WEBVTT - Oscar 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:06.040 Warning. This episode contains references to extreme violence. Please use 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:07.040 discretion when listening. 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:22.080 The past is never dead. It isn't even past. William Faulkner. 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:28.800 Down a winding road on the west side of the 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:32.559 city of San Salvador, there's a peaceful little hideaway. The 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:36.720 grounds are covered with palm trees, snake plants, and flowering 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:42.480 buen villiers. It's a small hospital, the hospice really where 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:46.239 cancer patients go to live out their last days. And 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:50.559 it was here that Oscar Romero, a quiet man with 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:55.640 an easy smile and some seriously enviable eyebrows, made his home. 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:03.160 It's an odd choice. Oscar is not sick, and he's 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:07.080 supposed to be living in the heart of downtown because 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.679 Oscar is one of the most important people in El Salvador. 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:15.679 He's the archbishop, the highest ranking priest in a country 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:20.400 that's so Catholic it's named after Jesus. And on a 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:24.679 muggy March afternoon in nineteen eighty, Oscar Romero gathered a 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:28.560 group of worshippers to the hospital's chapel to commemorate the 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:46.199 life of a local grandmother. It's a ceremony he's done 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:50.240 thousands of times He steps up to the pulpit and 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:54.480 performs the rituals of Mass. He blesses the wine, turning 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.400 it into the blood of Christ. He prepares the Eucharist, 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:02.400 the gift of the flesh. Side a red Volkswagen has 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:05.160 pulled up to the entrance of the church. There are 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.160 two men in the car. There's no way to know 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:11.760 if Oscar saw them, but the street is only about 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:15.080 forty paces away from the pulpit. I think he must 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:20.800 have seen them. Oscar raises a chalice high above his head, 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:39.680 lifting it up to God, and mid sentence, he's shot 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:46.760 with a single bullet through the heart. Oscar Romero died 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:51.960 that day, killed by a twenty two caliber bullet. The 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:56.760 bullet fragmented inside of him, destroying everything it touched. It 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:03.320 sent a message because Oscar's killing wasn't just an act 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.520 of murder. It was an act of war, an attack 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:11.840 against the Catholic Church itself and in turn, the people 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:15.919 of al Salvador. Oscar would go on to become one 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:19.600 of the world's most beloved saints. There's even a statue 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.280 of him in Westminster Abbey, next to a statue of 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:27.200 Martin Luther King. But to become that Saint Oscar had 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:31.320 to sacrifice his life. His death marked the start of 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:34.520 one of the darkest times in Salvador in history, the 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:39.240 Civil War, a war that would leave more than seventy 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:43.080 five thousand people dead and send a million more across 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:50.720 the globe fleeing the violence. My family includes both those 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:57.960 that fled and those that died. When I started working 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.360 on this story, I wanted to find out what really 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:04.040 happened to Oscar Romero, who was responsible for his murder 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:07.360 and all of the violence that followed, And to find 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.880 out if the same forces that killed Oscar Romero were 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:18.040 the ones that brought death to my family's doorstep. I'm 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:22.680 Jasmine Romero, and this is Sacred Scandal, Season three, Nation 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:42.160 of Saints. This