Histories

I had an interesting conversation with one of the teachers at Casa Xalteva the other day (they have a website by the way... http://www.casaxalteva.org). I'm always trying to ask people about Nicaraguan history because, as many of you know, I'm a pretty big history nerd, especially when it comes to the history of Latin American wars/revolution. I started asking him a bunch of questions about the time of Somoza (the dictator that the Sandinistas overthrew in July 1979), the time of Sandinista rule, and how it compares to today. He said that when he was a kid, during the time of Somoza, he remembers some military guards coming into his house with guns pointed, looking for people they thought were guerillas. Juan Carlos started crying, and he remembers the guards telling his sisters to make him shut up. He said there were people hiding in the house, but they weren't found. Sergio, my teacher, said that when his mom was pregnant with his older sister in early '79, before the triumph of the revolution, a soldier came into his mother's house and hit her with the butt of his gun. He said that if his mother had been murdered, neither he or his sister would have been born. According to Juan Carlos, the time of the Sandinistas wasn't great either- with the contra war going on and the Sandinistas becoming just as corrupt as their predecessors. Juan Carlos' brother, also named Juan (!), said that even though people have the choice, they so often choose their own oppressors. Juan is a poet, writing about his struggles with addiction to alcohol and his political beliefs. I went to his house and read a couple of the poems, which a friend of his had published...

This conversation took place as a march against the national energy company, Union Fenosa, took place in the rain on Calle Xalteva. They were protesting the privatisation of energy, as there are blackouts every day, which have been getting worse in the past 6 months. Almost every day in class, the lights and fan turn off for at least a couple of hours because of this. Juan says that in the Somoza and Sandinista days, anyone who tried a protest like this would be killed or arrested and jailed. Today things are better.