Feliz Holidays

Very happy holidays to everyone...
I wanted to thank you all for reading the emails that I had sent throughout my time in Central America. It's really beautiful to be able to share such experiences with you all and hear your feedback. So once again, thank you for adding to such learning and journeys.

It has been a bit over two weeks, now, since I have been in Spain - visiting family and friends once again... Almost two years have past since I lived here for a semester studying; that is pretty surreal to realize.
Of course, it has been wonderful thus far seeing good friends and re-visiting some of my favorite places... some of my favorite spots in Andújar like the clock tower near the library, the plaza area of San Miguel... even just walking down the narrow streets noticing the different architecture and noises tuned to a Spanish note. I've got to say though that two of my most humorous loves here are that which I have now indulged plenty in-- jamón and olive oil. These tastes have always stuck with me since my "Spanish beginnings";)
For a quick re-cap: My first days were spent in Madrid with a good friend... I loved it!!! It was my first time being in the capital. We explored some of Madrid's most famous areas and visited many pubs in order to take advantage of the tapas lifestyle. I learned how to navigate my way sola through the Metro and I also got to see my former Spanish host mother.
On the way to Andújar, Jaén, I also had one thing happen to me for the first time-- I was robbed!! No worries, the culprits were sneaky enough to the point where I didn't even notice (I was carrying all my backpacking luggage from Central America - running on little sleep and a bit of sadness from leaving Madrid)... Right as I was about to board the bus, I realized that my left jacket packet was broached open (as it was not 15 minutes before then!) and my billfoald was gone... luckily the most important thing in my billfoald was my passport. No worries, my passport has since then been handed into the US embassy in Madrid (as it was found thrown on the street). It will be sent to the home where I'm at in Andújar.
This Friday I'll be heading to Sevilla in order to see a friend from Mexico and check out a social/political activism org.
Then later I will go back to soak up and explore more of Madrid.

I send you all my love and desires that you are passing the time relaxingly with those you care about most.

PS-- check this out-- I received it from a friend this morning:
"Also I would suggest keeping up on the news from Gaza. It's obviously nowhere near identical to the situations we learned about in Central America, but it bears one crucial resemblance: a conservative U.S. president backing an oppressive regime.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/12/2008122994140674153.html

Stolen passport... still some luck

Last Thursday as I was heading for Andújar, Jaén, (from Madrid)I hopped on the Metro with my big backpackers bag that I have been hauling for about four months now and one other backpack that has stuck with me also. Well, little to my knowledge (if my intuition is correct), the two men that were standing strangely close to me on the not-so-filled metro had robbed me. Robbed. For the first time in my life. I didn´t even realize what had happened until I was about to get on the bus to Andújar. Of course, my robbed wallet also had in it my bus ticket. Luckily the conductor listened to my story and let me on in a secret manner of some sort.
I think the tears in my eyes helped a bit.
With a "que lástima" smile on his face, he said "Welcome to Madrid"...

Goodbye for now, Central America... Hello Europe

I arrived at the Barajas airport in Madrid, Spain, this past Sunday at 9 am. Of course the days prior to that had been filled with running around, trying to say goodbye to everyone and finishing up last-minute tasks. Our last night together as a group in Nicaragua was fun after we finally finished packing (or at least some of us) and went to a favorite spot - "Q" - where we danced until the morning hours. After returning to the house I realized it would only be less than two hours until I would have to wake up again, so why not just sleep for twenty minutes!
To say the least, I slept very little on the plane rides which finally brought me to Spain... And then upon staying with my friend in Madrid and being excited and a bit overwhelmed emotionally and mentally, I have ended up going to bed quite late these past nights. It has been worth it, though. But what a choque, also. Of course, Spain is incredibly and blatantly distinct from Nicaragua. Managua, Nicaragua's capital where I lived for the past month or so, is so unlike Madrid, Spain's capital. Now this may sound obvious. But I point this out because what a drastic change in environment I experienced that occurred in just less than one day. It makes one realize, and more so face, the realities of inequity/ies that exist cross-culturally but yet are so closely integrated.
While maneuvering through the metro the other day by myself, I waited on a bench for around 40 minutes in a busy stop and basically just sat and watched people. I could not stop wondering about each person's life and their story... if they were and/or are active in civil society and if they are informed about what is going on in regions such as Central America... These questions could be addressed anywhere in the world; and of course there are many more areas that must be taken into account that expand far beyond Central Am...

Cheney Sin Vergüenza

Listening to DemocracyNow! this morning it was eery to hear Dick Cheney describing how he knew and approved of water-boarding... He remained strong in his supporting stance (of that form of torture) by saying something to the sort of "you can see by the results that it (water-boarding) was a good idea..."
If Cheney would have been at the side of Bush in Iraq at the news conference, I'm sure the Iraqi reporter would have thrown a shoe and some at him, too...

Some Food I'll Take Back

Yesterday was the final day at my home stay... But you know I couldn't stay away from the family so I went back and visited for a couple hours tonight. Luckily all members of the family were there. My brother Paúl recommended that we make some tostones, and there was no way I was going to say no to that.
So while there I decided three -- no, four-- food traditions that I absolutely must keep alive in the US.
The above-mentiones tostones:
-cut into medium-sized pieces a platano that still is green (of course after peeling it)
-fry the pieces with olive oil until they are cooked
-flatten the freshly fried platano pieces with your palm (first place the platano piece under a towel or napkin to avoid burning yourself)
-re-fry the platano pieces until lightly brown

--Once done, eat them with salt, ketchup, and some avocado and cheese (or to whichever way pleases your liking)

gallo pinto:
-cook beans on the stove top (many must be soaked in water overnight before cooking)
once cooked, use any preferred rice and mix the two together
-add salt
--there you have the famous central-american gallo pinto that can be eaten at any meal!

tortillas:
-buy masa (or if you can cook and grind your own corn it's best)
-add water until the dough is ready to be rolled into a ball
-place the dough ball on a flat, hard surface and compact it with your palm
-while compacting the dough, rotate it around and form it into a circle
-place the dough tortillas on a stove top and cook until lightly browned (they're also good toasted so just leave them on longer if you prefer a crunchy tortilla)
-don't forget to flip the tortilla over

juice:
natural papaya juice would be my favorite, but with any natural fruit just peel it (if necessary) and then squeeze all its liquid out until you have enough to serve as many people as you choose
-add a bit of water and sugar (if desired)
--there you have your natural juice!

Diversifying the Sources

So lately I have been utilizing my blog site to post articles written by other people... This may seem as though I'm "slacking on the job," but while being here I've realized more profoundly the importance of connections to diverse news sources. I wanted to make available to any readers of this blog some of the news sources I have been reading most - and most importantly - alternative worldly view points that others may not have the chance or interest to otherwise see.
I hope these prior articles have been of some enjoyment and better yet, of some mind-opening as they have been for me.

