Sharing memories, hoping for tourism

Traveling through El Salvador, I have come across many local tourism projects.   They may feature a small museum, or a "casa cultural" or a path to a local geological feature like a waterfall.    The ones with museums are usually collections of artifacts from the war, collected by ex-combatants, hoping to share their memories and perhaps earn a few tourist dollars.

One such community is Cinquera, located in Cabañas department, about 60 km from San Salvador. In her blog, Linda introduces us to the little museum constructed by the population that returned to their town after the civil war:

The first room was filled with photographs of the ancestors.  Papa walked from photo to photo, reading every description.  The other Salvadorans were drawn to the artifacts and posed for photos near the pots, jars and comal (cooking griddle) made from clay.  The women moved excitedly from item to item, remembering how they used these things in the past (less than a generation ago!).  The giant tree stump was hollowed out to create a mortar used with a large wooden pestle for pounding rice to remove the hulls.  "Our first car!" as the women ran over to the ox cart.  "My first stove!" cried Gloria, touching the comal.  "And here is the refrigerator," said Mari as she pointed out the hanging mora bowl (it looked like a hanging planter with a bowl made from the hard shell of the mora fruit).  Papa continued on quietly, studying and remembering.

 Read the rest here.