Examines the fundamentals of capitalism, and the pathological fantasy…
The Gospel of Revolution
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- Transcript
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Nuns murdered and buried in a mass grave. Catechism instructors shot in their own homes. An archbishop murdered in his cathedral while performing mass. For decades, Liberation Theology, a grassroots branch of Catholicism that stood with the poor and oppressed, played a powerful and influential role in Latin American revolutionary movements. Its fundamental tenet, Nicaraguan theologian and journalist María López Vigil says, is that God is not neutral, and is on the side of the poor.
And because of that, its practitioners were targets. To the US, Liberation Theology was more dangerous than communism. To an increasingly conservative Vatican, it was a movement to be suppressed.
Now, decades after the period of revolutionary ferment in Latin America, THE GOSPEL OF REVOLUTION travels through the region, meeting key figures and tracing the history of the Liberation Theology movement. Through powerful archival footage and contemporary interviews, the film shows how these radical Catholics fought injustice alongside peasants, workers, and Indigenous people, refusing to accept poverty and oppression.
El Salvador
We meet Belgian priest Roger Ponseele, who enrolled with the Farabundo Martí Liberation Front in their fight against dictatorship, and sees revolutionary violence against oppression as self-defence. It was a dangerous position to take; 19 priests and dozens of lay Catholic teachers were murdered during El Salvador’s dirty war.
Brazil
The film traces the history of the land occupation movement, and the role of archbishop Hélder Câmara, who openly advocated for revolution. We also meet Leonardo Boff, a key figure twice censured by the Vatican, who sees Liberation Theology as not only a critique of the political class, but also of the church hierarchy.
Nicaragua
The 1979 Sandinista revolution was heavily influenced by Liberation Theology, with four priests, including the popular Ernesto Cardenal, in the new government. But the church hierarchy never supported the revolution, The film showcases footage of the Pope snubbing Cardenal, and an increasingly agitated president Daniel Ortega, listening to John Paul II give a speech that would only heighten divisions within the church and the country.
Mexico
THE GOSPEL OF REVOLUTION takes us to Chiapas, and shows how the Zapatista revolution launched on January 1, 1994 drew inspiration from priests who saw themselves as supporting the movement, but not leading it. Fr. Samuel Ruiz, the father of Liberation Theology in Chiapas, transformed Catholicism into an empowering force for peasants against wealthy landowners.
Liberation Theology stressed structural change and mutual aid, in contrast with today’s more self-focused evangelical movements. At a time when evangelical Christianity is on the rise and associated with conservative politics, THE GOSPEL OF REVOLUTION serves as a powerful reminder that it doesn’t have to be this way.
Citation
Main credits
Drouet, François-Xavier (filmmaker)
Pillosio, Raphaël (film producer)
Other credits
Cinematography, Colin Lévêque; editing, Agnès Bruckert.
Distributor subjects
Latin America; Religion; Political Science; US Foreign PolicyKeywords
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When God in Heaven wishes
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00:00:22,920 --> 00:00:25,960
The tortilla to turn over
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00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:30,160
When God in Heaven wishes
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00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:34,200
The tortilla to turn over
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Let the tortilla turn over
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00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:39,360
Let the poor eat bread
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And the rich eat shit
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Long ago I embraced Marx's idea that
religion is the opium of the people.
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00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:23,840
I'm one of the many baptized who stopped
believing in God in adulthood.
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00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:33,040
I swapped Christian faith for
the hope for radical political change,
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the dream
of a just and egalitarian society.
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00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:39,680
I became passionate about Latin America
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and its tragic history
of thwarted revolutions.
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I have since traveled
all over this continent.
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Like those who visit
archaeological ruins,
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00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:56,920
I look for the remains
of its revolutionary drive,
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00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:00,520
meeting men and women
who fought for the coming of the Kingdom
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on earth rather than in heaven.
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Dear brothers and sisters,
it is always wonderful
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when we're able to gather
and celebrate Holy Mass
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as a way to get closer to our Lord,
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who's our great comrade
in the revolutionary fight,
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the God of the poor.
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Today, we're celebrating Mass
in a free village,
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because we are gathered
in liberated territory,
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which was conquered
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by the Farabundo Martí
National Liberation Front.
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One of our brothers and
one of our sisters are here
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to get married in Church.
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God keeps walking among us
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to build a new society,
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in which we'll be able to live
as brothers and sisters.
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You are the God of the poor
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The God that is humane and humble
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The God that sweats on the streets
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The God that has a tanned face
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Long live the newlyweds!
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A free nation...
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Or death!
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Our fatherland or death.
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We will win!
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My journey starts in El Salvador.
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I was a child when this tiny country
made the headlines:
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a popular uprising was trying to oust
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00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:46,360
one of Latin America's
oldest dictatorships.
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For the international media,
this was a civil war.
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But for the thousands of peasants
in guerrilla groups,
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it was a revolution.
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Belgian priest Roger Ponseele
accompanied them for 12 years.
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He never touched a gun.
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I remember that on the day I joined
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the Front, I sprained my ankle.
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So I sat down
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and told a comrade,
"Look, I just sprained
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my ankle.
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I can't walk anymore."
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"Get up and go," they said.
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And I had to trudge on.
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Then they said
among themselves...
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I could hear them.
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They said,
"We'll have to carry this fatso!"
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With absolute contempt!
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The fatso held out on the road
for over 10 years,
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facing rain, wind,
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cold weather, bombs...
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You held out.
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Yes, I did.
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Because we had
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this conviction...
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this very firm conviction
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that it was a legitimate fight,
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and that...
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even if it took 10 or 12 years,
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or longer still,
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we would eventually triumph.
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We shared that conviction.
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When I considered
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00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:57,920
changing the way I was working
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to focus more
on political than pastoral actions,
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00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:04,840
the leaders told me,
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"We have politicians, fighters,
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but we don't have any priests,
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to accompany these Christian people
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in their fight."
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We're getting ready to win.
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Who is our enemy?
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Yankee imperialism!
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And I was happy accompanying them
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and inspiring hope.
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That's the most important thing.
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I'm from a working-class family.
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Of course when we got here,
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we discovered poverty
we had never seen before.
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We were poor as well,
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but for Belgian standards.
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We were poor as well.
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But the extreme poverty
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one could see in the shantytowns,
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when I was in Zacamil, Tutunichapa,
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had a strong impact on me.
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That sparked in me
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the desire to do something.
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It sparked a mystic urge
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to fight.
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Otherwise, you can't cope.
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You can't carry on.
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We've learned something already,
we've studied the syllable table.
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Now we're going to try
to make short sentences
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00:07:39,880 --> 00:07:44,360
about our life at the camp.
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00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:47,360
I remember
that in the first few years,
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we sympathized very much
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with men like Martin Luther King,
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00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:55,800
nonviolence,
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00:07:56,280 --> 00:07:57,880
and Mahatma Gandhi,
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00:07:58,360 --> 00:07:59,800
nonviolence.
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00:07:59,960 --> 00:08:02,040
The war is long.
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00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:04,120
We believed
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00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:06,560
that was the way forward,
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00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:11,320
fighting without violence.
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00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:14,320
Getting organized
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in order to put pressure
and force change,
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00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:22,760
without, however,
starting an armed struggle.
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00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:24,720
We were Christians,
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00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:30,560
so we couldn't resort
to armed violence.
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See you tomorrow at the time agreed.
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Please be punctual. Thank you.
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I was still in San Salvador
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00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:01,000
in the late 1970s.
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00:09:06,080 --> 00:09:11,640
Peasants from here organized
a march in San Salvador.
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00:09:12,560 --> 00:09:16,040
Their march was repressed,
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00:09:16,960 --> 00:09:21,000
and over thirty people were killed.
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00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:26,360
They asked me to celebrate Mass,
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which I will never forget.
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00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:39,800
After celebrating Mass,
with the altar surrounded by corpses,
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00:09:39,960 --> 00:09:42,280
I thought to myself,
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00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:45,800
"Be it as it may,
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00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:49,080
we have to support the people,
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00:09:49,440 --> 00:09:54,320
even when the people
choose armed struggle.
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00:09:59,800 --> 00:10:03,240
If we object to violence,
we'll remain on the fringes.
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00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:08,000
We're not here
to remain on the fringes,
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00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:10,480
but to get immersed
in the people's struggle."
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00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:17,720
We decided
to view violence as self-defense.
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00:10:18,920 --> 00:10:23,760
If it is legitimate to defend a person,
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00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:26,560
how could it not be legitimate
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00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:29,240
to stand up in defense
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of an entire people's life?
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00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:01,520
We could describe
El Salvador at the time
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as a big coffee plantation,
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00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:05,840
owned by a handful of families.
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00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:08,200
Like everywhere in Latin America,
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00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:12,000
peasants starved to death
and swelled the shantytowns.
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00:11:12,920 --> 00:11:15,840
People stopped believing
in the development myth,
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00:11:16,880 --> 00:11:19,520
which held that poverty
was only about economic lag.
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00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:25,600
Like many catechists,
Ana Maria Calles and Irma Orellana
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00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:28,320
took up arms to defend the right to live.
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00:11:35,800 --> 00:11:38,600
I was six
when Father David arrived here.
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00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:43,560
He used to say that in the beginning
God created the land, the oceans,
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00:11:43,800 --> 00:11:46,600
the birds, the trees
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00:11:46,760 --> 00:11:47,880
and everything we have.
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00:11:48,040 --> 00:11:50,120
He said land belonged to everyone,
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00:11:50,280 --> 00:11:52,320
not only to a few families.
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00:11:55,160 --> 00:11:58,000
God didn't appoint anyone
to own the land.
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00:11:58,560 --> 00:12:01,680
That message struck a chord
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00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:05,160
with the people,
particularly with the poor,
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00:12:05,520 --> 00:12:09,160
because we could feel that we weren't
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00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:12,960
being treated as real children of God.
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00:12:13,320 --> 00:12:17,760
Every day, more and more
brothers and sisters in this country
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00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:21,600
realize that feeding the hungry,
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00:12:21,760 --> 00:12:24,960
clothing the naked,
sheltering the pilgrims
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00:12:25,120 --> 00:12:28,680
aren't merely works of charity,
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00:12:28,840 --> 00:12:31,680
but a way to join a people
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in pursuit of their freedom
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to build
a more just and humane society.
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00:12:38,040 --> 00:12:39,480
Father David wasn't afraid.
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00:12:40,040 --> 00:12:41,480
He used to say
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the first revolutionary
to walk the Earth was Jesus.
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And Jesus came to show us
the way to liberation.
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00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:53,520
Father David used to preach
with a megaphone,
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00:12:53,680 --> 00:12:56,400
saying, "Change your hearts.
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00:12:56,560 --> 00:12:58,640
If you won't give land to the peasants,
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00:12:59,160 --> 00:13:01,840
give them the chance to work
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so they can support their families."
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00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:10,440
And I heard that sermon
every time we attended Mass.
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And my mother would say,
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00:13:12,600 --> 00:13:15,400
"They do say
that priest is a troublemaker."
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00:13:24,400 --> 00:13:28,800
I started working as a catechist
at the age of 13.
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00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:32,720
The first test
Father David put us through
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00:13:32,880 --> 00:13:34,160
to select catechists was,
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00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:37,680
he placed two chairs
upside down and said,
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00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:40,480
"One by one, I want you to sit
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00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:42,200
on these chairs."
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My sister sat on the chair as it was,
upside down,
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as did most the other kids.
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00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:49,040
I thought,
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00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:51,600
"My sister sat on the chair like that.
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00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:54,920
But I can't do that,
I'll turn the chair over."
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00:13:55,080 --> 00:13:57,440
So I did that and sat on the chair.
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00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:00,880
Father David just watched.
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00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:05,320
Out of the 80 catechists there,
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00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:08,240
only 20 of us turned the chair over.
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00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:14,160
When the activity was over, he said,
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00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:16,200
"I want to talk to those twenty."
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00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:20,160
Then he told us
we had revolutionary minds
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00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:25,640
because we rearranged things
that were not in order.
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00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:28,640
And we were very skillful.
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00:14:28,800 --> 00:14:33,800
He said, "Right now, our country
is upside down like that chair.
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00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:35,880
What are we going to do?"
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00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:38,480
I answered, "Turn it over."
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00:14:38,760 --> 00:14:40,960
"But that's a process," he said.
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00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:48,440
I had already been denounced.
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00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:52,640
There was this policeman,
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00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:55,200
my best friend's boyfriend,
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00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:57,480
who I went to school with.
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00:14:57,640 --> 00:14:59,240
One day he said to me,
215
00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:02,320
"Ana María, give up the Bible.
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00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:05,840
Stop working as a catechist,
give it up,
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00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:08,120
or I will kill you myself."
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00:15:08,280 --> 00:15:09,640
"Kill me."
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00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:14,120
I got it in my head
that dying and living were the same.
220
00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:19,680
"Kill me.
I can't think of a more dignified death.
221
00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:22,400
Because you're
my best friend's boyfriend."
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00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:24,360
He said to me,
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00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:28,120
"This is an order,
give up being a catechist."
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00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:31,080
"I won't give it up, period."
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00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:47,160
When repression hit for real,
being a catechist
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00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:50,000
was a crime,
catechists were delinquents.
227
00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:53,120
You could end up in prison,
with a lot of luck,
228
00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:55,800
but you'd more likely
end up in a common grave.
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00:16:01,680 --> 00:16:03,240
The fact that you had Bible...
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00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:06,440
Scores of people died
because they were catechists,
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00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:08,640
and they didn't leave their homes.
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00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:14,240
Just because they had a Bible
and the catechist chant book at home,
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00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:16,440
they were murdered.
234
00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:22,120
Many of us who had the Bible
and that chant book,
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00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:25,080
what did you do?
We hid them.
236
00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:27,800
It was hard to understand
237
00:16:27,960 --> 00:16:30,640
why someone would kill you
238
00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:32,760
just because you had the Bible.
239
00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:34,280
Why?
240
00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:48,000
These are the bodies of four nuns.
241
00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:51,280
They were raped and murdered
by the army.
242
00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:55,880
A slogan went around
in the Salvadoran military:
243
00:16:56,080 --> 00:16:58,960
"Be a patriot, kill a priest."
244
00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:02,600
They murdered 19 priests,
245
00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:04,160
four preachers
246
00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:08,560
and countless catechists
and base ecclesial community members.
