Latin America’s history has been an arduous and long struggle in their attempt to break the chains that bound them. Since the conquista, conquering, of their lands during the colonial era, Latin America has been a region plagued with an oppressed poor. There have been people that have been the voice for the poor community in Latin America. These people are specific priest of the Catholic Church, these priests took it upon themselves to go against the status quo and appeal to the poor. These priests quickly became a beacon for the poor because with their guidance the poor were seeing a way out of the despair of poverty. The priest to place this feeling of helping the poor rather than the elite was the Dominican friar, Bartolome De Las Casas. He was the first priest to challenge the crowns of Portugal and Spain, because of their maltreatment to the indigenous people of the New World. In this day and age, the poor still go through a systemic way of oppression; in which the poor stay being the poor and they receive no help from the government and the concept of imperialism is continuously suffocating the poor. Until the archbishops of Latin America got together to discuss what should be their primary focus; out of that meeting the idea that the archbishops of Latin America should direct their energy to the poor was formed. That idea soon evolved into an ideology that came to be called, Liberation Theology. Gustavo Gutiérrez, whom admired the work that Bartolome De Las Casas had done with the Indigenous people of the New World, first composed this ideology; this ideology will become a pivotal tool for mobilizing the poor. The concept of Liberation Theology is meant to socially mobilize the poor, becoming that hope that the people need in order to fight and regain their sovereignty. Using the Latin American Countries, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama, one can see how Liberation Theology mobilizes the people in order to awaken their consciousness about reality, the same way that Bartolome De Las Casas had a profound effect on the relationship between the poor and the Church, becoming the example of many Liberation Theologians. Liberation Theology supports the poor to urge for some type of change within the system that has been oppressing them for so long. In this paper, I will argue that Liberation Ideology could facilitate the emancipation of the poor in Latin America so that they can regain their sovereignty.
Bartolome and the Friars challenge the injustice of the crown Bartolome De Las Casas was the Dominican Friar that preached to his superior about the atrocities that they had committed in the s called “New World”. Bartolome was at first one of those same persons that participated in the slave raids, and even owned his own enconmienda with a couple hundred of slaved Tainos (the natives of the Island of Quisqueya/Hispaniola). It was not up until 1510 a little group of Dominican friars, headed by Pedro de Cordoba, arrived in Hispaniola. The Dominican order is based on a return to the original sources of spirituality with its concentration on poverty and contemplation. The Friars’ intervention in behalf of the Indians would inaugurate what has been called the “controversy of the Indies”/The Valladolid debate. The “controversy of the Indies”/ The Valladolid debate was an argument over the treatment of the Indigenous people in the New World. Bartolome De Las Casas headed this event after his ordaining into the Dominican order. The event that had influenced Bartolome so much was when the Dominicans had called the ruling community of the island of Hispaniola to a sermon; this was what friar Montesino said based off of Bartolome’s report, “You are all in mortal sin! You live in it and you die in it! Why? Because of the cruelty and the tyranny you use with these innocent people. Tell me, with what right, with what justice, do you hold these Indians in such cruel and horrible servitude...in their mild, peaceful lands, where you have consumed such infinitudes of them…you cause them to be infected with through the surfeit of their toils, so that they ‘die on you; [as you say]-you mean, you kill them... are they not human beings? Have they no rational souls? Are you not obligated to love them as you love yourselves? Do you not understand this? Do you not grasp this? How is it that you sleep so soundly, so lethargically?” (Gutiérrez, 29). Among those that attended this sermon was Admiral Diego Colon, son of the “discoverer” Christopher Columbus/Colon, this was done in order to bring some form of clarity to the inhabitants of the Spanish colony and it definitely brought some clarity to Bartolome, but that sermon can be the earliest example of Liberation Theology in practice. To send the reality of the evil deeds of the ruling class to the poor and openly question those who are oppressing the poor is one of the many practices that Liberation theologians did.
