Oscar Romero 's Religious Beliefs Affected His Work For Social Change

“The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is to a more violent world” (Arendt pg 80). Violence is contagious, like a disease, which will destroy nations and our morals as human beings. Each individual has his or her own definition of violence and when it is acceptable or ethical to use it. Martin Luther King Jr., Walter Benjamin, and Hannah Arendt are among the many that wrote about the different facets of violence, in what cases it is ethical, the role we as individuals play in this violent society and the political aspects behind our violence.

Americas Watch. 1991. El Salvador’s Decade of Terror: Human Rights since the Assassination of Archbishop Romero. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

One of the greatest civil rights activists of our time; one who believed the ways of Gandhi and Martin Luther King that “violence can only hurt us and our cause” (Cesar Chavez); a quiet, devoted, small catholic man who had nothing just like those he help fight for; “one of America's most influential labor leaders of the late twentieth century” (Griswold del Castillo); and one “who became the most important Mexican-American leader in the history of the United States” (Ender). Cesar Chavez; an American farm worker, who would soon become the labor leader that led to numerous improvements for union workers; it is recorded that Chavez was born near Yuma, Arizona on March 31, 1927 and died on April 23, 1993 in San Luis, Arizona. (Wikipedia) His

In addition, Cristiani’s exploitation of his people through critical code switching laid a foundation of resentment between the citizens of El Salvador and their government. The citizens witnessed the political crime continuing past what they thought was a peace agreement and Cristiani simply deflected their concerns by attributing it as random, non-critical crime. Therefore, the divide between the government and its people was widening and impeding their goal of democratization. A specific example of the civilian’s resentment was when El Salvador’s legislature passed an amnesty law that granted freedom of persecution to all war criminals. This occurred in 1993 after a UN supervised, Truth Commission investigated human right abuses committed during El Salvador’s civil war (McPhaul 2013). By failing to bring the war criminals to justice and downplaying the atrocities they committed and were continuing to commit post-war, Cristiani and the government had injected a sense of resentment into the people that sought retribution. As governing leader, Cristiani had to deal with the

The Guatemalan Revolution was on October 1944 and it forced the resignation of Jorge Ubico. He was the President of Guatemala in the previous thirteen years. Ubico's government was a fear period in the country and it was called the “peace on the cemeteries”

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,

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

His final stage of the hero’s journey was the Return stage. Chavez had to adjust to a new lifestyle because after he went 25 days without food, he lost 35 pounds, and he was too weak to speak for the next 28 years. He mastered the 2 worlds when he won 3 awards for his leadership in the public/community service. He won the Pacem in Terris award in 1992 for public service with spanish cultures, he won the Jefferson award for public service. The Jefferson award is the highest award a civilian can get, so he was very honored to receive this award. Finally, he received the …

For twelve years (1980-1992), El Salvador suffered this brutal civil war and saw some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin American history. The government refused to attend peace talks by the FMLN and the FMLN refused to participate in elections knowing it results would be rigged. The military tried to kill all suspected rebels and the FMLN damaged anything that supported the government’s economy. Throughout the war there was so much human rights violations such as subjecting civilians to torture, forced disappearance, extrajudicial killing, mutilation, mass rape, massacres, summary executions, landmines and indiscriminate bombing. As the result, by the end of the civil war about 75,000 people were killed, sadly most of which were civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time. The intensity of military repression and constant fear provoked massive northern migration to the United States. By the mid-1980s almost one-fifth of the Salvadoran population was living in the United

El salvador was at its worst during this time and Oscar Romero was the only one calling attention to the violence. In 1979 the number of people dying rose up to more than 3000 a month, Oscar Romero lost hope with his government he then himself offered his people faith and hope, preaching in churches and out in streets where everyday more and more people opening their eyes would gather . Romero was becoming very powerful he was CAFOD who spoke for the poor , he also visited prisons and saw under what conditions they were under and how they

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

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.

Author Edward T. Brett argues that Romero had a very “prophetic approach [that] was a highly effective method of leadership during his three-year tenure of office” (Brett 717). He uses the term “prophetic” to refer to the similar ways in which Romero preached his sermons to the underprivileged campesinos in order to also publically represent them, much like Jesus preached to the poor to represent the persecuted Christians. However, the term itself can be problematic because also like Jesus, Romero was tormented by his fellow bishops for catering to the needs of the poor. Not all bishops and clergymen at the time had captured the essence of liberation theology teachings and feared they were too radical to preach to the campesinos. However, Romero believed that the equality of Salvadorans was more important than their integration into the elite society. He focused many of his preachings on the need to put an end to violence and determine a right from wrong. In Romero’s last sermon, just before “he called for soldiers to refuse to obey orders,” (Wood 27) he gave special attention to the need to reinstall distinct human rights within a country in “its own exodus” (Romero 3) and that both groups alike should call for, “respect for the dignity of the person, hope for humanity’s common good, and the transcendence that look before all to God and only

The year is 1977 in El Salvador, a time of deep public and political unrest, where injustices are high among the people and there exists a great divide between the rich and the poor, it is during this time that the Vatican elevated Oscar Romero to the position of Arch Bishop of San Salvador. Romero is elevated in hopes that with his quite, passive demurer and diminishing health that he would accept the status quo and not cause a military dispute; however, much to everyone’s surprise, Romero became the voice of the poor and took a stand against the exiguous government and hostile military, which begin to target priests. Romero was passive at first, afraid of government’s hostility, but over time, he did not give up on his people and was