Voces Inocentes (Innocent Voices) is a movie based on a true story about the twelve-year civil war in El Salvador in the 1980’s. The story is told through the eyes and voice of a little boy named Chava (Carlos Padilla). Chava an eleven year old boy is forced to become the “man of the house” when his father abandons the family. As he struggles to find work to help his family, he also must face the possibility of being recruited into the army. During the civil war twelve year old boys were taken from their school and recruited into the government’s army to fight against the rebelling FMLN army. If Chava stays in the country his only other options is to join the guerrilla and join his Tio Beto (uncle Beto) in fighting against the government. The innocence of Chava and his friends is robbed by the turmoil of the war. His town becomes a war zone and along with his family and friends they must learn different way to survive.

This is a movie EVERYONE has to watch. It was INTENSE from beginning to end; I cried through out the entire movie. It is sad to know that this really was not just a movie, but it was someone's reality. In fact, it still is many people's reality. One of the things that struck me the most was the speech the Cura (priest) makes to the people of the pueblo (town) in front of the church. He says:

"La palabra de Dios deve de ser escuchada por aquellos que no han encontrado la gracia dentro de si. Y que es la gracia? La gracia es la presencia de lo divino en cada uno de nuestros actos. Los esepticos dicen, "Si excistiera Dios no habria guerras." Y yo les contesto, si la humanidad obedeciaran las leyes de Dios entonces no habria guerras. Porque Dios le a dado el privilegio y el derecho a la humanidad para vivir en la gracia, o por lo contrario, de provocar la desgracia. Les aseguro que cuando se vive en la gracia de Dios no existe la guerra. Sin embargo, hay aquellos que ignoran su propia naturaleza divina y buscan solo satisfaserce despojando, humillando y asesinando a sus semejantes...""The word of God should be heard by those who have not found grace within themselves. What is grace? Grace is the presence of the divine in every one of our actions. The skeptics say, "If God existed, there would be no war." And I respond, "If humanity would obey the word of God, then there would be no war!" Because God has given humanity the privilege to live in grace, or on the contrary, to provoke disgrace. I assure you, when one lives in the grace of God, war does not exist. Nevertheless, there are those who ignore their own divine nature and they satisfy themselves by robbing, humiliating and killing their own kind..."

I don't consider myself a religious person but a spiritual one and what he said makes complete sense. It does not matter what religion you practice but the divine nature the Cura refers to is in all of us; we are all born with it. Humans too often interpret religion to their own individual advantage and use religion to justify their actions. When in reality the core of any religion is not to mistreat others, but to find one’s own divine grace. And allow it to guide us and treat others with love; treat others the way we would like to be treated. This grace is within us; it’s in all of us, but we live in a society that plants seeds of mistrust, fear, scarcity, and hate. As a result; the grace within becomes clouded. No matter what religion one practices, no religion justifies the maltreatment of another person, but it is us (humans) who too do not allow our divine wisdom to guide our daily lives. What the priest said can be applied to all the different types of violence going on in the world today, from domestic violence to international wars. If we all realized our divine nature and found the grace within ourselves there would be no enemy within us, which would transcend in our outside world. We would be choosing to exercise our born-right to live in grace and the world would be a better place.