247
00:17:09,600 --> 00:17:11,520
They called it "the dirty war",
248
00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:15,280
the boundless repression
against all grassroots movements
249
00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:17,120
across Latin America.
250
00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:32,520
A man spoke out against that violence:
251
00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:35,280
Óscar Romero,
archbishop of San Salvador.
252
00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:42,360
There's this institutional violence
253
00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:46,200
that is provoking anger
among the people.
254
00:17:46,760 --> 00:17:49,840
Violence is perpetrated
by political right
255
00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:52,120
as they preserve their privileges
256
00:17:52,280 --> 00:17:54,320
and maintain oppression.
257
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:58,240
On the other hand,
the oppressed people who react
258
00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:01,280
are labelled leftists.
259
00:18:01,760 --> 00:18:05,960
But their violence is the consequence
of right-wing violence,
260
00:18:06,120 --> 00:18:07,720
which is the actual culprit.
261
00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:10,000
They're not taking into account
262
00:18:10,160 --> 00:18:14,680
the project that is already being
developed by organizations
263
00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:17,680
they call left wing,
but they're popular organizations.
264
00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:19,880
-Revolutionary?
-Indeed.
265
00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:25,680
A reputed conservative,
266
00:18:25,880 --> 00:18:29,280
he was appointed by the Vatican
to cooperate with the army.
267
00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:31,160
But in the face of repression,
268
00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:33,960
he gradually switched
to the side of the people.
269
00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:42,280
His radio homilies were the last vehicle
to challenge the regime.
270
00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:45,360
He was called
the spokesman of the voiceless.
271
00:18:46,840 --> 00:18:48,720
No soldier
272
00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:50,800
is obliged
273
00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:54,760
to obey an order
contrary to the law of God.
274
00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:57,880
If a law is immoral,
275
00:18:58,360 --> 00:19:00,520
no one has to comply with it.
276
00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:03,240
I beseech you,
277
00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:04,560
I implore you,
278
00:19:04,720 --> 00:19:07,160
I command you, in the name of God,
279
00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:09,160
stop repression.
280
00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:20,640
We'd gather
wherever there was a radio
281
00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:22,960
to listen to Monsignor Romero's homily,
282
00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:25,000
to hear Mass at the cathedral.
283
00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:27,920
And as we listened to him,
284
00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:31,560
it felt like
he was giving us an elixir,
285
00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:35,840
to all of us
catechists and followers of the Word.
286
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:39,920
And in that context, we wondered,
287
00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:42,520
"What will they do to the monsignor?"
288
00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:48,080
We believed they'd never dare
to lay a finger on him,
289
00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:49,560
not a man like him.
290
00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:07,680
Óscar Romero was murdered
during Mass
291
00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:10,720
on 24 March 1980.
292
00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:20,040
His funeral was marked
by a new outbreak of violence,
293
00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:22,920
which sped up
the escalation to an armed conflict.
294
00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:32,480
We were all there
by the palace and on the street,
295
00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:35,520
when we heard the first explosion.
296
00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:39,120
Then another one.
And then screams.
297
00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:42,880
It was absolute chaos,
things got out of control.
298
00:20:43,360 --> 00:20:45,760
People started to panic.
299
00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:47,720
And we all ran to get away
300
00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:51,520
however we could, trying
to stay down as much as possible.
301
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:55,920
And then we saw
the barbarity of the army.
302
00:21:14,280 --> 00:21:16,360
It didn't spell the end
303
00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:18,080
of what we were doing.
304
00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:21,440
On the contrary,
I'd say it was like a trigger.
305
00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:23,560
From that moment on...
306
00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:28,360
we had to show
how far we were willing to go,
307
00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:31,600
what we were prepared to do
as Christians,
308
00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:34,640
until that moment
when Monsignor Romero was murdered.
309
00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:39,160
In fact, the idea was
to contain the rage of the people,
310
00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:41,960
to stifle that popular organization.
311
00:21:42,120 --> 00:21:44,200
It turned out the other way around.
312
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:50,160
There was no time to think.
313
00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:52,520
Either you went away
or you went away.
314
00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:57,480
That's how the guerrilla movement
started.
315
00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:01,240
We went door to door
looking for guns people weren't using.
316
00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:21,200
They gave us books
317
00:22:21,360 --> 00:22:23,920
about Marxism and Leninism,
318
00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:28,240
all those ideas
they were always talking about.
319
00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:33,760
I think a lot of us didn't adhere
to the Marxist-Leninist doctrine
320
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:36,320
and that kind of thing.
We listened,
321
00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:41,000
we asked questions,
but I don't think we took much of it in,
322
00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:43,160
or felt concerned by that.
323
00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:48,400
We had our own agenda.
As committed Christians that we were,
324
00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:49,960
it was our duty to fight.
325
00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:05,040
One day shall come
326
00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:07,600
When we will all look up
327
00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:10,080
And see a land
328
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:12,400
That offers freedom
329
00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:15,360
Millions of Christians
in Latin America,
330
00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:18,040
joined social struggles
in the name of their faith.
331
00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:23,400
They formed small groups
called Base Ecclesial Communities:
332
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:26,840
a new way of being Church
on the fringes of the institution.
333
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:28,800
Long live Father Rutílio Sanchez.
334
00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:31,640
Long live Father Rutílio Grande.
335
00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:34,600
Long live Monsignor Romero.
336
00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:38,160
Long live the elderly!
337
00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:41,000
Long live
the organization we are keeping up.
338
00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:46,640
Long live our comrades
who died fighting.
339
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:51,360
It is very sad
that today in our community,
340
00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:55,360
some people no longer want us to talk
about our historical memory.
341
00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:59,480
We have made a commitment
to not forgetting it.
342
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:01,040
-Will we forget it?
-No.
343
00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:02,360
Good.
344
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:07,160
Otherwise, you know what?
We will all die in oblivion.
345
00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:11,440
Underlying their commitment
was a practical theory of faith:
346
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:13,400
Liberation Theology.
347
00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:17,000
It holds that
the poor aren't charity objects,
348
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:19,840
but agents of their own history.
349
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:22,600
We're back
with the same problems, aren't we?
350
00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:25,880
No education, no healthcare,
no this no that...
351
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:27,800
-We have our rights.
-Yes.
352
00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:29,640
We all have our rights.
353
00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:33,240
If we don't say anything,
nobody will speak for us.
354
00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:34,280
Nobody will.
355
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:46,160
Liberation Theology
was targeted by the US
356
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:49,720
as an even greater danger
than the Communist Party.
357
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:53,800
In Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Guatemala...
358
00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:58,520
wherever the interests
of the wealthy were threatened,
359
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:01,720
Uncle Sam would frustrate
aspirations for justice.
360
00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:05,320
The US supported,
funded and organized repression
361
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:08,240
military coups
and counterinsurgencies,
362
00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:10,800
always in the name
of Christian values.
363
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:20,680
A good soldier
364
00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:22,000
Is aggressive
365
00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:23,080
Aggressive
366
00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:24,400
He must kill
367
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:25,600
He must fight
368
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:27,080
He must fight
369
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:28,480
Delinquents
370
00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:29,760
Terrorists
371
00:25:29,920 --> 00:25:30,960
Who we kill
372
00:25:31,120 --> 00:25:32,120
Under the soles
373
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:33,480
Of our shoes
374
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:34,720
All of them
375
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:36,000
Here
376
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:37,320
There are soldiers
377
00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:38,560
Trained
378
00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:39,880
To go
379
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:41,520
To war
380
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:54,640
In 1981,
381
00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:58,480
US-trained soldiers murdered
1,000 villagers in El Mozote.
382
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:09,640
It was the biggest civilian massacre
in Latin America's cold war.
383
00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:30,640
They're still looking for victims
41 years later.
384
00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:54,400
How can an 11-month-old child
be a guerrilla?
385
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,360
Or someone
who's 80 or 90, or even older?
386
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:00,480
They killed women
387
00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:03,200
who had given birth
a couple of days before!
388
00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:07,120
And if someone left the place
where they were hiding,
389
00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:09,840
they'd shoot them from afar.
390
00:27:10,360 --> 00:27:13,520
How does this exhumation process
make you feel?
391
00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:23,800
We hope it gives you
some reparation too.
392
00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:26,920
Whenever you want
to go in that area,
393
00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:29,480
let us know
so we can accompany you.
394
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:42,760
I'm Roberto Girón Flores.
395
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,960
I'm the defense lawyer
on the El Mozote case
396
00:27:46,360 --> 00:27:49,760
for some of the army officers
accused of this crime
397
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:53,720
although there's no evidence
of their involvement in it.
398
00:27:55,840 --> 00:28:00,440
In El Salvador,
the men who promoted all those deaths
399
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:05,200
that occurred between 1980 and 1992...
400
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:07,760
A huge number of peasants died,
401
00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:09,560
who had joined guerrilla groups,
402
00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:11,680
deceived by the Catholic Church.
403
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:16,360
Not by the Catholic Church,
but by so-called pseudo-priests
404
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:18,120
who claimed to be clergymen.
405
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:20,360
The Pope had rejected them.
406
00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:24,360
They deceived, trained
and armed those peasants.
407
00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:29,680
So some army officers,
408
00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:32,080
who didn't like what was happening
409
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:34,960
and could see
how chaotic the situation was,
410
00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:38,840
considered that
their enemies were those priests.
411
00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:43,640
These exhumations are
the expression of suppressed hate
412
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:48,280
for wounds of history
that shouldn't be reopened.
413
00:28:56,040 --> 00:29:00,080
Is this the position of the Church?
414
00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:03,200
What do we learn
415
00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:05,080
in the Gospels?
416
00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:07,120
If someone slaps you,
417
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:10,080
turn to them the other cheek.
418
00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:01,520
The armed conflict in El Salvador
ended with a peace treaty
419
00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:03,600
between the military
and guerrilla groups.
420
00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:06,040
Free elections were held,
421
00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:08,760
but there were no
in-depth social reforms.
422
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:12,560
The Berlin Wall had just fallen.
423
00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:15,120
The end of History was hailed.
424
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:18,040
The age of the great utopias was over.
425
00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:49,920
Oh Father our Father
426
00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:54,480
When will this world be ours?
427
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:56,160
Our Father
428
00:30:56,440 --> 00:30:59,920
Oh Father our Father
429
00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:05,600
When will this world be ours?
430
00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:18,120
Down with Bolsonaro!
431
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:21,720
Down with Bolsonaro!
432
00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:27,600
When I first came to Brazil, in 2002,
433
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:31,000
I witnessed
the first election win of Lula,
434
00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:34,120
a former steelworker
and resistant during the dictatorship.
435
00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:42,840
I fell head over heels in love
with this booming country,
436
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:45,360
which could only have a better future.
437
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:52,520
I could never have imagined
that 16 years later
438
00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:55,080
an ex-army officer
rekindling the ghost of dictatorship.
439
00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:00,120
Bolsonaro, never again!
440
00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:02,240
Let's all say it together.
441
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:04,240
Bolsonaro, never again!
442
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:07,880
Down with mass murderer Bolsonaro!
443
00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:11,320
A week ago
444
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:14,520
was the anniversary
445
00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:17,320
of the 1964 coup
446
00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:19,720
that introduced the dictatorship.
447
00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:22,720
And Bolsonaro's gang of supporters
448
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:25,400
celebrated the coup.
449
00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:28,360
They praised torture.
450
00:32:28,800 --> 00:32:31,720
They defended torturers.
451
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:35,040
There's something I want to say here.
452
00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:37,560
We're gathered here,
453
00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:40,040
40 years later,
454
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:43,360
also to remember all those
455
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:46,480
who were killed
456
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:48,160
and tortured
457
00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:51,440
by the military dictatorship
in this country.
458
00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:56,560
In 1969,
459
00:32:56,920 --> 00:32:59,920
a group of young Dominican friars
was arrested in São Paulo.
460
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:03,400
They were imprisoned, tortured
461
00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:06,200
and accused of supporting the ALN,
462
00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:09,840
the main armed attempted
to overthrow the dictatorship.
463
00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:13,800
53 years later,
464
00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:16,960
Friar Betto revisits the place
where he was questioned.
465
00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:27,360
All of us Christians
466
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:30,720
are disciples of a political prisoner.
467
00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:35,000
Many people have
an idyllic view of Jesus.
468
00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:37,040
He was very kind
469
00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:38,480
and charitable.
470
00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:41,440
If he were here,
the world would be a better place.
471
00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:43,800
Nobody wonders,
or few people wonder,
472
00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:47,640
"Why was he cruelly murdered?"
473
00:33:49,120 --> 00:33:52,080
Because in the Kingdom of Caesar,
474
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,720
he dared announce
the Kingdom of God,
475
00:33:55,880 --> 00:33:57,760
the possibility of another kingdom.
476
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:01,360
The Kingdom is
a political and civilizational project
477
00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:02,840
based on two pillars:
478
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:04,680
interpersonal relations,
which is love,
479
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:08,120
and social relations,
which is the sharing of goods.
480
00:34:09,720 --> 00:34:11,800
As Engels, Marx's partner,
481
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:15,760
states in his history
of primitive Christianity,
482
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:22,800
the first Christians were to him
the first communists,
483
00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:24,800
because they shared their goods
484
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:27,560
and brought down
the Roman Empire.
485
00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:31,080
Marx who says
religion is the opium of the people
486
00:34:31,240 --> 00:34:32,880
is the same man who says
487
00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:35,400
religion is the cry
488
00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:39,680
from the heart of a heartless society.
489
00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:43,280
It is a cry of protest,
a cry of resistance.
490
00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:46,280
Just read the full quotation.
491
00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:48,600
Marx wasn't against religion.
492
00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:51,440
He even wrote
in a letter to Bakunin...
493
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:53,240
Bakunin suggested
494
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:56,160
that the First International
495
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:58,920
only accept self-declared atheists.
496
00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:01,280
Marx replied to him,
"You're mad.
497
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:05,160
We have to respect people's faith."
498
00:35:10,720 --> 00:35:12,840
DOWN WITH THE DICTATORSHIP
499
00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:16,520
The Dominican Convent
was under police watch.
500
00:35:16,680 --> 00:35:18,720
All Mass services were recorded.
501
00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:22,240
On the monastery walls,
people wrote,
502
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:24,640
"Death to communist priests."
