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Romero

Journal Entry #

“Romero” (MV 3701 at LRC, it’s the one with Raul Julia if you get it at a video store) - Discussion Questions

Characters/themes:

  • Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero (played by Raul Julia)
  • President elect Gen. Carlos Humberto Romero
  • Liberation Theology/ The Role of the Church
  • Militarization of society
  • The way the Central American region gets sucked into the vortex of the Cold War.
  • Class conflict (elite vs. peasants);  Different views of economic development

 

1)  What is the relationship between the Salvadoran elite and the military? How about the upper echelons of the Church?  Give examples

 

  

2)  What is the relationship between the Salvadoran elite and the Church (two answers: one to the upper levels of the hierarchy, and two to those at the grassroots levels)

 

 

3)  What struggles are taking place between the Catholic Church hierarchy (upper levels) and the grassroots levels (particularly the Jesuits priests you see)?

 

 

4)  Why is Father Grande (one of the Jesuits) murdered?  How does the government try to “spin” the story?

 

 

5)  Why is Father Osuna (another of the Jesuits) jailed and tortured?

 

 

6) In what ways have Father Romero’s views changed after he has become Archbishop and the civil war has intensified?

 

 

7)  How do the elite view economic development?  What does this economic development mean to workers out in the countryside?

 

 

8)  Why is the military going after the priests who are preaching “liberation theology”?

 

 

9)  Comment on the concept of “anti-insurgency” warfare.

 

 

10)  Relate this film to Rigoberta Menchú’s article “Testimony of a Guatemalan Indian Woman”

 

 

11)  What is the US role in all of this?

 

12)  Discuss other important items/issues that I did not ask you about.

  • GCCCD
  • Grossmont
  • Cuyamaca
A Member of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District