One Home, Two Nations

El Salvador no longer fits inside the dotted lines on a map. Rather, this tiny Central American nation straddles a border. A full one third of El Salvador's population lives in the United States. That's 2.5 million people in motion. El Salvador’s greatest national resource is the money these people send home. It totals $2.5 billion in motion each year — a thousand bucks a person. These ties — of family and of commerce, of love and of money —are the subject of this Marketplace series.

El Salvador proper is made up of 14 provinces, known as departamentos. With more than 2 million of their sons and daughters now living abroad, Salvadorians have given a nickname to the United States: Departamento Quince. The 15th province.

Part 1: Francisco and Luis

The farming village of Chinameca has sent many of its sons and daughters to Fairfax, Va. This is the story of two friends, Francisco and Luis — one who stayed and one who left — and the lives they made for themselves.

Part 2: Nelly and Mauricio

Francisco and Luis' lives cross again when their children fall in love. Francisco's son Mauricio plans to marry Nelly and bring her to the US, where he was born and raised. That means Luis will lose his daughter to the US and Francisco will be forced to leave his family behind once again when he retires to Chinameca.

Helping the folks back home

Reporter Dan Grech tells the story of one immigrant family that has turned the practice of sending money back home into a half-million-dollar venture.