503
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:35,920
As a clergyman living in a Dominican
conventual community in São Paulo,
504
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:39,320
I've never understood
505
00:35:40,200 --> 00:35:44,880
how some friars and nuns
can be against socialism.
506
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:49,440
Because we all live
in a socialist microsociety.
507
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:53,680
We have to share our goods.
508
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:59,080
You can't set up
your own material comfort in your room
509
00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:01,440
when your neighbor doesn't have that.
510
00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:05,440
Everything is socialized!
511
00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:07,040
That's the word.
512
00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:10,600
How can you not want that for society?
513
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:12,320
I don't understand.
514
00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:19,080
We were convinced
515
00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:23,000
that we had reached a moment
when dictatorship didn't provide
516
00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:27,000
any space
for a nonviolent democratic struggle.
517
00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:31,160
The regime started
repressing student protests
518
00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:32,600
very violently,
519
00:36:32,760 --> 00:36:35,640
with guns, tanks and mounted police.
520
00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:42,520
Our monastery
521
00:36:42,720 --> 00:36:45,520
was famously a place
522
00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:48,000
where the persecuted
were given shelter.
523
00:36:48,160 --> 00:36:51,600
We didn't only take in activists
524
00:36:51,720 --> 00:36:52,880
of Marighella's group.
525
00:36:53,040 --> 00:36:55,640
We took in activists of several groups,
526
00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:57,760
who were seeking refuge.
527
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:06,080
Friar Tito de Alencar suffered
the most brutal kinds of torture.
528
00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:07,920
He never got over it.
529
00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:13,680
Thrown out of Brazil,
he gave a testimony of his ordeal
530
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:15,720
short before committing suicide.
531
00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:20,160
My name is Friar Tito de Alencar Lima.
532
00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:23,080
I am 25 years old.
533
00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:26,240
I am a friar.
534
00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:29,400
I was tortured three days in a row.
535
00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:36,160
On the third day,
Captain Benoni Albernaz
536
00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:40,600
tortured me for 20 consecutive hours.
537
00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:45,880
On the fourth day,
knowing I would be tortured again,
538
00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:50,040
I attempted suicide
by cutting my left wrist.
539
00:37:50,200 --> 00:37:52,480
You still have a scar there.
540
00:37:52,640 --> 00:37:54,720
Major Waldir said to me,
541
00:37:54,880 --> 00:37:58,200
"Church is a great power
542
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:01,280
that has to be fought against.
543
00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:03,920
Priests have to be tortured
544
00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:05,360
to learn a lesson."
545
00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:08,080
That's their way of saying,
546
00:38:08,240 --> 00:38:11,120
"The only democratic institution in Brazil
547
00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:12,240
is torture,
548
00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:15,680
because it can be inflicted
indiscriminately
549
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:19,760
on workers, priests, lawyers...
550
00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:22,040
in short, on everyone."
551
00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:30,440
It was impossible
552
00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:33,920
for interrogators,
who claimed to be Christians,
553
00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:37,280
to understand
that a clergyman, a friar...
554
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:44,000
could have embraced
a revolutionary position,
555
00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:49,400
while also using Marxism
as a method to analyze reality.
556
00:38:50,920 --> 00:38:52,280
In their heads,
557
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:54,680
I was a communist
558
00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:59,760
who falsely posed as a clergyman.
559
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,200
I was a communist infiltrator
in the Church.
560
00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:07,280
They even did all they could
to have us expelled by the Church,
561
00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:09,680
which never happened,
on the contrary.
562
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:20,480
In fact, until I went to prison,
563
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:25,760
I was convinced that my personal time
would coincide with my historical time.
564
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:28,760
I would live to see Brazil
as the socialist country
565
00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:30,440
I was fighting for.
566
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:33,800
In prison, I realized that I wouldn't.
567
00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:40,920
However, my motto is,
"Let's save pessimism for better days."
568
00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:58,120
The Brazilian Church supported
the military coup.
569
00:39:58,360 --> 00:39:59,600
But little by little,
570
00:39:59,840 --> 00:40:02,920
it became the main opponent
of the dictatorship.
571
00:40:16,240 --> 00:40:20,600
To many people, resistance was
embodied in this frail looking man,
572
00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:23,880
Hélder Câmara,
the archbishop of Recife.
573
00:40:24,720 --> 00:40:26,720
As he spoke out against torture,
574
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:29,480
Brazilian media
wasn't allowed to mention him.
575
00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:34,200
"We promise..."
576
00:40:34,800 --> 00:40:38,760
"... with the help of God..."
577
00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:42,720
"... to work united..."
578
00:40:43,080 --> 00:40:48,440
"... with everyone in the community..."
579
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:52,600
"... to defend..."
580
00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:56,800
"... our rights."
581
00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:02,000
"The right to a home..."
582
00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:05,280
"... and to freedom."
583
00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:08,120
Hélder Câmara famously said,
584
00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:12,520
"When I give food to the poor,
they call me a saint.
585
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:17,640
When I ask why they are poor,
they call me a communist."
586
00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:23,240
"... right to leisure."
587
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:26,400
The authorities say you advocate
the revolution, monsignor.
588
00:41:26,720 --> 00:41:30,960
Yes, but I'm not afraid of that word.
589
00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:35,640
If by revolution, we understand
590
00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:40,400
a profound,
even radical and quick change,
591
00:41:40,560 --> 00:41:41,880
then I like the revolution!
592
00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:43,760
-You're a revolutionary.
-Yes.
593
00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:46,240
But no bloody revolution.
594
00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:53,080
The people are there
We've conquered the square.
595
00:41:57,840 --> 00:42:00,080
In the late 1970s,
it became increasingly hard
596
00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:03,720
for the dictatorship
to contain the popular movements.
597
00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:07,520
The Church gave refuge and a voice
to social movements.
598
00:42:08,160 --> 00:42:10,440
Its buildings
hosted underground meetings,
599
00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:13,880
but also massive public assemblies.
600
00:42:20,160 --> 00:42:23,360
A powerful workers' movement
emerged in São Paulo,
601
00:42:23,520 --> 00:42:25,080
the country's industrial center.
602
00:42:25,240 --> 00:42:26,760
1st MAY
THE WORKERS' MASS
603
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:30,080
Jesus, the workers
604
00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:33,520
have had to go on strike
605
00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:37,160
to negotiate a small salary raise,
606
00:42:37,720 --> 00:42:41,480
while big multinationals
607
00:42:41,640 --> 00:42:43,320
make huge profits.
608
00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:47,520
Jesus, help us to correct injustices.
609
00:42:49,720 --> 00:42:54,720
So that the workers don't wait
for liberation to fall from the sky,
610
00:42:55,040 --> 00:42:56,800
but to stay united
611
00:42:56,960 --> 00:42:59,280
to receive that gift from God...
612
00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:01,760
The big São Paulo strikes
shook the regime,
613
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:04,080
which never recovered.
614
00:43:07,720 --> 00:43:10,240
I've said it from day 1.
615
00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:13,440
And I insist on telling you this,
616
00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:17,480
the greatest recognition to me, Lula,
617
00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:20,240
would be getting arrested and tortured.
618
00:43:20,400 --> 00:43:22,200
What about you, workers?
619
00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:26,360
Lula! Lula! Lula!
620
00:43:29,080 --> 00:43:31,160
Lula emerged as the movement leader.
621
00:43:31,320 --> 00:43:34,240
On this banner,
he is compared with Jesus.
622
00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:39,520
He modeled the Workers' Party
on the base ecclesial communities.
623
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:12,560
Also in rural areas,
624
00:44:12,720 --> 00:44:16,120
hunger and anger were stronger
than fear of the army.
625
00:44:18,120 --> 00:44:21,120
Brazil was the last American country
to abolish slavery,
626
00:44:22,240 --> 00:44:25,480
In the most unequal country
in the world,
627
00:44:25,640 --> 00:44:29,280
land distribution has
hardly changed since colonization.
628
00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:49,040
In the late 1970s,
629
00:44:50,120 --> 00:44:51,640
Catholic and Protestant Church members
630
00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:55,680
accompanied a huge wave
of land occupation by peasants.
631
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:00,880
South of Brazil,
632
00:45:01,360 --> 00:45:05,520
1,500 landless peasant families
invaded Fazenda Annoni:
633
00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:09,280
10,000 hectares
belonging to one landowner.
634
00:45:25,760 --> 00:45:29,200
Father Arnildo Fritzen accompanied
the occupation from the beginning.
635
00:45:46,040 --> 00:45:48,880
We also bring the symbol of life,
636
00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:50,800
the symbol of hope.
637
00:45:51,040 --> 00:45:53,000
In our procession, we bring
638
00:45:53,160 --> 00:45:57,160
the first child that was born
639
00:45:57,360 --> 00:45:59,880
on Fazenda Annoni.
This child is the symbol of life,
640
00:46:00,760 --> 00:46:03,120
the symbol of hope,
641
00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:05,080
the symbol of the land
642
00:46:05,240 --> 00:46:08,280
we're fighting for
so that everyone can live.
643
00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:11,720
On a very cold winter evening,
644
00:46:11,880 --> 00:46:15,640
I gave shelter at home,
in the church over there,
645
00:46:15,880 --> 00:46:18,040
to five families.
646
00:46:18,240 --> 00:46:22,520
We lodged them in the office,
in the bedroom, in the kitchen.
647
00:46:23,080 --> 00:46:26,320
On that evening
I read a biblical text to them,
648
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:28,120
which is to me
649
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:29,920
the key principle.
650
00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:33,480
It's a text from The Book of Exodus,
651
00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:38,480
in which God speaks to Moses and says,
652
00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:43,200
"I have heard the cry of My people,
653
00:46:43,360 --> 00:46:45,560
and I have made a decision
654
00:46:45,720 --> 00:46:48,320
to rescue them from slavery."
655
00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:53,560
And He says, "Moses,
656
00:46:54,240 --> 00:46:56,480
go and negotiate with the Pharaoh
657
00:46:56,640 --> 00:47:02,600
to rescue those people
from slavery in Egypt."
658
00:47:04,040 --> 00:47:07,640
I spent that evening
meditating on that text.
659
00:47:08,240 --> 00:47:11,280
On the following day we talked,
660
00:47:11,520 --> 00:47:14,960
and I asked them a question
I remember to this day.
661
00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:17,560
"Who is that Moses
662
00:47:17,720 --> 00:47:20,960
who must now go and negotiate
with the Pharaoh
663
00:47:21,120 --> 00:47:23,840
to rescue people from slavery?"
664
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:27,040
We had a very beautiful discussion
665
00:47:27,200 --> 00:47:32,360
because they realized
that it couldn't be only one person.
666
00:47:32,720 --> 00:47:35,560
How could one person
stand up against the government?
667
00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:37,360
It's impossible.
668
00:47:38,280 --> 00:47:40,680
They discussed it among themselves
669
00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:43,200
and reached a consensus:
670
00:47:43,360 --> 00:47:45,520
it was a collective person.
671
00:47:45,680 --> 00:47:47,400
It had to be a group.
672
00:47:48,520 --> 00:47:51,160
"We that are gathered here
673
00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:54,720
must go and negotiate
with the government
674
00:47:54,880 --> 00:47:57,360
to set everyone else free."
675
00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:05,920
-The people united...
-Will never be defeated.
676
00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:07,800
Land reform...
677
00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:09,080
Now!
678
00:48:19,840 --> 00:48:21,480
The children united...
679
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:23,560
Will never be defeated!
680
00:48:23,720 --> 00:48:24,960
The people organized...
681
00:48:25,120 --> 00:48:27,240
Will never be oppressed!
682
00:48:27,400 --> 00:48:29,080
-Land reform...
-Now!
683
00:48:29,240 --> 00:48:30,600
When I first started
684
00:48:30,840 --> 00:48:33,120
meeting with them there,
685
00:48:33,280 --> 00:48:38,400
I noticed they had
small crosses near their cabins.
686
00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:42,080
They had an inscription that read
"Save your soul."
687
00:48:42,480 --> 00:48:44,280
So I asked them,
688
00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:47,960
"Only our souls?
What about our bodies?
689
00:48:48,640 --> 00:48:52,680
You're living in great poverty,
with nothing to eat and so on."
690
00:48:53,040 --> 00:48:56,440
Little by little they began
to develop the idea
691
00:48:56,680 --> 00:48:58,880
that we have to save one's life.
692
00:48:59,040 --> 00:49:02,760
One's life, not only their soul.
693
00:49:04,440 --> 00:49:09,720
"And how can we represent
our struggle to save lives?"
694
00:49:10,200 --> 00:49:11,960
That's how the cross appeared.
695
00:49:12,800 --> 00:49:15,640
It's a thick cross,
696
00:49:15,840 --> 00:49:19,640
strong and rough,
because it is heavy.
697
00:49:19,800 --> 00:49:23,280
No one can carry it alone,
it must be carried collectively.
698
00:49:27,080 --> 00:49:29,480
The military dictatorship government
699
00:49:29,640 --> 00:49:32,440
deployed massive repression
700
00:49:32,600 --> 00:49:34,280
against the peasant camp.
701
00:49:34,880 --> 00:49:38,000
A colonel was sent there
702
00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:41,400
with all the military apparatus
703
00:49:41,600 --> 00:49:44,720
to dismantle the camp.
704
00:49:47,040 --> 00:49:49,480
It was a terrible moment,
705
00:49:50,320 --> 00:49:52,080
because he rounded everyone up...
706
00:49:53,480 --> 00:49:55,640
He summoned everyone
707
00:49:55,800 --> 00:49:58,800
and delivered a speech
typical of an army officer
708
00:49:58,960 --> 00:50:03,560
who thinks people must die
because they disobeyed him.
709
00:50:03,720 --> 00:50:06,840
Squad, move forward in a column.
Block the road.
710
00:50:07,520 --> 00:50:09,000
Block the road, squad.
711
00:50:11,200 --> 00:50:14,280
Moses led the way
712
00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:16,200
Now we are Moses
713
00:50:16,400 --> 00:50:19,640
Standing up against oppression
714
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:24,080
We are your people, Lord
715
00:50:26,040 --> 00:50:28,200
-Land reform...
-Now!
716
00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:32,280
-We don't want war.
-We want land!
717
00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:34,360
Land reform!
718
00:50:42,240 --> 00:50:46,920
Land conflicts in Brazil have claimed
thousands of lives since the 1960s.
719
00:50:53,600 --> 00:50:58,760
Despite repression, Fazenda Annoni
conquered legality in 1993.
