Safeguarding El Salvador’s Transition to Peace and Democracy: A View from the Cultural and Political Magazine Tendencias (1991-2000)

Abstract

This article examines the role that the cultural and political magazine Tendencias (1991-2000) played in El Salvador’s transition to peace. Specifically, it studies how Tendencias’s contributors tackled some of the key issues of the transition—the failure to reform the economy, the undermining of the peace process by economic and political elites, and the inability of the FMLN to respond to the new political situation—and argues that the magazine
served as a counter to El Salvador’s culture of ideological entrenchment. By fostering democratic and rational-critical discussion, Tendencias opened up a new “public sphere” for El Salvador and gave voice to a vibrant and tenacious intellectual culture that has often been overlooked.