I’ve been here for over a year now, and in the past months I’ve noticed a marked increase in the informal markets, both in the actual number of people selling products on buses or streets as well as the variety of products being sold. And when I first arrived in the country the vendors were almost exclusively middle-aged women, and recently there’ve been even greater numbers of male and children vendors. For instance, on my last cross-country bus ride to San Salvador I saw a male campesino selling half-liter liquor bottles filled with honey. Yes, honey. Further, within the capital city, streetcorners are often populated by women slapping together pupusas and frying them on small gas powered plancha stoves, but I’ve noticed an even greater number of these informal vendors trying to scrape together a few quarters by clogging Salvadoran’s arteries.
I can only assume this increase in vendors is indicative of a worsening Salvadoran economy. In the US or other developed countries, an economic “pinch” would also force many who were homemakers or students into the labor market, but the shift wouldn’t be so publicly obvious because they’d be working in the factories, restaurants, or offices that make up the formal labor market. In countries like El Salvador, though, where formal jobs hardly exist, the “pinch” is shared publicly because one’s only option for income is to hawk something on the streets.