(related search terms: "wealthiest families El Salvador", "El Salvador oligarchy", "Salvadoran business dynasties")
The original oligarchy built its wealth on the "forced expropriation" of communal lands to grow coffee, sugar, and cotton. Key names from this traditional era include: El Salvador (04/01) - State.gov
To the average Salvadoran in the streets below, the Fourteen were just names on buildings or vague shadows in the history books. But to the country itself, they were the invisible skeleton upon which the nation stood. They were the ghosts of the past and the architects of the future, bound together not just by wealth, but by the unspoken agreement that while presidents change, the families remain.