home

Nicole Austin Pd. 2B. Background info on Author. -Sandra Benitez is the author of “The Weight of All Things”. She was born on March 26, 1941 in Washington DC. She is the daughter of James Q. and Marta A. Sandra Benitez has always had writing in her past, she was a ninth-grade Spanish and English teacher, fiction writer and creative writing teacher for the Loft and The University of Minnesota, Duluth, Split Rock Arts Program. Sandra Benitez has had 18 awards “The Weight of All Things” being one. Living in Mexico and El Salvador were her time to come up with a crafty novel that reveal how domestic life is compromised by politics in Latin America. Her books leave young children orphaned and vulnerable, and it infects generation after generation. To quote a publishers weekly writer in a review of “The Weight of All Things”, Benitez—who published her first novel at the age of fifty-two—“gives voice to the silenced.” “Sandra Benitez.” Contemporary authors online. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Literature resource Center. Gale. EAGLECREST HIGH SCHOOL. 20 May 2009 Http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=ccsd5_ehs. The years Sandra Benitez spent in El Salvador, where her father was a Commercial attaché for the American Embassy, it let her explore in her fiction. Since her first book Sandra has enjoyed writing novels that interest other people.

Country context. -Historical- In Between the times of 3000 BC and the 1500’s (Spanish Conquest) today as we call it El Salvador was inhabited by various tribes who had migrated from Mexico. In the time of the Spanish arrival in 1524, El Salvador was Controlled the Pipil Indians, descendants of Mexico's Toltec and Aztec peoples. "El Salvador: History." World Geography. 2009. ABC-CLIO. 2 Jun. 2009 . March 30, 1980 More then 80,000 people gathered in and around the metropolitan cathedral for the funeral of archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who was assassinated on March 24 while celebrating mass. Thirty-five were killed and 450 were wounded after explosions and shooting caused the crowd to panic. (Weight of All Things). There were two events in this book that were based on an actual occurrence that took place in El Salvador. May 14, 1980 six hundred campesinos fleeing rural repression were massacred at the Sumpul River by Salvadoran and Honduran Troops. (Weight of All Things.)

-Cultural- El Salvador has over 300 rivers; the most important one is the Rio Lempa. It's the Country’s only navigable river, which flows across much of the central plateau. In the far north, near the borders of Honduras and Guatemala, is the Parque National Montecito, or the Montecito Cloud Forest, considered one of El Salvador's lushest parks. Here at an elevation of 7,900 feet, oak trees covered with bromeliads and philodendrons grow up to 100 feet tall. Although the park is less than eight square miles in size, it harbors a rich diversity of life, including 90 rare or endangered species. "El Salvador: Environment." World Geography. 2009. ABC-CLIO. 2 Jun. 2009 .

-Political- In El Salvador around the year 2000 when the book was published a lot was going on in El Salvador. For example in 1999 the presidential race brought President Francisco Guillermo Flores Perez to office. El Salvador also played a role in negotiations for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). The Active force in the post-civil war government received the highest number of legislative seats of any party in March 2000 elections. A number of right-wing terrorist groups and "death squads'' continue to exist, as well as numerous left-wing dissident and paramilitary organizations. The FMLN had the most seats in the legislature until 2006 elections, at which time the Arena party not only controlled the National Assembly but had elected its presidential candidate, Antonio Saca, in 2004. " El Salvador: Politics." World Geography. 2009. ABC-CLIO. 2 Jun. 2009 . -Geographic- El Salvador is small country on the Pacific side of Central America with a coastline that faces southward. El Salvador is considered the smallest of Seven countries in Central America and the only one that doesn’t touch the Caribbean Sea.