SWD 53

The Temptation - to Speak Out on Behalf of the Poor, the Disenfranchised, and Against the Government's Military and Police Atrocities, and Martyrdom of  Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero, in San Salvador, El Salvador, 1980

Art: Drawing begun in pencil, Sep 25, 2002. Completed October 18, 2022.
Media: Pencil, ink, watercolor, colored pencil, crayon
Framed: 27.5 in. H x 23.5 W [69.85 cm. H x 59.69 W]

The artwork includes the following:
Two spring 1968 drawn pencil sketches of a right hand, done for an art class assignment my senior year, Martin Van Buren High School, Queens Village, New York. The hand drawing at upper left, on the mat, is dated 5/'68 (May 1968).
The hand drawing on the mat, at mid -center right, dated March 14, 1968.
With it is a note written in a ball point pen note by the art teacher, the late Mr.  Frank Dieffenwirth. He wrote: '12 hands needed. Not finished.'
(As I have 12 of these hand studies, each of my right hand, I must have submitted an incomplete number, then completed the assignment after I read his note).
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At top center right on the mat: 2 ink studies I drew, in 2013, titled on one of the 2 drawings
'2 studies child war victim.'
I may have drawn the studies from a photo of a Lebanese child who died following an Israeli air strike on Beirut, August 8, 2006. Among my papers: A black and white photo, which I may have printed from the internet back then. I had saved a New York Times article, hardcopy, dated Aug. 9, 2006: "Aid Crisis Worsens as Israel Pounds Southern Lebanon." Accompanying the article's text is a color photo of the bodies of a mother and child being pulled from the rubble. The photo was taken by a NYT photographer, Joao Silva. (It's not the same photo I did the drawing studies from). 

 In  a mid October 2022 internet search I didn't find any additional photos of this child so I don't know if the child I drew was the same child seen in the photo of the August 9, 2006 news article.  

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The drawing at upper left: Coloration is blue, yellow and black. It depicts 2 standing men in a jail or prison cell, drawn 1973. It was in a sketchbook of mine. In 1973 I was a freshman majoring in art,  Parkland Junior College, Champaign, Illinois that year. I have no saved info on what photo or source I may have drawn from. It's possible I saw a photo of the 2 men in a newspaper or magazine news article, e.g. Newsweek, Time, or some other publication.  

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My depiction of allegorical sea-monsters, along with insects and other creatures  is meant to aid the teaching of tolerance, anti-conflict and anti-war education, especially to children, adolescents, teens, young adults and teachers, and to all ages of adults. I recall a New York Times news article in an issue of that paper, years ago, which was a report on  the multi-million dollar inauguration costs for a Republican president and vice-president. In the same issue there was an article, tucked farther back in the issue, on a U.N. report on the dangers faced by millions of children worldwide, from hunger, lack of shelter, lack of health care, and from wars. An online report from UNICEF:
https://www.unicef.org/children-under-attack 

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About Archbishop Romero: This is an excerpt from an article by Patsy McGarry, pub. in The Irish Times, Oct. 10, 2018:   

"Archbishop Romero was assassinated in San Salvador, capital of El Salvador, in March 1980 by a right-wing death squad because he refused to be silenced in condemning the murder and torture of the people by the country's regime as well as the poverty and injustices being inflicted on them." 

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Archbishop Romero was born August 15, 1917 in El Salvador. He was baptized at age one into the Catholic church. He entered a minor seminary at age 13; a minor seminary is a school for boys who express interest in the priesthood. He was ordained in Rome, Italy, in 1942. Known as a social and political conservative, in early February 1977 he became archbishop of San Salvador. The assassination, the following month, of a Jesuit priest,  Rutilio Grande, who was a friend of Romero's, deeply affected Romero, who later stated "When I looked at Rutilio lying there dead I thought, 'If they have killed him for doing what he did, then I too have to walk the same path." 

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With no response by the government, Romero became a human rights advocate and public opponent of poverty, assassinations, social injustice and torture.  

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On 11 May 1979, Romero met with Pope John Paul II and unsuccessfully attempted to obtain a Vatican condemnation of the Salvadoran military regime for committing human rights violations and its support of death squads, and expressed his frustration in working with clergy who cooperated with the government. He was encouraged by Pope John Paul II to maintain episcopal unity as a top priority.  

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Romero denounced the persecution of members of the Catholic Church who had worked on behalf of the poor.  

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Romero's Christian beliefs in helping the poor, the disadvantaged, and those most vulnerable made him a Christian completely dissimilar and at odds with the today's evangelical Christians of the U.S. in 2022. American evangelical Christians in the U.S. embrace gun rights, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans every year. The American Christians embrace the anti-black, race hate "birther campaign" of former President Trump; and Trump's public vilification and verbal and tweeted attacks against Hispanics, Hispanic-Americans, Asians, Asian-Americans, Muslims, Muslim-Americans, the disabled, along with Trump's virulently anti-Semitic 2016 campaign tweet meme, straight from the Third Reich's Der Sturmer newspaper propaganda style, in which Trump tweeted a meme photo image of his opponent, Mrs. Clinton, with a Star of David and money. Trump has never apologized for that nor for his national leadership of the black-hating "Birther" campaign.

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As so many people of diverse faiths engage in and support repressive, intolerant and xenophobic violence, it's a sad situation worldwide when people of faith who express tolerance and concern for fellow humans have their lives snuffed out. Many are silenced by those who claim to be religious, and even of the same faith. (In the history of Christianity, internecine warfare of Christians of specific denominations murdering Christians of other denominations has had a long and sorrowful history).
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As I've told audiences for years, of the Holocaust: The Holocaust did not have to happen. It was enabled by silence.  

The assassination - murders of leaders, both religious and political, remains a stain on humanity, and on faith and how religious extremists are central players in carnage, slaughter and egregious violations of human rights.
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art © A K Segan ~ 

TAGS: Oscar Romero portraits retratos drawings dibujos, Oscar Romero  memorial commemorativo, human rights art, arte de humanos derechos,  arte monstruos marinos alegóricos, El Salvador Catholic Church history,  El Salvador Iglesia Católica guerra derechos humanos historia, El Salvador Catholic Church war human rights history, tolerance education schools teachers students pupils, anti-war anti-conflict education, tolerancia educación para escuelas maestros estudiantes, tolerance education schools, tolerance education houses of worship, human rights education art museums galleries, human rights education colleges universities, art allegorical sea monsters, 1973 news photos, Parkland Junior College Champaign Illinois alumni, Parkland College alumni, SIU-Carbondale School of Art alumni, MU-Columbia Art alumni