fenceless doesn't mean free

In the early 80's, the Colonia Escalon (the neighbourhood where I live in San Salvador) was free from all those wired walls that cage the outside. 

In a  conversation about everything, a friend and neighbour told me her house didn't even have a fence. I tried to imagine the undivided landscape, and felt nostalgic for those times that I can only access through words (times that are a fiction to me). The images made me inquire to the rest of the MARA (mara doesn't only refer to the violent gangs but it is also a salvadorian slang for group) about their childhood. I'll try to reproduce the thread of the conversation. 

Me: In Cali and Quito, where I grew up, I used to play on the streets, hide and seek and all sorts of things. I remember climbing trees, playing football (ok soccer), playing hide and seek and biking with my friends. Boys and girls always out. When we played indoors, we span the bottle. I guess that is why, our parents preferred outdoor games for us. 

She 1:  No, no... I wasn't allowed to go out unless I had a chaperone. It wasn't because it was dangerous. I couldn't go out by myself cause I am a woman. What does spinning the bottle mean?... 

She 2: ...I only went out with my cousins when we visited them out of town. That was the only time where I actually went out to the movies with my peers. 

She 3: I was always home, helping my mother. I didn't go out very much, only to church or some school events  with my mother. 

She 4: Going out with boys was something I did after 18. University times. Well, sometimes with cousins we would do stuff. But not too much on the streets. Well my brother and cousins would play outside. But not the girls. 

Five women at the table, talking about pre-Salvadorian war times. Through their stories I learned that around the time the war started,  fences started to cage the  (until then) free houses.  Then fences were replaced by walls, then walls were topped by wires, then wires got electrified (sometimes they are not electrified but they have a that sign says so), then an armed guard or two were added to the entrance, then the sidewalk became a place to park cars. In a way, society is stratified by the level you reached in the process of walling houses. However, regardless of how electrified your wires are, the outside world is a forbidden place for girls. Even then...

She 3: I don't let my girls out. They help me home. They are 16, 18 and 21. The street is not a place for girls. 

She 2: I only let them go to the mall. But I drive my girls there and pick them up. 

She 3: Yes, it is a dangerous place. 

.....

So, what happens if you are out there? 

So far nothing has happened to me, except for having a bike accident and having to drag myself to the sidewalk to avoid two cars. None of them stopped. 

I've decided to take my cast to the mall today.