By Susan Lagos

(Susan Lagos is a retired Spanish teacher from northern California who volunteered in Nicaragua multiple times from 1987 to 2004, and has lived in Ciudad Dario, Matagalpa, for 20 years.)

On Labor Day weekend in the town of Fort Bragg, California, Paul Bunyan Days are celebrated with logging contests, exhibits, and a wonderful parade. I was riding my palomino horse in the parade in 1982, dressed in my Mexican dance costume, when I saw Nadya Williams, mother of some of my Spanish students at Mendocino High School, carrying a sign that said “STOP Bombing El Salvador”.

Being the mother of sons ages 6 and 11, I had not been aware of politics in Central America, between soccer games, swimming lessons, and church activities. So I asked her about the situation. Over the next few years, I became involved in a group offering asylum to a Salvadoran father and his two sons, and they came to live in the mobile home rental on my property. One night I received a phone call asking me to take them to meet Father José Alas, a Liberation Theology priest from El Salvador. Then for a week in February 1987, I traveled in a small group with Father Alas to see the projects he had started for Salvadoran refugees in Nicaragua. I had briefly been in Nicaragua in the early 1970s, before and after the 1972 earthquake that destroyed Managua during the Somoza dictatorship. This was while I was living in Costa Rica, teaching and earning my master’s degree in Linguistics at the University of Costa Rica.

The trip with Father Alas was quite an eye opener, a chance to see the Revolution that had triumphed on July 19, 1979, in action. I began my education about the Revolution, Liberation Theology, and the Contra War. I felt I needed to experience more, so I joined Maestros Por La Paz, a group in San Francisco who carefully prepared volunteers to teach English in Nicaragua the summer of 1987 to workers at IRENA, (later MARENA) the Natural Resources Institute which handled environmental policy.

So, during the summer of 1987, I fell in love with Nicaragua. I saw how Nicaraguans fought for freedom from control by imperialism, but wanted to live in peace. I lived with Monchita, the mother of co-worker Rosamaria, near the Ivan Montenegro Market. I traveled every day to IRENA on the North Highway on a very-crowded public bus. Monchita was from the town of Rosita in the Mining Triangle in the north. She had been the housekeeper of a gringo who took a small plane-load of gold out twice a week to the US during the Somoza years. The north Caribbean area back then had no roads, no phones, no electricity, no drinkable water, very scarce education. Monchita was a fountain of stories and experiences that she generously shared with me, about Julio Buitrago and other martyrs in the neighborhood who gave their lives so that others could be free. Free from the horrible treatment of dictator Somoza’s Guardia Nacional, who tortured and murdered any youth suspected of being involved in the Sandinista Revolution. We experienced the Repliegue walk, a reenactment of the escape in June 1979 of the people in the eastern barrios of Managua who fled south to Masaya to avoid being bombed by Somoza’s planes. In the reenactment, we walked in the dark of night with no lights on paths off the road. I never would have made it if young Sandinista soldiers hadn’t practically carried me by the elbows in the pitch-dark night. In 1979, Somoza was also bombing Esteli, Chinandega, Matagalpa, Leon, and Masaya during those days before he gave up and flew out of Nicaragua on July 17, 1979, ending over 40 years of repressive rule by his father, his brother and himself. They owned a third of the country, treating the campesinos like slaves, with no access to health care, education, decent housing and wages. Franklin Roosevelt said “He’s an SOB, but he’s our SOB.” Somoza was the only Latin American leader who slept in the White House and was given a military parade reception. It is estimated that 50,000 people died achieving the victory of the Revolution in 1979, and another 50,000 died fighting the Contras during the 1980s. No wonder Nicaraguans want peace!

