I look slight uncomfortable during torture scenes, and use non-torture methods
in addition to torture (which I do literally nothing to stop). Woah, so much nuance!
In the end, I knew I had to go with a woman from Latin America. Not because women in Latin America are more deserving than women from anywhere else, but because Latin America is my main area of study. There aren't too many things I could say about Angela Davis or Malala Yousef that people more thoughtful and informed than me haven't already said.
Even still, choosing a single woman to write about from a region as vast and diverse as Latin America was a challenge. There were many I wanted to choose. The person whom I chose is only one example of a rich history of badass women in Latin American history. Consider this post a small pathway to learning about more organizers, revolutionaries, writers, and other notable women from Latin America.
With all of that being said, the woman I chose to write about is Gioconda Belli. Gioconda is a poet, novelist, revolutionary, and mother. She fought in the Nicaraguan Revolution with the FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional, or Sandinista National Liberation Front), also known as the Sandinistas, against the Somoza dictatorship.
I came here to kick ass and write beautifully worded poems
that explore a wide spectrum of the human condition... and I'm all out of poems
First, a brief bit of background. Since I've already written about the Somoza dictatorship in my post about Immortal Technique lyrics and Latin America, I'll just copy what I have from there:
"Nicaragua gained its independence in 1821, but instability and harsh leadership were there in abundance. Starting in 1909 the United States occupied Nicaragua, including stationing marines there in 1912 to protect US interests. There was a lot of resentment and resistance from the majority of the Nicaraguan population during this occupation. This included an armed resistance led by Augusto Cesar Sandino, who became a national hero of Nicaragua (and is still considered one to this day).
The occupation lasted until 1933. At that point the United States
withdrew, but established the National Guard, led by Anastasio Somoza Sr
and trained by the US so that they would be loyal to US interests.
Soon after, Somoza ordered the assassination of Sandino in 1934 and came
to power in a rigged election in 1937. This launched the beginning of
the Somoza Dynasty, which included Anastasio Somoza Sr and his two sons
Luis and Anastasio Jr.
Their reign was of a right wing military dictatorship that were responsible for numerous human rights violations.
However, that didn't stop the United States from being extremely close
to the Somozas. In fact, when Anastasio Somoza Sr was shot in 1956,
Eisenhower had his own medical staff flown out to treat Somoza. Aww, besties!"
Alternatively, instead of that explanation, I could've just
conveyed how awful he was by showing you a picture of him with that mustache
Basically, the Somoza Dynasty was the type of regime you'd see in a dystopian novel.
Gioconda Belli opposed the Somoza Dynasty, but she didn't have to do anything about it. She wasn't one of the people living in the slums of the city or working the land out in the countryside. She grew up in privilege, in an upper middle class suburb in Managua, the nation's capital. Her parents were from high society. In fact, long before becoming a revolutionary, Belli spent a lot of her early years resisting the conservative, high-society values she grew up around.
Her family didn't like the Somozas, but her parents didn't actually do anything to resist his regime. This isn't to condemn them, because resisting a dictator who has a love for violent repression is easier said than done. Belli grew up relatively shielded from the Somoza's violence, but still opposed the regime.
Above I mentioned that she was also a mother. This was no random detail; it guided everything she did. As she explained in her memoirs, after first meeting Sandinistas through her work, she first started working with them precisely because she was a mother. She felt strongly that she owed it to her kids to fight for a better world, so that "[her daughter] wouldn't have to do the work that [she] was not willing to do"* in fighting the Somozas. It was love that compelled Belli to become a revolutionary.
Look at these hooligans, trying to create a better world for their children!
Her transition towards becoming a revolutionary happened in tandem with her rise as a poet. As she put it in her memoir: "Poetry was the result of exuberant, life-giving spirit. Once I could assert my power and strength as a women I felt able to shake the impotence our dictatorship made me feel, with all the misery it had sown. I could no longer feel that change was impossible."*
That's what makes her story noteworthy: how all of her identities intersected. Her identity as a revolutionary grew alongside, and intertwined with, her identity as a woman, poet, and mother. It's an idea that isn't new by any means, but beautifully stated by Belli throughout her memoir.
