Vital minimums: El Salvador between youth and old age

Abstract

Through the concept of the “vital minimum”—the notion of basic life rights and living standards for all Salvadorans articulated by the early twentieth-century Salvadoran essayist Alberto Masferrer—this essay demonstrates the importance of older adult sociality and old age return as a prism through which to understand contemporary El Salvador. Examining retiree objectives and everyday practices among older Salvadorans in a transnational frame, the article links Masferrer’s vitalist thinking to mounting concerns of older adult dignity and the coming general crisis of care as the Salvadoran population uptrends toward older age. The article suggests the need to take stock, politically and analytically, of the social worlds shaped and bolstered by older adults, underscoring their roles as economic supports, community mediators, and caregivers, which make possible the social reproduction of community itself.