For Salvadoran Town's U.S. Patrons, The Return Is More Than Financial

INTIPUCA, El Salvador -- Mariachi bands marched through the streets. Girls in frilly gowns threw candy from parade floats. And throngs of children squealed with glee as this hilltop community kicked off that most timeless of Latin small-town rituals: the annual patron saint festival.

But the crosstalk among the spectators lining the route through Intipuca this month also hinted at the modern twist to this year's celebrations.

"Really, so you flew in on United?" a man in a striped polo shirt and khaki pants asked another. "Do they let you bring as much luggage as Delta does?"

Almost 30 years after virtually an entire generation fled El Salvador's poverty and civil war in search of a better life in the Washington area, Salvadoran immigrants are returning to visit their home towns in droves. So frequent are their trips that many are as involved in the life of their native towns as they are in their adopted communities in Maryland, Virginia and the District.

In Intipuca, a quiet town on the Pacific coast, people estimate that roughly 80 percent of the 7,000 residents before the exodus now live in the Washington region. Many of them fly in often to check on shops and businesses they operate. Others come three or four times a year on vacation. One, an Arlington resident, even ran for mayor of his old home town. Hugo Salinas campaigned through the streets in a pickup with a 10-foot reproduction of the Washington Monument mounted on the back. He lost Sunday by about 100 votes.

Even those who can manage to travel only once a year say they would not dream of missing Intipuca's patron saint festival. This year's week-long marathon of fireworks displays, carnival rides, parades, soccer games, rodeos, religious processions and dances has attracted an estimated 400 emigrants living in the Washington area.

"We're like little chicks, and Intipuca is like our mother hen," said Aloides Andrade, 53, a waiter at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Northwest Washington. "We are happiest when we are close to her."

Unlike immigrants from more far-flung continents who tend to celebrate their traditional holidays in the Washington area, Salvadorans, who make up the region's largest immigrant group, have the option of hosting such events in their home country.

Although those who are in the United States illegally or on temporary permits cannot travel home easily, increasing numbers have become permanent residents or U.S. citizens through an amnesty in 1986 or subsequent sponsorship by relatives or employers.

After more than 20 years in the Washington region, Benjamin Arias, 43, a father of three U.S.-born children who is a parking garage attendant in the District, said he feels deeply rooted in the United States.

"I love this work," Arias said at the garage, flashing a boyish grin as he fetched keys for the last of his customers on the eve of his departure for Intipuca. "I get to know people of every race, every country, every culture. We don't have that in El Salvador."

Still, he confessed, he was counting the minutes until his flight.