christophersalvadoianlitblog

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"We flip through the pictures, but it feels different. We pause on a picture of Dad in front of a garden."

-- Javier Zamora, Solito(39)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"There was no footage of me in particular ; just a brief story of competition and a shot of everyone who participated, so quick I couldn't pick myself out from the crowd."

-- Javier Zamora, Solito(25)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"'Can't change it,' he repeats when they tell him the various reasons why their child, their brother, themselves have to leave this country."

--Javier Zamora, Solito(14)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"Mali and I tried to get a visa-a real visa, but the U.S. embassy said no like they said no to Mom."

--Javier Zamora, Solito(19)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"At the very end of our conversations, only then, when we say goodbye, I ask Dad when I'll finally meet him."

-- Javier Zamora, Solito(9)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"...the gangs are 'getting smart', adapting to benefit from corruption and diversifying their operations."

--William Wheeler, State of War(122)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"The state of war today is a direct result of the conditions negotiated to end the last war..."

--William Wheeler, State of War(114)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"...absolutely unable to explain how all these agreements had been reached without the government having negotiated with gangs."

-- Munguia Payes, State of War(112)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"The scale of the losses would convince both sides that, without an infusion of more foreign military support, neither side would be able to vanquish the other."

--William Wheeler, State of War(96)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"The upper and middle classes are the most virulently anti-gang, while the communities in which the gangs have the strongest presence - that is, the the people who live diectly under their brutal yoke - are the most sympathetic."

-- William Wheeler, State of War(91)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"'They began to control every neighborhood, every business, becoming more and more powerful in society.'"

--Fausto, State of War(82)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"They were organized now, using military tactics, armed with better weapons than the police, including grenades"

-- William Wheeler, State of War(70)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"...both MS-13 and Barrio 18 sent out word of a nationwide public transport strike, threatening to kill any bus drivers who disobeyed the edict. Over the next two days, an estimated 60 percent of the country's public transit shut down..."

--William Wheeler, State of War(63)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"They recruited ' a generation of adolescents and teens for whom the cold war had no relevance and the future held no promise'..."

--Carlos Martinez, State of War(pg.49)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"To these kids who had been abandoned by the left and the right, the gangs gave a mythos and a mantra : 'Live for the barrio, die for the barrio.'"

-- Sanchez, State of War(44)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"There were no rules except that only the strong survived and that the more you were feared, the more respect, control, and power your gang would have."

--Valdez, State of War(36)

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

"Each corpse that goes undiscovered is another family that will never get closure"

--Ticas, State of War(23)