Oscar Romero Stood Up for the Poor and Troubled Nation of El Salvador

During his lifetime, Cesar Chavez and his followers made many changes and contributions to society. While he was alive, he had the privilege to see what his non-violence actions produced; what they transpired. It is recorded that Chavez began actively organizing workers in the fields in 1952. The California-based Community Service Organization (CSO) recruited and trained for his work. Chavez built new chapters of CSO, led voter registration drives, and helped Mexican-Americans confront issues of police and immigration abuse during the next ten years. In 1958 he became general director of CSO. With

Cesar Chavez once explained the horrors of society when he said, “When the man who feeds the world by toiling in the fields is himself deprived of the basic rights of feeding, sheltering and caring for is family, the whole community of man is sick.” (ufw.org) That means that the whole of humanity is sick and cruel when the man who works the fields all day long to feed the all of the citizens of the entire world can’t even provide for himself. It was not a small amount of people it affected, it was millions, and millions of citizens across the world. Chavez was a large factor in beginning to abolish racism, or also called the Civil Rights Movement.

El Salvador has one of the strictest and most archaic anti-abortion laws in the world with a total ban on abortion, even in in cases of rape or incest, if the mother’s life is in danger, or if the fetus is not viable outside the uterus. Since 1998, the adopted legislation has increasingly made it more dangerous for women to seek medical attention when in reference to their reproductive health. These laws allow prosecutors to convert many abortion charges to aggravated homicide, which carries a sentence of 30-50 years.

Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968) is a movie that contains a large amount of historical significance. This movie is well known for its incredible relevance to the year that it was released. The movie has been described as “A Newsreel of 1968”, and there is ample reason to make that statement. The year 1968 was a very tumultuous period in American history that saw a great deal of violence overseas and in the United States itself. There were many history altering events that took place during 1968, which would all serve to rile up and instill fear and anger in the American people. 1968 saw the latest presidential election in which there was great division amongst the parties, and was the election in which Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Not only did that year see the assassination of another Kennedy, but it also bore witness to the assassination of the most prominent civil rights leader of the time, Martin Luther King Jr. With these tragedies a war in Vietnam raged which had riled much of the country into protest, especially young people.

When you think of courage, the first thing that comes to your mind is an athlete, an astronaut, or even an owner of a company. But I’ll bet money you don’t think of a man by the name of Cesar Chavez. Cesar Chavez is undeniably courageous because he showed integrity and did the right thing, he also showed perseverance towards his goal, and he was excellent and had a lot of success.

Chavez was a Latino farmer. He migrated to Arizona. Cesar Chavez was working in the South in hot fields and vineyards. After his forceful speech, he was known as a religious and spiritual person. From Chavez’s background, he understands the hard workers

The bodies of those innocent people and rioters were left out in the streets at night for the public to dispose of, the family members would find the lifeless bodies. Catholic Churches began to bring in people of that time, it was the only haven for the people of El Salvador. There at the churches is when they began to be influenced by Oscar Romero. He spoke against the Army and the horrific actions they were taking against innocent people, and their children. Before his tragic death, Romero would receive horrible letters with death threats from death squads. Unfortunately, March 24th the leader was shot and killed by someone in the audience of that day’s Mass. Another leader against the Army was FMLN, ( The Farabundo Marti National Liberation), this group fought for the rights of the people.This all caused the military to kill the people, anyone who looked guilty. This murder of almost 30,000 people was called La Matanza, Farabundo Marti was later on arrested and put on death sentence. Another horrible murder happen to be with other members of church and innocent people, the victims were Six Jesuit priests,

Cesar Chavez was a civil rights activist who organized the earliest Chicano movements. In an essay by Jorge Mariscal, Chavez’s political ideology is

Cesar Chavez’s biography shows a lot about the way he was raised and how that taught him his ways and shaped his personality. Cesar was born on March 31, 1927 (Gonzales 22) and was subjected early to intense destitution because his family was one of many migrant, Mexican-American, families (Pao) that rely on the money even if the conditions were terrible for any human. His experience of the farm worker’s life was what drove him to help other workers. “Cesar and his father trudged twelve miles to Yuma looking for a bank loan. They came back covered with dust and empty-handed.”(Terzian 7) He had early experiences with upwards battles and it taught him how to manage them. Another time was captured by James Terzian when he wrote about Chavez’s dad taking care of his fellow workers. “These people are poor, ignorant peasants - campesinos! They’ll sleep anywhere, eat anything take any wage you pay. Why waste your time and money on them, eh?” said the neighbor. Cesar’s dad responds, “They are children of God. They will get shelter and soap for as long as they work on my farm.” (5). He was raised to respect workers and understand that they are people too.

The article “Cesar Chavez Saved My Life,” written by Daniel “Nane” Alejandrez reflects on Mr. Alejandraz’s past, covering some very unfortunate events, but with a purpose of pulling emotion from the reader. While reading some parts of the article, I had to reread it over a few times to comprehend the point that the author was trying to make. The most important thing about knowing his past is that it is significantly different, and much more positive in the future because of one person, Cesar Chavez.

Chavez used his life experiences in order to better the lives of many migrant workers in America. Key points in Chavez’s life that had

It is now obvious that countries in Central America have been plagued by civil war, economic crisis, election fraud to finally transition into a political system granting the population the freedom to elect their leaders. El Salvador is no different than Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras. One might notice that such issues arise due to political unrest in the region (Central America), thus creating a pattern of social, political and economic instability.

ignored in his country of El Salvador. He took it upon himself to use the church as a light of hope to

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

Located on the Pacific Coastline, El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, and the most populated. The United States of America foreign policy on El Salvador is best explained by President Obama’s approach on Latin America where the United States is focused on economic growth and equality, energy and climate control, and regional and citizen security (Foreign Policy, 2012). This is best explained using the international level of analysis and neo-liberalism where the global structure and economic interdependence provides the foundation of America’s foreign policy. To ensure that one can see the transparency in United States methodology I will provide the history of El Salvador, the creation of United States interest in El