The sermon that Montesino initiated caused a wave of rebellion within the Dominicans that resided in the New World, after witnessing countless massacres in both Cuba and Hispaniola, Bartolome took the mantle of the Dominicans and participated in denouncing the crown and defending the indigenous peoples that were being oppressed, Bartolome took such an attacking stance against the masters that the head Dominican, Pedro de Cordoba stated, “your highness can justly credit him, in all that he might say. He is a true minister of God, and I believe that the hand of God is upon him, to the end that he may work at tearing up all these evils by the roots” (Gutiérrez, 44). Pedro’s words would soon come to fruition because the Europeans would soon come into confrontation with him, because of Bartolome’s constant denunciation of the murder of the Indians and the destruction of their lands, Bartolome states, “the main culprits have been those who have commanded and governed in these lands, who for the satisfaction of their own unbridled appetite to become great have maintained all of this horrible tyranny, and continue to maintain it, and will continue to. They deserve no other remedy for their sins than that God should cut them short with death and eternal damnation, as we have seen to have occurred in so many of the most wondrous of the divine judgments” (Gutiérrez, 228). Bartolome’s strong sense of justice came from the teachings of the Dominicans and of his own. This rebellion against the masters and advocating for the rights of the indigenous people will influence the contemporary Theologians to do the same as Bartolome De Las Casas and his predecessors did, defend and educate the poor if they are being subject to the dominant will of the rich and elite.
Liberation Theology was created to help the poor
Now the same ideologies expressed by Bartolome and the Dominican friars returned to modern times when the Vatican II was formed. Vatican II is the Second Vatican Council, and Pope John XXIII called this on 1962 in order to redirect the focus of the Church and their relationship with the world; another reason was to try and adapt to the modern world, since the Catholic Church had become stagnant with their interaction with the people and the world. This conference caused a shift within the Church, “the church redefined its role; the church was now to be seen as the "People of God"--a community of people with different gifts but all sharing common equality, humanity, and destiny in God's eyes. Vatican II called for the church to become involved with the struggles of the poor; if the church adopted a humble role, the poor could be reached more effectively; The Conference rejected the idea that the church should align itself with the powerful elite, and affirmed the importance of a more just world” (web.wm.edu). This change in focus with the Vatican II the Catholic Church, as it were, turned itself out. Returning back to the idea that was once expressed by the Dominican friars that defended the people that had and received less, this also caused the Bishops of Latin America meet and apply the goal of the Vatican II to their respective regions.
CELAM the (Latin American Episcopal Conference) met in 1968 for their second plenary meeting, during the meeting a preparatory document was being circulated which displayed the economic condition, living standards, the cultural situations in Latin America, and then it went on to consider the presence of the Church in society. CELAM would form the groundwork for what is now Liberation Theology, because during the meeting there was a change in what was being discussed at a more important level, secular, or priesthood, and their role in society; Berryman states, “the more secular topics (justice, peace, education, family, youth) preceded more church related ones (pastoral work, priest, religious, lay people, church structures, and so forth)…they described education as a process that could enable people ‘to become agents of their own advancement.’…Revolutionaries were defined as those seeking radical change and who believed that the people should chart their own course not as those using violence…they committed the Church to share the condition of the poor” (Berryman, 23). Now the goal that had stemmed out of CELAM was the Church’s devotion to the poor and also to the problem that Latin America still faces, the problem is not development but the hegemonic Western countries that set up Core-periphery relationships with Latin American countries.
During the first half of the century Latin America was under the huge influence of the dependency school of thought, “Latin American social scientists were beginning to question the possibility of genuine development within the present world order. Their ideas were popularized as the ‘dependency theory’…and assumed that development could be achieved by following the path already traced out by the advanced countries” (Berryman, 20). Now CELAM will be the ripple that will soon cause so much of an effect that it will create a tsunami that can destroy the influence of the Western powers on Latin America. Its first destination was the Central American country of Nicaragua; who was under the rule of the Somoza dynasty.