is episode one. Oscar. Okay, let's get 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:45.039 one thing out of the way. My name is Romero, 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:49.160 but I am not related to Oscar Romero. I think 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:53.039 I'm pretty sure. Well, I asked my parents and they're 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:56.160 pretty sure. But I guess it's possible. Romero is an 0:04:56.200 --> 0:05:01.800 extremely common name in Elsalvador. In nineteen eighty one, my 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:04.599 parents fled from El Salvador with my three older sisters 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:09.200 to Los Angeles. Los Angeles has the largest population of 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:14.039 Salvadorans of any place outside of El Salvador. It's also 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.520 where I was born. I grew up going to MacArthur 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:21.040 Park on Saturdays to watch my dad plays soccer. The 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.080 field would be lined with other immigrant families like mine, 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:29.600 eating elotes and trying to start over. But the ghost 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:34.200 of Oscar Romero was everywhere. There's a statue of him 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.440 in that same park, and just up the street is 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:42.640 a clinic named after him. Los Angeles is covered in 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:47.560 murals of his face. But in my family, Oscar Romero 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:49.760 really wasn't a topic of discussion with. 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:52.800 I. 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:58.120 Central America has been transformational because of the politics. 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:00.919 Yeah, a few years ago, I went to this event 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:03.880 in La There was a salvador and comedian with this 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.080 big tattoo on her arm, and the host complimented her 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:07.359 on it. 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.359 Her arm has got the most beautiful tattoo I have 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:15.000 ever seen in my life, and it is of il 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:21.520 Arsobispo Arnulfo Romero on her arm. 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:24.400 They started talking about the war and the meaning of 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:29.960 Oscar Romero's life, and I remember feeling this embarrassment wash 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:34.640 over me. These two strangers knew more about the history 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:38.880 of my family's homeland than I did. My parents never 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:41.760 really talked much about El Salvador or the reasons why 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:46.560 they left. Growing up, we were so concerned with surviving 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:49.760 the present there wasn't much room to consider the past. 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:53.279 But I also had never really made the effort to 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:58.000 ask what horrors did my family experience that made them 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:01.880 leave a place that they truly love, Who was the 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:05.560 man on those murals? And if I really wanted the answers, 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:12.480 I knew where I needed to go. So it's one 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:16.040 in the morning. I'm at JFK. 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:19.400 Way did you board my flight? 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:22.280 My parents are going to pick me up when I 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:27.960 get there, and I'm very sleepy. A few years ago, 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.080 my parents shocked the entire family by moving back to 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:36.640 El Salvador to retire. They used their life's savings to 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:48.040 build a little house in their hometown, San Miguel. I've 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.080 been to Al Salvador a handful of times, mostly when 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:54.280 I was a kid, but ten years have passed since 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:59.840 my last visit. Looking around the plane, everyone's faces look 0:07:59.920 --> 0:08:05.320 like mine, but I still feel like an outsider stepping 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:12.080 into a world that doesn't belong to me. I grabbed 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:14.360 my bags and headed out into the humid air to 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:17.960 look for my parents. They were thrilled I was coming, 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:34.280 even if it was for work. Wonder and yes, my 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.440 dad was holding