Essay about Archbishop Romero: A Hero or Not?

The populist governments, seen in the 1950’s and 1960’s in South America, spurred industrial growth and a sense of “consciousness” amongst the inhabitants of the Latin American countries. The industrial growth greatly benefited the middle-class and the working-class; however, the poor were driven into shantytowns and rural areas. To illustrate the great poverty of this time in Latin America, people living in “shantytowns” resided in vast settlements built of cardboard and other available materials such as metal and sheets of plastic. These “towns” frequently lacked proper sanitation. One could imagine how living in these shantytowns would degrade the human spirit and foster a sense of worthlessness. The abrupt shift in the social classes

The first part of the movie was titled the father’s name of the main characters. The father was killed by armies because he and other men were trying to make a protest or rebellion. Before dying, the father told Enrique how he would be a successful man without being “arm” of the riches. This wisdom word kept Enrique hold his dream about going to the north, where most people in that little village believed that they would get a freedom of everything and live in a modern world without slavery. Afterward, the mother was abducted by soldiers and the siblings must live in hiding to not get caught. The orphans decided to go to the north with the hope of a freedom land in the north was really existing even for minor Indian like them. This part of the film showed that even in the 80s, there still naïve and traditional citizens that living poorly even though Guatemala already proclaimed its independence in 1820s. This is one of the reasons that young people preferred to move from developing country and immigrate to developed country to chase their dreams and treated fairly like another human being. Other reasons why people immigrate were a lack of access to services like hospital or education, slavery, or poverty their old country. These reasons made the immigrants to expect improvements in income and living conditions in the designated country.

A hero is somebody who commits an act of remarkably bravery or who has shown an admirable quality such as great courage or strength of character. (Encarta, 2009) Joseph Campbell has come up with eight of his own characteristics of a hero. Joseph Campbell is known as a scholar of mythology. There are several people in our times that are considered a hero. Whether, these heroes are fictional or nonfiction, they all portray some kind of heroic abilities.

Imagine living in a country where you know you could die at any moment but don’t know how much longer till it happens. That was how much of the population of El Salvador used to feel when the government could not control the big coffee corporations. These out of control corporations, highly feared that the people would want to revolt against them so they hired murderers to kill innocent people to spread fear in the minds of the people of El Salvador. Fear, hate, and sorrow were the common feelings felt by the poor and innocent major population of El Salvador caused by the evil wrongdoings of the government during October 1979 – 16 January 1992. This is how the main character, Jose Luis, of the novel “Mother Tongue” by Demetria Martinez, felt before escaping his beautiful yet over constantly dangerous country, which depended on its cash crop, coffee beans to sell on a foreign market as the country’s main income. However, following the stock-market crash of 1929, a drop in coffee prices became apparent and affected everyone in El Salvador, but the poor especially. Making things worse, the glorious United States was funding the men whom were doing all the innocent killings with more weapons and money to increase their military power. So for Jose Luis the safe haven that he had escaped to was also blatantly funding the war that was killing so many innocent people he knew and had forced him to escape for his own safety. With nowhere else to go in order to find safety the United

A very important element which influenced the shift in Guatemala's inflexible stance was the fact that Britain, backed by the 1960 U.N. Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples, has made it clear that whether or not Guatemala was ready to recognize Belize, Belize would become independent.  Belize gained independence from Britain and joined the UN under protests from Guatemala.” (Sylvestre, 1997)

Also, the growing presence of the Soviets and Cuba in Nicaragua escalated the cold war and in order to ‘draw the line” the Reagan administration “doubled economic aid for El Salvador to a hundred and forty four million dollars” (pg 40). According to Danner, “the priorities of American Policy in El Salvador had become unmistakable” (pg 41).Second, The American government was “opposed to dispatching American combat forces to Central America” (pg 22) and in order to prevent another Nicaragua, Congress agreed to “reform” the Salvadoran Army by financing, training and arming its troops to fight the FMLN. As Danner notes, “the Americans had stepped forward to fund the war, but were unwilling to fight it”. Third, the Monterrosa led Atlacatl led batallion through American funding descended in El Mozote with “the latest M-16’s, M-60 machines guns, 90 millimeter recoilless rifles, and 60- and 81 millimeter mortars”(pg 39) and with a list of names massacred an entire village because “communism was cancer”(pg 49). The U.S. government was clearly responsible for the Massacre at El Mozote because without the funding, supporting, and training of El Salvador troops the war would have been tilted in the guerillas favor as they had managed to hold the disorganized army in certain areas. In contrast to neighboring departments El Mozote and its inhabitants of born-again Christians did not fit in as guerilla sympathizers. In fact, the training at American hands

