Trained first in the Byzantine school of icon painting, in 1567 he went to Venice, where he is known to have studied under Titian; thereafter (1570-77) he painted in Rome. By late 1577, El Greco was established in Toledo and at work on the altar of the Church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo. The center painting of this group, the Assumption, now in the Art Institute of Chicago, shows marked Italian influence. His next great works, El espolio de las vestiduras (cathedral, Toledo) and San Mauricio (Escorial) indicate a rapid development. The second was commissioned by Philip II, but he rejected it.

El Greco remained in Toledo, then an abandoned and rapidly dwindling capital whose proud and recalcitrant nobility were driven wholesale into the church as their only remaining vocation. He has left superb portraits of their ascetic faces, and in the foreground of his famous Burial of the Count Orgaz (Church of San Tomé, Toledo) it is they who are assembled at the funeral of the count, whose soul is seen ascending to Christ in the upper part of the painting. This masterpiece, painted in 1586, was followed by many others in which the artist, then mature, brought into play every resource of his dynamic art to express religious ecstasy. Flamelike lines, accentuated by vivid highlights, elongated and distorted figures, and full vibrant color contrasted with subtle grays all combine to produce a unique art.

Among his many great works of this period are the Baptism, Crucifixion, and Resurrection (Prado); a portrait of the inquisitor Cardinal Don Fernando Niño de Guevara (Metropolitan Mus.); two similar versions of St. Jerome (one in the National Gall., London; one in the Frick Coll., New York City); and a long series of paintings of St. Francis. Indeed, many of El Greco's paintings exist in multiple interpretations of the same subject, each with variations that range from the profound to the subtle. To his last period, a time of deepening mysticism, belong such works as the Assumption (Mus. of San Vicente Anejo, Toledo); Adoration and View of Toledo (Metropolitan Mus.); the Pentecost (Prado); a portrait of Hortensio Felix Paravicino (Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston); and the Laocoön (National Gall. of Art, Washington, D.C.).

In his own day his admirers seem to have been intellectuals, such as Fulvio Orsini, the lawyer Lancilotti, and Giulio Clovio. Paravicino, the court preacher, was his friend and apologist. Overshadowed by the more popular masterpieces of Velázquez and Murillo, his work became less and less known, especially outside Spain. At the end of the 19th cent. his paintings started to come under art critical scrutiny, and in the mid-20th cent. El Greco became widely celebrated, largely because his idiosyncratic and intensely expressionistic style (see expressionism), his flickering light and indeterminate space, and his bold and almost abstract use of paint appealed strongly to contemporary tastes. Splendid examples of his vast production exist in many European and American galleries and collections. He is best seen in Toledo, Madrid, and the Escorial. A museum has been devoted to his work in what is said to have been his home in Toledo.

Land and People

Two volcanic ranges, running roughly west to east, segment the country, but in between are broad, fertile valleys, such as that of the Lempa, the principal river. There are several fairly large lakes. El Salvador is the smallest Latin American republic and the most densely populated; overpopulation is a critical problem. The vast majority of the population is of mixed indigenous and European descent. Spanish is the official language. Roman Catholicism the dominant religion, but there is a growing minority who belong to evangelical Protestant churches.

Economy

El Salvador's economy has traditionally been agricultural, but services and industry now employ a greater percentage of the workforce and account for a much higher percentage of the gross domestic product. El Salvador's economy was adversely affected by its 12-year civil war. Beginning in the early 1990s, however, attempts were made to revive the country's economic life, and the economy had recovered by the beginning of 2001, when El Salvador adopted the U.S. dollar as its official currency.

About half of the land is used for either crops or pasturage. Corn is the chief subsistence crop, and rice, beans, oilseeds, and sorghum are also grown; coffee and sugar are the major cash crops. Food and beverage processing is important and petroleum, chemicals, fertilizer, textiles, furniture, and light metals are among El Salvador's leading manufactures. The Inter-American Highway crosses El Salvador and forms the heart of an excellent transportation system that links San Salvador with the ports of La Unión, Acajutla, and La Libertad and the inland cities of San Miguel and Santa Ana.

Offshore assembly products, coffee, sugar, shrimp, textiles, and chemicals are El Salvador's main exports. The leading imports are raw materials, consumer and capital goods, fuel, food, petroleum, and electricity. The United States is by far the largest trading partner.

Government

El Salvador is governed under the constitution of 1983. The president, who is both head of state and head of government, is popularly elected for a five-year term and may not succeed himself. The members of the 84-seat unicameral Legislative Assembly are elected for three-year terms. The principal parties are the National Republican Alliance (ARENA), the Christian Democratic party (PDC), and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). The country is divided administratively into 14 departments.

