[1] Holden, Robert H. and Eric Zolov 261
[2] Matilde Zimmerman. Sandinista Carlos Fonseca and the Nicaraguan Revolution. Durham: Duke University Press. 2000. (4-5).
[3] Scruggs, “cultural initiative,” 54.
[4] Wars between the Liberals and the Conservatives revolved around issues of power among the “wealthy families and geographic rivalries” between the two colonial cities Granada and León; ideological differences were minor in comparison (M. Zimmerman, 5).
[5] M. Zimmerman, 5. Other US intervention included Cornelius Vanderbuilt, a U.S. industrialist, who exploited Nicaragua’s geographic location by transporting freight and passengers via the shorter route between the Pacific and the Atlantic. The US also wrote the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty of 1914, which granted the U.S. sole rights to build a canal through Nicaraguan territory (M. Zimmerman, 5).
[6] Literally “little war,” the term “guerrilla” comes from the Spanish “guerrillero” that in the early 20th century implied outlawed, “non-ideological…bushwacker[s];” but guerrilla became become a synonym for “revolutionary” in the 1960s because of Sandino’s legacy; Nicaraguan guerrillas used tactics that were “irregular” and “irrational” according to U.S. forces. Being profoundly anti-imperialistic, “guerrilla” eventually implied a “revolutionary combatant who fought professional soldiers in an ideologically consistent, class-bassed manner” (Craven, Art and Revolution 9,11).
[7] For a more detailed discussion of Sandino: his life, mythology, etc., see Steven Palmer’s article on Sandinismo (noted in bibliography, also see reference above and below).
[10] Fonseca took a saying from Sandino that presented well his ideology: “Only the workers and peasants will go all the way” (M. Zimmerman 3). Fonseca was also very active in writing for the FSLN, “resurrecting and reconstructing the image of Sandino in order to reshape it into the dominant symbol of a powerful revolutionary ideology” (Palmer 92).
[12] Riding, “Managua,” 1,4. Katherine Hoyt, in a study of the ways in which the Sandinistas of 1979 were able “to retrieve democracy,’ for revolutionary socialist movements…describes how all this resulted from a combination of three different forms of democracy: political or representative, democracy—that is, a republican form of government which is based on periodic elections with universal suffrage; participatory, or mass, democracy—a regime which incorporates citizen participation in popular organizations in civil society; and economic democracy [including autogestion, or workplace democracy]—under which there is an equalization in the ownership of wealth and the people exercise control over the use of the resources of the nation as well as over the type of economic system under which they life” (Craven, Art and Revolution, 20).
[13] Babb, 1. “Notwithstanding the great achievements of the Nicaraguan revolution, from the vantage point of the 1990s it is evident, for example, that local initiatives were often subordinated to party interests, feminist and gay organizing were surpressed, and major policy decisions such as the structural adjustment of 1988 were made without sufficient consultation” (Babb, 8).
[14] Scruggs, “cultural initiative,” 55.
[15] John A. Booth. “Socioeconomic and Political Roots of National Revolts in Central America.” Latin American Research Review. 23.1. 1988, 33-63. The struggle against the Contra forces drained much of Nicaragua’s economic posibilities under the Sandinistas; Contra troops were also trained in neighboring Honduras by US forces (Fleming, 48). Although the Reagan administration took much more notice of Nicaragua’s politics than the Carter administration, the U.S. had sought involvement in Latin American politics as early as 1900. U.S. business interests and the Panama Canal led to direct intervention through the mid-1930s, and following 1945 the U.S. focused more on the containment of communism (Booth, 37). The Reagan administration platform promised military aid to El Salvador and Guatemala, as well as an “aggressive anti-Sandinista campaign” that drew ties from Nicaragua to Cuba, to the USSR. Soon after Reagan assumed office he declared, through the publication of the “White Paper,” that Nicaragua was transporting arms to the Salvadoran guerrillas (Zimmerman, Reconstruction, 128).
