I recently went back to Nicaragua after working there 35 years ago. The principal reason was to be on a delegation to learn more about the historic and present situation in Nicaragua and to be part of the 45th anniversary of the Revolution.
The main reason I applied to work in Nicaragua in the eighties was because there was a job opening to work with a New Brunswick-initiated seed potato project and I had experience growing seed potatoes. I had heard of, and was interested in, the Revolution that had taken place 10 years earlier in 1979.
When I arrived in 1989, I had a hard time learning Spanish and I was eager to get to work. I didn’t get a lot of orientation on the history of the Revolution; it may have been assumed I knew all about it as most cooperants had been involved in solidarity work. Although I learned much about the Revolution while working there, and since then, the places we visited and the presentations given this time were largely new to me.
Because I arrived a few days early in Managua, I took part in one day of a delegation hosted by a rural workers association called the Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo. There were several presentations on the developments in agriculture in different parts of the country and an interesting educational tour of Managua.
My delegation started on July 13 with an orientation at the bed and breakfast where we were staying, called Casa Benjamin Linder, named after an American engineer who came to Nicaragua in the early 1980s and worked on micro-hydro projects to supply rural communities with electricity. Linder was murdered by the U.S.-funded Contras, along with two co-workers.
The first day we visited a Museum of the Revolution in a suburb of Managua. It tells the history of colonialism, first by the Spanish, then by the U.S. with filibuster president William Walker. In the last century there were numerous incursions by U.S. marines and U.S.-imposed leaders, culminating with the Somoza dynasty (1936-1979), the last of whom fled during the last days of the Revolution.
We visited the Ruben Dario Cultural Centre. Dario is Nicaragua’s national poet, although I remember that in the eighties he was remembered as a stodgy middle-class poet revered by the reactionary upper-classes. More recently his revolutionary and anti-oppression writing and thinking has been discovered.
At the Centre, we saw painting and dance classes being given, all part of the free education system. We then visited a park where the Somoza dictatorship used to dispose of dead and tortured bodies. People knew to look there for missing friends and family as these “dumping ravines” were well known.
On July 14, we were invited to a mass at a Christian Base Community and to a Liberation Theology meeting; this is a very inclusive and accepting community. In the earlier years of the Revolution, it was tolerated by the Catholic Church, not so now.
After that, we went to Augusto Sandino’s childhood home near Granada. Sandino was a Nicaraguan general who ousted the U.S. marines but was assassinated by Anastasio Somoza who was then installed by the U.S. as Nicaraguan president. The governing party in Nicaragua, the Sandinista Liberation Front (FSLN) is named after Sandino.
The next day, we visited a non-profit medical clinic named Nueva Vida clinic, run by the U.S.-based NGO Center for Development in Central America in the Ciudad Sandino neighbourhood. The clinic was started during the neoliberal government’s time (1990-2006) when health care was too expensive for poor people to afford. The clinic provides care and medicines at very affordable rates.
In the afternoon, we had a meeting with labour union leaders. Many are government legislators so they represent workers from within the government. In Nicaragua, education —including university— and health care are free and defense spending in 2022 was 0.53 per cent of the country’s GDP.
On July 17, we visited a rural village and an aquaponics farm. The farmer raises tilapia fish in tanks, sold market size fish, and sold or gave away smaller fish. She had aquatic plants growing with the fish in the tanks and used the fish manure on vegetable beds. She also raised chickens and pigs. It was very impressive.
Later we visited a community potable water committee, in charge of maintaining a water well, pumps and a storage tank high on a hill. They also collect water payments and hook-up customers.
The next day, there were street parties organized all over Managua and other cities in the country, with bands playing and dancing. The whole population takes part. The delegation was taken in various buses to different parts of Managua to take part in the street parties or vigils. On most of the street parties my group was bused to there were karaoke drag queen performances. Drag queens told members of our group that they were glad to live in a country where they could express their sexuality without fear of persecution.
July 19 is the anniversary of the 1979 revolution; it is a really big deal every year in part because the U.S. supported Somoza dictatorship was so horrible. When people failed to reelect the FSLN, after many years of aggression and losing young people in the fight against the Contras, there were 17 years of neoliberal governments where many of the gains of the revolution were lost.
In the morning, there was excitement in the air. At the celebration venue, we were seated in rows which from the air was heart-shaped with rays flowing out. On stage, dance performances were given and all the dignitaries were lined up: representatives from Russia and other East European countries, China, Vietnam and other Asian countries, many countries in Africa and South America, representatives from Nicaraguan military, police and civil organizations.
One of the favourites was clearly Leila Khaled from Palestine who gave an impassioned speech explaining her struggles and thanking Nicaragua for its support. Daniel Ortega’s speech was at the end; he layed out the gains of the revolution and the problems Nicaragua encounters from sanctions and blockades, mainly from the U.S.
Within the crowd were many Sandinista youths as well as many other delegation participants from North America, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. They cheered the speakers, dance performers and broke out in spontaneous revolutionary songs.
For more on Nicaragua, check out NicaNotes for updates in English, and Nicaragua 2018: Uncensoring the Truth.
Dirk Groenenberg is a chemical-free farmer from Rusagonis and a member of solidarity groups such as the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network and Fredericton Palestine Solidarity.