History

Before the arrival of the Spaniards, El Salvador was inhabited by the Pipils, descendants of the Aztecs and the Toltecs of Mexico, who had arrived in the 12th cent. In 1524 Pedro de Alvarado landed and began a series of campaigns that resulted in Spanish control. With independence from Spain in 1821, it became briefly a part of the Mexican Empire of Augustín de Iturbide, and after the empire collapsed (1823) El Salvador joined the Central American Federation. El Salvador protested the dominance of Guatemala and under Francisco Morazán succeeded in having the federal capital transferred (1831) to San Salvador. After the dissolution of the federation (1839), the republic was plagued by frequent interference from the dictators of neighboring countries, notably Rafael Carrera and Justo Rufino Barrios of Guatemala and José Santos Zelaya of Nicaragua.

The primacy of coffee cultivation in the economy began in the second half of the 19th cent. Intense cultivation led to the predominance of landed proprietors, and the economy became vulnerable to fluctuations in the world market price for coffee. In 1931, Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, capitalizing on discontent caused by the collapse of coffee prices, led a coup. His dictatorship lasted until 1944, after which there was chronic political unrest.

Under the authoritarian rule of Major Oscar Osorio (1950-56) and Lt. Col. José María Lemus (1956-60) considerable economic progress was made. Lemus was overthrown by a coup, and after a confused period a junta composed of leaders of the National Conciliation party came to power in June, 1961. The junta's candidate, Lt. Col. Julio Adalberto Rivera, was elected president in 1962. He was succeeded in 1967 by Col. Fidel Sánchez Hernández.

Relations with Honduras deteriorated in the late 1960s. There was a border clash in 1967, and a four-day war broke out in July, 1969. The Salvadoran forces that had invaded Honduras were withdrawn, but not until 1992 was an agreement that largely settled the border controversy with Honduras signed. The last disputed border area was finally marked in 2006.

In the 1970s El Salvador's overpopulation, economic problems, and inequitable social system led to social and political unrest; by the end of the decade, murder and other terrorism by leftist guerrillas and especially by right-wing "death squads" had become common. In 1979, Gen. Carlos Humberto Romero, the last in a series of presidents whose elections were denounced by many as fraudulent, was overthrown by a military junta. Murders and other terrorism continued, and the unrest erupted into a full-scale civil war between the government and guerrillas of the leading opposition group, the FMLN.

In 1990, José Napoleón Duarte, a Christian Democrat, assumed the presidency under the junta and called for presidential elections, which he won in 1984. Despite his reputation as a reformer, he did not appear able to rein in the army and control the death squads. These excesses continued after the election in 1989 of President Alfredo Cristiani, leader of the right-wing ARENA party.

In 1991, however, the Cristiani government, with help from the United Nations, negotiated with the FMLN, and in Jan., 1992, a peace treaty with the rebels was signed, ending the bloody 12-year civil war that killed over 70,000 people. The FMLN demobilized and participated in the postwar 1994 elections, which resulted in the presidency of Armando Calderón Sol, the ARENA candidate. The army was apparently reined in, and terrorism and violence, by both left and right, virtually disappeared. A major program was put in place to transfer land (80% of which was concentrated in the hands of the wealthy) to former combatants. However, progress in implementing reforms and rebuilding the economy was slow, and was further hindered by a major hurricane in 1998.

The ARENA party remained in power with the election of Francisco Guillermo Flores Pérez to the presidency in 1999. In Mar., 2000, however, the FMLN won the greatest number of seats in the National Assembly, although not enough to control the legislature. Two earthquakes struck central El Salvador a month apart early in 2001, killing about a thousand people and leaving many homeless. In Mar., 2003, the FMLN again won the largest bloc of assembly seats, but failed to win a majority. The presidential elections a year later resulted in an ARENA victory; Elías Antonio "Tony" Saca received 57% of the vote. An earthquake in Jan., 2005, killed nearly 700 people. An increase in gang-related violence in 2005 led to army patrols on the country's streets. Legislative elections in Mar., 2006, gave a plurality of the seats to ARENA, but it failed to win a majority and the FMLN was a close second. The government mounted a crackdown against criminal gangs in Aug., 2006; in October it said it had uncovered an assassination plot against the president that was said to be linked to the anti-gang campaign.

One of the largest of the border cities (and said to be the world's busiest border crossing), El Paso is a blend of the United States and Mexico, its history closely linked to that of Juárez. The region was once known as El Paso del Norte, for the route through the mountains from Mexico to the north. In the 16th and 17th cent. missionaries, soldiers, and traders came here. Although missions were founded at Ysleta and elsewhere north of the river, the major settlement was on the south (Juárez) bank. Not until 1827 was the first house built on the site of El Paso. After the U.S.-Mexican border was set, settlement increased, and the coming of the railroad in 1881 prefaced the arrival of cowboys, exiles, border traders, and adventurers. As a result of the settlement in 1963 of the Chamizal border dispute, a small area of El Paso was transferred to Mexico.