720
00:50:59,680 --> 00:51:03,920
The occupations gave birth
to the Landless Workers' Movement, MST.
721
00:51:08,040 --> 00:51:09,600
Since it was set up,
722
00:51:10,280 --> 00:51:13,560
over 5 million Brazilians
have conquered land by fighting.
723
00:51:26,000 --> 00:51:30,720
Darci Mascio is manager
of the Fazenda Annoni cooperative.
724
00:51:31,200 --> 00:51:32,480
In fact,
725
00:51:32,640 --> 00:51:37,520
the priests helped you
engage in reflection.
726
00:51:37,680 --> 00:51:39,560
They didn't lead the movement.
727
00:51:39,720 --> 00:51:42,000
We had to lead it.
728
00:51:43,400 --> 00:51:45,520
I was young and single.
729
00:51:45,920 --> 00:51:46,920
It was different.
730
00:51:47,080 --> 00:51:50,520
But we had a great responsibility
on our backs,
731
00:51:50,680 --> 00:51:54,040
because 1,500 families relied on us.
732
00:51:54,520 --> 00:51:58,600
They relied on us
and we couldn't make any faux pas
733
00:51:58,760 --> 00:52:03,000
or make false promises
to our comrades.
734
00:52:03,240 --> 00:52:08,280
I mean,
you'd get a piece of plastic sheeting.
735
00:52:08,840 --> 00:52:12,720
You'd turn that into your home...
736
00:52:18,920 --> 00:52:19,840
That...
737
00:52:22,200 --> 00:52:23,400
Nowadays,
738
00:52:24,280 --> 00:52:28,560
it may sound I'm being nostalgic.
739
00:52:29,880 --> 00:52:34,960
But that's a reality that few people today
would have the courage to face.
740
00:52:44,960 --> 00:52:47,360
A month went by,
then two months.
741
00:52:47,520 --> 00:52:49,520
Then six months, a year,
742
00:52:49,680 --> 00:52:50,920
two years, three years...
743
00:52:51,080 --> 00:52:53,320
And you kept living under a black tent,
744
00:52:54,280 --> 00:52:56,400
hoping to get a plot of land.
745
00:52:56,560 --> 00:52:59,200
Without these people by our side
746
00:52:59,400 --> 00:53:01,840
whose faith helped us to resist,
747
00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:04,040
we wouldn't have resisted.
748
00:53:14,480 --> 00:53:17,240
There wasn't a real land reform
under Lula.
749
00:53:18,360 --> 00:53:20,920
The Left failed to correct inequalities,
750
00:53:21,080 --> 00:53:23,120
despite all hopes placed on it.
751
00:53:23,920 --> 00:53:25,840
Forty years after it was set up,
752
00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:29,000
the MST is still claiming
its promised land.
753
00:53:29,720 --> 00:53:31,400
MST!
754
00:53:31,560 --> 00:53:33,600
Fighting to the end.
755
00:53:36,720 --> 00:53:38,840
-When do we want land reform?
-Now.
756
00:53:39,000 --> 00:53:40,680
-When?
-Now.
757
00:53:41,640 --> 00:53:47,560
Streets and highways are spaces
of political struggle.
758
00:53:47,960 --> 00:53:50,800
Young people who dare fight!
759
00:54:39,160 --> 00:54:40,880
1979.
760
00:54:41,320 --> 00:54:43,960
A revolution finally
triumphed in Latin America
761
00:54:44,120 --> 00:54:46,200
for the first time since Cuba.
762
00:54:47,200 --> 00:54:50,320
After two decades of coups d'état
and crushed revolutions,
763
00:54:50,480 --> 00:54:53,760
the people of Nicaragua
ousted the Somoza dynasty:
764
00:54:54,040 --> 00:54:57,080
three generations of dictators
in the pay of Washington.
765
00:55:01,120 --> 00:55:04,520
Four priests took part in
the first Sandinista government.
766
00:55:13,960 --> 00:55:17,360
The most famous one of them
was Ernesto Cardenal.
767
00:55:18,200 --> 00:55:22,480
Also a poet, he came out from
underground after two years in exile.
768
00:55:24,720 --> 00:55:28,000
What we are all feeling now
in Nicaragua
769
00:55:28,160 --> 00:55:32,920
is like we're living in a dream.
770
00:55:33,080 --> 00:55:36,040
But this dream is a reality.
771
00:55:36,360 --> 00:55:40,000
Nicaragua without the National Guard!
772
00:55:40,160 --> 00:55:42,640
This is the dawn of a new day.
773
00:55:42,800 --> 00:55:45,200
A country without terror,
774
00:55:45,560 --> 00:55:48,640
without dynastic tyranny.
775
00:55:49,680 --> 00:55:54,360
Comrades, a new day has dawned.
776
00:55:54,640 --> 00:55:56,160
It's already here.
777
00:56:02,240 --> 00:56:04,160
To many Christians, on that day,
778
00:56:04,320 --> 00:56:07,200
it felt like
the Kingdom of God had come.
779
00:56:07,360 --> 00:56:10,560
It was the fulfilment of the message
of the Liberation Church,
780
00:56:10,720 --> 00:56:14,840
whose influence kept growing
in Latin America since the 1960s.
781
00:56:20,920 --> 00:56:24,080
María Lopez Vigil,
a journalist and a theologian,
782
00:56:24,760 --> 00:56:26,800
was one of thousands of Catholics
783
00:56:26,960 --> 00:56:30,920
who came to Nicaragua
to experience the revolutionary process.
784
00:56:35,440 --> 00:56:37,680
I was someone
785
00:56:37,840 --> 00:56:41,360
who found, in Liberation Theology,
786
00:56:41,520 --> 00:56:46,800
the meaning of her own life.
787
00:56:47,240 --> 00:56:50,160
Liberation Theology is not a theory.
788
00:56:50,320 --> 00:56:51,520
It's a praxis.
789
00:56:51,800 --> 00:56:53,960
It is a way of being in the world.
790
00:56:54,120 --> 00:56:57,600
And it spread greatly
in Latin America.
791
00:56:57,760 --> 00:57:00,400
That's why it was a cultural revolution.
792
00:57:00,640 --> 00:57:03,000
Its central idea is:
793
00:57:03,600 --> 00:57:06,880
God is not neutral.
794
00:57:07,640 --> 00:57:10,320
God is on the side of the poor.
795
00:57:12,400 --> 00:57:14,320
The poor are not good.
796
00:57:14,480 --> 00:57:17,160
They may be good, bad or very bad.
797
00:57:17,320 --> 00:57:19,720
Not because they're poor.
798
00:57:19,880 --> 00:57:23,120
The poor aren't good, they're poor.
799
00:57:23,400 --> 00:57:25,320
You have to support them
800
00:57:25,480 --> 00:57:27,920
so that they stop being poor.
801
00:57:28,080 --> 00:57:32,080
That idea is central
to Liberation Theology.
802
00:57:32,600 --> 00:57:36,720
A society
in which people starve to death
803
00:57:36,920 --> 00:57:39,600
is a society in sin.
804
00:57:39,960 --> 00:57:40,960
Why?
805
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:44,240
Because hunger can be prevented,
806
00:57:44,400 --> 00:57:48,080
and hunger has structural reasons.
807
00:57:48,240 --> 00:57:51,680
Therefore, there are structural sins.
808
00:57:51,840 --> 00:57:55,480
What are those structural sins?
809
00:57:55,640 --> 00:57:57,960
Well, ignorance.
810
00:57:58,120 --> 00:58:01,520
A society
that doesn't provide education.
811
00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:06,040
A society that doesn't ensure food
to everyone.
812
00:58:06,200 --> 00:58:10,600
Sin isn't only about personal issues.
813
00:58:10,760 --> 00:58:14,080
And it is not God
that is offended by sin.
814
00:58:14,920 --> 00:58:18,400
Sin offends other men and women,
815
00:58:18,560 --> 00:58:22,320
the others around. Right?
816
00:58:22,480 --> 00:58:27,000
The greater the power,
the more accountable the sin is.
817
00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:32,480
When Liberation Theology
referred to personal sin,
818
00:58:32,640 --> 00:58:37,800
personal sin would be
failing to contribute to change,
819
00:58:38,000 --> 00:58:41,480
in a society
that lives in structural sin.
820
00:58:41,760 --> 00:58:46,080
But that's not about
my own relationship with God,
821
00:58:46,240 --> 00:58:47,840
about an offense against God.
822
00:58:48,000 --> 00:58:49,880
Nobody offends God.
823
00:58:50,040 --> 00:58:54,360
I mean, is God so weak
that He can be offended by me?
824
00:58:54,520 --> 00:58:55,560
That's absurd.
825
00:58:55,760 --> 00:58:59,600
Offense is always done
against another person,
826
00:59:01,080 --> 00:59:05,200
either because I did something
or because I failed to do something.
827
00:59:05,360 --> 00:59:09,080
Liberation Theology taught us that.
828
00:59:09,400 --> 00:59:12,320
You are the God of the poor
829
00:59:12,520 --> 00:59:15,760
The God who's humane and modest
830
00:59:16,280 --> 00:59:19,840
The God who sweats on the streets
831
00:59:20,000 --> 00:59:23,560
The God whose face is tanned
832
00:59:23,720 --> 00:59:27,200
That's why I talk to you
833
00:59:27,400 --> 00:59:30,760
The way my people talk
834
00:59:31,040 --> 00:59:34,040
Because you are the working God
835
00:59:34,760 --> 00:59:37,840
Jesus Christ the worker
836
00:59:38,160 --> 00:59:40,960
The Church was deeply divided
by the Revolution.
837
00:59:41,360 --> 00:59:44,200
Rafael Aragón, a Spanish priest,
838
00:59:44,480 --> 00:59:48,480
accompanied it along the ten years
of the Sandinista experience.
839
00:59:53,040 --> 00:59:55,120
The Sandinista Revolution
840
00:59:55,280 --> 00:59:58,120
wouldn't have been successful
without the participation
841
00:59:58,280 --> 01:00:00,520
of the majority of Nicaraguan people,
842
01:00:00,680 --> 01:00:03,680
who were Christians.
843
01:00:03,840 --> 01:00:06,320
Most of them are Christians.
844
01:00:06,880 --> 01:00:12,040
So the massive participation
of the people...
845
01:00:12,480 --> 01:00:14,520
Not of the Church hierarchy.
846
01:00:14,800 --> 01:00:19,040
The Church hierarchy never approved
847
01:00:19,200 --> 01:00:24,760
of the participation of Christians
in the revolutionary process.
848
01:00:24,920 --> 01:00:25,920
Never.
849
01:00:26,240 --> 01:00:28,000
Hence, the slogan that went
850
01:00:28,160 --> 01:00:31,480
"Between Christianity and Revolution,
there is no contradiction."
851
01:00:31,640 --> 01:00:35,440
Because they were fully engaged
852
01:00:35,600 --> 01:00:37,680
in the revolutionary process.
853
01:00:38,480 --> 01:00:41,280
They didn't feel
there was any contradiction
854
01:00:41,440 --> 01:00:45,400
in organizing the people
in the Literacy Crusade,
855
01:00:45,560 --> 01:00:50,720
or in organizing the people
in the public health brigades.
856
01:00:51,760 --> 01:00:53,480
Those are
857
01:00:53,960 --> 01:00:55,280
Christian values:
858
01:00:55,480 --> 01:00:57,080
teaching how to read,
859
01:00:57,720 --> 01:01:01,080
providing medical care for the sick.
860
01:01:01,440 --> 01:01:03,320
You couldn't question that!
861
01:01:03,560 --> 01:01:05,320
You couldn't question that!
862
01:01:09,760 --> 01:01:15,080
We all took part in the Literacy Crusade
with great enthusiasm.
863
01:01:25,840 --> 01:01:29,160
We used Paulo Freire's method,
864
01:01:29,320 --> 01:01:32,480
pedagogy of the oppressed,
obviously.
865
01:01:33,080 --> 01:01:38,000
The aim was to raise awareness
beyond teaching people to read and write.
866
01:01:38,440 --> 01:01:42,440
It was about making the poor aware
867
01:01:42,720 --> 01:01:46,040
of their dignity as people
and of their possibility
868
01:01:46,200 --> 01:01:48,440
to transform themselves
869
01:01:48,600 --> 01:01:51,800
from poor and resigned people
870
01:01:51,960 --> 01:01:55,200
into agents
of a transforming commitment.
871
01:02:00,840 --> 01:02:02,760
There was great enthusiasm,
872
01:02:02,920 --> 01:02:04,880
but we also criticized things.
873
01:02:05,080 --> 01:02:08,880
I remember that
in my first homily in San Judas,
874
01:02:10,080 --> 01:02:11,120
up on the hill,
875
01:02:11,280 --> 01:02:15,120
in memory of those who had died,
the martyrs,
876
01:02:15,680 --> 01:02:19,480
I said we shouldn't absolutize
the Revolution.
877
01:02:19,680 --> 01:02:23,720
We had to be critical.
As I entered the neighborhood,
878
01:02:23,880 --> 01:02:26,240
I saw many Sandinistas
879
01:02:26,400 --> 01:02:29,280
looting the houses of army officers.
880
01:02:29,680 --> 01:02:31,880
So I said, "We have won the war.
881
01:02:32,120 --> 01:02:34,640
Now let's seek
reconciliation and peace,
882
01:02:34,800 --> 01:02:36,560
not revenge."
883
01:02:40,200 --> 01:02:42,040
How and when did you realize
884
01:02:42,200 --> 01:02:45,360
the Revolution wouldn't turn out
exactly
885
01:02:45,520 --> 01:02:47,440
the way you had dreamed it.
886
01:02:47,840 --> 01:02:49,720
Listen,
887
01:02:50,640 --> 01:02:54,880
when you have a critical eye,
you realize that in all processes.
888
01:02:56,280 --> 01:03:00,200
Plus, the very harsh reality
of the counter-revolutionary war
889
01:03:00,360 --> 01:03:03,360
didn't allow you
to make a strong criticism.
890
01:03:03,520 --> 01:03:05,880
If you criticized the government,
891
01:03:06,080 --> 01:03:09,160
you were reproducing the US discourse.
892
01:03:17,920 --> 01:03:20,560
Much can be said against
the mistakes of this revolution
893
01:03:20,720 --> 01:03:22,800
and its leaders' dogmatism.