Besides our interaction with our students at IRENA, Maestros por la Paz traveled to Matagalpa where the July 19 celebration was to be held that year. We stayed with a very hospitable family, six of us sleeping on their dirt floor, eating one of their three chickens. Since I was the responsable who spoke more Spanish, I asked our host how many children they had. He paused, then told me they had four, but the Contra had recently killed two of them. When he saw the chagrin on our faces, he quickly added that Nicaraguans distinguish between the US government and Reagan who sponsors the Contra “Freedom Fighters,” and the people from the US that come down to offer help in the Revolution. That day we heard fiery speeches by Tomas Borge and Daniel Ortega, as well as many Sandinista songs. We marveled at how the Sandinistas managed to carry out the Literacy Campaign in 1980, bringing literacy from around 50% mainly in cities to over 88% in six months, with the city youth living with campesino families, a lasting benefit for both.

At IRENA, everyone stayed an extra hour after work to teach other workers the next grade level they needed. The feeling of solidarity was everywhere. Because of the US boycott, people had no access to many items such as toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, razors, and soap, but the general attitude was always friendly, helpful, and non-complaining. The Sandinista government organized vaccination campaigns and established schools and agricultural co-operatives on land left by Somoza and his cohorts. But they also had to fight the vicious Contras that Reagan sent to stop the “Communists,” even though only a third of the land left by Somoza was state-owned, and many people had their own farms, businesses, and houses: a mixed economy.

While we were in Nicaragua, news about the cruelty of the Contras, trained in Honduras by the CIA, was constant. They were killing and torturing teachers, health workers, church delegates of the word, as well as campesinos in co-operatives. Many times, we were asked why the US government wanted to destroy tiny Nicaragua, just for trying to improve the lives of poor people with education and health care, a question still being asked today, about the many sanctions the US government has placed on this country. When I returned home after ten weeks, my first re-entry culture shock example was when we replaced the toilet at home, only to realize we forgot to get the toilet seat. Oh my gosh, I realized, in ten weeks in Nicaragua, I never once saw a toilet seat; all had been broken and there were no replacements.

The 1990 election was lost by the Sandinistas. The US government made it very clear that the boycott and Contra war would get worse if people didn’t elect Violeta Chamorro, their hand-picked and financially-supported candidate. The ensuing neo-liberal governments from 1990-2006 totally changed course, abandoning the priorities of free education and health care for the majority, and lining their pockets instead. (Watch this YouTube documentary Los 16 Años que nos Robaron).

After participating in a Fulbright teacher exchange to La Plata, Argentina, in 1988-89, I again focused on Nicaragua. A former student, Patrick Rickon, after going to help build Habitat for Humanity houses near Dario, decided to return to Nicaragua to help communities build school desks. Yes, back in the 1990’s in the communities around Dario, Matagalpa, students sat on a rock under a tree for school, or some lucky ones that owned a school desk, carried it to class and back home again. So, Patrick, with a group of friends in Mendocino County, founded Seeds of Learning which was dedicated to aiding communities that wanted a small two-room school. Groups travelled to Nicaragua for two weeks with suitcases full of books and supplies, and laid bricks with the community, while playing with the children and getting to know the adults. We led many groups over the next years, enriching both the visitors and the Nicaraguans. We organized teachers to travel to Nicaragua and pair up with Nicaraguan teachers to give workshops on different school subjects, to supply them with more approaches to teaching. Many rural teachers at that time came straight out of high school to teach in poorly-equipped outlying rural schools all week and take education classes on Saturday.

After another Fulbright teacher exchange to Chile in 1994-95, I returned to Nicaragua the summer of 1996 to work with Seeds of Learning again and gather information for a paper about cooperative projects that included the re-Compas and re-Contras (rearmed soldiers who had fought each other in the 1980s). By now I had been a single mother for 12+ years and my sons were grown up. I had made friends with Central Americans who came to northern California during those years, mostly working in the sea urchin export businesses in Noyo Harbor. Two Nicaraguan friends told me to look up their brother, Walter, while in Nicaragua, and whoops, I ended up marrying him after he came to California on a fiancé visa. After working another eight years, traveling to Nicaragua whenever we could, we decided to retire in 2004 and look for a farm/ranch in Nicaragua.

