The oligarchy

El Salvador in its early history was controlled in a localized manner. This form of control was aided by its geography; it had unbridged rivers that could only be crossed at fords and it lacked linking highway that could handle wheeled vehicles. Thus the “Fourteen Families” (actually many dozens of families) that have controlled El Salvador’s history were all but feudal lords.

Although the constitution was amended repeatedly (in 1855, 1864, 1871, 1872, 1880, 1883, and 1886), several elements remained constant throughout. The wealthy landowners were granted super-majority power in the national legislature (for example, the 1824 constitution provided for a unicameral legislature of 70 deputies, in which 42 seats were set aside for the landowners).

The president, selected from the landed elite, was also granted significant power throughout. Each of El Salvador’s 14 regional departments had a governor appointed by the president. The rapid changes in the constitution are mainly due to the attempts of various presidents to hold onto power. (For example, President Gerardo Barrios created a new constitution to extend his term limit.)

From Indigo to Coffee: Displacement

El Salvador’s had elite depended on production of a single export crop, indigo. This led the elite to be attracted to certain lands while leaving other lands, especially those around former volcanic eruptions, to the poor subsistence farming mestizos and the Indian communes.

In the middle of the 19th century, however, indigo was replaced by chemical dyes. The landed elite replaced this crop with a newly demanded product, coffee. The lands that had once been dependent for the product (indigo) were suddenly quite valuable.

The elite-controlled legislature and president passed vagrancy laws that removed people from their land and the great majority of Salvadorans became landless. Their former lands were absorbed into the coffee plantations (fincas).