Edwin Castro makes $80 a month as a security guard in Sensuntepeque, El Salvador. Staff photo by Erin Henk

Part three of a series on immigration

SENSUNTEPEQUE, EL SALVADOR -- Edwin Castro, wearing a beige uniform and heavy boots, stood under the blazing sun earlier this week in front of a cell phone shop.

He works there more than eight hours a day, six days a week, as a security guard for the company -- Seguiridad Salvadoreno. He earns $80 a month.

Employees don't demand higher wages because jobs are scarce, he said. Many people leave Sensuntepeque to try to cross illegally into the United States in search of jobs and better pay. Castro, 39, has two sisters, four nephews and six cousins who have emigrated.

He, however, plans to stay put, he said. Emigrating isn't a guarantee life will get better.

"It's better to stay on your land," he said.

While the effects of mass emigration are primarily looked on as an economic benefit in this city of about 25,000, efforts are under way to improve living conditions, and to encourage more people like Castro to stay.

On Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador Charles Glazer visited Sensuntepeque to discuss a highway project that will extend between El Salvador's border with Honduras to its border with Nicaragua.

The project will open trade routes and allow people to develop businesses along the highway, bringing more jobs and commerce, said Cabanas Gov. Oscar Menjivar. Sensuntepeque is the capital of the state of Cabanas.

The entire country will benefit by having more direct access routes between cities to transport medicine, electricity and other needed supplies, he said. Currently, few direct routes exist between smaller cities so residents must travel many hours along winding back roads.

The Salvadoran government has wanted to build the highway for 50 years, but never had enough money. It competed with other countries and won a grant from the U.S. government that will fund the $460,000 cost. Construction is expected to begin this year and be completed in five years, Menjivar said.

New outlook

A mining endeavor by a private Canadian company could bring more than 400 jobs to Cabanas. Pacific Rim El Salvador is studying whether pure gold and silver can be extracted from land about five miles outside Sensuntepeque.

Elizabeth Garcia, Pacific Rim's director of public relations, said the company would benefit the area because, along with more jobs, employees would receive higher wages than most people typically earn.

The minimum monthly wage in El Salvador is about $174, but many people earn far less, said Sensuntepeque's Mayor Jesus Edgar Bonilla Navarrete.

Garcia estimates more than half of the 150,000 people who live in Cabanas don't have access to basic necessities like water and education. Many rural families of between five and six people survive on $1 a day, she said. Monthly salaries at the mining company would start at about $250 for unskilled laborers and $600 for miners, Garcia said.

The company could begin mining in six months if the Salvadoran Ministry of Environment and Resources grants permission. The permit is in question, however, because many residents oppose the mining project and fear it will pollute their communities.

Protecting natural resources is another important concern for people who don't have daily access to necessities like water. On most days when Sensuntepeque residents turn on their faucets, no water flows.

The city has outgrown its water system, Bonilla Navarrete said. Each sector of the city is assigned one day per week when water is pumped to houses in that sector. Residents fill giant cisterns and buckets they will use throughout the week until their next assigned day.

The mayor's office has initiated multiple projects to expand water lines and drill deeper in search of more water to supply the city's growing population.

Under his direction, the city also has begun repairing 1.7 miles of roads. At least one road in 12 different city sectors will be fixed, he said.

Sensuntepeque has initiated a new trash collection program. The city will pay about $18,000 a month to collect, transport and dump trash in a landfill that has pollution controls.

In the past, trash was dumped nearby in a landfill without controls and was contaminating the soil and air, Bonilla Navarrete said.

So much to do here

Sensuntepeque is a showcase of entrepreneurs. It has no factories and few large companies in and around the city, so residents mostly create their own employment.

Throughout the day, women set up small tables near the public phones to sell sandwiches and pickled vegetables. Others walk the streets hawking items like silver tape to decorate packages, cosmetics or freshly-made cheese.

Some people have started small businesses selling books, making Xerox copies or carrying produce to nearby villages.

The city also has a newspaper now. Angel Eduardo Iraheta, 26, founded "Sensuntepeque Grafico Informativo" eight months ago. The paper has a circulation of 5,000 and comes out every 15 days. It covers the entire state of Cabanas, with a focus on Sensuntepeque and Cojutepeque, a neighboring city. Iraheta hopes to expand and eventually produce local papers in all 14 states of the country.

He believes people need to know what is happening in their cities. The national newspapers rarely cover small cities like Sensuntepeque, he said.

The paper benefits smaller businesses because advertising costs are more affordable than the national papers and it highlights the accomplishments of local residents, he said.

Others, like Gustavo Vasquez Bonilla, operate successful agricultural businesses. Bonilla, 65, was born to a poor family in a village outside Sensuntepeque, but today owns three livestock farms and earns about 10,000 a year buying and selling cows.

He started out fattening pigs, and progressed little by little to better-paying jobs, Bonilla said.

When he stopped in Banco Salvadoreno to deposit some money this week, he was greeted warmly by the branch's bank manager, David Quinteros.

Bonilla is a man who knows how to save, Quinteros said.

The cattle trader has saved enough money to visit two sons in the United States three times in the past six years and plans on returning this August.

He has legal authorization to stay as long as six months each visit, but typically returns to El Salvador after 15 days.

"I have so much to do here," he said.