Women's Rights in Iran

People of 2008 Finalist: 1 Million Signatures Campaign for Women's Rights in Iran
December 5, 2008
Jeffrey Allen, OneWorld US

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Nominated by: OneWorld editors

WASHINGTON, Nov 24 (OneWorld) - An independent grassroots movement of Iranian women and men is educating women about their fundamental human rights and steadily becoming a powerful force for women's equality in the patriarchal country.

Members of the 1 Million Signatures Campaign greet Raheleh Asgarizadeh and Nasim Khosravi as they are released from Evin Prison in February 2008. © Change for Equality CampaignThe 1 Million Signatures Campaign, also known as Change for Equality, is demanding that all discriminatory laws against women be reformed. But rather than taking their demands straight to Iran's entrenched conservative leaders, the group has built a network of over 1,000 face-to-face educators in at least 15 of the country's provinces. They contact women where women usually gather -- shops, schools, offices, hair salons, or their homes.

The campaigners ask the women to sign the petition, which calls for equal rights for women in marriage, equal rights to divorce for women, an end to polygamy and temporary marriage, an increase of the age of criminal responsibility to 18 for both girls and boys, the right for women to pass on nationality to their children, equal compensation for bodily injury or death, equal inheritance rights, reform of laws that reduce punishment for offenders in cases of honor killings, and equal testimony rights for men and women in court.

Whether the women sign the petition or not, they receive a booklet explaining how the Iranian legal system denies women full rights. Thus, even the women who do not sign are informed about their rights, explains the Women's Learning Partnership, a U.S.-based human rights group that publicizes the work of the Campaign.

The strength of the 1 Million Signatures Campaign was most clearly seen in the response it provoked from the country's security forces this year. Dozens of activists were arrested, detained, or otherwise intimidated. In May, the first man was arrested for his efforts to support the Campaign.

And in October, the arrest of Iranian American graduate student Esha Momeni brought worldwide attention to the group's work. Momeni, a campaign member living in California, was in Tehran working on a documentary film about women's rights in the country that was to become her graduate thesis.

The group's Web site has been regularly blocked or filtered. The media has been warned not to cover the group's activities, according to Sussan Tahmasebi, a member of the Campaign whose passport was revoked earlier this year. Other campaigners have had their their houses searched, and one was even denied entrance to university.

All this in response to a loose-knit group of peaceful activists who go out of their way not to break any laws.

"Given the breadth of the institutional opposition arrayed against them, the Change for Equality Petition Drive is especially clever," wrote the New York Times in a 2007 editorial about the Campaign. "Rather than directly confronting the system, it goes around it. Even women who don't sign the petition will be better informed about their second-class status. The hope is that they will then be less likely to accept injustice indefinitely. And if Iran's women start questioning their lack of rights, perhaps Iran's men will have the courage to speak out, too."

From its outset in 2006, the Campaign organizers, who include the Nobel Peace Prize winning lawyer Shirin Ebadi, have been extremely careful to ensure their group is entirely locally funded and organized. During this time of heated geopolitical rhetoric between Iran and the West, they want to make sure that no one can say their demands have been sponsored or orchestrated by any foreign power.

"For those of us starting this effort, and for those who joined subsequently, the issue of independence was the most important issue," says Tahmasebi. "We knew that if we were to be successful in reaching the grassroots and the Iranian population and establishing relationships based on trust, there should be no question about our independence."

The Campaign is funded by individual donations from its members and supporters, and through the contributions of time and non-monetary support of its members. Campaign meetings and events are often held in the homes of members, who cover costs out of their own pockets. Campaigners who travel to conduct training workshops or connect with members in other cities pay for travel costs themselves, and stay in the homes of friends and family or other Campaign activists.

It's too early to tell if the Campaign will succeed in bringing about the change it seeks in the Iranian legal system, but there can be no doubt that the group has managed to build a powerful movement within a strict political system. And regardless of its local success, that can have important implications for others facing oppression around the world.

"While the Campaign is focused on the common demand of women for equal rights," says Tahmasebi, "we do feel that this new and peaceful approach, which does not utilize antagonistic means, will hold lessons for all citizens who wish to have their voices heard by their government and their representatives in Parliament."

* This story profiles one of ten finalists for OneWorld.net's People of 2008 award. Vote for your favorite, read more profiles, or tell us about other amazing people on OneWorld's People of 2008 page

What's the Deal with the US Millenium Fund to Nica?

US officials have declared that the US will be ending their 'Millenium Fund' aid to Nicaragua since the country's municipal elections were reportedly fraudulent (which the FSLN denies). This news came out a few weeks ago, but Daniel Ortega continues to react calmly, speaking out against the 'Empire' - US imperialism. But after hearing the reaction from members of Batahola Norte's neighborhood and a prominent Managuan union leader (who will be kept anonymous), the majority of Nicaraguans (who earn around $97/month [4000 Córdobas] and have an average family size of six people) are very worried about the impact this aid reclamation will have. Nicaragua continues to be an extremely fragile country (not only politically, but also economically being the 2nd most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere behind Haiti). If these municipal election results are further delegitimized internationally and forced to be questioned nationally in Nicaragua once again, there would be substantial reason to fear how feelings would be acted out...

Chavez Chavez Chavez... Analytical Comments from a Brooklyn Activist

Chavismo is alive and kicking
Commentators have painted Venezuela's elections as a bitter blow for Hugo Chávez. But they have their facts wrong


o Max Ajl
o guardian.co.uk, Thursday November 27 2008 22.00 GMT


Richard Gott – usually an informed, sober analyst of Bolívarian Venezuela – observed on Comment is free this week that the results of the recent electoral round constituted an "electoral reverse" (or a "major electoral setback," or a "huge blow"; take your pick).

Gott is no neophyte analyst. He's also not lazy – rather than reiterating some party line, he clearly watched the results come in live, noting that "The president of the National Electoral Council, close to tears, had announced earlier that the Chavez government had lost the city of Caracas."

Indeed, one imagines his dissections of contemporary Venezuela carry considerable heft within the liberal or left-wing commentariat. So, to put it as nicely as I can, it is too bad that he's wrong.

The numbers are clear. With 65% turnout, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela's (PSUV) officials hold 17 of the country's 23 states, while the opposition holds five (sparsely populated Amazonas is on its own cycle). Meanwhile, some 80% of the mayoralties remain under Bolívarian control, while total numbers indicate that the PSUV candidates attracted 53.5% of the vote: 5.42 million Venezuelans. The main opposition parties garnered 39.9% of the votes: 4.04 million people. Dissident Chavista parties got 4.1% – 411,000 – while other opposition parties got 2.5% – 255,000.