894
01:03:25,640 --> 01:03:28,240
But how could we forget the Contra War?
895
01:03:28,400 --> 01:03:31,360
The counter-revolutionary war
funded by Reagan
896
01:03:31,520 --> 01:03:33,680
claimed over 30,000 lives.
897
01:03:35,520 --> 01:03:37,240
Long live the fight
898
01:03:37,400 --> 01:03:40,360
in defense of our nation.
899
01:03:40,520 --> 01:03:42,720
When Pope John Paul II
announced his visit,
900
01:03:43,280 --> 01:03:45,800
the people expected
strong words for peace,
901
01:03:46,200 --> 01:03:48,400
against the attack on Nicaragua.
902
01:03:52,240 --> 01:03:56,680
4 March 1983.
903
01:03:58,560 --> 01:04:00,720
That's when the Pope came here.
904
01:04:00,880 --> 01:04:04,120
Pope John Paul II destroyed
905
01:04:04,280 --> 01:04:10,040
the cultural momentum
and the cultural transformation
906
01:04:12,080 --> 01:04:16,080
which Liberation Theology
produced in Latin America.
907
01:04:16,240 --> 01:04:19,000
He was from Poland
and an anticommunist.
908
01:04:19,160 --> 01:04:23,600
He viewed the Nicaraguan Revolution
as communism.
909
01:04:24,000 --> 01:04:25,240
Right?
910
01:04:29,000 --> 01:04:32,840
I was asked to cover
the Pope's visit in Managua.
911
01:04:33,000 --> 01:04:37,920
Therefore,
the first act took place at the airport.
912
01:04:40,320 --> 01:04:42,720
We had made a gigantic mural
that read,
913
01:04:43,520 --> 01:04:48,160
"Nicaragua is free
thanks to God and the Revolution."
914
01:04:48,640 --> 01:04:51,520
That was written in gigantic letters.
915
01:04:53,600 --> 01:04:57,080
As soon as he disembarked
at the airport, I saw him.
916
01:04:59,040 --> 01:05:02,320
The minute I saw him,
I knew there would be trouble.
917
01:05:02,520 --> 01:05:04,600
Because his expression transpired
918
01:05:04,760 --> 01:05:06,120
rage.
919
01:05:08,200 --> 01:05:10,960
As a journalist, I drew a portrait
920
01:05:11,120 --> 01:05:14,440
of Karol Wojtyla:
921
01:05:14,600 --> 01:05:18,200
"He's Polish, and he's coming
with the best of intentions
922
01:05:18,360 --> 01:05:21,720
to see what's going on in Nicaragua..."
Bla bla bla.
923
01:05:23,440 --> 01:05:25,800
He was greeting
924
01:05:26,040 --> 01:05:30,200
the ministers, who were lined up,
925
01:05:30,360 --> 01:05:33,360
and got to Ernesto Cardenal,
Minister of Culture.
926
01:05:33,520 --> 01:05:38,640
Ernesto knelt expecting
to receive the Pope's blessing
927
01:05:38,800 --> 01:05:41,200
or to kiss his hand.
928
01:05:49,000 --> 01:05:51,600
The Pope wagged his finger like this
929
01:05:51,760 --> 01:05:54,240
and went away.
930
01:05:54,400 --> 01:05:56,280
Ernesto got back up.
931
01:05:56,520 --> 01:05:58,040
I was near them.
932
01:05:58,200 --> 01:06:02,160
An Associated Press journalist
came running
933
01:06:02,320 --> 01:06:05,280
and asked me,
"What did the Pope say to Ernesto?"
934
01:06:05,520 --> 01:06:08,840
Ernesto, rather naughtily,
935
01:06:09,080 --> 01:06:10,560
cunningly,
936
01:06:10,960 --> 01:06:15,360
said, "I believe it proper
to say he blessed me."
937
01:06:15,520 --> 01:06:17,920
That's what I said to that journalist,
938
01:06:18,080 --> 01:06:21,840
and in the first wire
issued about the Pope's visit,
939
01:06:22,080 --> 01:06:27,920
the Associated Press said
the Pope had blessed Ernesto.
940
01:06:31,440 --> 01:06:36,240
BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND REVOLUTION
THERE IS NO CONTRADICTION
941
01:06:37,360 --> 01:06:41,160
MONSIGNOR ROMERO SHOWED US THE WAY
WELCOME JOHN PAUL
942
01:06:42,840 --> 01:06:47,840
WELCOME TO FREE NICARAGUA
THANKS TO GOD AND THE REVOLUTION
943
01:06:49,480 --> 01:06:52,440
My dear brothers and sisters,
944
01:06:53,120 --> 01:06:55,960
when Christians
945
01:06:57,080 --> 01:07:03,920
prefer any other doctrine or ideology
946
01:07:04,080 --> 01:07:09,600
to the teachings of the Apostles
and the Church
947
01:07:11,680 --> 01:07:15,560
the unity of the Church is weakened!
948
01:07:24,160 --> 01:07:27,320
We want peace!
949
01:07:35,280 --> 01:07:36,800
Silence.
950
01:07:40,760 --> 01:07:47,800
The Church is the first to want peace!
951
01:07:55,160 --> 01:07:58,040
We want peace!
952
01:08:01,120 --> 01:08:03,400
Jesus Christ!
953
01:08:04,640 --> 01:08:06,240
It ended badly.
954
01:08:06,400 --> 01:08:09,880
When the Pope left the square
for the airport,
955
01:08:10,200 --> 01:08:11,520
he was very frightened.
956
01:08:11,680 --> 01:08:15,560
You could see it,
he was practically running away.
957
01:08:15,720 --> 01:08:20,440
It showed us
that John Paul II wasn't neutral.
958
01:08:22,600 --> 01:08:27,160
What hurt the most was
the indignation of the modest people,
959
01:08:27,320 --> 01:08:30,400
who thought,
"The Pope doesn't love us.
960
01:08:30,560 --> 01:08:34,400
The Pope loves some,
and doesn't love others."
961
01:08:36,360 --> 01:08:39,440
Power to the people.
962
01:08:46,600 --> 01:08:49,520
On 4 March, Pope John Paul II
963
01:08:49,680 --> 01:08:52,840
refused to extend his hand to Ernesto.
964
01:08:53,000 --> 01:08:56,040
The following day,
he extended it to Roberto D’Aubuisson,
965
01:08:56,200 --> 01:09:00,200
the President of the Legislative Assembly
of El Salvador
966
01:09:00,360 --> 01:09:02,080
back then, in 1983.
967
01:09:02,240 --> 01:09:05,520
He was the intellectual assassin
of Monsignor Romero,
968
01:09:05,720 --> 01:09:07,640
and we knew that already.
969
01:09:07,840 --> 01:09:13,600
Liberation Theology played a role
at a moment in history.
970
01:09:13,760 --> 01:09:16,960
At the current moment in history,
971
01:09:17,120 --> 01:09:21,480
I think that it simply doesn't exist.
972
01:09:21,640 --> 01:09:24,520
It didn't die, it was murdered
973
01:09:24,720 --> 01:09:27,080
by the violent cultural war
974
01:09:27,240 --> 01:09:31,440
that Pope John Paul II
waged against it.
975
01:09:31,600 --> 01:09:35,120
Seminaries were closed,
media outlets were closed.
976
01:09:35,280 --> 01:09:39,520
Priests and nuns were killed,
977
01:09:39,840 --> 01:09:42,600
because they were practically all
978
01:09:42,880 --> 01:09:46,400
followers of Liberation Theology,
979
01:09:46,560 --> 01:09:49,360
knowingly or not.
980
01:09:55,600 --> 01:09:57,920
The conflict
with the Vatican and the Contras
981
01:09:58,080 --> 01:10:00,520
considerably weakened the Revolution.
982
01:10:01,120 --> 01:10:05,320
After ten years at war,
the Sandinista Front lost the elections.
983
01:10:06,160 --> 01:10:10,280
It came back to power in 2006,
determined to never lose it again.
984
01:10:16,520 --> 01:10:19,760
The revolutionary symbols
are now merely a kitschy setting
985
01:10:19,920 --> 01:10:23,560
for a regime whose sole goal
is to outlive itself.
986
01:10:24,320 --> 01:10:27,120
Its leader, Daniel Ortega,
crushes all opposition.
987
01:10:28,040 --> 01:10:30,360
He murders protesters by the hundreds
988
01:10:30,520 --> 01:10:34,360
and sends to prison his former
Liberation Theology comrades.
989
01:10:44,000 --> 01:10:47,600
The Front concentrated on fighting
990
01:10:47,760 --> 01:10:51,080
for economic and political power,
991
01:10:51,240 --> 01:10:53,000
and forgot the people.
992
01:10:55,800 --> 01:10:59,520
Union leaders became businessmen.
993
01:11:00,920 --> 01:11:03,480
And they didn't step down
as union leaders.
994
01:11:03,600 --> 01:11:08,960
They're businessmen who decide
what the workers have to do.
995
01:11:09,760 --> 01:11:14,200
The neighborhood associations
were extinguished.
996
01:11:14,440 --> 01:11:17,600
The women's associations were closed.
997
01:11:20,440 --> 01:11:25,960
Because they focused
on articulating the big economic power.
998
01:11:26,280 --> 01:11:28,440
Daniel Ortega is perhaps now
999
01:11:28,600 --> 01:11:32,040
one of Nicaragua's big tycoons.
1000
01:11:32,920 --> 01:11:38,400
This happened
because they lost the ideological,
1001
01:11:38,560 --> 01:11:43,240
conceptual and political foundations
of revolution.
1002
01:11:45,760 --> 01:11:49,520
If I say what I truly think
at Sunday Mass,
1003
01:11:50,160 --> 01:11:51,440
I get taken to prison.
1004
01:12:00,880 --> 01:12:04,640
Rafael Aragón went into exile
a few weeks after our interview.
1005
01:12:05,480 --> 01:12:10,120
He was banished from the country
to which he devoted 45 years of his life.
1006
01:12:49,960 --> 01:12:51,760
In Managua as everywhere else,
1007
01:12:51,920 --> 01:12:55,320
Liberation Christianity
is kicked out of the churches.
1008
01:12:55,840 --> 01:12:57,600
Only its frescoes are left,
1009
01:12:57,760 --> 01:13:01,560
a shameful legacy,
the Catholic hierarchy tries to erase.
1010
01:13:15,040 --> 01:13:20,000
Liberation Theology didn't only support
the poor and resistance to tyranny.
1011
01:13:20,800 --> 01:13:23,720
It also embodied the most radical
internal critique of the Church
1012
01:13:23,880 --> 01:13:25,280
since the Reformation.
1013
01:13:27,320 --> 01:13:29,560
I went to meet one of its founders,
1014
01:13:29,760 --> 01:13:32,360
Leonardo Boff, of Brazil.
1015
01:13:41,720 --> 01:13:44,040
Religion has two roles.
1016
01:13:44,480 --> 01:13:48,880
One of them is to appease the poor
to prevent the revolution.
1017
01:13:49,040 --> 01:13:52,720
The other one is to justify the rich,
1018
01:13:52,880 --> 01:13:56,720
because if the rich are good
and hand out alms,
1019
01:13:56,880 --> 01:14:02,040
they're following the Gospel
and securing eternal salvation.
1020
01:14:02,440 --> 01:14:04,800
When, in the fourth century AD,
1021
01:14:05,800 --> 01:14:07,800
the Church joined forces
with the power
1022
01:14:07,960 --> 01:14:10,520
and took on all the imperial symbols,
1023
01:14:11,320 --> 01:14:14,520
which endure to this day
in popes' and cardinals' regalia,
1024
01:14:14,680 --> 01:14:16,320
like the tiara and the stole...
1025
01:14:16,880 --> 01:14:19,080
The Catholic Church
has a lot of rites, pomp,
1026
01:14:19,240 --> 01:14:21,720
glory and palaces.
1027
01:14:22,600 --> 01:14:24,440
The base communities,
on the other hand,
1028
01:14:24,600 --> 01:14:26,160
who read the Gospel say,
1029
01:14:26,320 --> 01:14:28,600
"But Jesus was poor.
1030
01:14:28,760 --> 01:14:32,080
He didn't create any seminaries,
or bishops and priests.
1031
01:14:32,600 --> 01:14:34,840
Why do we have those?"
1032
01:14:35,480 --> 01:14:38,720
So there's a conflict
between the base Church,
1033
01:14:39,040 --> 01:14:41,040
which follows historical Jesus,
1034
01:14:42,040 --> 01:14:46,760
and the hierarchical Church,
which follows glorified Christ,
1035
01:14:47,000 --> 01:14:49,800
the Pantocrator,
the universal king.
1036
01:14:49,960 --> 01:14:52,720
He's a far cry from Jesus of Nazareth,
1037
01:14:52,880 --> 01:14:55,200
who was poor like us.
1038
01:14:55,480 --> 01:14:59,120
He didn't die from being run over
by a horse or a camel.
1039
01:14:59,280 --> 01:15:03,040
He died on the cross,
howling in despair.
1040
01:15:03,240 --> 01:15:06,200
A key moment in your life and work
1041
01:15:06,360 --> 01:15:10,040
was the publishing of your book
Church, Charism and Power.
1042
01:15:10,200 --> 01:15:14,280
Why did that book
bother the Vatican so much?
1043
01:15:14,920 --> 01:15:19,560
Liberation Theology expressed
a critique of society and oppression.
1044
01:15:19,880 --> 01:15:24,480
However, no liberation theologian
criticized the Church's structures,
1045
01:15:25,040 --> 01:15:29,360
because they said the real enemy
was the Capital system,
1046
01:15:29,520 --> 01:15:30,760
not the Church.
1047
01:15:30,920 --> 01:15:34,440
I said,
"If the Church advocates liberation,
1048
01:15:34,600 --> 01:15:37,440
"it has to have
internal liberation relations,
1049
01:15:38,080 --> 01:15:40,520
but it doesn't embrace
those liberations.
1050
01:15:40,680 --> 01:15:42,520
It marginalizes laypeople.
1051
01:15:42,680 --> 01:15:44,640
It renders women invisible.
1052
01:15:44,800 --> 01:15:50,640
It centralizes power
in priests, bishops and popes.
1053
01:15:50,800 --> 01:15:54,720
And it easily forms alliances
with the powerful,
1054
01:15:54,880 --> 01:15:56,360
through its very structure.
