Last night we watched most of Hombres Armados. I hope you are enjoying this movie, it is one of my favorites. There are so many things we could talk about in this movie. So I decided to share a little bit of the main ideas to help you sort some of the information.
1. This movie takes place in a no name Latin American country, probably a Central American country. Why no name? Probably because the author/director feels that this story is an universal problem/situation through out Latin America. What do you think?
2. The medical students were part of the "Alliance for Progress" program, similar to our Teachings Fellows program, in which they received their medical degree (free of charge) provided they went and served as doctors in poor villages. President Kennedy proposed a 10yr, crazy amount of money program in which the US provided aid to Latin America. During WWII Latin American countries increased their production of raw materials and kept prices low, so that the US could do what was needed to win the war. After the war, US increased aid to Europe and Japan, Latin America felt slighted. To smooth the ridges, President Kennedy proposed the "Alliance for Progress" which provided the countries of Latin America money, expertise, and technology. Ideally, this "aid" would help strengthen the Latin American people so that they could fight against Communism (the real threat to the US). With what you know about Latin America and with what you are seeing in this movie, do you think the program worked?
Important Lines in the movie ... things to think about
1. The old blind woman said, "When an Indian puts on an uniform, he becomes white."
2. When the American couple are talking to Dr. Fuentes about the "atrocities" in the country, the ones they read about in NY, the Dr. tells them that doesn't happen in his country.
3. The guerrillas murdered Dr. DeSoto (one of his students) because he treated wounded soldiers.
4. “The rich use the army to push the Indians off the
good land so they’ll starve to death. So
the Indians go pick their coffee. And
they come back with their pitiful wages and those leeches suck them dry.”
5. Fuentes and the
ex-priest discuss their failures.
Fuentes: “We both ended up … a total
failure.”
Priest: “You can’t feel responsible for
those students.”
Fuentes: “I should have warned them.”
Priest: “If you didn’t know what the
danger was, how could you warn them?”
Fuentes: “I should have known.”
Priest: “Maybe. Maybe innocence is a sin.”
Hope this helps. Can't wait to finish the movie and discuss, discuss, DISCUSS!
Ciao
MLMoore
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