When the movie starts off, you are introduced to only a portion of the injustice
that  the El Salvadorians faced. The new president was supposed to be one
that was elected into office. It was unimaginable to me that citizens who were
on their way to vote were stopped. They were only allowed to proceed by foot.
There is no way that any such think could occur here, in the United States.
It’s hard for me to accept that things like that actually happened, and still
happen. It was time to appoint a new archbishop. The other priests elected
Romero thinking that he wouldn’t make any waves. This shocked me. People would
actually use as criteria for archbishop whether or not they would make waves. I
would think that they would want the person in that position to be strong in
their beliefs. It later turned out that Romero would unpleasantly surprise them.
This movie also showed a very vivid line between the rich and the poor. It was
hard to believe that they all lived in the same country. The wealthy barely even
treat the poor like people. They are merely pests that they avoid at all costs.
I know that in America the gap between the very rich and the very poor is wide,
but there is at least some form of middle class, and the poor have the same
rights as everyone else. When the guerillas started to attack the people, in the
square when the people were receiving communion for instance, Romero finally
stood up. It is not really the place of the Church to take a political stand,
but no one else in such a powerful position was standing up for the rights of
the people being oppressed. Romero went to lengths beyond what anyone expected
or hoped he would go to. Unfortunately, his heroism was not greeted very well,
except by the people he was defending. It just amazed me how strong he was in
what he believed. It takes such courage and wit to follow through with the
things that he did. I can’t even fathom how hard it was to walk into that
prison and walk out with a prisoner. If he had been anyone but the Archbishop,
he would have been killed. I think the part that made me realize his faith the
most was when he walked into the church that had been taken by the army. He just
walked right in past the big man holding the gun. He started to pick up the
communion even while shots were being fired. And after he left, he came back and
gave communion to the crowd. It was just so touching. The people believed in him
as much as he believed in what he was doing. I’ve never been faced with
anything near as big as the struggle that the El Salvadorians were facing. To
have to live in those conditions, and to have no one be able to protect you or
fight for what you believe in. It is so unimaginable to me that they had
virtually no rights. It made me so sad that at the end, Romero was assassinated.
It was really no surprise. Anyone that stood up for what they believed in that
was opposite of what the people in power were preaching was killed. Romero was
the only person in power to stand up. He was protected for a while because of
his status, but it could not protect him forever. I know that struggles like
this occur in America, but on a much smaller level that no one notices. I guess
that makes it hard for me to conceive of something like this actually ever
happening. It makes me so sad to realize that it really did.