At a glance, then, Gott's study seems suspect. But recall: the Chavista coalition is, ostensibly, carrying out a hegemonic project of national transformation. Social spending has radically increased, while poverty reduction has been precipitous, according to the freshest, most authoritative investigation (courtesy of the Center for Economic and Policy Research). So simple electoral tallies in response to the rhetorical question, "Who won?" won't do.

Keeping to the numbers, then, let us look at some other evidence. We should look to the results of previous elections, as all commentators view such statistics as a significant barometer of opinion. The 2007 referendum was on a package of constitutional reforms promoted by Chavez. Divided into A and B blocks, the referendum was rejected by a margin of between 1.5 and 2%, on a 56% turnout. Assessing electoral results on a purely numerical basis suggests that the Chavista movement has made gains with respect to the last vote, the most relevant unit of comparison. In that race, the No vote reached 4.5m. A year later, that number has dwindled to 4.2m.

In Venezuela, radicals have assessed the situation in similar terms. For example, as Venezuelan sociologist Javier Biardeau, surely situated further left than many PSUVistas, comments, "the Venezuelan revolution has recovered significantly from the electoral setback of December 2, 2007 (the day of the failed referendum). As he continues, the elections could have amplified that setback, or they could have "directed the electoral trajectory toward the recovery of the level of support reached in the 2006 electoral cycle", which is what happened.

Nor should one grasp at the facile explanation that the Chavistas are in denial or are delusional, smiling as they swallow down mouthfuls of ash. Particularly galling to them was the loss of the mayoralty that includes the massive slum Petare, on the eastern edge of Caracas, due to inadequate sanitation, violence, thuggery – and, some allege, the penetration of Colombian drug traffickers.

As Venezuelan journalist José Roberto Duque observes, "I know that anti-Chavismo won in Caracas," although he meticulously adduces evidence showing that in the most destitute areas of Petare, the Chavista candidate won by a 2-to-1 margin.

Moreover, there is widespread chagrin that the western electoral corridor is in opposition hands, including what community organiser and left-wing intellectual Roland Denis calls the "strategic" Táchira and Zulia provinces, bordering a potentially hostile Colombia. Additionally, the loss of Metropolitan Caracas, Miranda and Carabobo represents the loss of "states and regions that are among the country's most important with respect to population and electoral, industrial, and economic" clout.

However, all analysts suggest that the electoral results are, more than anything else, symbolic. Underlying them are the real stuff of politico-social mobilisation and the possibility of social transformation. As Duque continues, the key is "understanding that the PSUV is not the revolution". For example, the winner of the governor's office in Falcon state is hardly a hard-left figure. But from a pragmatic perspective, better the PSUV than the opposition.

In that sense, then, electoral victory is not the summa summarum of the political process. It is merely appreciably better than electoral defeat. As widely respected analyst James Petras concludes, the fact is that "Chavismo has consolidated its support and is in a position to advance the process of transformation."

And, one should add, Chavez has accepted the PSUV losses with equanimity, not ire. We may think what we will of the ongoing political change in Venezuela. But accusations of autocracy now seem like mere calumny.

Nov 20, 2008. NY Times report on Nica

Claims of a Rigged Vote Foment Bitter Protests in Nicaragua

By MARC LACEY
Published: November 19, 2008

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — As homemade mortar rounds exploded over this capital, and angry demonstrators poured into the streets for a second consecutive day, Nicaragua found itself mired Wednesday in an increasingly bitter struggle over who controls Managua and scores of other cities across the country.

Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters

Police officers on Sunday in León, Nicaragua, detained a supporter of Eduardo Montealegre, who insisted he was the winner of the mayoral race in Managua.
Esteban Felix/Associated Press

Supporters of the left-wing Sandinista party of President Daniel Ortega threw stones during a clash on Sunday in León.

Opposition leaders accuse President Daniel Ortega's left-wing Sandinista party of rigging the mayoral race here and hundreds of other municipal races across the country in an effort to extend its political reach.

Before Election Day, Nov. 9, Mr. Ortega limited the access of outside election observers and then, his critics contend, ordered his underlings to tamper with the balloting to ensure that candidates loyal to him came out on top.

"This fight isn't about the Managua mayoralty," said Eduardo Montealegre, who insisted he was the legitimate winner of the mayoral race even though the Sandinista-controlled electoral council said preliminary figures indicated that he had lost.

"It's more fundamental," he said. "It's about dictatorship versus democracy."

Mr. Montealegre, a member of the Constitutional Liberal Party, has tried to protest the results, but he has been met by angry Sandinistas at every turn. They have chased away his supporters and have turned the streets into a free-for-all.

Demonstrators blocked intersections and pelted cars with rocks. Members of rival political parties have faced off in angry confrontations, and nervous merchants have closed up their businesses.

Mr. Ortega has remained silent. A Sandinista revolutionary who led Nicaragua in the 1980s, he was ousted in 1990. But he was re-elected in 2006 in a hotly contested race in which his closest rival was Mr. Montealegre. While Mr. Ortega won with only 38 percent of the vote, he has moved to impose his Sandinista stamp on all aspects of society.

Sandinistas clearly control the streets. For weeks before Election Day, the party's supporters began camping out at traffic circles in what they called prayers for peace over hate. Opposition leaders saw it as an attempt to hold on to central public spaces and to limit opposition rallies.

"The streets are ours," said José Bonilla, a Sandinista supporter holding a homemade plywood shield, during the tumult in Managua on Tuesday afternoon. Fellow demonstrators, waving red-and-black Sandinista flags, shot explosives over the heads of riot police officers who were blocking them from Mr. Montealegre's rally a block away.

When Mr. Ortega cast his ballot in an election that was viewed as the first test of his influence since his re-election, he defended the integrity of the balloting and accused the local media of trying to discredit the results and "create an image of Nicaragua at war."

Mr. Montealegre, backed by leaders of the Catholic Church and Nicaragua's two largest business organizations, is demanding a full recount monitored by international observers.

Mr. Ortega's skepticism of international observers traces back to the 1990 election, in which he was defeated by Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. "From that moment, the truth is that I lost faith in the Organization of American States and all the other organisms," he said in a speech before the election.

The Supreme Electoral Council of Nicaragua, in its initial report on the voting on Nov. 9, said the Sandinista mayoral candidate in Managua, Alexis Argüello, 52, a three-time world boxing champion, had defeated Mr. Montealegre, 53, who is a Harvard-educated former finance minister.

