president or our gang problem. Back in October of 1979 a civil war broke out in El Salvador a war that tore our country apart for several years ending in January of 1992. During this time a lot of citizens seek political refuge here in the U.S. However, when all of them arrived in LA they were finding large communities of Mexicans here already claiming territories. Some of the immigrants knew that staying together was the best way to combat this groups that were giving them problems. That is were our most feared gang of my country was born. They started as a form of protection first but because drugs was such an epidemic during that time they saw a way to make money and started committing crimes. As soon as these criminals were getting arrested the U.S government started deporting all illegal aliens back to El Salvador. Our country was barely trying to restructure themself again after the war and now they had this criminals that came to the country with one mission and that was expansion. Shortly after they got back home they started recruiting and in no time they were in the thousands and there violence was unmatched. Other gangs appeared from this initial push as well which started a war between gangs making El Salvador unsafe. My parents were worried about what was happening in my country so they brought me here when I was 8. As the years past in El Salvador things got even worse. I started hearing from my family just how dangerous it was, bus drivers, street vendors, anyone that would sell anything to the public they were expected to pay weekly taxes. If these business owners wouldn’t pay they risk retribution. They had such a strong hold on our country which allowed for so many innocent people to suffer in there hands. Our presidents were the main cause of this issue as they were corrupt and refused to take action against this criminals. All that changed in 2019. After many years of suffering Salvadorean citizens took to the polls and voted Nayib Bukele into office.
Saturday March 26, 2022 was one of the deadliest days in my countries history. The gangs headed out that day on a mission to kill anyone that they found out on the streets. They targeted innocent citizens and rivals in a day where 62 murders were committed. One of the most violent days in 3 decades which cause the country to enter a state of emergency. The state of emergency lasted 30 days which limited a lot of civil liberties. The president knew this wasn’t going to be a long term fix for the gang problem so he proposed an exception regime. Which gave absolute power to the police and our armed forces to arrest anyone who they suspected of being a gang member. They had the right to arrest you just for having any tattoos that they deemed to be gang related. Arrest started to occur by the thousands and by the end of 2022 most gang members were already behind bars specially the leaders of this gangs. Nayib felt it was necessary to build a new prison that could house the high amount of gang members that were coming in so he created a high security prison. He also believed that housing gangs separately was ridiculous so he housed gangs all together in one cell. Which cause gangs to make a treaty to not harm each other in jail. He also warned the gang members that still hadn’t been caught that if they do anything to the Salvadorean citizens then the homeboys they had incarcerated were going to suffer. He said he was not going to think twice about taking there right to eat away. This worked so effectively that the gang members that were left fled the country and the ones that did stay went into hiding before being found and taken to jail. This has made El Salvador a safe place again and is because of that I now hope to travel there and photograph all the cities, birds, and wildlife. I sometimes think about what my life would have been like if we would have stayed in my country. A lot of young teens were not giving an option they were forced to join in fear of retributions by this gangs. They instilled terror to a nation that was still reeling from the war that had torn so much apart. They held the countries citizens on the palm of there hand and if they wanted you dead then there was nothing you could do about it. It was truly a scary time to live there and for tourist it wasn’t any safer either. Now I recommend you go experience what my country has to offer we are small but have a lot of heart. We are a nation of hard working individuals and we care for one another. I am proud to call myself a Salvadorean citizen it’s always going to be in my heart. I wish to represent it and bring attention to my country to show the beauty rather then it’s ugly past. Is something I wish to accomplish in the near future. Thank you for taking the time to learn about my small country until next week I hope everyone has a bless week. I hope you enjoyed the eclipse it was truly a wonderful experience.