Walter was raised with cows and studied to be a veterinarian after fighting the Contras during the 80s. We bought a farm near Dario and, as a retired teacher who had no idea about farming and selling produce, I learned to make fresh cheese, harvest sorghum by hand, sell lemons, corn, avocados, mangos, even puppies and kittens, from my front porch in Dario.  Later, I got to know people in the Friends of the ATC (Asociacion de Trabajadores del Campo) through Erika Takeo and through them became acquainted with campesino cooperatives in the departments of Madriz, Jinotega, Matagalpa, Carazo, Managua, Esteli, and with the IALA, the Instituto Agroecologico de Latino América in Chontales. I was re-educated, learning to use natural pesticides and fertilizers instead of harmful chemical products, and to admire the ATC’s goals of improving rural life, especially for women and youth.

In 2017, Walter and I went our separate ways, and I decided to stay in my house in Dario since, on a teacher’s pension, life would be impossible in California. And I preferred living in Sandinista Nicaragua where free universal education and health care are provided by 50% of the national budget rather than spending that percentage on weapons and war back in the US. The Sandinistas, with Daniel Ortega as President, came back into power in 2007 and since then have been rebuilding infrastructure: excellent roads, almost 100% electrical coverage (only 47% in 2007), free schools and new hospitals everywhere, maternity wait homes (casas maternas) so pregnant moms from the countryside can have closer access to the hospitals, meals for primary students daily, and a law that 50% of government offices must be held by women. Nicaragua produces about 90% of its food. Daniel Ortega has been re-elected by popular vote for his excellent leadership with the goal of eliminating poverty.

In April of 2018, our peace and prosperity were once again disrupted by an attempted coup, orchestrated by the US government (CIA and NED), who trained and financed traitors to try to overthrow the legally elected Sandinista government. The many roadblocks violently disrupted travel to work, school, etc., and many of us lay awake at night wondering whether the drug dealers from Colombia and mara gangs from El Salvador would be taking over. I am not kidding: when coup leader Felix Maradiaga’s office was inspected, they found videos of his connections with both! He studied under Gene Sharp, famous for Arab Spring and Color Revolutions. But President Daniel Ortega was astute, agreeing during the dialogs with the opposition and the Catholic bishops supposedly mediating, to keep the police in their barracks if they would remove the roadblocks. When the populace could see that the violence was not associated with the police (who have always been trained to help rather than harm their fellow citizens), in July the citizens and police removed the roadblocks, defeating the coup leaders, who with a blitz of lies on Facebook, had tried to convince people that Daniel Ortega was a cruel dictator that had to go.

In 2019, Susan joined a Friends of the ATC delegation at the July 19th celebration. From right to left are Susan Lagos, Marien Sanchez and Carlos Rodriguez—directors of the Agroecology Institute of Latin America of the ATC which trains young campesinos from Central America and Dominican Republic—and  Helen Yuill of the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign of the UK.

Nan McCurdy organized several of us to write chapters in two E-books, Nicaragua 2018: Peaceful Protest or Attempted Coup? and The Revolution will not be Stopped. We also have rebuffed many lies about Nicaragua in the US media. It’s an obsession of the US government to control Nicaragua but they have not succeeded! William Walker’s slave state was demolished in the 1850s. US Marines, controlling banks, customs, elections, etc. from 1912 to 1933, finally had to leave because they couldn’t beat anti-imperialist Augusto Sandino and his small army. Somoza’s National Guard, trained by the Marines, threatened citizens until the 1979 victory of the Revolution. Then came the Contra War in the 1980’s and the coup attempt of 2018. Hey, the Monroe Doctrine is obsolete! Nicaragua is a sovereign country!