But in response to a barrage of criticism, including some from the United States and other governments, Roberto Rivas, the president of the electoral council, ordered a recount. But he said it would not be monitored by independent outsiders.

"We are doing it so that the Nicaraguan people — not the embassies, but the Nicaraguan people — are completely satisfied that their vote was respected," Mr. Rivas said in a news conference last week.

Mr. Rivas did not address accusations that polls closed early and that opposition electoral delegates were forced out of the final counting of the vote in Managua. He did request that state prosecutors investigate reports that ballots marked for the opposition were found in the municipal dump in León, northwest of Managua.

"It must be found out whether public officials are involved," he said, adding that he would "get to the bottom of this case."

In his news conference, Mr. Rivas chided Mr. Montealegre for failing to file a formal fraud complaint with Nicaraguan prosecutors and for calling on his supporters to take to the streets in protest.

But Mr. Montealegre, in an interview on Wednesday, said it was the government that was responsible for the violence. Gesturing at newspaper photographs that showed his supporters waving Nicaraguan flags and Sandinista backers clutching rocks and sticks, he said Mr. Ortega was responsible for the violence in the streets.

"He is the president of the country, not me," Mr. Montealegre said. "He can end this."

Blake Schmidt contributed reporting.
More Articles in World » A version of this article appeared in print on November 20, 2008, on page A6 of the New York edition.

Sontule (read this before the prior post if you want chronological order...)

The group and I are back from Sontule, a rural community 40 minutes outside of the city of Esteli. Honestly, I was not expecting to enjoy myself to the extent that I did. The group and I got out of a packed week building up to a substantial paper that we finished the night before leaving. One could say that the timing worked out great, but my mindset was just not into the extra moving around at the time...
Now I am surprised at the feelings I have when when thinking about the family I stayed with, after just less than four days of being in their presence... I miss them...really! The environment we were surrounded in was truly phenomenal. Never in Central America have I seen farm land like that which I saw while living in Sontule from Monday to Thursday. Amy, a friend from the group, and I lived together with Doña Isabel, Don Franciso, Henry, Xaña, Araseli, Kevin, and little Fabricio (who is just about to be two years old and is the neatest child I have come across in Central America thus far... I have got to say that by yesterday, he started calling me "Chía," (his way of saying "Tía") which touched my heart incredibly). Our leaders warned us about the drastic climate change (Sontule being quite colder than the intense Managuan heat), but I didn't actually believe it until I felt and heard the fuerte wind that approached and grew from the afternoon on...
While there we learned about the three different cooperatives that Sontule takes part in under the organizational entity of UCA Miraflor. The women's cooperative was specifically emphasized. It was after the Agrarian Reform in 1991 when each family in Sontule was given 16 manzanas (1 manzana = 1.7 acres) of land. Before that time, specifically during the Somoza dictatorship, inhabitants of Sontule worked on a coffee plantation for Rene Molina (who was soon to become a millionaire after working as a deptuty/representative for Somoza)... the farm workers were mainly "blind," as they said, to the inhumane actions and policies of Somoza. They were also working as slaves. But many claimed that they knew nothing else, so it was normal life for them.
It was when different groups from various Nicaraguan cities and international orgs came to meet with the campesinos when they began to realize the wrongs that were being done to them and the injustices that were being imposed upon Nicaragua as a whole... It was around that time when many of the coffee plantation workers began to organize and join the guerrillas against Somoza...
This story was and is lived by the host family that Amy and I stayed with...

Here is a recent article from the New York Times. It can give you a more formal idea of what has been going on around here... PS: the FSLN is now claiming the the US has something to do with the charges of fraud against them... This is odd, especially because the US is sponsoring some of the FSLN's advertisements and organizational groups...

more to come....
love and peace--

Latest News Update from Nica

Once again, the NY Times has printed another informative and vital article regarding the current political situations and relationships in Nicaragua. In my opinion, this is one people should read.
The writing emphasizes the interesting shift that has occurred amongst the Sandinista Party (FSLN)... from those who used to be staunch revolutionaries side by side with Daniel - to those who have become deeply disillusioned by Daniel and what they believe to be his betrayal of the Sandinista Revolution's principles... When reading, notice the revolutionary Dora María Téllez who was one of the founders of the break-off FSLN party - the MRS (Sandinista Renovation Movement) - and who is the former President of the MRS... The group and I met with her for nearly two hours yesterday. She could not come to the Center for Global Education house (because it is on the same block as President Ortega's house and she has been a conflicting figure during these past weeks surrounding the elections - not to mention her criticisms of Daniel's ruling) so we met her in a conference room of a pastry restaurant. What a hidden place to meet, eh;) But she was awesome - I mean literally this woman is a huge Nicaraguan - furthermore a Central and Latin American - figure. Dora was 18 yrs old when she joined the FSLN...And when the Sandinistas took over the National Assembly (from Somoza before the revolutionary triumph) she stood on the balcony as the only female and Second in Command. What a woman.
Two friends and I will be doing on final project on the MRS; Dora said she would meet with us privately again... wow alright!
Read on to find more...

Sandinista Fervor Turns Sour for Former Comrades of Nicaragua’s President
Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters

Sandinista supporters celebrated a victory in mayoral elections in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital, this month. Many Sandinistas, though, have left the movement.
By MARC LACEY
Published: November 23, 2008

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — The music of President Daniel Ortega’s Sandinista party, the rousing songs sung during political rallies and street protests that draw his supporters by the thousands, is the same as what rang out during the war years of the 1980s. “Brother, give me your hand, we now march united toward the victorious sun, on the path to liberty,” goes one.

Esteban Felix/Associated Press

Carlos Mejía Godoy, left, and Edmundo Jarquín in 2006, when Mr. Jarquín ran for president. Mr. Mejía Godoy, a songwriter, was his running mate in a party made up of former Sandinistas.

But Carlos Mejía Godoy, the revolutionary singer-songwriter who dreamed up those songs when he was the Sandinistas’ chief balladeer, has told Mr. Ortega’s government to stop using his music and in recent days has been furiously scribbling new lyrics that lament the direction that Mr. Ortega is taking the country.

Like many prominent Sandinistas who have left Mr. Ortega’s movement in disgust, Mr. Mejía Godoy is now denounced by party members as a sellout who has lost his revolutionary fervor. But ex-Sandinistas, it turns out, are some of Mr. Ortega’s harshest critics these days, hounding him and provoking his ire.

Mr. Ortega’s critics have accused him of rigging this month’s municipal elections in an effort to spread his power. Leading the charge against Mr. Ortega have been some of his former comrades in the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which ruled Nicaragua in the 1980s and returned to power two years ago. The dissenters include cabinet members in Mr. Ortega’s old government and intellectuals who championed the revolution that brought him to power.

