Essay about Archbishop Romero: A Hero or Not?

Over the years, Salvadoran citizens have been experiencing a rise in homicides in their communities. A large portion of these homicides go unsolved and are a result of gang violence. El Salvador is ranked in the top three most deadly Latin American countries in the world. It has been consumed with violence that includes everything from gang violence, to political corruption, to police brutality, and even a declining economy, which is basically everything that can go wrong in a society bunched up into one small country. Interestingly enough, El Salvador has a history of conflict and subjugation. El Salvador is unique among its Central American neighbors not only because of its small size and dense population, but also geographically it is the

The Massacre at El Mozote as told by Mark Danner takes place El Salvador. El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America. It shares borders with Guatemala and Honduras. El Salvador is divided into 14 departments and El Mozote is a village in one of the Departments called Morazan. According to the author, the Salvadoran Civil War 1979-1992 was a conflict waged by the Military led Government of El Salvador and coalition of left-leaning militias or guerillas called the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN).The FMLN was supported by peasants and indigenous Indian people. The United States supported the El Salvador Military government.

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 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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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

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

He was first influenced when he discovered that children were dying because parents couldn't pay for simple necessities he then started to help the poor but he knew that wasn't enough. “poor shouldn't just receive handouts from the church the government should also provide” was what he would say when he first started this movement to have more government help. Romero then Quickly found out that the military was killing salvadoran people the poor or the ones that demanded justice. This included one of Oscar Romero's good friend Fr,Rutilio Grande he no longer stayed silent he reached out to the president demanding investigation for those who were murdered or missing but he failed. He then reached out to the pope with seven detailed reports of murder torture and kidnapping throughout el salvador.

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

The Reagan administration substantially increased both military and economic aid to El Salvador. The civil war raged on in El Salvador, fueled by U.S. aid to the Salvadoran military. The government harshly repressed dissent, and at least 70,000 people lost their lives in killings and bombing raids waged against civilians throughout the countryside. The country's infrastructure had crumbled, and the nation. The government military also start force recruitment to the children who are already twelve years old for becoming the child soldier. so does the geurillas.

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

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,