La Coyuntura: a lesson on Nicaraguan history and development

On that Sunday afternoon after zombi-walking through airports and attempting naps on planes and our microbus, we finally arrived at our destination for the night: Centro Kairos. Once our bus pulled in through those doors, it was just barely spitting rain, and it was as if we were in the middle of the rainforest! The hill dropped off just beyond the center into a magnificent canopy that stretched way above our heads.

Welcome! 

We split into two rooms each for males and females, and following the bed selection process, Francisco and I were able to joke about our respective luck with the sheets placed on our beds - while most others got boring, plain colored sheets, he was treated to a Powerpuff Girls set, and mine were Pokemon!

To gain a slight bit of energy back before we delved into the confusing history of Nicaragua and the U.S.'s even further confusing and disturbing involvement in it, we rested for a second and then off to our coyuntura we went!

Then the site for our coyuntura: the miraculous gazebo in the middle of our rainforest splendor.

While some definitely had troubles staying awake, especially during a history lesson, it was really crucial to understand more of the context of why we were here in Nicaragua, and furthermore what has happened between the U.S. and Nicaraguan governments that makes current Nicaraguan history and development make so much more sense. I may just be saying that because that is basically what I focused my studies on in college, attempting to truly understand how people groups interact and how that is manifested in international politics, especially in the Americas. But that is also how I want to approach life as well, to understand a single person's history, a single "their story," to better understand how their past experiences affect how they experience life in the present. But beyond that, it is especially imperative for us as US citizens to understand how what our government does affects those near and far because as frustrating as politics can be, and I am a cynic myself, it is still important to be conscious of what you as a citizen can do and how the decisions our political leaders make affect our communities and our global community.

Over galletas (a catch-all word for cookies and crackers) and fresh mango juice, Lilian from the Quaker House shared some of her personal story, in which she came down to Nica from Tucson in the 1980's when she learned more about the revolution here and the U.S.' role. She never intended to stay more than a short while, but she's been here 28 years! She said her eyes were opened while she was in college and felt compelled to do solidarity work after the revolution. And man, did she give a history lesson! Even though I have heard bits and pieces of Nicaraguan history in college as well, I was furiously scribbling because in college it was a part of the larger Latin American story, and here, we are living Nica's history. So I'll try to give you all the Kathryn version of Lilian's (my apologies if there is a little more sass in here than in a normal history lesson...):

- Its independence story was pretty messy, being still part of Mexico after independence from Spain and then part of a united Central America and whatnot, and eventually it became its own country in 1838. Apparently the U.S. has been interested in Nicaragua since 1855 because as with the rest of the Americas, it was our hemisphere to protect and to extract resources from. So this guy from the U.S. wanted to walk down to Nica and call himself king, institute slavery, and make bank for the U.S. He eventually got kicked out, but the U.S. still had a presence to be sure.

- There were then two major opposing political forces, Conservatives and Liberals (different from our current sense of the terms), that both had their own ideas about how to best consolidate and govern the new nation. Somehow the U.S. was asked to occupy Nica in the early 1900's as political foes sorted things out, so the U.S. marines came in, but Lilian said, "The only good thing they brought was baseball..." - it is their national sport now, but that does not say much for the rest of what we did for the Nica people. 

- In the late 1920's, General Augusto Sandino, who technically belonged to the Liberal party but was truly just a patriot who wanted Nicas to have the freedom to figure out their own problems, led one of the first guerrilla movements, sweeping the countryside and mountain villages for poorly armed but spirited fighters for true Nicaraguan independence. Some of his quotes that we heard more of later were just incredible, and he truly put his heart for his country and his people above all. 

- Basically Sandino just wanted the U.S. marines to leave, and he promised to sign a peace accord once they did to end the bloodshed. The only issue was that before the marines withdrew, they had trained basically a Nicaraguan national guard designed to be loyal to U.S. interests with a dear friend of ours, Anastacio Somoza, in charge. So while Sandino had signed the peace accord and dropped his weapons once the marines' departure was achieved, Somoza decided to execute some ruthlessness and unleashed terror on Sandino's supporters in the form of assassinations and murders across the country, including the assassinations of Sandino and his generals. 