“I want a peaceful and harmonious Nicaragua,” goes Mr. Mejía Godoy’s latest song, which he pulled out proudly on Thursday afternoon after spending much of the previous evening working on the arrangement and fine-tuning the lyrics. “I want a Nicaragua that is free, where nobody destroys the flower of my happiness, nor puts a straitjacket on my way of thinking.”

Present-day Sandinistas brush off the criticism from their former comrades in arms.

“The revolution is like a train. People get on and off,” said Elías Chévez, a Sandinista legislator and former guerrilla, who stood with his arms crossed in the street Thursday night watching a raucous group of party supporters await final results from the Nov. 9 election.

Recent actions by the government have made it clear that the defections are rattling Mr. Ortega. Orlando Nuñez, an adviser to the president, acknowledged that the infighting among former comrades could have the intensity of a family feud.

Edmundo Jarquín, a former Sandinista, said of Mr. Ortega, “He views us as traitors.” Mr. Jarquín challenged Mr. Ortega for the presidency in 2006 as a member of the Sandinista Renovation Movement, a political party made up mostly of former Sandinistas. Mr. Mejía Godoy was Mr. Jarquín’s vice presidential candidate.

Mr. Nuñez said the Sandinistas had stayed true to their principles and continued to focus on the poor masses in a country with an economy that is only a notch above Haiti’s. “We’re continuing the themes of the revolution of the ’80s,” he said, a point vehemently disputed by Mr. Ortega’s detractors.

Both sides in the political skirmishing in Nicaragua these days portray themselves as the true disciples of Augusto Sandino, the nationalist leader who conducted guerrilla raids against occupying American soldiers in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In the past two years, the government has renamed Managua’s airport for Sandino and posted his photo in public offices and public spaces.

To outflank the former Sandinistas, Mr. Ortega’s government managed to keep Mr. Jarquín’s party off the ballot in the municipal elections two weeks ago. That move prompted Dora María Téllez, a former rebel leader who fought alongside Mr. Ortega and was once his health minister, to go on a 12-day hunger strike.

In 1978, Ms. Téllez helped lead a Sandinista raid of Nicaragua’s National Palace in which the guerrillas took the entire Congress hostage. The operation’s second-in-command, Ms. Téllez managed negotiations with the regime of the beleaguered dictator Anastasio Somoza, who ceded the rebels a $1 million ransom and Sandinista political prisoners.

Nowadays, she focuses her wrath on what she considers Mr. Ortega’s repressive ways. She said he had deformed the movement so that it would “revolve around him” and not any revolutionary ideals.

Mr. Ortega’s government found itself on the defensive recently when it took on one of the most cherished icons of the revolution, Ernesto Cardenal, the 83-year-old priest and poet who helped create the intellectual backbone of the revolution.

This summer, after Father Cardenal lashed out against Mr. Ortega while in Paraguay, calling him a “thief” who runs “a monarchy made up of a few families,” a Nicaraguan judge revived an old court case against the poet and froze his bank accounts. Politics frequently creeps into Nicaragua’s judiciary, and the action prompted widespread condemnation from intellectuals both at home and abroad.

“It’s vengeance,” Father Cardenal said Friday in a telephone interview from Brazil, where he was giving a reading. “I spoke out against him, and he’s striking back.”

For the past 30 years, a left-right schism of Sandinistas and anti-Sandinistas has largely defined Nicaraguan politics. Mr. Ortega has shaken that up by making political agreements with ideological opposites aimed at bolstering his political future. But with former Sandinistas now playing a more vocal role, Nicaraguans find themselves in two opposing camps: Ortegistas, who back the president, and anti-Ortegistas, who denounce him.

One of those in the latter group is Sophia Montenegro, whose office was recently raided by Mr. Ortega’s government. It accused the group she works for, the Autonomous Women’s Movement, of laundering overseas donations. The organization has been an outspoken critic of Mr. Ortega’s record on women.

Women’s empowerment was one of the cornerstones of the Sandinista revolution, but Ms. Montenegro said that ideal had been lost. Especially infuriating to her was the decision by the Sandinistas to support a ban on all abortions, even when mothers’ lives were threatened. That decision in 2006 came as part of Mr. Ortega’s effort to improve relations with the Roman Catholic Church, which clashed with the Sandinistas during the war.

The sexual abuse allegations leveled against Mr. Ortega by his stepdaughter in 1998 are another point frequently raised by his female critics. Women’s rights advocates in Nicaragua have helped organize anti-Ortega campaigns throughout Latin America, and the president faces the threat of ugly protests on the issue wherever he travels. In Nicaragua, he had legal immunity and was never prosecuted.

Mr. Ortega’s relationship with one of his close advisers, Dionisio Marenco, the departing mayor of Managua, has also crumbled recently. Mr. Marenco traces the shift to his decision to oppose a vice mayoral candidate put forward a year ago by Rosario Murillo, the president’s wife. Since then, Mr. Marenco said, Ms. Murillo has accused him of conspiring against the president.

“Treason is the worst thing you can be accused of,” he said, indicating that he might become the latest Sandinista to leave the party.

“We have to wait and see how the water feels,” he said. “It’s very tense and complicated right now.”

As for the music, Ms. Murillo, the president’s closest adviser, has dismissed Mr. Mejía Godoy’s attempt to keep his revolutionary notes to himself. She had an orchestra play one of Mr. Mejía Godoy’s most famous songs, “La Consigna,” at a government rally and the party put out a CD featuring others.

As Mr. Mejía Godoy tries, with little effect so far, to use lawyers to restrain the government, it is clear that Mr. Ortega’s supporters prefer the singer’s older works.

Ms. Murillo, herself a poet, wrote on her Web site: “There will always be, for me, one Carlos who was on the left, who was a leftist in his heart, and another Carlos, the one of today, who has lost his voice.”


Blake Schmidt contributed reporting.
More Articles in World » A version of this article appeared in print on November 24, 2008, on page A6 of the New York edition.