I have now lived in Ciudad Dario (named after renowned poet Ruben Dario who was born here) in the same house 20 years. Since my divorce, I have cultivated several close friends, including Dra. Johanna Malespin (trained in Cuba) and her daughter Dra. Johannita Calderon Malespin (oriental medicine), famous dress-designer Rosibel Méndez, and my adopted daughter Luz Marina Treminio, with grandkids Osmary, Isac, and Susanita. I live in a peaceful neighborhood, walk to the corner store. No weird angry gun slingers. I became a Nicaraguan citizen in March 2022, very proud to live in this peaceful place. I’m definitely NOT planning to leave.

* * * * *

Briefs
By Nan McCurdy 

FSLN Inherited Ideals and Example from Carlos Fonseca
On Nov. 8, the anniversary of the death of Carlos Fonseca, the founder of the FSLN, President Daniel Ortega said that Nicaraguans continue in the battle to build a new society because they have been able to defend the peace and security that represents welfare for families. “Carlos gave his life 48 years ago; but also his words, his ideals, his example and bequeathed them to the Sandinista National Liberation Front to achieve victory on July 19, 1979,” Ortega said, adding, “Today we say to Carlos that we are in the struggle, that we are still in the battle and that we are still building, because we have known how to defend peace. With peace there is security and when there are peace and security, then, there is wellbeing for Nicaraguans.”

“Carlos opened a path for the Nicaraguan people and here we are Carlos, opening new roads for the benefit of the Nicaraguan people,” Ortega stated during the ceremony for the 48th anniversary of Fonseca’s fall in combat. He also recalled that on November 7, 1970, Carlos Fonseca signed a document that circulated clandestinely entitled “Message to the Nicaraguan people,” where he warned that the usual traitors, the usual enemies of the people would be definitively defeated. “This is how it has been and how it will be,” stated the Sandinista leader. He added, “And we are in solidarity with the heroic people of Cuba who have been resisting the onslaught of a blockade for more than 60 years and who have also suffered two recent hurricanes [and two very recent earthquakes].” See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/seguimos-abriendo-caminos-en-bienestar-de-los-nicaraguenses/ See photos of earthquake damage: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/dos-potentes-terremotos-sacuden-a-cuba/
(La Primerisima, 8 November 2024)

Scarlet Cuadra House of Culture, Historic Space in Bluefields
The new the Scarlet Cuadra Waters House of Culture is in the historic heart of Bluefields, in Punta Fría, the oldest neighborhood of the city. The name is a tribute to

a prominent Sandinista, guerrillera of the Southern Front, feminist and journalist, who lived in Bluefields until she was 18 years old and died on December 30, 2018. Daughter of the poet Manolo Cuadra and Ruth Waters, both anti-Somocistas, Scarlet grew up in the Beholden neighborhood, in her maternal grandfather’s house. The House of Culture that bears her name began operating a month ago, offering attention to young people from nearby neighborhoods. From the House of Culture, the majestic Bluefields Lagoon can be appreciated. Located on Tulululú Street, this area is known both for its historical value and for housing three other museums: the Afro Descendant House Museum, the Miss Lissie Nelson Municipal Museum and the CIDCA Museum of the BICU University, which together preserve the cultural heritage of the region. The Scarlet Cuadra House of Culture adds to this historical and cultural environment, occupying the site of the former National Guard barracks. It has now become a renovated space that seeks to preserve and promote the rich cultural heritage of Bluefields. (La Primerisima, 9 November 2024)

Companies Monitored for Hiring Minors
Officials of the Ministry of Labor carried out 74 child labor inspections during the past week in the departments of Boaco, Chinandega, Chontales, Estelí, Madriz, Managua, Masaya, Matagalpa, Nueva Segovia, RACCN, RACCS, Rivas and Rio San Juan. During this period, 231 commitment agreements to avoid hiring child labor were signed with employers and 83 permits were issued to adolescents who meet the minimum working age in the departments of Estelí, Jinotega, Madriz, Managua, Masaya, Matagalpa and Nueva Segovia. As part of the work, 346 labor inspections were carried out, supervising 9,426 workers in León, Chinandega, Managua, Carazo, Rivas, Masaya, Madriz, Granada, Nueva Segovia, Jinotega, Chontales, Río San Juan, RACCN, RACCS, Boaco, Estelí, Matagalpa. Five training events on labor rights and duties were held for 233 workers and employers in Chinandega, León, Matagalpa, RAAN, Rivas and Rio San Juan. See photos: https://radiolaprimerisima.com/mitrab-vigila-empresas-para-evitar-contratacion-de-menores/ (La Primerisima, 9 November 2024)