up a handwritten sign that said Jasmine 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:41.199 Roulero in capital letters. It was written inside of a 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:43.960 pizza box, so I'm guessing they got hungry while they 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:48.440 were waiting for me. My mom just hugged me for 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:54.400 a long time. They both looked relaxed, which was nice 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:58.360 and confusing. If you grew up with immigrant parents, you 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:04.800 know what I mean. As we walked to my dad's 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.880 old pickup truck, my mom kept pointing out how nice 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:27.160 and new things look. At the last time I landed 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:30.000 in this airport, ten years ago, it had a different name. 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:38.240 It's now called the Oscar International Airport in honor of 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.720 the dead archbishop. It feels like everywhere you look there 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:45.200 are signs of change of a new era. The terminal 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:47.560 I flew into is only a year old, and there's 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.800 new pavement on the sidewalks everywhere, new tar in the 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:57.440 parking lot. Leaving the airport, we drive past a forest 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:00.960 of palm trees and tall billboards that welcome tourists to 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:05.679 explore the new El Salvador ads for swinkie resorts at 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.599 surf city, beach or day camps ziplining in the rainforest. 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:15.319 But just past those billboards there are rows and rows 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:20.040 of little roadside shacks, people selling fresh coconuts, bags of 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.800 water for a quarter, and souvenir machites, the tool of 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:29.240 choice for the country's working poor. El Salvador is still 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:33.960 considered a developing nation, which just means that most of 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:38.360 the population is living in poverty. The average Salvadoran makes 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:41.600 four hundred dollars a month, and it's even less in 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:45.600 more remote cities like San Miguel, where my family and 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:51.679 Oscar Romero's family both come from. Poverty is something that 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:55.960 both of our families knew very well. Oscar Romero was 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:59.319 one of eight kids, just like my dad. My mom 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.920 is one of nine. Both of my parents were raised 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:05.640 in homes where the floor wasn't made out of wood 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:10.320 or tile, it was dirt. My dad didn't even own 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:15.680 a pair of shoes until he was fifteen. All of 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:17.600 this is on my mind as we make the long 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:20.760 drive back to San Miguel to visit two of my 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:26.280 theas my aunt's there are constant reminders that this level 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:30.000 of poverty is still very much a reality here in 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:47.040 the new El Salvador. My Thea rents a place on 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.880 the outskirts of San Miguel with one of my cousins 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:53.960 and her young son, whose name I finally learn is Ken. 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:57.080 The house is made out of cement blocks with a 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:59.880 tin roof, and there are extra pieces of tin leaned 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.240 up against the house. She's saving up to install them 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:07.199 over the patio. As we settle into the plastic chairs 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:09.760 that Mithia set out for us, A herd of cows 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:18.040 passes by Ken waves. Mitha also takes care of my 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:23.920 great aunt, my Godmotherasita, who I haven't seen since I 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:28.520 was a little girl. Mathia. Pasita is eighty nine years old, 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.679 and she's so thin it feels like she'll snap if 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:36.040 I hug her too hard. She's almost completely blind, and 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:39.240 she's hard of hearing too. It takes a minute for 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:50.120 