The Neoliberal Politics of Nicaragua & Their Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs)

The Neoliberal Politics of Nicaragua

Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) originated in the 1980s when the IMF and World Bank began to solicit their services to Latin America, promoting the production of ‘tradable goods’ through the message of ‘recovery with growth’ (Brydon, 346, 347). On this path, claimed the IMF and World Bank, Third World states would potentially develop into middle-income countries by 2020 (Brydon, 347). The unsuspecting propositions of these institutions were alluringly ideal, but it is that idealness that has ultimately undermined and harmed Nicaragua’s development. Saying this, it is necessary to further take into account the Nicaraguan government’s role (past and present) in dealing with the IMF and World Bank regarding SAPs. In the following paragraphs, I will address varying view points on what I believe to be SAPs’ two principle themes (privatization and liberalization) and their effects on Nicaraguan society (specifically relating to gender and various economic classes). These examples will essentially show that because of SAPs’ neoliberal tendencies and presumptuous beliefs of a “perfect market,” Nicaragua has therefore continued to suffer from detrimental instability.
After President Violeta Chamorro took office in 1990, Nicaragua had accumulated the highest per capita debt in the world, due in large part to the Somoza regime (“Deadly Embrace”, 11/12/08). With mounting pressure to alleviate the financial burden, it was during this time when Nicaragua built a substantial relationship with the IMF and World Bank. The IMF rapidly imposed their version of structural adjustment which lowered Nicaragua’s fiscal deficits to an absolute minimum, when the country’s fiscal income was already incredibly small.
In that context of scant fiscal income and huge foreign debt payments, keeping the fiscal deficit at a minimum could only be done with absolutely rock-bottom per-capita spending on the state’s fundamental responsibilities: education, health care, drinking water and sanitation, housing and physical infrastructure” (Vogl, 1).
President Chamorro encouraged this by initiating privatization into Nicaraguan society. The argument for privatization was “to enable the country to participate in an effective global economy” (“Deadly Embrace”, 11/12/08). Fans of privatization claimed that it would increase employment by bringing in more foreign investors who would in turn construct large factories and offer a greater number of jobs. The private sector, it was said, would “fill in the gap” of the market economy. In reality, the unemployment rate in Nicaragua had already reached 60% nationally, and on the Atlantic Coast it skyrocketed at 90% (“Deadly Embrace”, 11/12/08). Not only did unemployment continue to increase, but labor unions were also cut and Free Trade Zones (with loose labor restrictions) were growing. The act of liberalization, specifically financial liberalization in this case, played a large role in affecting these circumstances.
Enacting liberalization in coalition with privatization meant the removal of government interference. Trade liberalization opened the markets, emphasized an export economy, lowered the value of farmers’ goods in the market, and ultimately stripped farmers of their subsidies (Espinoza, 11/13/08). Import duty barriers that protect national product (for example, tariffs) as well as quotas were continuously reduced. As Isolda Espinoza claimed, financial market liberalization increased the potential for market distraction (for example, international chain companies entered Nicaragua for money but not for the substantial development of the country) and created a mismatch of incentives (the thought that jobs would increase with employment options from international companies but in reality maquilas with little labor codes and foreign banks came and took over small, local businesses). In 2001 and 2002, the IMF proposed financial liberalizations in the name of the Washington Consensus and neoliberalization; this resultantly cost Nicaragua $500 million in debt when four of the country’s banks went bankrupt (Avendaño, 11/12/08).
All this was done in the purely ideological belief that government interventions only distort markets, and that if left to act freely, markets produce a restructuring that favors greater “efficiency.” The IMF demanded the fastest possible privatization of public enterprises and the total opening, deregulation and liberalization of the economy rather than ensuring the country’s rehabilitation and the creation of basic infrastructure conditions and human capital with an eye to future development. (Vogl, 2)
Because of the IMF’s blatant mistreatment and virtual dismissal of the different sectors of Nicaraguan society, specifically those of the lower economic class, the IMF has developed a selective, narrow dialogue and has reproduced social inequalities because of its relationships based on power and money.
The IMF’s exclusion of Nicaraguans is exemplified when critiquing the manner in which policies have been imposed “without even negotiating the preservation of certain margins of social inclusion” [specifically those that the Sandinista Revolution fought in the name of] (Vogl, 4). Regarding transparency and the utter lack of it, “top level transactions” starting in the 1990s then set the stage for how policies are decided currently. Vogl writes about the FSLN’s internal commitments with the IMF… what officials label a “poverty reduction program” actually is a process that moves resources to the BCN in order to recover its international reserve levels and then cover the domestic debt service… which ultimately limits social spending even more severely. Therefore the majority of Nicaragua’s population has little to no say in how their national budget is spent and thus people are left even more helpless when they, in turn, must suffer from governmental cut-backs on their social and health needs. “We have to question ‘how priorities are established, and who gives way when agents’ decisions do not add up to a coherent whole’, thus taking on board issues of power and entitlements…” (Brydon, 350) From a context such as this, the role of gender in neoliberalism (neoliberal politics) comes into play.
Viewing neoliberalism and its connections with the world economy, it is seen that men and women are affected in diverse ways by changes in production, trade and financial flows (O’Brien & Williams, 283). This division of labor thus supports the theory that it is the impoverished and working-class women, then, who suffer most from the world’s ongoing economy crises. Although many men also endure impoverishment, the systemic feminization of poverty is undeniable and therefore the costs of SAPs are unequally carried by women.
As governments attempt to balance budgets and engage in structural adjustment programs to make their economies more internationally competitive, women are often forced to pay the price by taking up tasks hitherto performed by the state or giving up their existing sources of income in order to concentrate on caring for their families’ immediate needs. In other words, structural adjustment programs are dependent on unpaid women’s labor. (O’Brien & Williams, 285)
Unfortunately women’s work has much been overshadowed by the false autonomy of the masculine sector of the population. It does not help when a government such as the FSLN, for example, in 1990 voted in favor of all the IMF’s SAPs (Vogl, 7). The result of these votes ultimately decreased spending to balance Nicaragua’s budget, therefore losing many public services – such services that would support the already over-stretched woman. This emphasizes that Nicaraguan neoliberal policies have thus far failed to take women into full and equal account in the light of their unique circumstances.
Civic society still has the potential to educate the public about the dynamics of neoliberal policies in order to affect good governance clauses, bring light to ecological issues, and broaden the theory to development by placing greater importance on social conditions. This could result in greater transparency (which current policies have been gravely lacking) and more open dialogue/debate. So far, though, Nicaragua’s SAPs – simulated by the IMF’s neoliberal policies – have failed and thus deepened instability because of their lack of competition laws, their lack of sequencing and pacing, their lack of gender and social equalities, and their lack of wealth distribution. Néstor Avendaño was right when he spoke of society’s lack of faith and trust in Nicaragua’s leaders… “No one believes in the Supreme Electoral Council. Leaders of the institutions are all made of either the FSLN or the PLC; these leaders are not being bi-partisan. This is all affecting Nicaragua economically” (Avendaño, 11/12/08). Effective, bi-partisan government regulation is necessary in order to ensure fair practices and just working conditions and wages. With government regulation, foreign companies have less power to enter into a country like Nicaragua and develop a monopoly within the market, therefore knocking out all other competition just to later raise their prices. Safety nets are also needed, especially when the economic market suffers from crises. SAPs must adapt to and meet each specific cultural context depending on the country in which they are occurring. SAPs cannot follow just one neoliberal model because each country develops at its own pace, based on its own societal circumstances. It is when power balances and internal aspects such as corruption and political tensions are eased that SAPs can be utilized to promote Nicaragua’s development rather than commit the adverse. As Carlos Pacheco declared, “The solution does not depend on one government or one country. No individual solutions exist. These are global” (Pacheco, 11/09/08).

