Villa el Salvador is known for its urban planning and organization. It has won numerous international prizes and was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize! Here is a bit of history for those who are inerested:

Villa is one of 44 districts surrounding the Peruvian capital of Lima. It can best be described as a densely populated shantytown spread out over the sand dunes on the outskirts of Lima. It has a population of some 400,000 people who share approximately 35.5 thousand square kilometers. It is home to 115 thousand children ages 0-14 , who make up 29.3 percent of the population. Culturally and ethnically, Villa is made up mainly of poor first, second and third generation migrants from the indigenous rural villages of Peru.

Specifically, Villa el Salvador is a pueblo joven, or ‘young village'. The term joven (‘young') refers to the fact that most of these neighborhoods were formed no more than 30 to 40 years ago (in the 1960s and 1970s), and the term pueblo (‘village') intimates the people's rural origins. It is worth noting that the migrant background of its first inhabitants continues even today to color much of the identity and culture in Villa el Salvador - for example the Yunza I attended the other day (see 'What a Day!' blog entry).

Villa el Salvador's history is principally one of socio-economic struggle and community effort. This history still underpins many aspects of life in Villa today. Having originally settled in the slum neighborhoods of Lima, the original migrants from the provincias soon longed for a better, safer space. In 1971, 200 families invaded and took over a track of land - empty dessert - south of Lima which was owned by the State. Within days they were joined by over 9,000 people. The government reacted with force, killing two young men and injuring others, but the people were steadfast and refused to be moved from the land. Finally, a settlement was reached and the Peruvian government agreed to give the people a large plot of land some 20 kilometers further to the south. This was the beginning of Villa el Salvador.