In a typical ENSO, the strong easterly winds of the equatorial Pacific weaken, which allows warm eastward-flowing subsurface waters to rise, increasing surface temperatures 1-2°C; (2-3.5°F;), and sometimes as much as 4-6°C; (7-11°F;), in the central and E Pacific. Along the W coast of South America, El Niño's warm waters persist and deepen, and cold, upwelling, nutrient-rich waters fail to reach surface waters; the resulting warm, nutrient-poor waters devastate coastal fisheries. Heavy rain falls along the South American coast, and heavy rainfall also moves from the western to central Pacific, causing drier than normal conditions in Indonesia and nearby areas. An ENSO also affects the climate of the northern latitudes, particularly North America, which experiences warmer temperatures along the Pacific coast, increased rainfall in the Gulf states, and weaker Atlantic hurricanes.

Severe ENSO events can be economically disruptive worldwide. Of the 29 ENSOs that occurred between 1700 and 1999, the 1982-83 El Niño was the strongest and most devastating. It caused droughts in Africa, Australia, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, flooding in Peru and Ecuador, and devastating coastal storms in California. The ENSO was blamed for 1,300-2,000 deaths and more than $13 billion in damage to property and livelihoods.

The effects of El Niño were documented in Peru as early as the Spanish conquest in 1525. By the end of the 19th cent. the phenomenon was being studied by Peruvian oceanographers, although the effects were thought to be limited to the W coast of South America. It was not until the systematic studies of the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58 that the extent of the meteorological impact of El Niño was recognized.

La Niña, a similar climatic fluctuation, involves the abnormal cooling of the waters off Ecuador and Peru. Penetrating westward, the cold current is believed to affect weather in areas in the middle latitudes in the western Pacific Ocean and to cause extremely hot summers in Japan.

Largest New World cat. Once found in wooded regions from the U.S.-Mexican border south to Patagonia, the jaguar (Panthera onca) survives, in reduced numbers, only in remote areas of Central and South America; the largest known population is in the Amazon rain forest. The male is 5.5–9 ft (1.7–2.7 m) long, including the 23–35-in. (60–90-cm) tail, and weighs 220–350 lbs (100–160 kg). The coat is typically orange-tan with black spots arranged in rosettes having a black spot in the centre. A solitary predator, the jaguar usually hunts rodents, deer, birds, and fish; it will also take cattle, horses, and dogs.

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Country, Central America. Area: 8,124 sq mi (21,042 sq km). Population (2007 est.): 6,857,000. Capital: San Salvador. The majority of the people are mestizos; most of the rest are Indians. Language: Spanish (official). Religion: Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholic; also Protestant, other Christians). Currency: U.S. dollar. The smallest and most densely populated Central American country, it is crossed by two volcanic mountain ranges and has a narrow coastal region and a high central plain in the south. The climate ranges from hot and wet in the lowlands to cooler and wetter in the highlands. Cloud forests predominate at the highest elevations. El Salvador has a developing economy based on services, trade, manufacturing, and agriculture, with coffee, sugarcane, and cotton as the major export crops. Remittances from Salvadorans living in the U.S. are, collectively, among the country's largest sources of income. El Salvador is a republic with one legislative house; its chief of state and government is the president. The Spanish arrived in the area in 1524 and subjugated the Pipil Indian kingdom of Cuzcatlán by 1539. The country was divided into two districts, San Salvador and Sonsonate, both attached to Guatemala. When Spanish rule ended in 1821, the Salvadorans opposed incorporation into the Mexican Empire (confronting both Guatemalan and Mexican armies), and, upon its collapse in 1823, Sonsonate and San Salvador combined to form the new state of El Salvador within the United Provinces of Central America. The country attained independence in 1841. From its founding, it experienced a high degree of political turmoil; powerful economic interests controlled the country through most of the 19th and early 20th centuries but were replaced by a military dictatorship that lasted from 1931 to 1979. Elections held in 1982 set up a new government, and, though a new constitution was adopted in 1983, civil war continued throughout the 1980s. Peace accords in 1992 ended the war, but violent crime became a major problem. Despite attempts at economic reform, the country was plagued by inflation and unemployment into the 21st century. In 2006 El Salvador officially entered into the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States.