The Myth of Mestizaje

Besides “mestizaje” being a myth, Jeffrey Gould’s principle argument supporting that claim in the introduction of “To Die in This Way” is that the construction and active social and institutional continuation of this myth (mestizaje) enduringly impacts the indigenous (communities) of Nicaragua negatively. This effect not only questions and suppresses the indigenous’ place in every day life, but it furthermore threatens to virtually erase indigenous identity. From the assigned reading and recent speakers, I will emphasize three main themes to support the above statements: colonialism, the building of a nation-state (nationalism), and the current educational and social system of Nicaragua (emphasized in the conclusion).
In Gould’s writing he cites José Coronel Urtecho during his witnessing of the “harmonious merging of Indians and Spaniards in the tiangüe.” This marketplace setting Urtecho portrays transcends one of colonialism’s detrimental effects, demonstrated best by his narrative account of the marketplace “where the Indians of Nicaragua became Nicaraguan and where they Nicaraguanized the Creoles and Mestizos.” Of course, the detrimental effect mentioned above is that colonialism formed, in part, and promoted this false belief voiced by Urtecho. In the initial stages of colonialism, both Gould and speaker Wendy Bellinger make a point to emphasize the roles of hierarchy and land.
Both Creoles and Peninsulares, for example, underwent a colonial organization style based on hierarchy. This hierarchy not only took away communal indigenous land, but it further illegalized indigenous people to be communal land holders. With the stripping away of land went the fading of indigenous identity, as the majority of the indigenous strongly rooted their identity in the land. Along with colonization came the demeaning rationalization that because of the indigenous people’s land and its specific geographical locations, the indigenous were therefore prone to racial differences – to inferiority, thus being more prone to assimilation. One of the most striking ties Bellinger implements into the argument against mestizaje is the relationship between colonization and nationalism (nation-state building) – and how that relationship virtually requires the practice of exclusion and inclusion.
It was in 1838 when Central America became independent from Mexico and ventured on to make nation-states. “To create a nation you want,” Bellinger states, the nation must be a “stable, sovereign territory; it must have a measureable, stable population; therefore you have to segregate, reject and attack.” What makes this process easier to play out but conforming diverse societies into one? Hence, mestizaje. To force a mass shift away from an empowered self-identification of indigenous culture, cultural homogeneity was imposed by elites, which Gould puts best, “as a standard part of their repertoire of nation-building.” The indigenous were intervened upon not only by the elite and the state, but also by the church, political parties, and local intellectuals. The indigenous thus were forced to either keep their identity and be utterly persecuted (socially and institutionally) or be “ladinoized” and leave their culture lost in a drifting memory in order to “fit in” to society. Notably, this ladinoization executes the hierarchical goal: to promote the myth of mestizaje. Even some of the most idealized leaders of Nicaraguan history such as Agusto Sandino furthered the rallying behind such deceptions when he spoke about everyone being “equal”. This so-called equality essentially dealt with terms of race. To be equal, then, and to be united for such revolutions like that of the Sandinistas (FSLN), the indigenous must erase their identity. What a pity this was for me to realize that not even the revolutionary forces, such as the FSLN Party or Sandino himself, could come to an understanding with the indigenous. Being “for the people” has mainly meant being in support of a homogenous people, and in the case of “Nicaragua’s” indigenous people, homogeneity holds no truth in relation to their Pre-Colombian roots. The fact is that, as Bellinger expresses, “In Pre-Columbian times none of the different indigenous groups that migrated spoke the same language; they were completely different cultures” that migrated from Colombia and Mexico and that came to the Caribbean during the African Slave Trade. This cultural uniqueness holds its validity today.
Each culture that occupies Nicaragua is authentic, whether it be Miskito, Garifona, Rama, or Sumo, for example; but it is the educational, social, and institutional systems (internationally and nationally) that are gravely lacking this recognition. By delegitimizing these cultures, “mestizaje” is taught both subconsciously and consciously. Mirna Cunningham in “Sandino Daughters Revisited” talks about the ways in which mestizaje continues to be promoted today: “Bush’s initiatives in all our countries, the stance taken by the international banking institutions, the incredible unemployment, the misery in which the indigenous, black, and poor mestizos of our continent [Central America] live: it’s all a product of the model of colonization which began 500 years ago and remains in place today.” What society must do, Cunningham proposes, is seek out an alternative that includes attention to the “ethnic question”. Cunningham goes on to critique political entities by challenging the FSLN to “articulate a Sandinism that is truly multiethnic.”
Personally, I believe strongly in Cunningham’s statements, and I furthermore want to push all social, educational and institutional systems to “re-write” history – to take into account and educate people about the “underside” of history – the oppressed, the marginalized, the mestizo-grouped indigenous. We must tell different stories, the culturally-unique stories of those who inhabit the Atlantic/Caribbean Coast and the Pacific Coast. Start with the young; implement revised curriculums in schools that promote an interest and a pride in Central America’s historical and continued cultural diversity. Advocate inclusion but not assimilation. Work from the bottom-up so institutions respect that a people can still be united and effective while each embracing their own ancestral origins. It is when we break down the superficial acceptance of the dominant society that we will further give dignity and light to the multiple cultural traditions that are overshadowed by the myth of mestizaje.

Riots as an excuse to let testosterone run rampant

While watching TV the other night, since my host family always has the news channels on (that have been exclusively reporting on topics involving the municiple elections), I became "arta" (maxed out) with the scenes of young males rioting throughout their own pueblo´s streets.
Although the news can´t be fully relied on in order to be completely informed, and of course, one must take their own initiative to view and read other information sources -- all the coverage of violence since the election results has shown specifically males committing harm to their society, their people. They say it is because they are "defending their vote." But can´t defending one´s vote be non in a non-violent, dialogue manner? YES. YES IT CAN!!!!
It has come to the point where these constant occurrences of cars being set on fire, people being stoned out of nowhere, homes being vandalized, billboards being torn down, rotundas being taken over by angry people threatening the environment with sticks and poles (all being committed mainly by men)--- have become an excuse to run rampant and destructively throughout the streets, letting out built-up and ideologized testosterone.
Police fill the rotundas (round-abouts) that are located on many popular, busy streets... but where have they been to prevent and to STOP this terrible and disgusting expression of "macho-ness"????

