Viva La Revolucion!

Dateline 1246 Marbles

So we are now in Leon, Nicaragua for the week.  Leon is in the northwest quadrant of Nicaragua.  It is a great colonial city that rivaled Granada for power throughout much of Nicaragua’s history.  It is filled with universities and the largest cathedral in Central America.  However, the citizens seem to take the most pride in that Leon was the first capital of the revolution.

I have read a lot about the revolution prior to this trip.  All I knew before was some headlines about the contra’s that lead to the Iran contra fiasco.  As a Norte Americano, I saw it framed as a proxy war between Russia and the US for the control of Nicaragua.

I am by no means an historian or qualified to have a matured decision on this war and America’s role in it but I have learned it was quite complicated.  The Nicaraguan’s suffered for 50 years under the Somoza family regime and the people really wanted and needed change. 

Civil wars are always tragic in that it is countryman vs countryman and brother against brother.  All war is horrible but there is just something gut wrenching when a country aerial bombs its own cities.

You probably did not come to the blog today for a history lesson.  I write this because while we toured Leon I met several people who were part of the revolution and heard their version of the war.  In fact, we visited a museum on the square that is run entirely by ex-Sandinista fighters.   They give a personal history of what led up to the war and why they fought.

As usual most revolutions seem to get hijacked by a few leaders who seize power in the vacuum and use it to their own advantage.  That seems like it may be the case here in Nicaragua.  More on that later.

However, after reading before my trip, touring the city of Leon and talking to the actual participants of the revolution my perspectives are richer and it challenges some of the conventional wisdom I had prior to the trip.  Perhaps this encounter with history is one of the successes of our trip thus far.

 

 

PS – I was particularly happy that my Sandinista tour guide said they loved the people of the United States. He even gave me a big hug.  It seems apart from the rhetoric of a few aging leaders in Nica, the US role in the civil war is part of the past.  It was their civil war.  The Russians/Cubans and the Americans interfered in it but it was at its heart, a change brought on by the Nicaraguans themselves.

PSS – There goes my chance for the Republican nomination for President !