[17] Poverty manifests itself in countless forms but in a study done by IMPRU, Managua, poverty is as follows: not poor, homes with access to basic social services; poor, homes that may satisfy only one basic service; and extremely poor, homes that cannot satisfy between one and four basic services. (IMPRU. Trabajo Infantil Rural. Las niñas, niños, y adolescente trabajadores del Basurero ‘La Chureca’ y el Derecho a educación. Dos Generaciones. Managua, Nicaragua. 2001, p. 9). For further discussion on understanding poverty in Nicaragua, most especially that of the children and adolescents who work in the Managuan city dump, please see article. The more common definition of poverty, perhaps especially to the North American, would be to define poverty in terms of caloric intake. Yet poverty for Nicaragua, like for most other countries, also refers to education, healthcare, clothing, and housing. And in Nicaragua all of these have historically been closely linked to a lack of basic human rights due to oppression.
[18] Fernando Centeno Chion. “Gestión ambiental para reducción de la pobreza.” La Prensa. May 2003. p.36
[19] Probably the main example would be the promise of agrarian reform; the FSLN failed to provide long-term land leases for the farmers, who were thus left with practically nothing when the FSLN dissolved in 1990. It must also be remembered that FSLN intentions could have possibly been brought to fruition if not for U.S. intervention; and although this is obviously extremely difficult to measure, it is also important to note that the Sandinistas made huge strides in social issues facing Nicaragua, in addition to granting rights to the poor for the first time in Nicaragua’s history. The number of hungry people in Latin America was near 60 million in 1990 (see Ronald Sider’s book as listed in bibliography for discussion of hunger and Christianity). Ronald Sider. Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. Dallas: Word Publishing. 1997. Per capita income in Latin America today is less than thirty percent of that of the West (down from more than fifty percent in the 1960s) (Craven, Art and Revolution, 3).
[20] Margaret Randall. Sandino’s Daughters Revisited Feminism in Nicaragua. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. 1994. Che Guevara, an Argentine doctor who became part of Fidel Castro’s July 26th Movement, fighting in the war of liberation for Cuba from 1956-1959. He influenced many generations “of New Left rebels,” continuing to struggle with other revolutionary causes after leaving clandestinely the Cuban revolutionary government (1). The Cuban Revolution caused turmoil throughout Central America as goverments in 1960 formed the Central American Common Market in the hopes of greater income equality and the creation of new jobs; this tactic aimed to not only “promote regional economic integration, intraregional trade, foreign investment, and industrialization,” but also alieviate poverty and encourage other countries to not follow Cuba’s revolutionary politics (Booth 38, from John A. Booth. “Socioeconomic and Political Roots of National Revolts in Central America.” Latin American Research Review. 23. 1. 1988.).
[21] Steven Palmer. “Carlos Fonseca and the Construction of Sandinismo in Nicaragua. Columbia University. 23. 1. 1988, p.97
[22] Craven, Art and Revolution, 2,13.
[23] Craven, Art and Revolution, 117.
[24] Craven, Art and Revolution, 117.
[25] Craven, Art and Revolution, 119.
[26] Ernesto Cardenal was elected Minister of Culture under the Sandinista regime. Probably Nicaragua’s most famous poet, Cardenal also established a relgious community on Solentiname, founding it in beliefs following the line of liberation theology. He focused on “social justice and community sharing” where lower classes of people could actually participate in society (Craven, Art and Popular Culture, 15-17).
[27] Craven, Art and Revolution, 117
[28] Craven, Art and Popular Culture, 2,3
[29] Scruggs, “cultural initiative,” 54.
[30] Scruggs, “cultural initiative,” 54-55.
[31] Craven, Art and Revolution, 137.
[32] Craven, Art and Popular Culture, 7
[33] Craven, Art and Popular Culture, 15.
[34] Craven, Art and Popular Culture, 260.
[36] Stacke, 74. Alsion y el Condor, a documentary film produced by the Nicarguan Film Institute, was nominated for an Oscar in 1983. The story line follows the life of a young boy living during the years of the Revolution who interacts with U.S. soldiers and dreams of flying (literally, but continually referenced metaphorically throughout the film)
[37] Craven, Art and Revolution, 118.
[38] Scruggs, “cultural initiative,” 57.
