Before Romero In many ways, El Salvador was no different than many of its South American neighbors during the 1970 's and 1980 's. The oppressive government that existed in El Salvador had much in common with the violent regimes running Argentina, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and others. Death squads, supported if not organized by the ruling governments, murdered with no fear of reprisal those they saw as enemies of the status quo. However, it was the global setting, not simply a continental…
François-Marie Arouet, whose pen name is Voltaire, quickly became known for his sarcasm, wit, and outspokenness. Voltaire wrote slanderous poems about the French regent and the duke of Orleans thus landing him in prison in Bastille. To avoid imprisonment for a second time, Voltaire chose to flee to England. There he devoutly studied English society and was particularly impressed by their constitutional monarchy and their religious freedom. In 1755 the Earthquake of Lisbon struck. In 1756, the…
Cast and crew traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico, Veracruz, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas to capture the look and feel fo the U.S./Mexico border, which is more of a central character in the film, rather than a backdrop. Juarez, Mexicio i the setting, but the only shots of Juarez are arial, as the filmmakers visited Juarez to…
Satire is a literary genre, categorised by the ridiculing of different faucets of society, as well as society as a whole. This ridicule is different to simple mockery, in that the core purpose of satire is to show the shortcomings of the subject through thinly-veiled metaphors and ironic humour. Satirical writing draws on sarcasm and wit to criticise it's subject in an intelligent and thought-provoking way. Jonathan Swift, author of 'Gulliver's Travels' is one of the best known and most widely…
The French social and political situation in the eighteenth century became the basis for Voltaire’s fruitful writing experience. Candide was a scandalous, yet exemplary, literary piece that exposed, through the use of satire, the threat philosophical doctrines presented to devoted listeners. With its abundant religious references, the philosophical tale examines whether Optimism can justify the omnipresent evil. The ambivalent meaning of the title Candide ou l’Optimisme can be explained as the…
In “El Asco” Moya tells the story of his life in El Salvador through the protagonist Vega. Throughout the book Moya uses the character of Vega to unleash his monologue. Moya uses the character of Vega to retell his cold and cruel words about El Salvador. As the book goes on the monologue becomes more intense to the point where El Salvador sounds like a truly awful place. However, Moya wrote the book to expose the harsh and complex reality of El Salvador while expressing his distaste for…
More so, the Reagan administration’s failed socio-political moves “throughout Central America led to the growing Mara Gangs in nations beyond El Salvador and Guatemala and extended to Nicaragua via the U.S.-Contra debacle” (222). Now, MS-13 is rampant across various nations and causing destruction in the United States, specifically a mass murder on Monday [4/17] on Long Island, where the bodies…
assignment, I had the chance to interview a student named Claudia Arguello. She is a freshman entering George Mason University this year. In her previous year, she was a senior at Parkview High School located in Sterling, Virginia. She was born in Apopa, El Salvador and migrated to the United States of America when she was very young. Claudia is quite family oriented and loves spending time with them whenever she has the chance to do so. Like myself, she is interested in pursuing a career in the…
The book Candide is a satire written by in the 1700s. In this novel the author, Voltaire, is satirizing enlightenment philosophers who believe that everything is good in the world, since a good God created the world. Throughout the Novel the protagonist, Candide, is faced with many challenges that work to shape his own ideology. Initially Candide is an optimistic, inexperienced and uneducated young boy but as he struggles, and experiences the worst in the world, it works against his optimism,…
El Salvador has been overran with unequal rights and violence caused by the Civil War. The 1 United States became involved in this conflict through the struggle for human rights, democracy, and equality. During the Civil War, the U.S. sent more than $4.5 billion in aid to the Salvadoran government, and trained many Salvadoran soldiers on U.S. ground. In 1977, the U.S. voiced concerns about the frequent human right violations. The Salvadoran government renounced all aid from the U.S. El Salvador…