As a Sandinista, Belli essentially acted as a spy for the revolutionaries. She maintained her life as a bourgeois housewife and office worker during the day, but met with different contacts in the Sandinistas and helped them organize at night (or whenever else she could make the time).
Eventually, however, the regime began to suspect her. She found herself frequently tailed by Somoza's national guard when she drove, and her house often had patrol cars stationed outside. Still she continued to assist the revolution whenever she could. Eventually this caught up with her in 1975, but since she was wealthy, she ended up in exile rather than dead.
Then again, even affluent voices of dissent weren't safe, even non-violent/non-revolutionary ones.
Even abroad, Belli still found ways to help out the revolution in her home country. She acted as an ambassador of sorts, going to different countries to make a case for the Sandinista cause against the Somoza Dynasty and participating in Sandinista solidarity marches in these countries. This continued until her return to the country 1979, just before the Sandinistas won the Nicaraguan Revolution on July 17th.
Her work wasn't done after the revolution's victory, however. After the FSLN won and established a socialist democracy in Nicaragua, the FSLN transitioned from a revolutionary force to a political party. She served as the party's international press liaison beginning in 1982 and the director of State Communications in 1984 after the FSLN as a party won the 1984 elections that international observers deemed to be fair.
Unfortunately for Nicaragua, Reagan became president shortly after the Somoza Dynasty was overthrown. He funded right wing terrorists, made up largely of National Guard members of the Somoza regime, to wage war against Nicaragua. Belli helped organize against these counter-revolutionary forces, known as the Contras.
Unfortunately, while the Contras weren't strong enough to defeat the FSLN, the backing of the US allowed them to hold on long enough to devastate a country already recovering from the Nicaraguan Revolution. The fighting tore Nicaragua apart, and a demoralized population voted against FSLN candidate Daniel Ortega for moderate candidate Violetta Chamorro in 1990 after the Reagan/Bush administrations promised to end support for the Contras and the embargo against Nicaragua if Chamorro was chosen. Unlike the 1984 elections, which had an electric air of excitement and optimism to them, there was "a sense of mourning" after Chamorro's victory, though Belli makes the point that Chamorro "turned out to be a maternal figure whose simple words cradled and consoled the divided, broken country"* during her presidency.
Belli has since lived in both Nicaragua and the United States, having fell in love with and married an NPR reporter from the United States. She hasn't been afraid to criticize different aspects and people of the FSLN in the years since, either. Especially former/current president Daniel Ortega, who many allege is an opportunist who is a Sandinista in name only.
Apparently with terrible mustaches comes terrible leadership.
To this day Belli still organizes, though she spends more time as a writer and speaker. Even with everything she has experienced, she remains an optimist. Her memoir ends with one of the most beautiful, insightful passages I've ever seen, and I'd like to share it with you:
"I dare say, after the life I have lived, that there is nothing quixotic or romantic in wanting to change the world. It is possible. It is the age-old vocation of all humanity. I can't think of a better life than one dedicated to passion, to dreams, to the stubbornness that defies chaos and disillusionment. Our world, filled with possibilities, is and will be the result of the efforts offered up by us, its inhabitants. Just as life was a consequence of trial and error, the social organization that brings us the full realization of our potential as a species will issue from the ebb and flow of struggles we jointly take across the globe.
The future is a construct that is shaped in the present, and that is why to be responsible in the present is the only way of taking serious responsibility for the future. What is important is not the fulfillment of all one's dreams, but the stubborn determination to continue dreaming. We will have grandchildren, and they will have children too. The world will continue, and whether we know it or not, we are deciding its course every day.
My deaths, my dead, were not in vain. This is a relay race to the end of time. In the United States, just as in Nicaragua, I am the same Quixota who learned through life's battles that defeat can be as much of an illusion as victory."
*All quotes drawn from her excellent memoir "The Country Under My Skin"
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