Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
Archbishop Oscar Romero, a leader in the struggle for civil rights in El Salvador, was assassinated in a church while delivering mass in 1980. Romero opposed El Salvador’s military dictatorship, encouraging troops to disobey immoral orders.
The woman here dressed in the red of struggle perhaps represents the hopes of the people for whom Romero spoke. Mourners and protestors hold up images of the Archbishop behind her. Ghostly images of helmeted military forces stand between. Salvadoran poet Lilliam Jimenez speaks to this threat:
They will have to pay / for the horrible fate of each victim,
for all the lips they silenced, / for all the dreams they ripped out of our breasts.