Rutilio Grande was a priest who helped Salvadoran farm workers organize in Aguilares (via American Magazine). The plight of the poor and the Jesuit focus on social justice led Grande to help farmers push for better living and working conditions. Organizing unions as well as talks of justice and land reform were associated with the left and with communism, and this brought the death squads, backed by the military and the wealthy. Farm workers were murdered and their bodies were put on display. Grande was shot to death in his car on March 12, 1977; a few weeks after the election of El Salvador’s dictator.
Grande and Óscar Romero had long been friends. Romero left San Salvador and joined the farm workers in mourning and prayer at the funeral Mass. According to American Magazine, the archbishop, who was fairly conservative and had generally avoided politics, then kicked off his crusade against the regime. He declared that he would no longer attend government events and started castigating the state from the pulpit. One miracle Grande performed, Pope Francis recently said, was awakening Óscar Romero.
