Milagro Canas stands near Cuscatlan Bank in El Salvador with her nephews, Mario Reyes, 10, and Samuel Reyes, 7. She visits the bank to pick up money sent from her husband, Jose Vidal Canas, who left Sensuntepeque to live in North Carolina. She supports herself and her two children, Lorena Canas, 13, and Juan Gabriel Canas, 14, with the money. Staff photo by Erin Henk

Part two of a series on immigration

SENSUNTEPEQUE, El SALVADOR -- Milagro Velasco de Ca–as and Jose Vidal Ca–as have been married for six years. For the past five, they have been separated by thousands of miles.

Jose, 32, who lives in North Carolina and works in construction, calls Milagro, 31, at her home in the village of Agua Zarca every Friday. But the two have not seen one another since he left.

"There's something missing when you're not with someone," Milagro said as she left the Cuscatlan Bank after picking up money he had sent her.

Milagro is one of hundreds in and around Sensuntepeque who raise children alone while their partners work in the United States to support their family. While many leave their families and risk their safety in search of the American dream, the effects on those left behind can be a mixed blessing.

The country is struggling to recuperate from a 12-year civil war that ended in 1992. The dollars pouring in from the United States feed Sensuntepeque's economy, but mass emigration has some downsides. It has contributed to disintegration of family bonds, rising violence, lack of entrepreneurship and a loss of connection to the residents' hometown.

The $150 Jose wires to Sensuntepeque each month is the only income for Milagro and the couple's two children, Lorena, 13, and Juan Gabriel, 14. But the money is not the only thing the family needs, she said. She misses his companionship, and the children need to see him.

"They need the warmth of their father," she said.

Emigration's effect on the family is the greatest problem, said Mayor Jesus Edgar Bonilla Navarrete.

Many children grow up without knowing their parents. The mothers or fathers leave when the children are babies and often don't return for five or more years.

The children are raised by relatives, but miss out on parental affection and guidance. They don't develop emotional bonds to their parents and end up viewing them as money sources, said Angel de Jesus Iraheta, of El Salvador's National Cabinet of Culture and Art.

"They don't know their father as their father, he said. "They know him as the man who gives them shoes."

For children who are older when their parents leave, the separation is devastating, he said.

Milagro's 7-year-old nephew, Samuel Reyes, cried for days and got physically ill when his mother left for Virginia last year after her husband was killed, Milagro said.

Samuel and his brother, Mario, 10, and sister, Flor, 14, live with their grandmother. Their mother sends about $200 each month for their care. In Sensuntepeque, $200 would pay the monthly rent for a two- to three-bedroom apartment.

Samuel has a photo of his mother and talks to her on the phone about every eight days.

Family separation also strains marriages. Milagro said she worries her husband might be unfaithful and he worries about the same thing.

Sometimes, men who emigrate live a double life, Iraheta said. They continue to send money to their spouse in El Salvador while living with another woman in the United States.

And many residents believe that a woman who leaves will fall in love with another man, divorce her husband and bring her children to the United States, he said.

Having an adult child leave also is difficult for parents, said Jose Cristobol Sorto, 36. He and all of his 11 siblings emigrated, leaving their parents in El Salvador. He lived 13 years in the United States and Canada before returning in 2000 to care for them.

The moment when someone leaves is heartbreaking, Sorto said, particularly if he doesn't have legal authorization to go because family members know they might never see each other again.

Economic desperation is what spurs people to separate from their families, he said. In Sensuntepeque, there aren't enough jobs to go around and most people with jobs don't earn enough to survive.

A manual laborer, for example, receives between $5 and $6 a day for nine hours of work, said Bonilla Navarrete. In the United States, however, manual laborers earn as much or more than professionals such as computer technicians and doctors, receive in El Salvador.

While the money sent back to relatives in Sensuntepeque puts money into the city, it also can stymie economic improvements.

People believe in the illusion that going to the United States is the way to solve their financial problems. They don't want to put effort into improving El Salvador's economy, because they just focus on leaving, Bonilla Navarrete said.

"We have our feet here, but our thoughts are fixed on the U.S.," he said, referring generally to the city's 25,000 residents.

Another problem is people get accustomed to receiving moneygrams and don't save. Anything not spent on necessities is wasted, he said.

Emigration also has spurred a rise in crime and violence in El Salvador, a country of 6.9 million people, Iraheta said.

Some Salvadoran immigrants who have been deported from the United States for committing crimes have started gangs in their hometowns, he said.

El Salvador needs a law that requires anyone who is deported from foreign countries for crime to go to a reform center, said Bonilla Navarrete. When they are allowed to return directly to their cities and towns, the delinquents continue causing violence.

Gangs sometimes attract new members among children who have grown up without parental guidance, Iraheta said.

Grandparents or aunts and uncles often don't have the same authority and the children think they don't have to listen to them, Bonilla Navarrete said.

Milagro said she struggles to get her children to obey her. They need their father, she said.

Her husband needs them as well. He is lonely in the United States and plans on returning to Sensuntepeque in November, although he has no job options.

She looks forward to his return, Milagro said. She never wanted him to leave to begin with, but he is responsible and wanted to provide for his family. Now, he believes the sacrifices are too great.

"He is tired of it," she said.