Carlos Fonseca

Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of Carlos Fonseca. Everyone from the AMUCOBU piled into 2 taxis to attend the celebration. It was my first time in the central plaza of Managua. Because of the many earthquakes that have plagued the city, there aren´t a lot of historical buildings still standing. Only one towering cathedral (or the ruins of the cathedral), the presidential palace, the national museum, and a few others. A crowd of people in red and black greeted us (the colors of the Sandinistas). Many waved huge black and red striped Sandinista flags, others wore bandanas with FSLN painted on them. Others wore the pink hats and t-shirts of Ortega's campaign. It seemed to be not only a celebration of Fonseca, but of the recent Sandinista victory in the election. Booming firecrackers went off every few minutes. We pushed through the wall of people surrounding Fonseca´s memorial monument, built during the rule of the Sandinista´s in the ´80´s. Crowned by an eternal flame, the monument was covered with flowers, and stray petals floated in the moat surrounding it. We then stood aside waiting for the parade to pass. I watched people walk by- elderly, babies, young kids with FSLN t-shirts, teenagers wearing tight jeans and black and red bandanas. The parade never passed, so we met up with the rest of our group and squeezed onto an overcrowded schoolbus... The top of the bus was full of youth waving flags and cheering. The bus never actually made it to the barrio, so we had to take a couple of taxis to get home. Celebrating radical history in the streets , with such widespread participation and sense of the revolution being carried on today, is not something I´ve ever experienced in the states.