Educating and mobilizing the poor in Nicaragua using CEBs The ruling Somoza family ruled Nicaragua for 43 years through the use of their presidency and control of the National Guard from 1936-1976. During the last Somoza, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, most of the clergymen were under his influence through placing them under their payroll. That all changed when the CELAM had issued their decision of the role of the Church within Latin American communities. The clergymen now dedicated themselves to the lives of their communities when the Christian (Ecclesial) Base Communities were being formed all through out Nicaragua. The CEB that will become the model for all communities in Nicaragua is the one that was headed by Father Ernesto Cardenal in a remote archipelago on Lake Nicaragua in an area called Solentiname. Father Ernesto created a community that was more of a communal than one where the priest would preach about certain topics. Father Ernesto had such a distinct form of teaching that it had actually caused Solentiname great fame and interest of how to function a working Christian Based Community; Ernesto drew parallels between the reality of the current Nicaragua and certain characters of the Gospel, he compared the Herodian dynasty of southern Judea to the Somoza dynasty of Nicaragua, Jesus before the Sanhedrin was like the Sandinista leaders being punished for defending the people, and the death of Jesus was compared to the murder of the revolutionary Augusto Calderon Sandino. This form of teaching gave the people not only a clearer understanding of the reality in Nicaragua but they also learned the Gospel because it was being done in a way that it became personal to them, so in a sense they can empathize with those that saw Jesus die in the cross because they were present when the first Somoza, General Anastasio Somoza Garcia, issued his assassination. This form of teaching became so renown that it had slowly became the model, “in a few years, Solentiname became an internationally known example of Christian Base Communities… in Solentiname the people not only developed their community and changed the direction of their daily lives toward achieving a higher level of human dignity and progress, but they also developed a deep understanding of the national reality, and became actively involved in a rigorous attempt to change it” (Foroohar, 70). Father Ernesto Cardenal created a Christian Based Community in which there was no hierarchy and that he was just as equal as those in his own community. The CEB attained the goal of giving the lives back to the community so that the community can direct their own lives instead of others controlling theirs.
The next CEB that impacted the community in a grand way was the CEB of Father Jose de la Jara in the San Pablo parish of the capital city of Managua. The distinction between San Pablo and Solentiname is the location so that already gives San Pablo an edge in mobilizing the poor and it will also be an example how can a CEB function in an urban setting. In two years, father de la Jara coordinated biblical courses for the poor and focused the basic themes of human dignity and taught about the position of the church in politics and about how it was meant to help uplift the struggling communities. All of this de la Jara accomplished it because the accolades that the CEB of Solentiname gained and the humanitarian efforts of Father Ernesto Cardenal, but the distinct element that separates the two so much is what de la Jara helped create in the urban community in Managua, “the San Pablo community organized a meeting of a group of clergy working in other poor barrios of Managua and also in Waspan (Atlantic Coast), to share the experience of the community. Another achievement of the community was the development of the first Nicaraguan popular mass…in the 1970s San Pablo was an active member of Managua’s Christian Base Communities and was integrated into the anti-Somoza movement” (Foroohar, 70). What de la Jara accomplished was the mobilization of regional communities that carried the same goals to come together to interact and learn from each other. The community of San Pablo was so solid that when Father de la Jara had left to Spain in 1969 the community was still able to function so well that it was even integrated in the movement of taking down the Somoza dynasty. Being in an urban setting definitely helped the San Pablo parish create a more organized network of communities in Managua, connecting all of the communities through mass and meetings. The CEB of San Pablo is an example of organizing and mobilizing the people, then educating them so much about this system that they now can organize it themselves. These two CEBs influence Nicaragua in the sense that it helped bring the Somoza family down by educating the poor and then the poor supporting the Sandinista movement, the church also supported the Sandinista movement, so much that according to Handleman, when the Sandinista came to power, four priest were part of the national cabinet of the government.
Social movements and Religion enhance the participation of the poor
Oscar Romero, archbishop of El Salvador, became an international figure when he started to denounce the institutionalized violence of the government of El Salvador. When the Revolutionary Junta Government ousted President Humberto Romero, with the United States backing it because it had feared that El Salvador can produce the same outcome as Nicaragua, the Somoza family was finally ousted. Oscar Romero did not support this radical change of government because he supported Humberto’s presidency. Throughout that period protest against the U.S. backed intensified and the JRG (Revolutionary Junta Government) reacted by sending death squads to quell the protest. This constant battle led to many killings in which Oscar Romero refused to stand so he opened his doors to the victims of those that had been affected by the death squads, the Church even when as far to investigate how many people had been killed by the death squads, the Church had documented 588 killings during the month of March.