1055
01:15:56,520 --> 01:16:00,200
So the Church is internally oppressive.
1056
01:16:00,360 --> 01:16:02,680
And if it is to have legitimacy
1057
01:16:02,800 --> 01:16:06,160
in demanding liberation in society,
1058
01:16:06,320 --> 01:16:09,440
it has to embody
the principle of liberation itself.
1059
01:16:09,880 --> 01:16:12,200
Rome didn't understand that.
1060
01:16:13,400 --> 01:16:15,320
The Vatican didn't like it.
1061
01:16:15,480 --> 01:16:17,440
They summoned me and said,
1062
01:16:17,600 --> 01:16:20,400
"Since your book has been read
across the Church,
1063
01:16:21,120 --> 01:16:23,080
you will be tried here in Rome."
1064
01:16:26,120 --> 01:16:30,440
I had the honor to sit on the same chair
Galileo Galilei sat on.
1065
01:16:30,600 --> 01:16:32,800
I paid veneration to it.
1066
01:16:32,960 --> 01:16:34,960
The cardinal was furious:
1067
01:16:35,120 --> 01:16:38,040
"Sit there and defend your faith!"
1068
01:16:38,200 --> 01:16:39,280
I asked what faith.
1069
01:16:39,440 --> 01:16:40,360
He said, "I determine it."
1070
01:16:40,520 --> 01:16:44,560
I said, "You don't determine faith,
the creed does."
1071
01:16:44,760 --> 01:16:48,000
You're not entitled to know
who accused you.
1072
01:16:48,160 --> 01:16:50,040
You're not entitled to a lawyer.
1073
01:16:50,200 --> 01:16:51,880
You're not entitled to defense.
1074
01:16:52,080 --> 01:16:53,920
I said to Ratzinger,
1075
01:16:54,080 --> 01:16:57,720
"The Vatican is
behind the Soviet Union,
1076
01:16:57,920 --> 01:16:58,960
which is atheist.
1077
01:16:59,160 --> 01:17:01,520
Over there, defendants have lawyers.
1078
01:17:01,680 --> 01:17:04,400
And they have access
to the court minutes.
1079
01:17:04,560 --> 01:17:05,680
You don't have that."
1080
01:17:07,840 --> 01:17:09,920
The sentence was obsequious silence.
1081
01:17:10,520 --> 01:17:11,680
Indefinitely.
1082
01:17:12,560 --> 01:17:15,480
I wasn't allowed to speak
or write or lecture.
1083
01:17:21,240 --> 01:17:23,600
Why did you decide to leave ministry?
1084
01:17:24,200 --> 01:17:27,320
When the Earth Summit
was held in Rio, in 1992,
1085
01:17:27,480 --> 01:17:29,680
I said the Abrahamic religions
1086
01:17:30,680 --> 01:17:35,000
- Judaism, Christianity and Islam -
were the most belligerent ones.
1087
01:17:35,520 --> 01:17:38,480
At the end of my lecture
Cardinal Baggio,
1088
01:17:38,640 --> 01:17:40,440
who was the nuncio of Brazil,
1089
01:17:40,600 --> 01:17:43,240
withdrew his hand
when I greeted him.
1090
01:17:43,720 --> 01:17:47,320
He said, "You've learned nothing
from obsequious silence.
1091
01:17:47,480 --> 01:17:49,600
You have offended the Church again,
1092
01:17:49,760 --> 01:17:51,720
by saying it wages wars."
1093
01:17:51,880 --> 01:17:54,720
I replied, "Yes!
It burnt thousands of witches.
1094
01:17:54,880 --> 01:17:56,400
It fought the Hundred Years' War.
1095
01:17:56,560 --> 01:17:58,280
It's always fighting wars.
1096
01:17:58,680 --> 01:18:02,760
So he said,
"You have until noon tomorrow to choose
1097
01:18:02,920 --> 01:18:06,400
either the Philippines,
which has a Franciscan Convent,
1098
01:18:06,560 --> 01:18:10,080
or South Korea,
which also has Franciscans.
1099
01:18:10,600 --> 01:18:12,080
I said, "I'm 50 years old.
1100
01:18:12,280 --> 01:18:13,480
I'm not going.
1101
01:18:13,640 --> 01:18:18,520
The first time I accepted silence,
it was an act of humility.
1102
01:18:18,680 --> 01:18:20,080
This is humiliation.
1103
01:18:20,240 --> 01:18:22,440
Humiliating is a sin,
I won't accept it."
1104
01:18:22,760 --> 01:18:26,160
He said,
"You have until noon tomorrow.'
1105
01:18:26,320 --> 01:18:28,320
I replied,
"I have decided, I won't go."
1106
01:18:28,480 --> 01:18:30,720
"So go your own way," he said.
1107
01:18:30,880 --> 01:18:32,640
And I had to leave ministry.
1108
01:18:32,800 --> 01:18:36,840
He convicted about 114 theologians,
both men and women.
1109
01:18:37,000 --> 01:18:41,120
From Spain, Latin America,
North America, Germany...
1110
01:18:41,880 --> 01:18:44,360
They created a closed church
1111
01:18:44,520 --> 01:18:47,280
and appointed conservative bishops
everywhere,
1112
01:18:47,440 --> 01:18:50,280
most of whom
had trained in canon law.
1113
01:18:50,680 --> 01:18:53,280
That's the worst school for a bishop.
1114
01:18:53,440 --> 01:18:55,720
There's no pastoral vision
to listen to the people.
1115
01:18:55,880 --> 01:18:58,400
It's all about laws and rules.
1116
01:19:34,480 --> 01:19:38,320
I have often traveled in Chiapas,
Mexico's poorest state.
1117
01:19:40,840 --> 01:19:43,480
12 indigenous peoples
have survived the genocide
1118
01:19:43,640 --> 01:19:46,160
perpetrated
by the cross and sword alliance.
1119
01:19:49,880 --> 01:19:53,120
They were able to appropriate
the colonizers' religion.
1120
01:20:53,720 --> 01:20:57,480
Liberation Theology took root
in Chiapas in the 1960s
1121
01:20:57,680 --> 01:21:01,280
driven by a young archbishop
named Samuel Ruiz.
1122
01:21:01,600 --> 01:21:05,760
He often said he was more interested
in liberation than in theology.
1123
01:21:11,280 --> 01:21:15,360
Friar Gonzalo Ituarte
was at his side for decades.
1124
01:21:22,160 --> 01:21:23,960
Although I'm Mexican,
1125
01:21:24,120 --> 01:21:27,400
that part of Mexico
was like another planet to me.
1126
01:21:27,800 --> 01:21:30,120
It was a totally different world
1127
01:21:30,280 --> 01:21:32,400
from the one I had heard of,
1128
01:21:32,560 --> 01:21:36,480
where Native Indians
had been heroes in the past
1129
01:21:36,640 --> 01:21:39,320
and our old civilizations
had built pyramids,
1130
01:21:39,480 --> 01:21:42,760
the glory of the dead natives.
1131
01:21:42,960 --> 01:21:46,040
What I found there was the misery
of the living natives.
1132
01:21:54,280 --> 01:21:56,360
When I arrived in Chiapas,
1133
01:21:56,520 --> 01:22:00,040
you could still notice
among the older generations
1134
01:22:00,200 --> 01:22:02,960
the signs
of very harsh living conditions.
1135
01:22:03,520 --> 01:22:05,000
Women with no teeth.
1136
01:22:05,160 --> 01:22:08,600
Their skin was nearly green
as a result of diseases.
1137
01:22:08,760 --> 01:22:09,880
Many blind people.
1138
01:22:10,160 --> 01:22:11,880
Conditions were dramatic!
1139
01:22:16,840 --> 01:22:18,800
The indigenous people,
1140
01:22:19,320 --> 01:22:23,520
even if they lived isolated
in traditional indigenous villages,
1141
01:22:23,680 --> 01:22:27,280
considered themselves
inferior to white people,
1142
01:22:27,440 --> 01:22:30,320
"the people of reason"
as they called them.
1143
01:22:30,760 --> 01:22:33,360
"There are natives
and people of reason."
1144
01:22:33,640 --> 01:22:37,120
Their submission was fully internalized.
1145
01:22:37,280 --> 01:22:39,440
A culture had been created
1146
01:22:39,640 --> 01:22:42,840
of normalized servitude.
1147
01:22:43,000 --> 01:22:45,680
Native Indians were supposed
to serve their master,
1148
01:22:45,840 --> 01:22:51,000
they were supposed to serve
the hacienda or the estate owner
1149
01:22:51,160 --> 01:22:56,000
And they were supposed
to listen to priests and teachers.
1150
01:22:56,360 --> 01:22:58,960
Their dependence was taken as natural.
1151
01:22:59,280 --> 01:23:02,160
And religion played a major role
1152
01:23:02,320 --> 01:23:05,600
because it was the estate owner
1153
01:23:05,760 --> 01:23:09,160
that took the priest there.
1154
01:23:09,320 --> 01:23:12,560
The priest stayed with the owner
at the Big House.
1155
01:23:12,720 --> 01:23:16,080
Then he'd see the natives,
sprinkle them with holy water.
1156
01:23:16,240 --> 01:23:19,840
He'd administer the main sacraments,
especially baptism.
1157
01:23:20,000 --> 01:23:21,280
And that's all.
1158
01:23:21,440 --> 01:23:25,920
There was this natural conviction
1159
01:23:26,080 --> 01:23:28,000
that religion
1160
01:23:29,080 --> 01:23:31,960
acknowledged that God wanted
it to be that way.
1161
01:23:32,120 --> 01:23:37,280
Their poverty and dependence was natural
because it was the will of God.
1162
01:23:37,760 --> 01:23:40,320
God Almighty
1163
01:23:42,080 --> 01:23:44,080
By the sign of the Holy Cross,
1164
01:23:44,240 --> 01:23:46,120
of our enemies, deliver us oh Lord.
1165
01:23:46,560 --> 01:23:50,120
God Almighty, please
grant health to the Chamulas.
1166
01:23:58,400 --> 01:24:02,280
Do not forget us, your children,
who are so poor.
1167
01:24:03,160 --> 01:24:07,040
Let not white people harm us.
1168
01:24:12,640 --> 01:24:15,440
It was in that context
1169
01:24:15,600 --> 01:24:18,760
that bishop Samuel Ruiz came along,
in 1960.
1170
01:24:23,640 --> 01:24:26,960
Don Samuel decided
he would change his accommodation
1171
01:24:27,120 --> 01:24:30,160
from the owner's
to the natives' house.
1172
01:24:35,080 --> 01:24:38,400
When he visited a community,
he didn't stay with the boss.
1173
01:24:38,600 --> 01:24:41,240
He went
to the natives' cabins and huts,
1174
01:24:42,280 --> 01:24:44,000
and he lived with them.
1175
01:24:44,160 --> 01:24:50,080
That spurred a quick reaction
from the landowners,
1176
01:24:50,320 --> 01:24:52,720
who felt they were losing
1177
01:24:52,920 --> 01:24:57,080
the Church,
which they had always kept protected
1178
01:24:57,240 --> 01:24:59,080
and at their own service.
1179
01:25:01,640 --> 01:25:02,920
Good morning, my brother.
1180
01:25:04,520 --> 01:25:06,480
Good morning, my brother.
1181
01:25:17,640 --> 01:25:20,520
God's Word was transferred to them.
1182
01:25:20,680 --> 01:25:24,720
Priests and nuns
no longer did the teaching.
1183
01:25:24,880 --> 01:25:28,920
Native Indians who had been trained
by the diocese
1184
01:25:29,120 --> 01:25:33,280
read the Gospel in their own language
within their communities,
1185
01:25:33,440 --> 01:25:36,240
with a participative methodology.
1186
01:25:44,160 --> 01:25:46,960
They aren't poor
because they don't work.
1187
01:25:47,120 --> 01:25:48,200
Much on the contrary.
1188
01:25:48,360 --> 01:25:50,160
They're poor because they work hard,
1189
01:25:50,320 --> 01:25:53,320
but the fruit of their work
goes elsewhere.
1190
01:25:53,480 --> 01:25:55,640
That's what needs changing.
1191
01:26:02,480 --> 01:26:05,960
So in 1974,
1192
01:26:06,120 --> 01:26:08,440
an indigenous congress was held
1193
01:26:08,600 --> 01:26:11,960
to promote a dialogue
among all representatives
1194
01:26:12,120 --> 01:26:14,320
in order to discuss
their life in the faith,
1195
01:26:14,520 --> 01:26:17,400
especially in relation to their reality.
1196
01:26:19,680 --> 01:26:23,000
Don Samuel organized that congress.
1197
01:26:25,360 --> 01:26:27,320
They started thinking about
and discussing
1198
01:26:27,480 --> 01:26:30,080
the conditions
of the Tzetal, the Tzotzil,
1199
01:26:30,240 --> 01:26:32,080
the Ch'ol, the Tojolabal
1200
01:26:32,240 --> 01:26:34,320
in the different areas of Chiapas.
1201
01:26:34,480 --> 01:26:37,480
They found out there were
tens of thousands of them,
1202
01:26:37,640 --> 01:26:39,960
who were all excluded and rejected.
1203
01:26:40,120 --> 01:26:43,120
So they took into their own hands
the fight for land,
1204
01:26:43,280 --> 01:26:46,560
for healthcare, education, trade,
1205
01:26:47,120 --> 01:26:49,480
and they set up organizations.
1206
01:27:05,840 --> 01:27:08,680
The big question is,
who does this land belong to?
1207
01:27:08,840 --> 01:27:13,880
Back then, there were farm laborers
whose forefathers were born there.
1208
01:27:14,040 --> 01:27:16,280
However,
the land didn't belong to them.
1209
01:27:16,440 --> 01:27:21,000
So they wondered, "Who owns this land
we have worked for generations?
1210
01:27:21,160 --> 01:27:22,920
Who does the land belong to?"
1211
01:27:23,360 --> 01:27:26,440
The answer was, "This land is ours.
1212
01:27:26,600 --> 01:27:30,240
This land,
which God gave our Mayan forefathers,
1213
01:27:30,440 --> 01:27:33,440
is no one's property, not even ours.
1214
01:27:33,600 --> 01:27:36,840
This land is our life."
1215
01:27:44,960 --> 01:27:47,840
The Church was accused
of driving the natives to rebel.