- Somoza then weaseled his way through the political system to the presidency, the national guard became his private army, he reigned in terror and reined in wealth and power. Like they say of other U.S.-supported dictators, especially in Latin America, and especially in the Cold War, "He's an SOB, but he's our SOB..." Somoza himself died after being shot by a young poet who made that choice for his country and paid with his life, but his courage is still celebrated and remembered. Somoza and his family though kept a handle on things in Nicaragua, keeping the U.S. happy while repressing the Nicaraguan people for 49 years.

- An intellectual named Carlos Fonseca came across Sandino's name in the 1960's, wondering why this guy was not talked about in normal history books as he fought for independence for all Nicas. He was subsequently inspired and thus a little group of university students took on the name FSLN, the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (Sandinista Front for National Liberation), and the Cuban Revolution of 1959 with its advocacy for expelling U.S. influence and advocacy for education and healthcare access was also a force to watch in Latin America.

- But... the Sandinistas didn't really do anything for about 15 years. Many university students in particular were being thrown in clandestine jails and torture chambers, and some "subversives" were apparently so dangerous they were dropped into a few of Nicaragua's active volcanoes. There's one way to erase evidence for you. 

- 1972 rolled around, and a ginormous earthquake destroyed over 70 percent of Managua. See ya, capitol city! Funny story though, when international aid poured in, Somoza and his army basically stole it all. He controlled the vast majority of wealth in the country, and before he started this shenanigan, the people were basically complacent in being left alone if they were not university students. But stealing from the common good after this force of nature on top of his massive wealth? Uh uh. 

- That is what catalyzed the movement against the dictatorship, but it did not fully snowball until the editor of La Prensa, a conservative newspaper, started denouncing the disappearances the government was carrying out against its people. What made this so important was that this editor was in fact part of the richer classes, so he could have decided to live a fine life and leave well enough alone, but he stepped up and paid for it in 1978 - after he was assassinated, fear rippled through the upper classes and they joined the movement of popular participation too!

- The revolution finally had become more than a student movement, more than a guerrilla movement, and more than distrust within the wealthier classes. It embodied all three of those vital sectors, and July 19, 1979 was marked as a "day of happiness" when some 10,000 marched into Managua and Somoza fled. And what was the U.S.'s take on this "day of happiness" for the Nica people? Well, despite everything the Somozas and their personal forces we helped create did to keep their people in a constant state of terror, we could have celebrated with Nicaragua when they took their country back. But instead, even democratic president Carter had supported Somoza until the last month, and it took one U.S. journalist being killed on tape for us to cut off aid to the dictatorship. Before that, 50,000 Nicas had died. And we had played a part.

-  The Nicaraguan revolution was not like Cuba, but it was still feared if you are not pro-U.S., you are anti-U.S., and if you are anti-U.S., you must be pro-USSR. Nicaragua did not fit in to the black-and-white Cold War geopolitical scheme, nor was it communist in nature. The revolution believed in political pluralism rather than a singular communist party, a mixed economy of private and cooperative ownership rather than purely state-owned, and independence and neutrality rather than being a pawn for either side. Also unlike Cuba, where atheism was mandated by the state, the Catholic church was very involved in the revolution, believing through a revolutionary kind of faith, liberation theology, that Jesus walked with the poor, you do not have to live as an exploited peasant waiting for heaven for things to get better, and thus Christians made good revolutionaries for God's realm on this earth.

- Furthermore, when the Sandinistas took power, when they could have hunted down every last Somoza supporter to bring a close to the war, they abolished the death penalty and focused on rebuilding the nation on three pillars: 1) free education, 2) free healthcare, and 3) land reform. And like many other Latin American nations, Nicaragua followed a Cuban model of sending brigades of youth out into the countryside to educate the population in rapid-time. With 50,000 dead, a destroyed capitol, and an empty treasury, education had to be for everyone for the collective project of rebuilding Nicaragua. Sending anyone as young as twelve to the most remote parts of Nicaragua helped to build a national consciousness and conectedness as well, as many generations could see and understand more of the country than they ever had. In this way, within six months, illiteracy was reduced from 52% to 12%, and the country received an award from UNESCO for this campaign to unlock human potential from even the poorest families. Lilian here noted, if they can do that, noone in the world should be illiterate - if they are, it is because someone finds them better to oppress...