Oscar Romero reacted the same way that the Dominican friar, Montesino, did when he saw the injustice being carried out by the Spanish, he denounced the state, “my brothers, they are part of our very own people. You are killing your own fellow peasants. God’s law, ‘Thou shalt not kill!’ takes precedence over a human being’s order to kill. No soldier is obliged to obey an order that is against God’s law. No one has to obey an immoral law” (Berryman, 2). Romero ordered the death squads to cease this act that defies God’s law and that whatever order they are following is an immoral one; this goes back to when Montesino questioned the Spaniards actions toward the Indigenous population and asked them who gave them the right to act as they did, the people that they are killing are human beings as well. Oscar Romero portrays the image of Bartolome and the Dominican Friars back in 16th century when they defied the state and became activist against the killings of the Indigenous people. This act placed Romero as a threat to the state, so as the death squads intensified so did the sermons, it was a constant battle of words, Romero even went as far as writing a letter to the President of United States , Jimmy Carter, telling him to cease the aid that he was being given to the JRG . Romero kept on getting recognition for his actions, international communities went as far as placing immunity on him and threatening the state that if he were to die there would be action if he were to die, “as international bodies publicly recognized that the harassment of Romero’s church as genuine persecution, they conferred a certain immunity on him by implicitly promising to treat the event of his death by violence as Christian martyrdom” (Swanson, 140-141). Shortly during a private mass in a hospital, JRGs death squad gunned down Oscar Romero. This act towards the church that was just trying to defend the poor sparked what came to be known as the Salvadorian Civil War. The same way that Jesus became a martyr for his people, Romero became one too, which sparked the people to participate in the Civil War that would free El Salvador form the JRGs rule and the grip of the United States.
Theological education could help mobilize the poor
Panama is a special case study because it is based on the experience of archbishop Marcos McGrath of a small rural town in Panama. Father McGrath was first a bishop of the surrounding area; there he had to deal with conflict between the campesinos (poor farmers) and the residents of a small town near the area. The conflict was more than a social one; it was economic, and political at the same time. The campesinos were going through the same thing that the indigenous people go through today, the markets rob them of their goods by buying their goods at a price that the farmers cannot even sustain a living, their annual income was at most 50.00 dollars in cash.
Father McGrath and the diocese of the community first initiative were to establish an organization where they would learn how to develop their own center of buying and selling their own goods. After years of forming what came to be known as a, cooperative, the campesinos created an organization that far exceeded the one in the town, “Not long after beginning their labors in cooperative training, the first priest and layman in this effort discovered that they had to set aside the classic method of starting with a savings cooperative for the simple reason that these campesinos had almost nothing to save. They developed what gradually turned into a production and consumer cooperative… in the particular town in question, the cooperative store had become far and away the best equipped, the best operated and the largest in town” (McGrath, 77). The diocese now had given the campesinos the control of their own market, so now they maintain a comfortable living than they did before McGrath and the diocese had set up this CEB. The next step was to educate the campesinos so that they are able to present themselves in the manner of an educated and humble man, not like what the townsfolk believed them as primitive and backwards. Father McGrath recalls one instance that showed the progress of the campesino community, “On one occasion some 50 campesinos had come in from the land for a three-day course in the main town. From humble, passive peasants, with heads bowed and straw hats in hand, they had developed into upright persons speaking independently and fairly about religion, about their families, and about their efforts to improve their situations. They spoke with no bitterness or aggressiveness against others, but rather of their own efforts. Their peacefulness was demonstrated on this occasion” (McGrath, 78). With this showing the townsfolk that the campesinos are not the uneducated people that they thought they were. With the rising power of the cooperative being headed by the campesinos themselves shows that with just a couple of years worth of theological education, the poor can learn how to organize and social mobilize themselves to a point where they can turn a struggling community into a thriving one.
Conclusion
Without the actions of the Bartolome De Las Casas and the Dominican Friars that had influenced him so, Liberation Theology may not have been as what it is today. The great work of Gustavo Gutiérrez is pivotal in constructing what now is the beacon of light for the poor. Liberation Theology is the arming the poor with what oppressive governments wish to impede, hope. The agents of Liberation Theology are bringing Hope to the poor and it is the knowing of how to organize and lead a community towards a better way of living than what they had in the past. Bartolome’s sermons about how the indigenous community where humans’ worth of treating equally and just, this man and those who followed him gave the indigenous community hopes that maybe this suffering will stop. The CELAM meeting and the creation of Liberation Theology was the start of something new for the Catholic Church. Knowing the influence f the church in Latin America, the bishop’s decided to support the poor and giving them hope that they can take hold of their lives. Father’s de la Jara, and Ernesto gave the community hope of being educated and being aware of what was going on around them, Archbishop Oscar Romero fought against the oppressive government of El Salvador and the Western power of the United States, becomes a martyr that enraged the people into fighting for the ideals he dies for, giving the Salvadorian people hope that if he can fight then they can fight as well. Lastly, Archbishop McGrath taught the farmers how to combat against the system of capitalism, the highest form of imperialism, giving them hope that they cannot rely on the system but themselves as a community. The concept of Liberation Theology is meant to socially mobilize the poor, becoming that hope that the people need in order to fight and regain their sovereignty.