Parada, Mirtala A. The perceptions of retirement among middle-aged Salvadorean males. California State University, Long Beach, 2000. 2nd Floor Theses. AS36.C25 2000 P496
Explores and describes the social integration and adaptation experiences of the Salvadorean immigrants in the United States.
Irannejad, Teresa. Salvadorean immigrants : life experiences and adjustment into the mainstream. California State University, Long Beach, 1997. 2nd Floor Theses.AS36.C25 1997 I6
Explores the perceptions of retirement among middle-aged Savadorean males living in Los Angeles.
Baker-Cristales, Beth. Salvadoran migration to Southern California : redefining el Hermano Lejano. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004. 2nd Floor F867.B294 2004
Offers a grounded history of Salvadoran migration and examines the institutions and practices that facilitate migration to the United States and help migrants to bridge the geographic distance between the two countries. (Amazon.com)
Chinchilla, Norma & Nora Hamilton. "Central Americans in Los Angeles." In In the barrios: Latinos and the underclass debate, edited by Joan Moore and Raquel Pinderhughes. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1993. 2nd Floor E 184 S75 I5 1993
This article details conditions of Salvadoran and Guatemalans refugees living in Los Angeles.
Chinchilla, Norma & Nora Hamilton. Seeking community in a global city : Guatemalans and Salvadorans in Los Angeles. Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2001. 2nd Floor F869.L89 G824 2001
This important book presents the contemporary social, economic and political history of Salvadoran and Guatemalans face in Los Angeles, California in the last half of the 20th century. Much of its value lies in the activism of its authors, which has permitted them to document a reality inaccessible to pure academicians. (Latin American Perspectives, 31 5(138) p. 165-171.)
Coutin, Susan. Legalizing moves: Salvadoran immigrants' struggle for U.S. residency. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000. 3rd Floor JV 6601 C68 2000
Dorrington, Claudia. "Central American refugees in Los Angeles: adjustment of children and families." Understanding Latino families: scholarship, policy, and practice. Ed. Ruth E. Zambrana. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995. 107-129. 2nd Floor E 184 S75 U4 1995
A fresh approach to the study of Latino families is offered in this volume which focuses on the strengths of Latino/Hispanic groups, the structural processes that impede their progress and the cultural and familial processes that enhance their intergenerational adaptation and resilience. (Amazon.com)
Haines, David W., Ed. Refugees in the United States: a reference handbook. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1985. 2nd Floor E184.A1 R43 1985
Covers refugee issues; describes each refugee group's recent history and its economic, social, and psychological needs.
Mahler, Sarah J. American dreaming: Immigrant life on the margins. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995. 2nd Floor HN 90 M26 M34 1995
Mahler, Sarah J. Salvadorans in suburbia: symbiosis and conflict. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995. (not in COAST, use Link+)
Discusses Salvadorans' daily life and challenges in suburbia, their status in the U.S, their employment and economic issues.
Mahler, Sarah J. "Suburban transnational migrants: Long Island's Salvadorans." Migration, transnationalization, and race in a changing New York. Eds. Héctor R. Cordero-Guzmán, Robert C. Smith, and Ramón Grosfoguel. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001. 109. 2nd Floor. F128.9.A1 M54 2001
Analyzes the complex forces that shape the contemporary immigrant experience in New York City and the links between immigrant communities in New York and their countries of origin. (Temple University Press)
Martínez, Demetria. Mother tongue. Tempe, Ariz. : Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe, 1994. 3rd Floor PS3563.A733337 M6 1994
Martinez focuses her story on a young woman who becomes involved with a refugee from El Salvador who is smuggled into the U.S. by members of the Sanctuary movement, advocates for the tens of thousands of Salvadorans who have been harassed, tortured, and "disappeared" by a U.S.-supported military government. (From the Publisher, Amazon.com)
Menjívar, Cecilia. Fragmented ties : Salvadoran immigrant networks in America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. 2nd Floor F869.S39 S155 2000
Menjivar traces crucial aspects of the immigrant experience, from reasons for leaving El Salvador, to the long and perilous journey through Mexico, to the difficulty of finding work housing, and daily necessities in San Francisco. She argues that hostile immigration policies, shrinking economic opportunities, and a resource-poor community make assistance conditional and uneven, deflating expectations both on the part of the new immigrants and the relatives who preceded them. (Amazon.com)
Nepstad, Sharon Erickson. Convictions of the soul: religion, culture, and agency in the Central America Solidarity Movement. New York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2004. 2nd floor BR 517 N47 2004
Many U.S. Christians were profoundly moved by the liberation struggles in Central America in the 1980s. Most learned about the situation from missionaries who had worked in the area and witnessed the repression firsthand. These missionaries, Sharon Erickson Nepstad shows, employed the institutional and cultural resources of Christianity to seize the attention of American congregations and remind them of the moral obligations of their faith.
Reiff, Tana. Who is my neighbor? the Salvadorans. Belmont, Ca.: Fearon/Janus, 1993. (not in COAST, use Link + )
Vigil, James Diego. A rainbow of gangs : street cultures in the mega-city. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002. 3rd Floor HV6439.U7 L788 2002
This cross-cultural study of Los Angeles gangs identifies the social and economic factors that lead to gang membership and underscores their commonality across four ethnic groups—Chicano, African American, Vietnamese, and Salvadorean. (University of Texas Press)
The following articles were found in several databases (Academic Search Elite, Social Science Abstracts) using the keywords Salvadorans and U.S. There is also a growing amount of information on the transnational Mara Salvatrucha gang which started in Los Angeles and has spread across the US, Mexico and El Salvador.