her to recognize me, but when she does see, she 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:54.680 smiles a big, toothless grin and wraps her frail arms 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:58.640 around me. She can't believe how big I've gotten. I 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:00.440 put her hand on top of my head to show 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:06.240 her how tall I am. We all start talking, catching up, 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:15.560 and it feels cozy and familiar. I snuggle in next 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.640 to my pass and we reminisce about the last time 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:22.320 she saw me. I don't have any memory of these events, 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:26.199 but the stories are familiar. The time I broke my wrist, 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:29.000 the time I gave her my mom's purse as a present. 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:34.240 Walking to church together. Finally, I tell her that I'm 0:13:34.280 --> 0:14:08.880 here to learn about Oscar Romero. 0:13:56.559 --> 0:14:00.800 Inn through Plat. 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:05.559 To my surprise, she starts talking about him like he's 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.800 an old friend. She tells me that she remembers going 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:13.680 to see him preach, which makes sense. For twenty three years, 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:17.720 Oscar Romero was the local priest in San Miguel, her priest. 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:20.960 San Miguel is where he got his start in the 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:24.800 Catholic Church. But I had no idea that my family 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:28.280 actually knew him. Used the. 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:48.320 Elt sre. 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:53.800 She tells me that she remembers him being tall, like 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:57.240 my dad, who's about six two, that he was the 0:14:57.320 --> 0:14:59.920 kind of priest that you could talk to about anything, 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:04.920 that she often went to him for advice. I can 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:09.440 hear the affection in her voice. It's a strange feeling 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:12.760 to realize that my family was so close to such 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:16.600 an important historical figure. It's like finding out that your 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:21.280 dad played Little League with JFK. But being a local 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:26.320 priest was the vast majority of Oscar's life. For most 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:29.320 of his career, he just did the normal things that 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:34.720 a parish priest does. Attend funerals, perform baptisms, maybe the 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:39.360 occasional exorcism. Well maybe not that last part. Who knows. 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:44.040 In El Salvador, the local priest is an integral part 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.960 of the community. He's who you go to when you're 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.560 having a problem, and that's who Oscar Romeril was in 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:55.360 San Miguel. I keep asking my tepassy the questions, but 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:59.240 she starts to get tired. As I'm taking her inside 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:10.000 to rest, she mumbles something that makes my stomach turn. 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:21.880 What a punishment they gave him, she says. Going to 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.760 the capital was his ruin. It was in the capital 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.320 that he gave his last mesa before being shot down. 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:55.760 We'll be right back after this break. Being in this 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:59.080 cozy house, it's easy to see how San Miguel could 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:02.400 make you forget about the troubles of the world. It 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.760 has a small town quality to it, isolated from the 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:10.359 politics of the capital. Maybe that's why some of the 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:14.359 richest Salvadorans have estates out here. I didn't even know 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:16.560 there was such a thing as rich Salvadorans when I 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:20.440 was a kid, and now I'm learning a lot about 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:22.879 this hidden world that my parents never told me about. 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:31.960 On the drive home, I asked my parents about something 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:35.520 that I came across in my research, the fourteen families. 