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Three decades of struggle: The University of El Salvador, 1960-1990

Nancy Rios, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Abstract

During the 1960s, the University of Salvador (UES) was a normally functioning university, graduating thousands of professionals to feed El Salvador's rapidly-growing economy. By the end of 1980s the school had become a battleground. Almost every day student protests took place. Army troops surrounded the school on several occasions. Within the University itself rival groups struggled for control. How and why did this happen? The purpose of this study is to investigate how the University of El Salvador struggled to accomplish its educational mission in midst of the political and economic crisis that overwhelmed El Salvador during the last three decades. Essentially, I am concerned with the unwritten history of the UES. To accomplish this, I am relying to large extent on primary sources. These include interviews with members from the inside and outside the university community, including those living outside the country; periodicals available in El Salvador; and Salvadoran newspapers available on microfilm here in the U.S. The situation of the UES is a complex one that needs to be analyzed from a number of different perspectives. My study will help us to better understand the pressures that face a university under critical conditions. Its findings will help us to comprehend not only the situation of the UES but also that of other universities in Latin America.

Subject Area

Education history|Social structure|Latin American history

Recommended Citation

Rios, Nancy, "Three decades of struggle: The University of El Salvador, 1960-1990" (1992). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9233145.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9233145

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