Karla Zelaya

Sociology 1
7/6/2016
Video/DVD analysis
I found a documentary on YouTube called In the Name of the People: El Salvadors
Civil war 1985 that I believe relates to the topics discussed in our lesson. This documentary is
about the civil war in El Salvador and how the United States invaded their country to prevent
communism to spread. In the documentary it states since 1980, the United States has spent one
billion dollars to prevent guerrillas known as FMLN from coming to power in El Salvador. The
United States involvement affected the country and the people living there. In fact, El Salvador is
still struggling to fight the injustice in the country. The civil war started because the inequality of
social classes, repressive military rule and poverty. The guerrilla started to rise because they
wanted to fight for their rights and stop the government and the elite from abusing peoples
rights. The military was allies with the elite, which had the power. The wealthy people supported
the military to control peasants that were revolting due to the inequality that existed among
social class and the economy, which was controlled by the wealthy.
In order for the government to keep control they would send their military to fight against
those who opposed the government. Children at the age 13 would be forced to join the military to
fight against the guerrilla. Throughout the video it shows how the guerrillas would sustain
themselves. In the documentary it shows how priest would help the guerrillas but the government
military murdered them to stop the rise of the guerillas. In addition, the government would
murder teachers and students that were getting educated because the government was afraid that
they were going to speak the truth and make everyone revolt against them. The United Stated

helped the Salvadorian government by supplying them with weapons, and bomb invasions. The
people of El Salvador did not win because the country was still facing inequality.
I believe this documentary relates to the Karl Marx theory because we see that El
Salvador went through social class inequality. Karl Marx theory is seen in this video because the
upper class lived in leisure and abundance while the lower class lived lives of hardship and
poverty. In fact, we do see that the lower class is trying to fight against the wealthy to stop them
from taking over their lands. The wealthy did control all the elements of society and the working
class would work for hourly wages on the land or the factories. Those who sell their labor and
work for the wealthy become alienated and have no say. The guerrillas looked up to the Marx
because they did revolt against the elite. It is save to say that revolutionist saw Marxs ideas as an
inspiration and a threat by leaders of the government. I also see Durkeims view in this situation
that social solidarity brought people together due to social ties. For instance, Priest Oscar
Romero was very influential and even if people were not in the same religion as him they still
followed his views. People depended on Priest Oscar Romero because he was very well known
and was able to get his message out to the public. This shows how society has a function that
interacts and depends on each other to get what they want. There must be dysfunction to have a
function. In the video, a member of the guerrilla stated that before he joined the guerilla he went
to visit the Priest Oscar Romero and asked him if it would be a sin to join the guerrilla. Priest
Oscar Romero answered no it is not a sin because you are fighting to help your family from
starvation and poverty. He said that if your kids are dying from starvation then there it is not
wrong to join. This example shows Comte theory of altruism, which goes onto state the moral
of decision. If you an individual make a decision it should benefit others. The member of the
guerrilla made a decision that helped make an impact to others in society by join the guerrilla.

Lastly, one of the paradigms that I notice in this video was social conflict theory. In this
video it explains how the social classes within society have different amount resources and that
the more powerful groups are using their power to exploit the groups with less power. I believe
social conflict theory was the main paradigm experienced in this time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHO-WiiZba0