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:53.840 The fourteen families, they say, oh, they're the owners. It's 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:59.880 what Salvadorans call la the oligarchy, the rich land owning 0:17:59.880 --> 0:18:03.160 families who have run the country since the late eighteen hundreds. 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:08.720 These families are the terretinents, the landowners that control most 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:13.960 of the country's wealth. These families became fabulously wealthy by 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:20.440 owning plantations that cultivated coffee, cotton, and corn. These families, 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:23.960 they owned the stores and the goods that filled the stores, 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.840 and the land that the goods were grown on. Meanwhile, 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:33.160 the compassinos who worked on those plantations lived in abject poverty. 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:39.200 Lussa ladio, heern dramente in crave lamentin houstos. 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:44.480 This is Marisa da Martinez. She invited me to her 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:47.359 home in the capitol and we spent an afternoon, sitting 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:50.800 in rocking chairs and talking about her work keeping Oscar 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:56.479 Romero's legacy alive. She's an activist who protested the unfair 0:18:56.520 --> 0:18:59.560 treatment of the working class in the seventies, and she's 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:04.040 the co founder of the Oscar Romero Foundation. Because what 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.280 happened to Oscar Romero and the history of the working 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:13.640 class in El Salvador, they kind of go hand in hand. 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:20.200 And daran porlos seeing say colonees the ideas he Yeslasion 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:26.680 Soto Campina kea Pocamari Bivier sultante. 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:31.119 In the nineteen seventies, when Oscar Romero was serving in 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.560 San Miguel, the vast majority of the country lived this 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:40.720 way in an insulting poverty. Competinos made less than a 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:46.720 dollar a day, and most families suffered from malnutrition, including mine. 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:52.240 My great grandmother who helped raise me. She had fourteen kids, 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:58.119 only six of them survived past six months. That's the 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:03.200 kind of malnutrition we're talking about here. And for many families, 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:07.480 the only option to survive was to buy things on credit, 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:24.360 credit that they got from their own bosses, the plantation ownersdotals. 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:27.200 I mean fila de hintel di lacinde la fila the 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:35.200 hint parandoz it is euna. 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:44.680 It was a never ending cycle. Most Campsinos never learned 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:48.040 to read because there were no schools, and so neither 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:51.119 did their children. They lived at the mercy of the 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:52.800 plantation owners for. 0:20:52.960 --> 0:21:02.400 Generations loke sinica potlaying Houstisia. 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:06.800 And these rich oligarchic families they didn't just control the 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:11.440 country's wealth. They were also deeply involved in the Catholic Church. 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:20.440 By involved, I mean controlling. Now, the relationship between the 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:23.320 wealthy and the Catholic Church didn't start in El Salvador. 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:27.119 They've been intertwined since the first gold bar was delivered 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:30.800 to Vatican City. But the relationship in El Salvador was 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:36.080 particularly tight. It was a well oiled machine. The country's 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:40.080 rich would provide lavish donations to the Church, and in return, 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:43.800 the Church would turn a blind eye to the systemic injustice. 