Culture

El Salvador is a Central American country whose culture is a mixture of Mayan, Pipil/Aztec and Spanish.

Cuisine

El Salvador's most famous dish is pupusas, which is a thick, hand-made corn tortilla (made using masa de maíz or masa arroz, a maize or rice flour dough used in Latin American cuisine) stuffed with one or more of the following: cheese (queso) (usually a soft Salvadoran cheese called Quesillo), fried pork rind (chicharrón), chicken (pollo), refried beans (frijoles refritos),or/and queso con loroco (loroco is a vine flower bud from Central America). New stuffings are used by adventurous restaurants such as shrimp or ayote. Pupusas are from El Salvador, and were first eaten by the Natives there almost three millennia ago. El Salvador also has a wide variety of Chinese, Mexican, Italian and many other cuisines.

Music

The music of El Salvador includes religious songs (mostly Roman Catholic) used to celebrate Christmas and other holidays, especially feast days of the saints. Satirical and rural lyrical themes are common. Popular styles in modern El Salvador include salsa, cumbia, hip hop and reggaeton.

Native Music

Native Salvadoran music draws from the musical traditions of the various indigenous cultures of the region, including those whose presence in the area dates to before the 16th century Spanish conquest and colonisation of Central America. In the pre-Columbian era, the territory defined by the modern state of El Salvador was at the southern periphery of the Mesoamerican culture area, and several of the pre-Columbian cultures had fluctuating levels of influence and participation in a number of shared cultural traits (particularly during portions of the Classic and Postclassic periods of Mesoamerican chronology. Little detail is known about the folk music of these peoples prior to European contact.

By the time of the Spanish arrival, cultural (and by extension, musical) influences included traditions relating to Nahua/Aztec and Maya cultural practices, with the Nahua-Aztec influences continuing into the colonial era. The largest contact-era group in the Salvadoran region were the Pipils, whose language (Pipil, or Nawat) was related to Nahuatl, the lingua franca of the central Mexican Aztec Empire. Others included the Lenca, Pok'omame and Ch'orti'. Pipil and Maya music relied on instruments such as drums, rattles and flutes.

After the colony of New Spain was established, European classical music and Spanish music mixed with native styles.

Popular Music

Popular music in El Salvador uses flutes, drums, scrapers and gourds, as well more recently imported guitars and other instruments. Cuban, Colombian and Mexican music has infiltrated the country, especially ranchera, cumbia and salsa. Bobby Rivas is considered one of the greatest experts of Salvadoran salsa.

Political chaos tore the country apart in the early 20th century, and music was often suppressed, especially those with strong native influences. The 1960s saw an influx of American and British pop and rock, inspiring like-minded Salvadoran bands, while the following two decades were dominated by a wave of popular genres from across Latin America, mostly folk-based singer-songwriter genres like Chilean nueva canción. This new type of Salvadoran rock music was called 'Guanarock' (portmanteau of Guanaco, a slang for a person from El Salvador, and rock), which inspired bands such as Ayutush.

Dominican merengue and bachata also became very popular. In the last ten years, hip hop and reggaeton has influenced the majority of the Salvadoran youth, which has formed groups like Pescozada and Mecate.