UCA religion talk

more religion!

The past couple weeks have been full of adventure and fun and I can´t believe it´s almost over andI´ve only blogged once!urgg

We have had four lecture at UCA (Central American University) that have consisted of politics, youth/gangs, immigration, and religion! I learned so much in each and everyone of these lectures. The one I am going to blog about today is the Religion Lecture since it is my topic.

The Priest, Father Manuel Cubias, who gave us the lecture actually has two jobs. He is a communications and journalism professor at UCA and is a Jesuit Priest in a town of about 50,000 people in rural El Salvador named ´La Laguna.` This community has a high percentage of people who suffer from malnutrition and downsyndrome. Malnutrition comes from the lack of food, while the they believe the high rates of downsyndrome comes from incest and an over-exposure to chemical toxins. His duty is to fulfill his religious duties as a Jesuit Priest, while also empowering the people of his community. He explained that this was just a sample of a rural community in El Salvador and there are many others like this one. His lecture inspired me. I was so impressed with his dedication and courage in this community. He empowers the people in his community to stand up for themselves against the government. Sometimes in El Salvador these rural communities do not get proper treatment and tend to be ignored. This is where Father Manuel Cubias steps in and inspires the people to get what they need. He does this in a peaceful and spiritual way in order to avoid uprisings and violence in the community.