San José Las Flores is a municipality and city in
Chalatenango Department
Chalatenango () is a department of El Salvador, located in the northwest of the country. The capital is the city of Chalatenango. The Chalatenango Department encompasses 2,017 km² and contains more than 204,000 inhabitants. ''Las Matras ...
,
El Salvador. It played an important and strategic role during the
Salvadoran Civil War
The Salvadoran Civil War ( es, guerra civil de El Salvador) was a twelve year period of civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martà National Liberation Front
The Farabundo Ma ...
. The town was one of the first settlements to be repopulated by
refugees who had been driven away by government bombing during the early 1980s. In 1986, in defiance of the military, the civilian population returned to reconstruct the village. This was part of a campaign of a number of towns throughout northern El Salvador, with the assistance of humanitarian groups in North America and Europe, to resist the militarization of the area and prevent continued bombing during the war. For this reason, a number of U.S. cities became sister cities with Salvadoran towns to demonstrate support for the civilians during the war. Nearby towns that were also in this movement include
Arcatao
Arcatao is a municipality and small town in the Department of Chalatenango, El Salvador.
Geography
Arcatao is located 32 km east from Chalatenango at the border with the Republic of Honduras in a small valley between the mountains; La Caà ...
and
Guarjila, which were repopulated in 1987.
Geography
The community of San Jose Las Flores is situated to the east of the city of Chalatenango on the road towards Nueva Trinidad and Arcatao.
Patronal Festivals
People in San Jose Las Flores celebrate the day of the village's patron saint in March. Local people celebrate over the course of a week with street processions, live music shows and ranching displays (known locally as Jaripeo)
Tourism
Most tourists visit San Jose Las Flores when coming to the nearby River Sumpul complex. Two miles beyond Las Flores is a tourist complex with cabins, a small restaurant and a swimming area complete with two large waterslides, which are very popular with local people and visitors from further afield.
Sister cities
The elementary school Escuela San Jose Las Flores has two sister schools, Holy Trinity High School, in Kanata and St. Gregory Catholic School in Ottawa. Both schools are in Ontario, Canada. It is a sister city of Cambridge, MA, United States since 1986, ratified by the Cambridge government in 1987.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:San Jose Las Flores, Chalatenango
Municipalities of the Chalatenango Department