the university lectures aren’t always easy to understand. The Jesuit scholars who give them come from many countries. Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States. And of course from here in Italy.”
“So, why’s that a problem?” Mauro asked. “They all lecture in Latin, right?”
“Latin, yes, but accented in each professor’s native tongue. Some are much easier to understand than others. We had one professor with such a thick accent we feared we’d fail his course.” Rafael swiped his forehead in mock fear. “And the professors lecture old-fashioned style.”38
“What does that mean?” one asked.
“They lecture, then leave. No time for questions.”
“So what do you do when you can’t understand the professor?” Oscar asked.
“That’s where these classrooms come in.” Rafael nodded to the blackboard at the front of the room. “The Jesuit fathers divide each year’s class into four smaller groups, which they call camerate.39 Then they meet with each camerata to review and discuss the lectures.”
“In Latin or Spanish?” one asked.
Rafael rolled his eyes. “In Spanish, of course. That was one reason why the Jesuits built this colegio—to help us Spanish-speaking Latin Americans make it through seminary.”
Oscar turned to the youth who had asked the question. “Remember. The students who attend the Gregorian University come from around the world, and Latin is our common language,” he said soothingly.
The youth hit his forehead with his palm. “Of course! What a burro I am!”
But can he dance?
Rafael led them to a wide double door. When he opened it, Oscar gasped to see a lovely theatre.
“Our Jesuit fathers want to make sure we learn to speak comfortably in public,” Rafael told the newcomers. “They assign us weekly performances. The camerate compete with one another.”
“What kind of performances?”
“You name it. Everything from classical plays to parodies—spoofs, that is—and musical theater, including operettas and zarzuelas.”
“What’s a zarzuela?” Oscar asked, baffled.
“It’s like a Spanish stew, with a bit of everything thrown in. Speaking, dancing, singing. Both opera and popular music.” When Oscar’s brow knit, Rafael said, “Don’t worry, Oscar. You’ll do fine, with all your musical talent. Not as well as me, maybe, but . . .”
Rafael laughed and Oscar joined in. He was glad to be with his lighthearted friend again, even though Rafael could not allay his fear of tripping over his own feet in some dance.
“We also use this theatre to celebrate birthdays, when the camerate take turns performing as choruses. At Christmas, the teams compete in building nacimientos, nativity scenes. Some get really clever, rigging up lights for their mangers or devising ways to make some of the figures move.
“Let me show you the chapel. It’s also two stories tall.” Holding open its door, Rafael said, “Some of you may be ordained in this very chapel.”
“Seems a long way off,” Oscar commented.
“Now it does,” Rafael agreed. “But once courses begin, you’ll wish you had even more time to cram everything in.”
“What about fun?” Alfonso asked.
“Fun? You think they sent you to Rome to have a good time?” Rafael teased. “Let me show you the area set aside for billiards, chess, and table tennis. And the soccer and basketball courts.”
Rafael’s tour ended in the dining room, in time for the evening meal.
The students who lodged at the Colegio Pío Latino Americano ate their meals in silence. They took turns reading aloud from classical literature while the other students ate, another exercise to help them develop ease in speaking in front of others. Even with a couple years of seminary under his belt, Oscar seemed to struggle with public speaking. On a notecard of November 23, 1940, he wrote, “[a seminary companion] tells me I’m a torrent of emotion . . . because my voice trembled nervously just reading the title of the book in my hands.” Two days later, however, he wrote, “Today I read in the refectory. My nerves were calmer.”40
The Jesuit fathers ran the combined boardinghouse and school as a large family, like the Claretian brothers at the minor seminary had done. Firm and disciplined but kind, they took every opportunity to expand the horizons of the some hundred fifty seminarians in their care. They also planned recreational outings.
On trips to the beach, Oscar, a strong swimmer, offered swim lessons to his companions. Once, he invited fellow seminarians to swim out to a rock. He arrived first. He sat on the boulder but quickly rocketed off: it was covered with spiny sea urchins. Unable to sit for several days, the stoical Oscar didn’t tell his classmates what had happened. The Jesuit brother who ran the colegio’s infirmary, however, leaked Oscar’s “secret.”41
In preseminary, Oscar had impressed his fellow students with his musical gifts and his academic achievement, especially remarkable considering his inadequate primary schooling in El Salvador’s “boonies.” He didn’t stand out among the seminarians in Rome, however, where he felt most comfortable among a small group of friends.42
Seminary studies pushed Oscar to his limits, but he remained steadfast and determined. In November 1939, he noted, “Study is difficult, hunger humbles me, communal life torments me, my thesis worries me. It matters not! Avanti [onward]!!”43
War!
On June 10, 1940, Oscar joined some seminarians to stroll in one of Rome’s lovely plazas, something they frequently did. As they chatted, enjoying the fresh air and bubbling fountains, a loudspeaker barked a shrill announcement. It took several repetitions for the people in the plaza to comprehend the garbled proclamation. When the import of the message hit, local women around the students broke into tears.44
Italy had entered the war, on the side of the Germans.45
World War II had begun nine months earlier when Nazi Germany occupied Poland on September 1, 1939. Oscar had been in Rome two years. Now Italy would actively participate in the bloodshed, and Rome’s officials began nighttime drills to prepare citizens for possible bombing raids.
For the next six months, the seminarians awakened to one or two nightly sirens. Yawning, but with racing hearts, Oscar and his fellow students hurried to the basement. Although the alarms were meant only to ready people for possible future bombings, the earsplitting awakenings stole sleep and induced fear.
With Italy’s entry into the war, the Jesuits running the colegio tried to find what they hoped
