ABSTRACT
El Salvador is the smallest of the Central American countries. It has a homogeneous, Spanish-speaking population estimated at 5.5 million (Ruiz-Esparza, 1985). The small size of the country coupled with rapid population growth has resulted in high population density. El Salvador has an agriculturally based economy with coffee, cotton, sugarcane, and rice as primary crops (Information Please Almanac, 1986). As with many countries of the region, El Salvador’s political history has been turbulent and characterized by coups and civil war; the country has been torn by a civil war since 1979, which has left over 60,000 civilians dead (Human Rights Institute, 1986). Five hundred thousand Salvadoreans have been forcibly relocated, and 1 million have left the country (Lungo, 1985).
