Return to El Salvador

I was born in El Salvador in 1970.  I was 10 years old when the civil war there started. Life in a war zone is not easy and we worked hard to survive. When I was just 16, I was recruited involuntarily twice by the armed forces. The first time my father was able to pay to get me out of fighting. The second time I was not as lucky, and I ended up serving more than two years.  During that time, I lost most of my friends to mine fields and ambushes.