- So to regroup, that was all in the late 70's. Due to that whole Cold War anxiety, the U.S. had started organizing anti-revolutionaries. Remember the revolutionaries are the ones who took the country from the Somoza dictatorship. So the U.S. supported "contra," AKA contra-revolución, against-the-revolution militias based in Honduras. So we dragged even another country into this mess when Nicaragua just wanted to have its country to itself for a fresh start. But these tiny nations were still apparently vital pieces in the greater global fight against communism. We gave the contras military aid, and with this aid, they unleashed a terror war, a war against the citizenry. Instead of soldiers battling each other, the US-funded contras attacked the three Sandinista mission points: they burnt down clinics, schools, and grain bins. Plus, it was easier to kidnap, rape, and torture teachers than face the national Sandinista army. Seriously? Most of the people who died in the decade of the 80's were civilians.

- Meanwhile, Witness for Peace was really the only force who documented what the contras were doing. While they could have hated any American because of what our government was doing, the Nica people were simply asking for somebody to learn their stories and take them back to our country. What do you do when you have civilians going on with their lives after losing family members and/or limbs to the war? Witness for Peace took note and made sure those stories were not lost. I especially perked up hearing this organization's name because I interned for them last summer and knew it grew out of protest against U.S. involvement with the contras in Nicaragua, but to hear their work contextualized this way made me even more proud to be involved with WfP!

- In 1990 the war ended after the whole Iran-Contra Affair in the U.S. (I'm not going to go into this mess of a topic...) and mutual exhaustion of both sides in Nicaragua. Nobody wanted to fight anymore, and families especially did not want to send their kids off to fight anymore. Daniel Ortega was the face of the Sandinistas and president 1985-1990, but it was time for elections and the country instead picked a woman, Violeta Chamorro, who would ensure peace in Nicaragua. Ortega conceded defeat, and he was succeeded by 16 years of center-right governments until he came back to the presidency in 2006. This is where Nicaragua is still living and breathing the Sandinista revolution, and controversy lives on. The question we all must look at now is why Ortega is the only Sandinista presidential candidate? Is there nobody else in the party that could be trusted to run the country? Nicaragua could dangerously fall into the trap other Latin American nations have of populist presidents that are viewed as their people's only hope and thus support is tied to the man rather than to the party's platform.

Summary lessons and thoughts:

- Feel free to look up more history if you like! Again, that is the very condensed version we all processed together. There are a lot of confusing names floating around, especially since the Sandinistas of today have no relation to the original Sandino who fought for independence.

- The world was watching the Nicaraguan revolution, and it was exporting hope! The people were educating, doctoring, growing, but because Sandinista politics did not match up with what the U.S. wanted in a political ally, we could not let Nicaraguan people handle their own affairs.

- Nicaragua is not poor. It is impoverished. There is a difference. History has overseen a set of circumstances in which its huge wealth of natural resources (like gold, mahogany, freshwater, fertile soils, climate for growing year round, renewable energy, etc.) and human capital are not being used to their fullest sustainable extent. But the land is rich and the workforce is brimming, and we cannot wait to explore all this country has to offer!

With our brains full of a mess of history to digest, we escaped to the beautiful nature just outside the gazebo (see this awesome tree with vines that stretched from the canopy down to the roots?). Then Kira, Joy, and Chris leaped into the hammocks swinging on the patio until it was time for our first Nicaraguan dinner! 

 

Over rice and beans, a cheesy yucca soup, coleslaw with beets and onions, tortillas, and glasses of hibiscus punch, we started getting to know each other as we all came into this without knowing anybody too well! Meredith also introduced Francisco, who would be with us as an assistant the rest of the trip and prove to be a valuable ally as well! And he said his English is not very good, but he definitely got more comfortable really quickly and does very well! What was most important during this dinner was to preview expectations for this delegation, and what became clear very quickly was that we all just hoped to be open and to soak up all of the experience we can to better understand the Nicaraguan way of life. The host family stay is the element which inspired the most nerves and the most excitement, but Meredith told us snippets about our families and as many butterflies as I get about those experiences, it sounded really great for our group, and we were all psyched to embark for León the next day!

After darkness fell, the night-showerers took turns and we all organized our things. The rooms really were nice. The bathroom was actually huge, but still there was hardly any water pressure, you never flush toilet paper, and even though sinks and showers have an H handle, only cold water ever comes out! It is so toasty here that I do not think anybody should ever crave hot water though... Upon semi-unpacking, I realized I had not brought a book as the other ladies settled into their novels in bed... And that it was only 9pm... Bedtime? Indeed! We were wiped. Until tomorrow!