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:49.879 Priests would tell the poor, your reward is waiting for 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:55.440 you in heaven. But in the seventies some priests dared 0:21:55.480 --> 0:22:17.719 to break this protocol. That's after the break is one 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:19.480 of the priests who dared to step out of the 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:25.920 established oligarchy church relationship. I met him on a sweltering 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:29.600 afternoon at his parish in Montserrat, a suburb in the 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:39.520 hills around San Salvador. He's about eighty years old, with 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:42.399 a thin sheet of white hair and a twinkle in 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:46.480 his eye. He invites me, in my fixed Roerto, into 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:50.680 his cramped office in the back of the church. On 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:53.680 his desk is a picture of him as a young man, 0:22:54.320 --> 0:23:00.480 smiling next to a somber oscar Romero. If this is safe, Eira, 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:08.080 It's ninety degrees with sixty percent humidity. I've already swept 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:13.880 through two shirts. He seems totally unfazed by the heat. 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:16.960 He offers me and Roerto some ice water. As we 0:23:17.040 --> 0:23:21.200 settle in, Roberto asks him, don't you need some water? 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:23.920 Paparretoar just smiles. 0:23:25.560 --> 0:23:30.080 No, tomorrow, keta Coca col. 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:37.640 Yeah, the old man's got swag anyway. When Barrettoar became 0:23:37.680 --> 0:23:40.440 a priest in the early seventies, the church was still 0:23:40.520 --> 0:23:43.040 doing what it had been doing since the Spaniards landed 0:23:43.080 --> 0:23:46.120 on the shores of a place called Guscatlan and decided 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:49.480 to rename it after Jesus. Keeping their packed with the 0:23:49.600 --> 0:23:51.560 rich and the poor in their place. 0:23:52.280 --> 0:23:58.520 O Compecinokala King and Sulugan Ilo Rico Vivienzo Cistoia. 0:23:59.200 --> 0:24:02.119 And this is where Oscar Romero comes back into the picture, 0:24:03.119 --> 0:24:06.600 because while my tapas might remember him as a man 0:24:06.640 --> 0:24:09.440 who knew the troubles of the poor, he did not 0:24:09.720 --> 0:24:12.160 have that reputation among the country's elites. 0:24:14.680 --> 0:24:17.520 Yes, Mother and Plata de San Miguel. 0:24:20.640 --> 0:24:23.639 For the rich families in San Miguel, Oscar was the 0:24:23.800 --> 0:24:29.960 ideal priest, quiet shy, happy to baptize their babies and 0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:32.639 enjoy a good carna with them afterwards. 0:24:33.640 --> 0:24:48.760 Elista and el sentido solo araci una fees in dimensium 0:24:49.720 --> 0:24:53.000 uman as in dimension politic as in dimensium. 0:24:57.640 --> 0:25:02.280 Oscar was regarded as a gentle bookworm, and this unassuming 0:25:02.440 --> 0:25:06.680 nature it got him far. He quietly rose through the 0:25:06.800 --> 0:25:10.560 ranks from deacon to priest to Bishop of San Miguel, 0:25:11.520 --> 0:25:15.480 far from the politics of the capital. If he disagreed 0:25:15.520 --> 0:25:19.119 with the elite's business practices, he didn't share it out loud. 0:25:20.080 --> 0:25:23.560 Maybe he wrote about it in his journal, maybe he 0:25:23.680 --> 0:25:27.919 prayed on it. But Oscar's easy life in San Miguel 0:25:28.560 --> 0:25:32.720 would soon get flipped upside down. In nineteen seventy seven, 0:25:32.960 --> 0:25:36.080 Oscar's boss, a man who had served as archbishop in 0:25:36.119 --> 0:25:42.200 El Salvador for thirty eight years, decided to resign. But 0:25:42.359 --> 0:25:47.240 who would be next? The Church and the oligarchy came 0:25:47.359 --> 0:25:51.320 together to hand pick the country's next top priest. The 0:25:51.480 --> 0:25:56.040 obvious and expected candidate was the auxiliary archbishop who had 0:25:56.080 --> 0:26:00.719 been second in command, but to everyone's surprise, the Vatican 0:26:00.760 --> 0:26:06.040 announced that Oscar Romero would take the position. The nation 0:26:06.280 --> 0:26:09.240 turned their eyes to this quiet priest from the. 0:26:09.280 --> 0:26:11.960 East, Hello the Rio. 0:26:13.200 --> 0:26:18.159 Conveniencias digamos de fe in Lilesia. 0:26:19.760 --> 0:26:25.680 Politic it was a politically convenient move. Oscar was known 0:26:25.800 --> 0:26:28.680 as a quiet local priest, the kind who built his 0:26:28.800 --> 0:26:34.000 career on staying away from controversy. In February of nineteen 0:26:34.040 --> 0:26:38.240 seventy seven, Oscar Romero was named Archbishop of El Salvador 0:26:38.640 --> 0:26:40.080 by Pope John Paul. 0:26:40.000 --> 0:26:45.360 Himself stansso Fuelay Garda de Monsignor Romero. 0:26:47.320 --> 0:26:50.399 Oscar moves to the capitol his new parish and starts 0:26:50.480 --> 0:26:53.600 leading Sunday Mass in the largest cathedral in the country. 0:26:54.560 --> 0:26:56.680 The rich pat themselves on the back for assigning a 0:26:56.720 --> 0:26:59.600 priest that they believe will watch over their interests for 0:26:59.640 --> 0:27:02.800 decad needs to come. Here's Marissa again. 0:27:03.800 --> 0:27:03.960 La. 0:27:06.680 --> 0:27:13.280 Porqurado alce seesuponi the via asumir elasovial. 0:27:14.520 --> 0:27:19.199 But Oscar was stepping into a hornet's nest. There had 0:27:19.240 --> 0:27:23.680 been unrest brewing in the capitol and several protests led 0:27:23.720 --> 0:27:30.359 by Campasino groups. People were unionizing demanding better wages. The 0:27:30.440 --> 0:27:33.359 military government's response had not been pretty. 0:27:41.000 --> 0:28:01.480 The Graciaca guando marchas solicitando pacificamente dos tortillas lejuadrons de quesouevoitres. 