so i´ve been procrastinating writing down what we learned from a lecture from aynn setright about the history of nicaragua but i need to before i forget more than i already have. so to start with the geographical location of nicaragua has had an immense impact on the countries history-it´s the belly button of the Americas. Sandino is perhaps the oldest national hero and still revered today, in fact we went to a concert of sorts for Sandino´s birthday one of the first days we were here. His silouette is everywhere, including the top of a hill central in the city where we went on our historic tour, where Somoza´s presidential palace used to be before the earthquake. Sandino was mainly and most importantly anti-imperaliastic (against the US of course) in the thirties when the marines came to Nicaragua and he led the armed force to kick the marines out of the country. In ´34 the Us condoned his assasination after getting in with the first of the three Somozas. Somoza invited Sandino to the presidential palace and had him ambushed on the road home so the story goes, thus inaugurating decades of cruel dictatorship sponsored by the US of A. from 35-39 the main aim of the US was economic stability and as such the dictatorship was lo mejor. The affects of this alliance can be seen from something as simple as the name of Somoza´s army-the national guard. hand in hand with Somoza was the oligarghy which consisted of the economic elite and a handful of families: often there is made reference to the three p´s in Somoza´s philosophy for running a country: plata=money for my friends; plomo= bullets for my enemies; and palo=sticks for the undecided. It also must be noted that the catholic church had historically alligned itself with the side of power up until the 80´s. During the dictatorship there was no such thing as community development, and economic relations between nica and the us came at the expense of the majority, the poor. so in 72 was the infamous quake that killed 10,000 people and destroyed the city of managua...todavia there are buildings that i have no idea how they are still standing. the last Somoza, Anastasio Debalye, used the tragedy to make some more money and had the city blocked off not for health reasons, not for safety reasons, but so that the national guard could loot all the businesses more effectively. The cuban revolution of 59 and the resulting national liberation movements fueled the flames for nicaragua´s own revolution which manifested in the FSLN which drew on Sandino´s and Fronseca´s ideas of the right of self-determination in a country that had never been allowed any autonomy, any voice in their own nation. Also important to note was the conference in Medellin in 68 in which liberation theology took real shape and which lead to a change in paradigm, or a shift in foregin policy from economic stability to human rights (all this is according to aynn). Out of this also came the CBC´s in which the people came to the table to reflect on lived experience and rediscover a Jesus who was human, was sweating on the streets just like they were and was present in their struggle. The biggest problem these communities faced was the dictatorship and they supported the revolution, if not by taking up arms in other ways. 79 is known as the triumph when Somoza´s statue is fallen in the main plaza and millions of Nicaraguans arrived in Managua celebrating and celebrating and celebrating some more. I´ll finish this next time dude...