There are many reasons why the poverty population in Honduras is exorbitant. These reasons can be explained in a macro, micro, and mezzo way. According to Gamble (2013), the practice of macro social work involves intervening in large systems to help clients (Gamble, 2013). Honduras has an extremely corrupt government. The country is as poor as it is violent. In the film, The Other Side of Immigration (2009), citizens were interviewed and asked about their feelings on their government. One man said that he does not trust his government. He also stated that he will not take part in any strikes against the government because he feels that it will do no good (Germano, 2009). Sadly, it is apparent that the majority of the population feel this way. How is a country supposed to flourish without the backing and the security of their own government?

Óscar Romero was a Roman Catholic priest that stood up for the poor and injustice in the troubled nation of El Salvador. In the early stages of his life, Romero had entered a boarding school for priests at the age of thirteen. Then he went to the national boarding school in San Salvador. He finished his studies at the Gregorian University in Rome, and was appointed a priest in Rome in 1942. Although Romero wanted to acquire a doctorate in theology, he had to go home to El Salvador in 1944 due to a lack of priests. He initially served as pastor, but because of his outstanding talent, he was marked for greater responsibilities. In 1970, he became the auxiliary bishop for San Salvador. As Romero began to rise as a notable Catholic bishop, a

     Oscar Romero was born in 1917 and taken away in 1980. He was appointed Archbishop in

Some people on Earth seek to see the change they would like to see in the world. Archbishop Oscar Romero was one of those people and his heroic actions and his attempt for standing up for the people of El Salvador made a big impact in the world. Throughout Romero’s life his views were changed based on the political climate of El Salvador and the well-being of the por campesino people that lived there. Romero’s view of the people of El Salvador and their conflict with the government and radical communist groups was converted from safely supporting the military to taking a chance and standing up for the campesinos of El Salvador. Romero witnessed the harsh oppression of the poor campesinos by the government and he knew what they were doing was not right.

Twentieth century El Salvador is made up of violence, suffering, and hardships. After the independence of El Salvador, the elite took control of this country which produced discontent amongst the lower classes. During the 1920’s this discontent grew because of political abuse and increased poverty. According to John Chasteen in Born In Blood and Fire, Salvadoran indigenous people were pushed into volcanic land by the

Oscar Romero was an amazing man. Even though his life was cut short, he was able to make an impact on the society that he lived in. Oscar Romero died a hero and an advocate for the people of El Salvador, specifically the city of Agulaires. Leading up to his death, Romero’s spiritual journey evolved. Romero was elected Archbishop because few saw Romero as a threat. He was very intelligent, and would hardly take his head out of a book. When Romero was elected he became good friends with Rutilio Grande. Grande was a priest of Agularies. His mission was to help the poor. After aggravating the government, Grande was killed, along with a young boy and an older man. This event greatly affected Romero’s spiritual journey. Romero stated,

Throughout 1939-1971, El Salvador was run by a military-style dictatorship, causing those who had land and wealth to be stripped from them just because they could. According to Encyclopedia Britannica the persistence of this dictatorship can be partly credited to Augustin Farabundo Marti, who forced the Salvadorian Communist Party (2017). Proving to be a catalyst for conflicts for years to come.

The extreme economic differences between people belonging to the upper and lower classes are ridiculously extravagant. One can see the living conditions between the rich and the poor are extremely unbalanced. This trend is evident in comparing two representative districts in Lima. On one hand is Villa El Salvador, a shantytown located in the southside of Lima where dirty, misery, and hunger are part of the natural landscape on the streets. On the other hand Miraflores, a high-end residential district in Lima where people of white descent live comfortably and the settings are dramatically more favorable than in Villa El Salvador. One can see luxury cars, big houses, and domestic servants of indigenous features in Miraflores and contrast

In the post-World War II era, the globe was polarized by two idealistically divergent superpowers; the United States and the Soviet Union, two nations that strived to promote capitalism and communism, respectively, throughout the globe. Nowhere was this struggle more apparent than in developing countries with shaky political and economic backbones. Specifically, in Latin America the old, corrupt and often totalitarian regimes were threatened by grassroots liberation movements whose ideas of land reform and shaking up the status quo were often perceived as Marxism. The Catholic Church, which had traditionally supported the wealthy ruling class, began to change its beliefs in