just six countries; Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua,

and Costa Rica. Of those six, all share a distinct common history except

for Belize. Belize for one is incredibly small, and while Spanish is the

official language of other Central American countries, in Belize English is

spoken. So throughout this paper as I carelessly say 'Central American' I

am not including Belize whose history and development was far different

Although Central America is located close to the United States in

relation to the Eastern Hemisphere, our ways of life are indescribably

different. When we discuss Poverty in the United States many of us,

including myself, don't really know what 'poverty' is. It seems like only

a select few are afflicted by it here and programs like Welfare and Food

Stamps (with varying degrees of success) seem to lessen the effects.

In Central America when one speaks about 'poverty' he/she is including a

large proportion of the population. One measure of poverty is the earning

power of an individual. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is a measure

and transportation boycotts. A little more on the radical side are the

reinvesting it locally, most invest overseas or in capital intensive labor

In 1978, the FAO (Broad Opposition Front) was created. Backed by the

formed. Many were actively involved in large-scale marches, labor strikes,

victory. Had the United States not intervened things most likely would

Taking all this into effect and the fact that social classes and living

Some common words found in the essay are:
Booth Walker, Catholic Church, Central America', Guerilla Composed, Base Communities, Central Americans, Violeta Barrios, Costa Rica, Nicaragua's Catholic, Central America, booth walker, central america, popular support, christian base communities, extremely bad, repression government, base communities, 1979 pg, alongside guerillas, national guard, fight alongside,
Approximate Word count = 1346
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)