1216
01:27:48,520 --> 01:27:52,400
Father Joel Padron was sent
to prison for his work with the natives.
1217
01:27:56,960 --> 01:28:00,160
There was a land recovery process.
1218
01:28:00,320 --> 01:28:03,280
It entailed a great deal of violence.
1219
01:28:03,440 --> 01:28:08,120
The 1980s were very difficult years,
1220
01:28:08,320 --> 01:28:11,440
with extremely severe repression
everywhere in Chiapas.
1221
01:28:20,320 --> 01:28:23,320
The alleged landowner
didn't live on the estate,
1222
01:28:23,480 --> 01:28:24,760
in the community.
1223
01:28:24,960 --> 01:28:26,400
He lived in the city.
1224
01:28:26,680 --> 01:28:27,960
He appointed a manager.
1225
01:28:28,720 --> 01:28:30,720
So everyone worked
1226
01:28:30,880 --> 01:28:34,080
for the landowner.
1227
01:28:35,960 --> 01:28:37,680
So they spoke to the landowners
1228
01:28:38,440 --> 01:28:39,600
and said,
1229
01:28:40,440 --> 01:28:43,040
"Listen, you owe us a lot of money.
1230
01:28:44,320 --> 01:28:46,560
Because as laborers,
1231
01:28:47,800 --> 01:28:51,560
we need fair wages,
so you owe us a certain amount
1232
01:28:52,520 --> 01:28:53,560
a day.
1233
01:28:55,840 --> 01:28:58,120
And you've owed us this
since our grandparents."
1234
01:28:58,440 --> 01:29:01,040
So the landowners owed the natives
1235
01:29:01,200 --> 01:29:05,800
four or five times
the value of the property.
1236
01:29:06,200 --> 01:29:10,880
That was, let's say,
the land recovery process.
1237
01:29:11,040 --> 01:29:13,360
Eventually they said,
"This land is ours,
1238
01:29:13,520 --> 01:29:15,360
you're not allowed here anymore."
1239
01:29:15,520 --> 01:29:19,600
WE WANT LAND
1240
01:29:19,760 --> 01:29:23,520
WE WANT DECENT HOMES
1241
01:29:32,640 --> 01:29:34,520
On New Year's night 1994,
1242
01:29:35,480 --> 01:29:39,160
the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
burst into history,
1243
01:29:39,800 --> 01:29:42,240
taking by surprise
several Chiapas towns.
1244
01:29:44,880 --> 01:29:48,240
As the free trade agreement with the US
came into force,
1245
01:29:48,400 --> 01:29:53,240
thousands of natives negated neoliberal
globalization's triumphant discourse.
1246
01:29:54,440 --> 01:29:56,080
They let out a cry to the world:
1247
01:29:56,320 --> 01:29:58,960
Ya basta!
Enough!
1248
01:30:06,640 --> 01:30:08,960
The uprising
triggered massive popular support.
1249
01:30:10,280 --> 01:30:12,480
Zapata is alive!
1250
01:30:14,080 --> 01:30:17,200
For the first time,
a guerrilla movement didn't claim power,
1251
01:30:18,080 --> 01:30:19,960
but justice and democracy
for everyone.
1252
01:30:21,280 --> 01:30:22,760
Their guns weren't an end,
1253
01:30:23,280 --> 01:30:25,720
but the means
to make themselves heard.
1254
01:30:42,320 --> 01:30:45,240
Like many others,
I was fascinated by their spokesman,
1255
01:30:45,520 --> 01:30:47,320
Subcomandante Marcos.
1256
01:30:49,520 --> 01:30:53,520
A white atheist, Marcos sometimes
overshadowed his native comrades.
1257
01:30:53,680 --> 01:30:57,200
David, Ester, Josué,
Zebedeo, Moisés, Abraham...
1258
01:30:58,120 --> 01:31:01,520
The biblical origins of their monikers
weren't accidental.
1259
01:31:01,760 --> 01:31:04,960
Many Zapatista leaders
were former catechists.
1260
01:31:20,040 --> 01:31:23,800
We were accused
of founding the Zapatista Army.
1261
01:31:24,320 --> 01:31:26,640
As I have very often said,
1262
01:31:26,800 --> 01:31:31,120
without the diocese, the Zapatista Army
wouldn't have developed.
1263
01:31:31,280 --> 01:31:34,160
For sure, organization and awareness
1264
01:31:34,320 --> 01:31:38,760
provided the breeding ground
that made possible Zapatista action.
1265
01:31:39,080 --> 01:31:41,240
But it was their action.
1266
01:31:41,400 --> 01:31:44,880
We respected it,
but it was independent,
1267
01:31:45,040 --> 01:31:47,320
and yet they put it down to us.
1268
01:31:47,520 --> 01:31:51,840
Besides, the Zapatistas were out there
flying the flags
1269
01:31:52,000 --> 01:31:55,920
of what we had, for many years,
fought for with the people.
1270
01:31:57,880 --> 01:32:01,600
Shortly after the uprising,
I was accused of being Marcos.
1271
01:32:03,120 --> 01:32:05,000
They would say I was Marcos,
1272
01:32:06,560 --> 01:32:08,560
big stories would come out
1273
01:32:09,280 --> 01:32:12,600
in the country's
most popular magazines,
1274
01:32:14,320 --> 01:32:16,760
“Joel Padron is Marcos”
1275
01:32:18,280 --> 01:32:22,200
They drew a sketch
with a photo of Marcos
1276
01:32:22,360 --> 01:32:24,760
and a drawing of my face,
because that's all they had.
1277
01:32:24,920 --> 01:32:26,960
They drew me with a balaclava,
1278
01:32:27,240 --> 01:32:29,040
to make me look like Marcos.
1279
01:32:30,440 --> 01:32:33,040
That was probably
the most absurd part.
1280
01:32:38,480 --> 01:32:39,840
Don Samuel was also accused...
1281
01:32:40,000 --> 01:32:40,880
Just the same.
1282
01:32:41,040 --> 01:32:42,680
They said he was the commander.
1283
01:32:42,960 --> 01:32:44,520
Marcos was the sub-commander
1284
01:32:45,160 --> 01:32:46,960
and Don Samuel was the commander.
1285
01:33:06,400 --> 01:33:10,400
Samuel Ruiz mediated the negotiations
between Zapatistas and government.
1286
01:33:11,200 --> 01:33:14,400
The agreement marked
a watershed in indigenous rights.
1287
01:33:14,640 --> 01:33:16,880
But the state never kept its word.
1288
01:33:20,120 --> 01:33:22,960
It continued
to wage a low-intensity war:
1289
01:33:23,680 --> 01:33:26,480
military deployment,
the arming of paramilitary groups,
1290
01:33:27,040 --> 01:33:29,200
corruption
and the dividing of communities,
1291
01:33:29,360 --> 01:33:31,160
forced displacement.
1292
01:33:44,520 --> 01:33:46,720
In 1997, in Acteal,
1293
01:33:47,040 --> 01:33:50,040
45 natives were murdered
while they prayed.
1294
01:33:52,480 --> 01:33:55,120
That state crime
remains unpunished to this day.
1295
01:33:59,640 --> 01:34:02,800
Despite persecution,
the Zapatista territories continue
1296
01:34:02,960 --> 01:34:05,680
their fascinating
self-government experiment,
1297
01:34:05,800 --> 01:34:07,720
with full independence of the state.
1298
01:34:21,120 --> 01:34:24,240
EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE
NOT FOR OURSELVES
1299
01:34:24,400 --> 01:34:26,880
COUNCIL OF GOOD GOVERNMENT
1300
01:34:43,680 --> 01:34:45,800
May the Lord remind us
1301
01:34:46,280 --> 01:34:50,200
how we started to build His church
1302
01:34:51,240 --> 01:34:56,520
and the mission He gave us
from the beginning.
1303
01:34:57,720 --> 01:35:01,160
The Gospel says,
He called the twelve to Himself
1304
01:35:02,240 --> 01:35:06,120
and began to send them out
two by two
1305
01:35:06,440 --> 01:35:09,320
to spread the Good News.
1306
01:35:21,800 --> 01:35:24,200
This is very important,
brothers and sisters.
1307
01:35:24,600 --> 01:35:28,480
In the Church,
there is no place for individualism.
1308
01:35:29,480 --> 01:35:33,280
Individualism is the beginning,
let's say...
1309
01:35:34,000 --> 01:35:35,400
of death.
1310
01:35:35,600 --> 01:35:39,120
In the Church,
there is no place for inequality.
1311
01:35:39,280 --> 01:35:41,480
There is no place for arrogance.
1312
01:35:41,640 --> 01:35:44,240
No one is better than anyone.
No!
1313
01:35:44,440 --> 01:35:45,960
Two brothers,
1314
01:35:46,280 --> 01:35:48,400
with the same dignity,
1315
01:35:48,720 --> 01:35:52,440
the same rights, the same commitment.
1316
01:35:52,600 --> 01:35:55,760
Nobody will defeat us
if we go united.
1317
01:35:56,240 --> 01:35:59,240
There will always be someone there
to protect us.
1318
01:35:59,400 --> 01:36:00,760
That's why
1319
01:36:01,800 --> 01:36:04,920
those who have power
try to divide us, isn't it?
1320
01:36:06,680 --> 01:36:10,880
Two by two.
Together side by side.
1321
01:36:11,040 --> 01:36:12,800
Such is the Church.
1322
01:36:44,280 --> 01:36:47,600
True praying isn't about reciting.
1323
01:36:47,800 --> 01:36:53,000
The Lord's Prayer sounds like words,
but it's a program, absolutely.
1324
01:36:53,920 --> 01:36:57,080
"Your kingdom of justice come."
Let it come.
1325
01:36:57,240 --> 01:36:58,880
But who's going to bring it?
1326
01:36:59,080 --> 01:37:03,080
If I myself don't do the things
I am praying,
1327
01:37:03,440 --> 01:37:05,120
that's not praying.
1328
01:37:05,600 --> 01:37:08,120
Our Lord's Prayer
1329
01:37:08,360 --> 01:37:10,320
has to be lived,
it has to be performed.
1330
01:37:10,480 --> 01:37:12,200
It's not about saying it.
1331
01:37:12,360 --> 01:37:16,440
"Our daily bread" is like
"You give them something to eat."
1332
01:37:16,600 --> 01:37:21,600
You!
Share what you have fairly.
1333
01:37:21,760 --> 01:37:23,480
It's for everyone.
1334
01:37:23,960 --> 01:37:25,480
For everyone.
1335
01:37:25,640 --> 01:37:27,600
You give them something to eat.
1336
01:37:27,760 --> 01:37:30,080
"Give us this day our daily bread."
1337
01:37:30,480 --> 01:37:31,960
Our daily bread.
1338
01:37:32,160 --> 01:37:34,360
That's not about accumulation,
1339
01:37:34,840 --> 01:37:38,920
which defines the entire
capitalistic economic system,
1340
01:37:39,080 --> 01:37:40,720
or neoliberal, or whatever.
1341
01:37:41,600 --> 01:37:45,360
The daily bread principle
1342
01:37:46,400 --> 01:37:51,600
is about ensuring your right
to not go hungry today.
1343
01:37:51,760 --> 01:37:53,800
But you're not supposed
to accumulate either.
1344
01:38:28,280 --> 01:38:30,280
A Jesuit allegedly said,
1345
01:38:30,600 --> 01:38:32,480
"Poor Mexico,
1346
01:38:32,680 --> 01:38:35,800
so far from God and so close
to the United States."
1347
01:38:38,400 --> 01:38:41,080
Everyday,
thousands leave Central America.
1348
01:38:41,480 --> 01:38:44,440
They stow away on a freight train
to cross Mexico.
1349
01:38:48,360 --> 01:38:50,800
It was dubbed "la Bestia,"
the Beast,
1350
01:38:51,280 --> 01:38:53,440
because of all the disappeared
it has devoured.
1351
01:39:13,920 --> 01:39:17,200
Liberation Theology aimed
for something beyond charity,
1352
01:39:17,840 --> 01:39:21,880
where "Love Thy Neighbor" was effective
and promoted collective emancipation.
1353
01:39:22,480 --> 01:39:25,040
How do you do that
when the poor are fragmented,
1354
01:39:25,240 --> 01:39:29,240
dumped on roads,
dreaming of their own individual utopias.
1355
01:39:35,280 --> 01:39:38,120
I asked Sister Dolores Palencia
that question.
1356
01:39:39,040 --> 01:39:41,960
She gives them shelter during a break
on the road to exile.
1357
01:39:44,280 --> 01:39:49,040
If you're going away,
be very careful about the train.
1358
01:39:49,280 --> 01:39:52,120
You have to take the through train.
1359
01:39:52,280 --> 01:39:55,360
Be careful.
Orizaba is a place
1360
01:39:55,720 --> 01:39:58,040
where they're not fond of you.
1361
01:39:58,200 --> 01:40:01,200
Most of all,
if they say "Let's go to the refuge",
1362
01:40:01,360 --> 01:40:02,960
ignore them.
1363
01:40:03,120 --> 01:40:05,360
There's no refuge in Orizaba.
1364
01:40:05,520 --> 01:40:06,840
Also, be prepared.
1365
01:40:07,040 --> 01:40:11,480
Migration authorities have carried out
operations in Apizaco lately.
1366
01:40:11,640 --> 01:40:14,640
Be very careful
in the Guanajuato area.
1367
01:40:14,840 --> 01:40:18,560
All those areas are very dangerous
1368
01:40:18,760 --> 01:40:20,920
for you and for everyone,
1369
01:40:21,120 --> 01:40:23,240
because of cartel fighting.
1370
01:40:23,400 --> 01:40:26,240
There are shoot-outs there
every day.
1371
01:40:26,960 --> 01:40:28,040
Is that clear?
1372
01:40:28,640 --> 01:40:30,600
-Are there any questions?
-No.
1373
01:40:39,600 --> 01:40:43,000
It is part of Liberation Theology
1374
01:40:43,320 --> 01:40:47,520
having to constantly confront,
since Jesus,
1375
01:40:47,720 --> 01:40:49,840
all aspects of life.
1376
01:40:51,120 --> 01:40:53,440
Even becoming a disturbance
1377
01:40:53,600 --> 01:40:55,040
when necessary?
1378
01:40:55,400 --> 01:40:56,640
Well, yes.