0:28:05.000 --> 0:28:07.840 Marisa says that the compasinos would organize marches in the 0:28:07.920 --> 0:28:12.720 capitol asking for better wages, and that those protests regularly 0:28:12.920 --> 0:28:21.200 ended with the military shooting directly into the crowd, and 0:28:21.280 --> 0:28:25.400 when the protests didn't stop, the military started going after 0:28:25.520 --> 0:28:37.240 the leaders of the movements. People started disappearing. Oscar Romero 0:28:37.400 --> 0:28:40.040 had a habit of going out into his congregation after 0:28:40.160 --> 0:28:43.080 mass on Sundays. He wanted to get to know the 0:28:43.120 --> 0:28:45.440 people of his flock the way that he had in 0:28:45.600 --> 0:28:51.000 San Miguel. But here in the capital people were coming 0:28:51.040 --> 0:28:55.720 to him with names, the names of sons, brothers, mothers 0:28:56.240 --> 0:29:00.640 who had disappeared or been taken. Oscar had gone from 0:29:00.680 --> 0:29:04.520 baptizing babies to having to face the cries of mourning mothers. 0:29:07.040 --> 0:29:11.440 In the span of a few years, Oscar transformed from 0:29:11.480 --> 0:29:16.640 a quiet bookworm into a champion for the poor. Three 0:29:16.800 --> 0:29:20.280 years after his arrival to the capitol, he stood before 0:29:20.320 --> 0:29:25.120 his congregation as a changed man, not a puppet, but 0:29:25.240 --> 0:29:25.760 a priest with. 0:29:25.800 --> 0:29:45.360 A message Ermano's song de matan ermanos campesinostar ure lala matar. 0:29:49.840 --> 0:29:54.760 He gave a speech that cemented his legacy. It's a 0:29:54.840 --> 0:29:58.680 speech that's the Salvadoran equivalent of Martin Luther King's I 0:29:58.840 --> 0:29:59.760 Have a Dream speech. 0:30:01.520 --> 0:30:05.000 Nimundo esto. 0:30:10.040 --> 0:30:13.960 Oscar was issuing a warning, a warning to the rich 0:30:14.600 --> 0:30:19.520 that he would not be in their pockets. The speech 0:30:19.680 --> 0:30:23.760 would be the landmark of his career, and he tells 0:30:23.840 --> 0:30:27.360 the government soldiers to disobey the orders of their commanders, 0:30:28.480 --> 0:30:32.160 to stop the repression against their own people and follow 0:30:32.200 --> 0:30:35.840 God's most basic command, thou shalt not. 0:30:36.000 --> 0:30:46.400 Kill ignombre de dios, the numbre pueblo, CuO lament maas 0:30:46.640 --> 0:30:55.760 tumultuosos lesuplico leego leon. 0:31:00.760 --> 0:31:05.920 It's the last homily he ever gave, the very next day, 0:31:06.680 --> 0:31:10.440 before Oscar could give communion, he was shot in the heart, 0:31:11.840 --> 0:31:17.120 murdered at his own pulpit. But Oscar was just the 0:31:17.200 --> 0:31:20.840 beginning of a domino effect, one that brought us to 0:31:20.920 --> 0:31:26.320 the new El Salvador we have today. El Salvador's President, Naibukele, 0:31:26.640 --> 0:31:29.440 has won reelection today in a resounding victory that has 0:31:29.560 --> 0:31:36.400 essentially wiped out the opposition. Over the next eleven episodes, 0:31:36.800 --> 0:31:39.960 we're going to cover one of the bloodiest chapters in history, 0:31:40.720 --> 0:31:42.840 one that includes government cover ups. 0:31:43.440 --> 0:31:45.720 So it was just outrageous that the nuns would have 0:31:45.840 --> 0:31:48.560 guns and would have exchanged fire. 0:31:48.880 --> 0:31:52.000 A school for dictators every time there was a heinous 0:31:52.160 --> 0:31:57.920 killing in Alsawada Hills with somebody that was past grides 0:31:58.000 --> 0:31:59.280 of the School of America. 0:32:00.120 --> 0:32:03.560 One of the biggest massacres to ever occur in the Americas. 0:32:04.680 --> 0:32:07.720 The security forces in Al Salvador have been responsible for 0:32:07.840 --> 0:32:12.440 the deaths of thousands and thousands of young people. Are 0:32:12.440 --> 0:32:17.080 we really going to send military advisors in there to 0:32:17.240 --> 0:32:19.600 be part of that type of machinery? 0:32:21.120 --> 0:32:24.880 But I'll also tell you the story of one family mine, 0:32:26.040 --> 0:32:29.320 because on this journey I discovered things about my family 0:32:29.480 --> 0:32:34.120 that still haunt us today, Mom. 0:32:35.200 --> 0:32:38.320 What happened to your sister Margarita? 0:32:41.920 --> 0:32:46.760 Well, they said that they took her and the next day. 0:32:46.680 --> 0:32:49.560 She was that she was killed. 0:32:50.240 --> 0:32:50.920 She was killed. 0:32:57.720 --> 0:33:10.560 Ye, that's this season on Nation of Saints Sacred Scandal. 0:33:10.680 --> 0:33:13.640 Nation of Saints is a production of AJA Podcasts in 0:33:13.760 --> 0:33:17.280 partnership with Iheart's Mike Wultura podcast Network, and is hosted 0:33:17.400 --> 0:33:21.520 and written by me Jasmine Romero, produced by Jazmine Romero 0:33:21.920 --> 0:33:26.880 with help from Jorge Just, Renald Gutierres, and Aloesbres. Research 0:33:26.960 --> 0:33:31.000 and reporting by Jasmine Romero, Edited by Cyda Kevelo, Porge 0:33:31.280 --> 0:33:34.160 Just and Rose Red. Nation of Saints was recorded in 0:33:34.200 --> 0:33:36.520 New York City at the Relic Room with engineering by 0:33:36.600 --> 0:33:41.400 Sam Bear, Mixing and sound designed by Paciquinones. Original music 0:33:41.480 --> 0:33:45.280 by Golden Mines, Darko and Dieme based on Patrick Hart's 0:33:45.360 --> 0:33:51.160 original composition. Fact checking by Erendidra Aquino Ayala. Executive producers 0:33:51.280 --> 0:33:54.840 are Carman geraterol Isaac Lee, rose Red, and Nando Villa. 0:33:55.440 --> 0:33:59.080 Our executive producers at iHeart are Giselle Mansis and Arlene Santana. 0:34:00.000 --> 0:34:03.200 Sacred Scandal was created by Melanie Bartley and Paula Vadros. 0:34:03.760 --> 0:34:08.640 Special thanks to Roerto Valencia, Matt Eisenbrandt, sayid Tjan Thomas, 0:34:08.920 --> 0:34:14.279 Alice Wilder, Sofia Palita Carr, Eric Mennel, Peter Bresnan, and Riemachres. 0:34:15.080 --> 0:34:16.960 The recording at the top of the episode is from 0:34:17.040 --> 0:34:22.000 Latino USA and provided courtesy of Futuro Studios. This episode 0:34:22.080 --> 0:34:25.399 is dedicated to Mythia Pacita, who passed in twenty twenty four. 0:34:26.920 --> 0:34:30.200