National Oncology Center Installation in Managua
The installation of the Dr. Juan Gutiérrez National Oncology Center began on November 11, in honor of President Daniel Ortega’s birthday. A press release explained that this process will be developed in four stages, the first one starts this November 11, 2024, and will conclude in March 2025. The center, which will be located where INCAE used to be, will provide medical and surgical attention to cancer patients from all over the country, will be equipped with high technology equipment and will have specialized personnel in different areas of oncology. There will be more than 30 consulting rooms to provide more than 80,000 oncology services in Hemato-oncology, Oncology Surgery, Gynecologic Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Oncology Neurosurgery, Oncology Urology, Oncology Orthopedics, and Nuclear Medicine. The center will be able to provide chemotherapy for 50 patients at a time. And a similar number of patients may receive radiotherapy treatments. The center will also have housing units to provide shelter for 150 patients and their families who are undergoing radiation therapy and chemotherapy treatments.

In February 2026, the radiology, clinical laboratory and pathology diagnostic services will be fully operational. As of November 2026, the emergency service, operating room and hospitalization area will be built. The emergency area will have five consulting rooms, a nebulization area, 12 observation beds and more. There will be six operating rooms and six surgical recovery beds, where 3,000 oncological surgeries will be performed annually. There will be a two-story building with 200 hospitalization beds, with eight nursing stations. In December 2027, the nuclear medicine service will begin to perform diagnostic studies with radiopharmaceuticals and treatment of 40 patients weekly for thyroid cancer with iodine. (La Primerisima, 11 November 2024)

US$500 Million Earmarked for New Housing in Managua
The Mayor’s Office of Managua reported that nearly US$500 million have been allocated for the construction of some 1,400 affordable housing units and 313 apartments. During an ordinary consultative meeting, the office explained that the 2025 Municipal Investment Plan amounts to approximately US$3.3 billion, with which 513 projects will be executed that will directly benefit 468 neighborhoods. This is aside from the money to further the mega road project in Managua called the Heroes and Martyrs of the Insurrection Highway. (La Primerisima, 11 November 2024)

More than 200,000 Young People to Enter Universities
Professor Ramona Rodríguez announced this week that, in 2025, the public, intercultural and community universities will receive more than 200,000 students. In 2024 an enrollment of 180,220 students was reached including the University in the Countryside modality. Rodriguez said that the country has 11 public universities, which serve the student population in different departments. She said the University in the Countryside Program provides access to higher education in rural areas. There has also been considerable progress in higher education in the Caribbean area. Higher education is free at all the universities that are part of the National University Council (CNU). Rodriguez said, “We have put a minimum grade point average for some fields like dentistry, medicine, law and some engineering specialties.  We have to train professionals who are competent and contribute to the development of the country. This is why the government guarantees the budget for the universities; this helps guarantee quality.”

The students compete based on their high school grade point average. And if they do not place with their first option, they can be placed in their second or third, or with the same field, but in another university. Rodriguez said that Nicaragua is a model for higher education, because it is in a process of evolutionary transformation. She added that in order to achieve quality in higher education, constant training for teachers and curricular updating is sought, in addition to scientific, pedagogical and methodological training. And universities must carry out research, protect intellectual production and generate patents, which is a major challenge. Finally, Rodriguez invited all the young people to do the pre-enrollment process with confidence in the quality that exists in Nicaraguan higher education. (La Primerisima, 12 November 2024)