Nicaragua since 1937 up to 1979 was ruled by one family. This is almost 42 years of rule. The family that ruled Nicaragua was the Somoza family. They were corrupt and they had ties with the U.S. how is it possible that a country that is corrupt to their own people, the leaders that is, still have ties with the U.S. Does the U.S. approve of it? No, the U.S. just did not want another country near home becoming communist or socialist. The Somoza family was all about gain so there was none of that. So as long as there was no communism the U.S. was in favor of the Somoza family.
What is a bigger issue is that when the Sandinistas come to Nicaragua around 1961, they are communist socialist, and they want to help the people and end the corruption that is seen with the Somoza. Here is when the U.S. sees this communist party come to power and they are in fear, Somoza is in fear. But the Sandinistas and other Nicaraguans are done with the corruption that is taking place in the country. The poor are poor, with no education, and their resources are taken away. The rich that favor Somoza stay rich and are educated. There is a lot of corruption. The cities look trashed, and people are starving and have to watch what they say, but the police are driving Mercedes Benz. How is this possible?
I took a Spanish class, Women Authors of Latin America and a main focus was women in Revolution. First I would like to mention Gioconda Belli. In her books La mujer habitada and El pais bajo mi piel. In these two books she gives a pretty good view of the Nicaragua at the time, how there was so much corruption. Her family was lucky and was part of the higher class, but her family did not approve of Somoza at all, but nothing could be said or done. In both of these books she discusses the roles of women in the revolution. At first she did not even think about such a thing, but once she befriended some revolutionary friends and saw how her country was with all the corruption and how people started to lose everything, neighborhoods of people, their jobs and homes were being destroyed by Somoza. This is where she begins to notice and wants to fight for the revolution, but her passion is so strong that she is even willing to die for the revolution. This is something that is romantic, because before only men said that they would die for a revolution, but with Belli and other women involved in the Nicaraguan revolution, they too state that they would die for the change.
I think what changed everything was the earthquake in Managua, Nicaragua in 1972. Managua and areas around it were destroyed, people died, homes, and jobs were destroyed. Resources were sent to Nicaragua, from the U.S., Mexico, and other countries, but these resources never got to the people right away. What Somoza decided to do was, to sell the resources to his people. Sell the free resources that the people needed right away to survive the earthquake. This is corruption to another extreme. The people realized this, the Sandinistas realized this, and recognized that this was not right, and this only gave them more strength to continue with a revolution against Somoza.
With help from Fidel Castro, Cuba, the Nicaraguan people, and the Sandinistas, the revolution was a success and Somoza was no more. But in Nicaragua we see that women for the first time in revolution, fighting with arms, and are willing to die for the revolution. This is a great image for Latin Americans, Nicaraguans, but especially for the women.
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