[39] Scruggs, “cultural initiative,” 57. Musical recordings also included an “impressive” array of folksong, emphasizing the importance of understanding different types of nationalistic music. It is important to note that although this paper does not discuss the significance of folkmusic as a form of nationalistic and even revolutionary music, such a study would be beneficial in more fully understanding the concept of socially conscious music in Nicaragua. Folk music was, in a sense, socially conscious music because it was inexpressable during the Somoza regime and helped Nicaruguans realize an identity strongly linked with nationalism.
[40] Holden, Robert H. and Eric Zolov, 261.
[41] Scruggs, “Socially Conscious,” 43.
[42] Scruggs, “Socially Conscious,” 41.
[44] Pring-Mill, Roles, 179; Pring-Mill, “So-Called,” 3. This was an idea proposed by Daniel Viglietti, a Uruguayan songwriter who in 1973 said that his songs were designed “not merely ‘to tear down fences’ but also ‘to build bridges,’ and thereby to help in the creation of a better society” (3).
[45] Pring-Mill, Roles. 179. “Revolutionary songs” are passionately committed as a collective entity to “praising heroic figures and lamenting the fallen, denouncing tyrants, campaigning against abuses, proposing solutions, helping to spread ideas and crystallize ideas in the process of ‘raising awareness’ (a poor translation of ‘concientización’ since ‘conciencia’ means not just ‘consciousness’ but also ‘conscience;’ ‘concientización always involves alerting people to the oral dimension of the issues raises” (179)
[46] Beezley and Curcio-Nagy, xi.
[52] Beezley and Curcio-Nagy, xi. The authors also mention oral traditions as associated with visual imagery, dance, and family food.
[53] Beezley and Curcio-Nagy, xvii. Many Latin American elites also attempted to follow the often elitist examples of Europe and the United States, striving to separate themselves from the popular culture’s frequent “breaches of etiquette”(xvii).
[55] Pring-Mill, “So-Called,” 1.
[56] Pring-Mill also gives an example of the oldest song of protest (“A la mina no voy”), one that comes from 17th century black slaves who worked Columbian land for the Spaniards; a song definitely not of propuesta (proposing), it was originally used to depict contrasts between whites and blacks and Pring-Mill sugggests that it could also have been used to portray disparities between gringo leaders of U.S. mining corporations and the people they exploit. A Chilean group made a recording of the song in 1970 as President Salvador Allende attempted to nationalize U.S. owned copper mines (Pring-Mill, “So-Called,” 5).
[57] Pring-Mill, “So-Called,” 3.
[58] Pring-Mill, “So-Called,” 2.
[62] Holden, 261. It is interesting that the conference was held in Cuba, then the first free territory in America; today, however, in terms of freedom of musical expression, very little of Cuba’s music actually leaves the country.
[63] Mitchell, <http://www.delcanton.com/cds/ali_primera_y_los_guaraguao.asp>
[64] The strings appear to be unison violins.
[65] However, it is possible that the phrase “ninos color de mi tierra” (children the color of my land) is referring to the fact that the children of the countryside often have a darker skin (and are of lower class) that may be similar to the color of the land. In that case they create a three-way link that covers all parts of humanity who live specifically in the countryside and suffer from the particular plights of that place.
[67] Craven, Art and Popular Culture, 23.
[68] Craven, Art and Popular Culture, 23.
[69] Scruggs, “Nicaragua,” 764. Mejia Godoy once said that “Misa campesina Nicaraguense served as a kind of musical embodiment of the tenets of liberation theology and greatly enhanced the attractiveness of the religious movement to a population that is (at least nominally) almost entirely Catholic” (Scruggs, “socially conscious,” 64).
[71] Pring-Mill, “Difference,” 41.
[72] In El Salvador, Llegó la hora served a similar function to Nicaragua’s Guitarra Armada, being capable of both appealing to nationalist sentiment and insisting on participation (Almeida, 31).
[73] Enrique Mejía Godoy was also well known and part of a younger generation of musicians who sang in what later came to be called volcanto (really just a later term for Nueva Canción), with “an eclectic array of continental musical influences and electrical instrumentation”(Scruggs, “Nicaragua,” 764).
