ABSTRACT
In the village of San Cristobel, high in the mountains of rural El Salvador, a woman and her partner sit at the only table in a small wooden and corrugated iron house with a dirt floor. They wave their hands to guard their meal of beans and tortillas from flies. They are engrossed in a discussion which ranges from this year’s maize harvest to the price of dried beans, from strategies for accessing aid grants to their community to the morning’s events in a neighbour’s household. Local and national concerns, history, politics and gossip are intertwined in a narrative of struggle, survival and hope.