1379
01:40:57,400 --> 01:41:00,520
Yes, I think it's a difficult balance,
1380
01:41:00,680 --> 01:41:02,360
particularly now.
1381
01:41:02,520 --> 01:41:07,440
My congregation aims
to seek communion and reconciliation.
1382
01:41:07,960 --> 01:41:11,400
Seeking communion and reconciliation
when you support the poor
1383
01:41:11,560 --> 01:41:13,160
can be very difficult,
1384
01:41:13,360 --> 01:41:15,480
because you must confront.
1385
01:41:15,800 --> 01:41:20,680
It's awful when you ask a migrant
in an interview,
1386
01:41:20,840 --> 01:41:23,600
"Were you the victim
of a robbery, an attack,
1387
01:41:23,760 --> 01:41:26,280
kidnapping
or anything on your journey?"
1388
01:41:26,440 --> 01:41:28,640
And they answer, "The normal stuff."
1389
01:41:29,240 --> 01:41:31,200
That sounds awful to me.
1390
01:41:31,640 --> 01:41:35,360
The first thing I say is,
"There's nothing normal about that.
1391
01:41:35,520 --> 01:41:39,640
It's not normal
for someone to attack you, or rob you,
1392
01:41:39,800 --> 01:41:41,920
or kidnap you."
1393
01:41:42,480 --> 01:41:46,560
It's about engaging in a process
to change mindsets,
1394
01:41:46,720 --> 01:41:49,360
to restore
someone's sense of their own value.
1395
01:41:54,520 --> 01:41:57,040
In migrants you find
1396
01:41:57,200 --> 01:41:59,080
the cross and suffering,
1397
01:41:59,520 --> 01:42:01,880
but also a lot of resurrection.
1398
01:42:02,680 --> 01:42:06,880
In general,
migrants are people of great hope,
1399
01:42:07,240 --> 01:42:09,920
and they always have a dream,
a utopia.
1400
01:42:10,240 --> 01:42:11,880
They have a lot of freedom,
1401
01:42:12,040 --> 01:42:16,040
as they can get rid of everything
on the road to keep going.
1402
01:42:19,400 --> 01:42:22,840
Some have been here
three, four, five times.
1403
01:42:29,080 --> 01:42:33,360
I think we have to believe
because after all
1404
01:42:33,520 --> 01:42:35,400
Jesus vanquished death and evil.
1405
01:42:36,280 --> 01:42:38,320
And that's our hope.
1406
01:42:38,480 --> 01:42:42,320
If we don't have hope now,
and if we don't inspire hope,
1407
01:42:43,080 --> 01:42:47,560
we'll be contributing
to a general collapse.
1408
01:43:26,800 --> 01:43:29,480
What remains of Liberation Theology?
1409
01:43:30,040 --> 01:43:34,240
I'm back in Brazil, where the movement
was stronger than anywhere else.
1410
01:43:35,280 --> 01:43:37,480
Marginalized by the Vatican,
1411
01:43:37,640 --> 01:43:40,360
it gradually disappeared
from the favelas.
1412
01:43:47,280 --> 01:43:50,040
I've often heard the following
disenchanted joke:
1413
01:43:50,680 --> 01:43:53,480
If Liberation Theology chose the poor,
1414
01:43:53,640 --> 01:43:57,360
the poor chose the Evangelical churches.
1415
01:44:03,560 --> 01:44:06,000
I will place the money in your hands.
1416
01:44:06,640 --> 01:44:09,280
I will place the passport
in your hands.
1417
01:44:10,000 --> 01:44:12,880
I know you better than you do yourself.
1418
01:44:13,040 --> 01:44:16,000
I was there
when someone turned their back on you.
1419
01:44:16,160 --> 01:44:19,600
The day you were raped,
I was your father and your mother.
1420
01:44:19,800 --> 01:44:22,560
I feel the grace of God
to say to someone
1421
01:44:22,720 --> 01:44:26,000
the demon doesn't want to put a gun
to your head and shoot.
1422
01:44:26,160 --> 01:44:28,200
I don't want that disease to kill you.
1423
01:44:28,360 --> 01:44:30,440
I don't want that trauma to kill you.
1424
01:44:30,600 --> 01:44:32,720
I don't want that depression
to kill you.
1425
01:44:32,920 --> 01:44:34,440
Crack cocaine will go away.
1426
01:44:34,600 --> 01:44:36,560
The demon will go away.
1427
01:44:36,720 --> 01:44:38,960
Your misfortune will go away.
Your disease will go away.
1428
01:44:39,160 --> 01:44:40,840
Your depression will go away.
1429
01:44:41,000 --> 01:44:43,480
Open your mouth.
It has gone away.
1430
01:44:43,640 --> 01:44:45,680
Open your mouth to worship this God.
1431
01:44:45,840 --> 01:44:48,400
God saves your soul.
1432
01:44:49,280 --> 01:44:51,640
People will want to follow your path,
1433
01:44:51,800 --> 01:44:54,800
because I turn you into someone
to turn to.
1434
01:44:57,760 --> 01:45:00,080
I live 100% for this ministry,
1435
01:45:00,240 --> 01:45:02,320
preaching and teaching theology.
1436
01:45:02,480 --> 01:45:05,920
Go there, we accept instant payments,
credit and debit cards.
1437
01:45:06,160 --> 01:45:08,760
Have some biscuits and a coffee.
1438
01:45:08,920 --> 01:45:11,720
You'll be blessed,
and you'll be helping me
1439
01:45:11,880 --> 01:45:13,240
to continue God's work.
1440
01:45:13,400 --> 01:45:15,240
Amen.
1441
01:45:28,080 --> 01:45:30,040
In São Paulo, all the movie theaters
1442
01:45:30,240 --> 01:45:32,840
became Charismatic churches,
1443
01:45:33,000 --> 01:45:37,600
which was all about suppressing
the Church's revolutionary drive,
1444
01:45:37,760 --> 01:45:40,920
suppressing
the Church's transforming drive.
1445
01:45:42,560 --> 01:45:43,440
Good morning.
1446
01:45:43,640 --> 01:45:45,160
He has something for you.
1447
01:45:46,200 --> 01:45:48,120
Must be a bill he needs to pay.
1448
01:45:48,680 --> 01:45:49,760
This is for you.
1449
01:45:54,760 --> 01:45:56,760
-Thank you.
-You're welcome.
1450
01:45:59,640 --> 01:46:01,800
I just got a Saint Joseph.
1451
01:46:10,880 --> 01:46:13,240
How to believe
in the coming of the Kingdom
1452
01:46:13,400 --> 01:46:15,840
when it has never seemed so far away.
1453
01:46:16,200 --> 01:46:19,840
Father Júlio Lancellotti has lived for
over 30 years with "the street people".
1454
01:46:20,840 --> 01:46:22,720
The far right hates him.
1455
01:46:26,760 --> 01:46:28,720
In a meritocratic society,
1456
01:46:28,920 --> 01:46:32,480
living with those
no one wants around
1457
01:46:32,640 --> 01:46:36,400
is an act of rebellion
or insubordination.
1458
01:46:38,720 --> 01:46:41,560
What's the use of living with the poor?
1459
01:46:42,760 --> 01:46:44,960
Within the Establishment, it's useless.
1460
01:46:45,600 --> 01:46:48,440
Father Júlio, pleased to see you.
1461
01:46:53,720 --> 01:46:57,520
It's about trying
to see reality as it is.
1462
01:46:57,760 --> 01:46:59,760
Hence: See, Judge, Act.
1463
01:46:59,920 --> 01:47:01,760
Seeing: why am I poor?
1464
01:47:02,040 --> 01:47:05,320
Is it because I'm worthless?
Or lazy?
1465
01:47:05,640 --> 01:47:06,520
Or a bum?
1466
01:47:07,080 --> 01:47:10,440
Or am I poor
because poverty is produced?
1467
01:47:11,880 --> 01:47:15,560
Because the socioeconomic model
produces and refuses.
1468
01:47:15,760 --> 01:47:17,640
I am a refuse.
1469
01:47:18,760 --> 01:47:22,360
Being a refuse,
how am I going to fight
1470
01:47:23,000 --> 01:47:24,480
to live in dignity?
1471
01:47:24,720 --> 01:47:28,160
Why do some people
have all the food in the world
1472
01:47:28,320 --> 01:47:30,480
while others have nothing?
1473
01:47:42,160 --> 01:47:46,360
A new day will come
1474
01:47:46,960 --> 01:47:50,880
A new sky, a new land, a new sea
1475
01:47:51,640 --> 01:47:53,640
And on that day
1476
01:47:54,040 --> 01:47:55,880
The oppressed
1477
01:47:56,040 --> 01:47:59,840
Will join their voices to sing freedom
1478
01:48:09,720 --> 01:48:12,160
On this Good Friday,
1479
01:48:12,320 --> 01:48:14,640
we're once again united,
1480
01:48:14,840 --> 01:48:17,040
carrying Jesus' Cross.
1481
01:48:18,680 --> 01:48:22,800
Let's gather outside
public bureau buildings, town halls,
1482
01:48:22,960 --> 01:48:25,280
regional administration buildings.
1483
01:48:26,040 --> 01:48:29,040
Fascists, never again!
1484
01:48:33,800 --> 01:48:38,000
No more violence against
our brothers and sisters in the streets.
1485
01:48:38,160 --> 01:48:40,280
Stop destroying homeless camps.
1486
01:48:40,440 --> 01:48:42,720
No more violence!
1487
01:48:42,880 --> 01:48:46,440
Let's all say,
"Violence, never again!"
1488
01:48:46,600 --> 01:48:48,840
"Violence, never again!"
1489
01:48:49,000 --> 01:48:52,640
Those who seize things
from street people are cowards.
1490
01:48:57,320 --> 01:48:58,680
Street people,
1491
01:48:58,840 --> 01:49:00,560
raise your fists and say,
1492
01:49:00,720 --> 01:49:04,960
"Mr. Mayor, come and live one day
1493
01:49:05,120 --> 01:49:06,600
on the sidewalk
1494
01:49:06,760 --> 01:49:10,280
to see if you can survive."
1495
01:49:36,920 --> 01:49:40,600
We strongly supported
the Sandinista Revolution.
1496
01:49:41,240 --> 01:49:46,440
Look at Nicaragua's government now,
the Sandinistas' struggle has vanished.
1497
01:49:47,320 --> 01:49:49,480
All the struggle in El Salvador.
1498
01:49:49,640 --> 01:49:52,880
Don Óscar Romero's
struggle and martyrdom.
1499
01:49:53,040 --> 01:49:55,760
If you look at history objectively,
1500
01:49:55,960 --> 01:49:57,520
they all lost.
1501
01:49:58,800 --> 01:50:00,680
None of them won.
1502
01:50:02,200 --> 01:50:05,080
So we don't fight
to achieve victory.
1503
01:50:05,240 --> 01:50:07,360
We fight for loyalty.
1504
01:50:07,920 --> 01:50:10,440
In this establishment we will lose,
1505
01:50:11,080 --> 01:50:12,840
but we will fight.
1506
01:50:13,880 --> 01:50:16,560
Mine is a defeated man's struggle.
1507
01:50:31,040 --> 01:50:33,560
Members
of the Mangueira samba school,
1508
01:50:33,960 --> 01:50:36,080
let's sing Jesus of the People,
1509
01:50:36,240 --> 01:50:38,920
for all Our Ladies of Sorrows Brazil,
1510
01:50:39,080 --> 01:50:42,880
for tolerance, for love
and for the joy of living.
1511
01:50:43,120 --> 01:50:45,560
Mangueira, dance
Your samba is a prayer
1512
01:50:45,720 --> 01:50:48,280
Because of the power it has
1513
01:50:48,440 --> 01:50:50,480
Mangueira
They'll say you have sinned
1514
01:50:50,640 --> 01:50:54,400
But I am on your side
And on the side of samba as well
1515
01:50:56,720 --> 01:51:00,560
I am from the favela of Nazareth
1516
01:51:00,800 --> 01:51:04,200
Black face, Indian blood, a woman's body
1517
01:51:04,360 --> 01:51:07,240
A ragged kid in the heat of the hood
1518
01:51:07,400 --> 01:51:11,160
My name is Jesus of the People
1519
01:51:12,040 --> 01:51:15,360
I was born with my heart open
My fist clenched
1520
01:51:15,520 --> 01:51:18,000
My father, an unemployed carpenter
1521
01:51:18,680 --> 01:51:22,440
My mother is Maria of Sorrows Brazil
1522
01:51:22,760 --> 01:51:27,000
I wipe the sweat of those
going up and down the hill
1523
01:51:27,160 --> 01:51:30,440
I find myself in love
that knows no borders
1524
01:51:30,600 --> 01:51:34,920
You'll see me
in the ranks against oppression
1525
01:51:36,520 --> 01:51:40,040
I am hanging all over the place
On walls and mountain tops
1526
01:51:40,200 --> 01:51:43,920
But has everyone understood my message?
1527
01:51:44,080 --> 01:51:47,400
Once again
my body has been pierced with nails
1528
01:51:47,560 --> 01:51:50,640
By the prophets of intolerance
1529
01:51:50,800 --> 01:51:53,960
Not knowing that hope
1530
01:51:54,120 --> 01:51:57,480
Shines brighter in the dark
1531
01:51:57,680 --> 01:52:00,160
Favela, get smart
1532
01:52:00,320 --> 01:52:04,480
There's no future without sharing
And no Messiah with a gun
1533
01:52:05,600 --> 01:52:08,400
We don't always know
why we make a movie.
1534
01:52:09,160 --> 01:52:13,120
I didn't undertake this one
to find a faith that faded long ago.
1535
01:52:17,040 --> 01:52:18,920
I wanted to meet these believers
1536
01:52:19,240 --> 01:52:22,160
perhaps to try and keep up
my faith in justice
1537
01:52:22,320 --> 01:52:24,240
in these times of darkness.
1538
01:52:25,720 --> 01:52:28,000
I envy them for the compass they have,
1539
01:52:28,200 --> 01:52:29,960
their faith that moves mountains,
1540
01:52:30,200 --> 01:52:32,640
their faith that laughs
in the face of fear.
1541
01:52:32,800 --> 01:52:37,440
If they are the vanquished of history,
their cause remains invincible.
Distributor: Icarus Films
Length: 116 minutes
Date: 2024
Genre: Expository
Language: Spanish; French; Portuguese / English subtitles
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Not available
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