[74] Scruggs, “Nicaragua,” 764.
[75] "Protest music was recorded clandestinely in El Salvador as well as in Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua, the United States, Canada, and Europe with the aid of international solidarity groups.” (Almeida, 20).
[76] Craven, Art and Popular Culture, 24. Nicaragua developed its first radio stations in 1931 as a result of US marine occupation. According to Scruggs, radio was very important in developing a “national consciousness” in Nicaragua and in its beginnings was influential in the spreading of son nica in the 1940s. As Scruggs states, “Radio played an indispensable role both for projecting music beyond the immediate cultural area around the power center in order to consolidate the outer regions into national ‘culture,’ and for displaying regional musics within the core area in order to include them in the elaboration of a greater Nicaraguan nation” (Scruggs, 306).
[77] Scruggs, “socially conscious,” 65.
[78] Montenegro, 408. The Brigada de Salvación del Canto Nicaraguense (Brigade for the Salvation of Nicaragua Song) was “loosely organized brigade [that] helped to valorize rural-based folk forms and aesthetics to urban youth, in this way building a sense of unity between campesinos and the urban proletariat.” The Talleres del Sonido Popular (Popular Sound Workshops) was an organization that became strong and important in its support for musicians who united in political song. Among other groups, they supported Galpalí (“River Stone” in Nahuatl), Grupo América, Groupo Libertad (Group for Liberty), Grupo del Pueblo (Group of the People), Igni Tawanka (Light of the People, in Miskitu), Ocho de Noviembre (November 8th, the day FSLN founder Carlos Fonseca died in combat), Quinteto Wayna (Quintet of Man, in Miskitu), and Pancasán (named after 1967 unsuccessful battle); probably the most talented group was the latter (Scruggs, “socially conscious,” 64-65).
[80] Please see explanation below, associated specifically with the son nica “Maria de los Guardias.”
[81]
Carasso, 58. Zapata was called the “father of the son nica” (Scruggs,
“let’s enjoy,” 305) as he deliberately sought a distinctly
Nicaraguan guitar-accompanied song style that would be very different from Mexican
styles. Son in Latin America, in general, refers to a sung musical form, and
the two words together emphasize this “nationalist response to an instance
of continental, if not yet global, circulation of style.” The accented
beat, which follows a “dampened downbeat,” also distinguishes the
son from those of Mexico (Scruggs, “let’s enjoy,” 304).
Nicknames are very common in Nicaragua.
[82] Scruggs, “socially conscious,” 55-56.
[83] Scruggs, “let’s enjoy,” 304.
[84] In a similar way, the well known group Cutumay Camones incorporates “nature imagery with elements of everyday lives of its support base, urban workes, and campesinos” in its song “Obreros y campesinos” (Workers and Peasants); this particular song is part of the larger volume, Patria chiquita mia (My Sweet Little Homeland), which emphasizes peace dialogue in El Salvador (Almeida 28-29).
[88] And expression through protest music goes beyond Latin America and is found in Hawaii’s anti-colonial movement of the 1960s and 1970s; Calfornia’s farm worker movement with both El Teatro Campesino and corridos with live skits; the Zimbabwean national liberation struggle in which they used Chimurenga songs with “direct pleas for integration or motivational framing;” Tiananmen Square in spring 1989 as a participant-observer study “contends that singing (especially of the Internationale) and chanting by movement participants and supporters were vital to the formation of a collective consciousness and raised the level of group solidarity” (Almeida 18-19).
[99] Or “life is hard,” from Lancaster’s book. Just in general, some information about poverty in Nicaragua: The iniative Paises Pobres Altamente Endeudados (HIPC), begun in December of 2000, brought hope for some alleviation of Nicaragua’s poverty through a reduction of the external debt. The inadequate Banco Central de Nicaragua (Central Bank of Nicaragua), the unjust confiscation of land during the 1980s, the breaking of fraudulent banks in the 1990s, and the cancellation of public debt through investment in the private sector (neoliberalism!!!, additional info), have all continued to contributed to Nicaragua’s deep-rooted poverty (82)
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