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Volcano, Andes Mountains, southern Peru. It is flanked by Chachani and Pichupichu volcanoes and rises to 19,098 ft (5,821 m) above sea level, towering over the city of Arequipa. Its pristine snowcapped cone is thought to have had religious significance for the Incas, and it has inspired legends and poetry. Now dormant, it last erupted during an earthquake in 1600.

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(born Nov. 10, 1890, Pochinok, near Smolensk, Russia—died Dec. 30, 1941, Moscow) Russian painter, typographer, and designer. As a teacher at Marc Chagall's revolutionary art school in Vitebsk, he met Kazimir Malevich, whose influence is seen in a series of abstract paintings that were Lissitzky's major contribution to Constructivism. In 1922, after the Soviet government turned against modern art, he went to Germany. There Theo van Doesburg and László Moholy-Nagy transmitted his ideas to the West through their teaching at the Bauhaus. In 1925 he returned to Russia and devoted himself to devising new techniques of printing, photomontage, and architecture.

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(born 1541, Candia, Crete—died April 7, 1614, Toledo, Spain) Cretan-born Spanish painter, the first great master of Spanish painting. Documentation on his early life is limited, but it is known that he was in Venice circa 1566–70 and may have studied in Titian's workshop. In 1572 he was a member of the guild of St. Luke in Rome. His first commission in Spain (1577) was for altarpieces for the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo (1577–79); the paintings for the high altar show the influence of Titian and Michelangelo. In these works he developed his signature style: he chose a method of space elimination that is common to middle and late 16th-century Italian painters known as Mannerists. The elogonated figures in these works were also characteristic of his oeuvre. El Greco's Mannerist method of composition is nowhere more clearly expressed than in his masterpiece, The Burial of the Count de Orgaz (1586–88), where all of the action takes place in the frontal plane. From 1590 until his death his output was prodigious. His major commissions included the complete altar composition for the Hospital de la Caridad at Illescas (1603–05), for which he also worked as architect and sculptor. He excelled as a portraitist. His workshop produced many replicas of his works, but his style was so individual that his only followers were his son and a few forgotten imitators.

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City (pop., 2000: 563,662), western Texas, U.S. Located on the Rio Grande opposite Ciudad Juárez, Mex., it is the largest of the U.S.-Mexican border cities. The area was the site of several missions from the 17th century; the first village was built on the site of El Paso in 1827. It became U.S. territory in 1848, when an army post was erected; the town was laid out in 1859. It grew slowly until 1881, when four railways arrived; in a decade El Paso's population increased more than tenfold. Spanish language and culture distinguish the modern city. The commercial and financial centre for an extensive trade territory, it is the site of the University of Texas at El Paso (1913) and Fort Bliss (home of the U.S. Army Air Defense Center); the White Sands Missile Range is nearby.

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Rock formation and archaeological site, west-central New Mexico, U.S. Established in 1906, it has an area of 2 sq mi (5 sq km). El Morro, or Inscription Rock, is a soft sandstone mesa rising 200 ft (60 m) above the valley floor and covering several acres. Spaniards and Americans left their inscriptions (1605–1906) on the cliff sides of the mesa. El Morro also has a number of pre-Columbian petroglyphs, and on its top lie ruins of Indian pueblos.

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Natural area, west-central New Mexico, U.S. Located at an elevation of 6,400–8,400 ft (1,950–2,560 m), it covers 179 sq mi (464 sq km), including a lava flow area of 133 sq mi (344 sq km). Features include a 17-mi (27-km) lava tube system, a number of ice caves, volcanic cinder cones, one of New Mexico's largest natural arches, and more than 20 gas and lava spatter cones. Designated a national natural landmark with the name McCarty Lava Flow in 1969, it became a national monument in 1987.

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Ancient city, Egypt. Located midway between Thebes and Memphis on the Nile River, it was built in the 14th century BC by the Egyptian king (pharaoh) Akhenaton, who moved his subjects there in order to found a new monotheistic religion. Artifacts discovered there in the 19th century included hundreds of cuneiform tablets. Archaeological finds of the late 20th century included sculptures and paintings.

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(born 1882, Ajdir, Mor.—died Feb. 6, 1963, Cairo, Egypt) Berber resistance leader against Spanish and French rule in northern Morocco. He was chief Muslim judge for Morocco's Melilla district. He became disillusioned with Spanish policies and eventually led a resistance movement with his brother. He set up the Republic of the Rif in 1921 and became its president. In 1926 he was forced to surrender when faced by a combined French and Spanish army. Exiled to the island of Réunion, in 1947 he received permission to live in France but took asylum in Egypt while en route. When Morocco became independent (1956), Muhammad V invited him to return, but he refused because of the continued presence of French troops in North Africa.

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