Bailey, Adrian J. & Hane, Joshua G. Population in Motion: Salvadorean Refugees and Circulation Migration. Bulletin of Latin American Research 14.2 (May 1995): 171-200.
Bertera, Elizabeth M., Robert L. Bertera, & Sharada Shankar. Acculturation, socioeconomic factors and obesity among immigrants from El Salvador living in the Washington, D.C. area. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work 12.2 (2003): 43-59.
This study examined acculturation, SES and obesity in a convenience sample of 1205 Salvadoran immigrants from the Washington, D.C. area. Social workers and health educators can use this information to develop culturally competent interventions and research in Hispanic populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Campos-Flores, Arian, et al. The Most Dangerous Gang in America. Newsweek 145.13 (March 28, 2005): 22-26.
Profiles the Mara Salvatrucha gang and the efforts of law enforcement to combat their illegal activity. Details of several murders and violent acts attributed to the gang; Claim that the Mara Salvatrucha gang consists of nearly 10,000 members across 33 U.S. states; Report that the gang consists primarily of Central American immigrants in the U.S., with branches of the gang in Central America; Origins of the gang in Los Angeles, California among refugees from a civil war in El Salvador; Activities of the gang, including drug trafficking, theft, and violence; Efforts of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to arrest and punish gang members.
Chinchilla, Norma & Nora Hamilton. Changing networks and alliances in a transnational context: Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants. Social Justice 26.3 (Fall 1999): 4-26.
Analyzes changes in the transnational practices of Central American migrants in Southern California. Origin of transnationalism; Percentage of Salvadoran and Guatemalan in the 1990 census; Influence of family separation in the frequency and amount of remittances; Formation of Salvadoran and Guatemalan political and labor organizations.
Cordova, Carlos. Undocumented El Salvadoreans in the San Francisco Bay Area: migration and adaptation dynamics. Journal of La Raza Studies 1.1 (Fall 1987): 9-37.
Coutin, Susan. The odyssey of Salvadoran asylum seekers. NACLA Report on the Americas 37.6 (May/June 2004): 38-41, 43.
Coutin, Susan. Cultural logics of belonging and movement: Transnationalism, naturalization, and U.S. immigration politics. American Ethnologist 30.4 (Nov 2003): 508-526.
Examines the disjuncture between transnationalism and nation-based forms of membership by juxtaposing the U.S. immigration history of Salvadorans and the celebration of Americanization, choice and nation building that characterized mass naturalization ceremonies.
Coutin, Susan. From refuges to immigrants: The legalization strategies of Salvadoran immigrants and activists. International Migration Review 32.4 (1998): 901-925.
De la Mora, Sergio. The Central American Refugee Committee (CRECE). Journal of La Raza Studies 1.1 (Fall 1987): 43-51.
DeCesaare, Donna. The Children of War. NACLA Report on the Americas 32.1 (July/August 1998): 21-32. Features the transnational street gangs of El Salvador. Highlights the life of Edgar Bolaos, member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang. Details how gangs in the U.S. linked to youth gangs in El Salvador due to changes in the U.S. immigration policy.
Galindo, Martivon. Diaspora salvadorena = Salvadoran diaspora. Crossroads 31 (May 1993): 22.
Kury, Felix S. Torture syndrome as a specific case of post-traumatic stress disorder in El Salvadoran immigrants. Journal of La Raza Studies 1.1 (Fall 1987): 38-42.
Popkin, Eric. Transnational Migration and Development in Postwar Peripheral States: An Examination of Guatemalan and Salvadoran State Linkages with Their Migrant Populations in Los Angeles. Current Sociology 51 (May-Jul 2003): 347-374.This article examines politically motivated migration from El Salvador and Guatemala to the US. The author argues that the nature of these countries' insertion into the global economy require these states to devote considerable resources to establish relationships with their respective emigrant populations in the US.
Stanley, William Deane. Economic migrants of refugees from violence?: A time series analysis of Salvadoran migration to the United States. Latin American Research Review 22.1 (1987): 132-153. J-Stor
Wallace, Steven P. Central American and Mexican immigrant characteristics and economic incorporation in California. International Migration Review 20.3 (1986): 657-671. J-Stor
Local Southern California
La Opinión indexed in Ethnic NewsWatch and limited access online.
El Salvador Día al Día
El Salvador USA
Prensa Salvadorena
El Salvador (Published in El Salvador)
El Díario de Hoy
La Prensa Gráfica (See "Departamento 15" for information on expatriate audience).
CARECEN, Central American Resource Center
2585 West 7th Street, Los Angeles CA 90005
phone (213) 385-7800 fax (213) 385-1095
CARECEN is the largest community center for Central Americans in the United States. The organization is dedicated to the empowerment of Central Americans living in Los Angeles; to the defense of their human and civil rights; and to build bridges between the people of El Salvador and Salvadoran living in the United States. They moved into a new 30,000 square foot facility in the Pico/Union neighborhood in 1998. The community center serves as a hub for educational and cultural enrichment, immigration & legal services and proactive programs created to foster citizenship & civic participation.
CISPES, Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
8124 West 3rd St., Los Angeles CA 90048
(323) 852-0721
CISPES has been working since 1980 in solidarity with the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) and the Salvadoran social justice movement to promote an alternative to the oppressive US-backed policies of the Salvadoran right.
Salvadorans in the US
Brief article containing information about where and how Salvadorans live in the U.S.
NACARA (The Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act)
Provides answers to questions about the NACARA program, which provides relief to Salvadorans and Guatemalans who have come to the U.S. to escape their nations' Civil Wars.
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