USULUTAN, El
Salvador -
(KRT) - In 1913, two Palestinians, Elias
Handal and Musa Ali Saleh, left their homes in Bethlehem for a two-month
boat ride across the ocean to start a new life in a distant land.
First setting foot in Central America,
selling fabric from sacks on their backs, the two friends never imagined
that Saleh's grandson and Handal's great-nephew would today be facing off
across El Salvador's bloodied political divide as the two leading candidates
for president.
If opinion polls are accurate, the winner of
Sunday's race will not only come from a Palestinian immigrant family but
also from one of two families that began their New World journeys together.
Tony Saca of the right-wing ruling party and
Schafik Handal of the leftist former guerrilla faction launch daily verbal
attacks in a polarized campaign loaded with fear and with hate-filled
memories of the civil war in the 1980s.
But for years, their families lived across
the street from each other and even intermarried in Usulutan, about 50 miles
south of the capital. Their parallel rise is the story of the growing
influence of Arab immigrant communities in Latin America after years of
discrimination, and of how a group of Palestinians left one war-torn region
to struggle in another.
"He and I, we're relatives," Saca said of
Handal. "It was part of the migration during the Ottoman Empire. They left
so that their sons would not die in (World War I)."
While the Arab community is as divided as
everyone else in El Salvador, a tiny nation where politics often is fought
within the family, Arab leaders express pride that one of their sons will
likely lead the country after years of prominence in the nation's economic
affairs - mostly as traders.
"Independent of who wins, the first feeling
is one of satisfaction that our economic power will now be recognized at
this level," said John Nasser Hasbun, a Palestinian-Salvadoran who is a
nephew of Bethlehem's current mayor and a Handal supporter. "The second
feeling is that the community is so divided."
While caught up in the intense infighting in
El Salvador, the community has not been able to avoid the bitter conflict in
its homeland.
In January, a controversy erupted when Nasser
and others built a small memorial park in San Salvador called the Plaza
Palestina. El Salvador's tiny Jewish community protested because the
organizers omitted acknowledgement of Israel on the memorial's brass map of
historic Palestine.
Jewish leaders say the flap could threaten
Israeli economic aid to El Salvador.
"It doesn't bother us that there's a Plaza
Palestina, but you can't have a map without Israel," said Claudio Kahn,
leader of the Jewish community, which numbers about 200 people. "It's not
right to think you can solve things over there (in the Mideast) from over
here."
Handal, 73, whose Farabundo Marti National
Liberation Front guerrillas received support from Yasser Arafat's
Palestinian Liberation Organization during the civil war, was endorsed by an
Arafat envoy. If elected, he would move El Salvador's embassy in Israel to
Tel Aviv from Jerusalem.
El Salvador and Costa Rica are the only
countries with their embassies in the disputed Holy City. Israel aided El
Salvador's right-wing governments and military during the country's civil
war.
Saca, 39, a former sports broadcaster and
owner of a string of radio stations, has publicly tried to steer clear of
Middle East issues as the candidate for the National Republican Alliance.
Yet his name also appears as a donor on the controversial plaza plaque.
Among El Salvador's 6 million people, there
are about 100,000 Arabs. Ninety percent are Palestinian, and community
leaders say about 90 percent of them are Christians from Bethlehem.
Their families began leaving the Holy Land in
the late 19th Century to flee repression by the Ottoman Turks, and the
flight peaked as World War I brewed and their sons were being pressed into
military service.
The Palestinian-Salvadorans are part of a
large Arab diaspora in Latin America. While they have thrived in trading,
textiles and banking, it has been rare to see them run for president.
They long have faced prejudice and rejection
among the country's social elite. Known as "Turks" because many of their
families arrived with Turkish passports, they kept to themselves, adopted
Latino names and established schools and social clubs.
"In the last 10 or 15 years, there's been
more integration. Capital unites people very well," said Javier Ibisate, an
economist at San Salvador's University of Central America.
Handal and Saleh arrived on a ship from
Marseille, France, at a time when the railroad did not reach Usulutan. At
first on-foot salesmen, they saved enough to buy a horse and then opened
stores across the street from one other that are run by relatives today.
Saca's grandfather, a Muslim, changed his
name to Moises Gonzalez. The future presidential candidate lived in Usulutan
until his father went broke in the cotton business and then moved to San
Salvador where he began a career in sports broadcasting and invested in
radio stations.
Eventually, Saca became president of the
National Private Business Association. Relatives say the poverty of his
youth helped shape his ambitions and right-wing political beliefs. He now
boasts that he took no active part in the war and that his "hands are
clean."
"The war started, and we all suffered," said
Alberto Avolevan, 84, an uncle whose father was born in Jerusalem.
Several of Saca's brothers repeated their
grandfather's sojourn when they departed for the United States. They live in
California, where one is a doctor, and from where they have supported their
family back in El Salvador.
A generation older, Handal led a very
different life as head of El Salvador's Communist Party and one of the war's
most well-known guerrilla commanders.
Handal's father and uncle followed their
Uncle Elias to Usulutan in the early 1900s after their father disappeared.
Handal's father came as a stowaway and was almost thrown overboard when
discovered.
"They came for the same reason that people
from here are now leaving for the States, to search for a better life," said
Jose Orlando Handal, 66, the candidate's brother.
The family's Handal and Nephews store still
occupies a prominent corner in town, while the extended clan has prospered
with cattle-ranching lands, salt-extraction plants and a bakery.
Handal entered politics young, inspired by a
strike against a 1940s military dictator. His activities led to several
imprisonments and exiles, while a brother disappeared while in police
custody and his father was forced to sell his share in the family business.
As the election nears, the two families
fondly recall their mutual friendship: one of Handal's cousins married
Saca's uncle.
In Usulutan, Handals and Sacas still greet
each other on the street, trading gentle barbs about the vitriolic political
campaign. But behind the smiles, the feelings are stronger.
"It hurts you and infuriates you more because
it's people that you've known," said Ana Isabel Handal, 68, the candidate's
sister.