Finally...almost

The "preliminary" results were announced last night. Heather, my roommate and I, thought when we had heard the FSLN "officially" won last night with 51% of the votes - we thought that it was final. Finally final and maybe the riots would simmer down.
But just a half hour ago the group and I were told that the other party, the PLC, is still saying that they need to be present along side of the Supreme Electoral Council and an international presence... in order to ensure the validity of the results.

But people have basically known that the FSLN won since the first "fraudulent" results were proclaimed. Now the PLC just has to work with its constituents (who claim the stance "todos contra Ortega") to push cooperation and effective dialogue with the FSLN... But who knows if the FSLN will allow for this.

Still no final results out...

Yesterday afternoon they announced to us at the Center for Global Education that the re-count of the Municipal Elections results would be announced at 6pm... It didn´t happen.
We are still waiting anxiously and the violence keeps happening.

The myth of mestizaje

During our past days in class the other students and I have been reading from others such as Jeffrey Gould and Mirna Cunningham to learn more about the colonization and multi-cultural dimensions of Nicaragua...
Yesterday I finished writing a reflection paper on some of this reading and I found myself agreeing very strongly with the thesis that mestizaje is a myth.
So there is the word "mestizo" which means "mixed races" and then "mestizaje" signifies the process of becoming mestizo.
This theory of mestizaje came out of colonial times, specifically speaking about Latin America, when the Spanish and British came and colonized. Of course, before colonization indigenous people inhabited the lands (and remained but had their land taken away). African presence came about when escaped slaves (and then-current slaves during the African Slave Trade) came to Latin American. So when these cultures began connecting, "inter-mixing" (as the words associated with mestizaje often say), new generations began having multiple heritages.
Basically the concept of mestizaje de-values and delegitimizes the holding on to one's cultural uniqueness. Rather than specifically identifying from one's roots, one is given the title of mestizo in order to generalize and group a people.

To articulate these issues more I will post my paper that I wrote because I feel as though I´m not explaining the topic as well as I should, in order to give it full justice.
More to come, then...

Municipal Elections

Hey all!

Alright-- so here´s the update with Nicaragua's municipal elections:
Tension has been pretty high. The PLC (Rightist party - which is called the Liberal party, but "liberal" here has a different meaning than it does in the States) has been claiming since results came out (on Sunday night) that there is a fraud.
Monday the FSLN (Leftist party that has been holding power nationally since 2006) was already claiming victory in Managua when they were only up by 5% with 69% of votes counted. The PLC claims that their vote counts from the polls show that they have received a larger number of votes than the Supreme Electoral Council has reported.
Actually Monday, the huge fiasco was over the Supreme Electoral Council saying they had received 100% of the votes when there were actually stacks and stacks of votes that the PLC had yet in their position (that still hadnt been taken into account).
Since Monday there have been riots throughout the streets... No worries, all this has been viewed by myself and the other students only through the television (and not in person). The leaders of our program keep us updated and very safe. Además our neighborhood is very tranquil (although the overwhelming majority of its inhabitants are prideful FSLN supporters).
Last night Heather (a friend from my program who lives in the homestay with me) and I took our brother, one of our sisters and a neighbor to the new James Bond 007 movie (which interestingly enough focused on US relations with Latin America..hmm... But anyway, on the way to the theater our taxi driver was waved over by two police cars on the side of the road. Another car in front of the taxi was also made to pull-over. As we were about to park, the others and I already knew what this would be about... The police were making random checks to make sure that no one traveling on the main road ways were carrying rocks or other weapons in their cars (rocks have been used in violent manners throughout these days in the riots). So as the minutes to the start of the movie were dwindling down and our taxi driver was still over talking with the police, the five of us scrunched, sitting on on another in the cab decided to get out. As we looked back we saw the driver getting upset with the police... Ay. It turns out when the driver finally returned to the cab that the police had wanted the driver to pay them off. Because the driver became upset and (probably) made up an excuse, he ended up not giving the police any money. Our sister said it is common that the police will ask to be paid-off, although of course that it not technically right.
So we finally arrived to our movie. But we couldn´t help but laugh along the way because during our whole ride with the cab driver, he automatically thought we were supporters of the PLC. Mind you my family members are staunch supporters of the FSLN... but they went along with him saying "Así es..."

Verymuch love and support for the MRS...

Anni.

(IT IS SO INTERESTING HERE TO WITNESS THIS POLITICAL PRIDE AND ENERGY------

This is a vital election because the winner will be more likely to remain in power through the presidential elections (which will occur in 2011) and furthermore because many say that Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua´s current President) has been increasingly trying to secure-in his position (wanting to potentially change Nicaragua´s constitution to run for another term)

Obama.

It was said that all will remember where they were and what they were doing on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. I believe this to be especially true. What an environment it was in Managua, Nicaragua, the night of the election results and the days building up to them and after...
Before Tuesday, November 4, the interest of many Central Americans whom I encountered had great enthusiasm about Barack Obama... I was asked many times whom I supported and the other times the question of whom I preferred as a candidate was gently alluded to... This didn´t surprise me too much because I already recognized, as the BBC News said, that this was the election that will "affect the entire world."
There was great emotion when the 17 others and I, all in the house of the Center for Global Education, were expecting only California´s polling results and then we automatically saw Barack´s face pop up on the screen with "Elected President." !!!!!!!
Of course people were jumping, hugging, staring at the screen with a long smile on their faces,... in awe in a way. It wasn´t even that people were doubtful that Barack would win, although of course there was a little anxious worry, but it was just that we all knew that this was a monumental moment in history and we were so fortunate to have taken part in it... to even witness it.
I can say that I am so extremely proud and still unbelieving that we have Barack Obama for our new President.
Now it is really time for us to get to work.
Grassroots action is calling. But it is not just Barack´s job. We must support him and our fellow community members.
LET´S DO IT!!!

"Sí podemos." --La mantra de Barack

Muy, muy buenas noches amigas y amigos*

Quería compartir esta noche con ustedes, específicamente porque acabamos de estar presentadas y presentados a nuestro nuevo presidente, Barack Obama.
Estoy muy orgullosa decir que él va a representar los Estados Unidos. Espero que ya Barack pueda mostrar más de su progresivismo...
¡Es un flipe acá, eh!!

Ya ha sido claro que las/os ciudadanas/os estadounidenses tenemos que empezar aun más fuerte haciendo nuestros propios movimientos sociales, politicales e ambientales para afectar positivamente a los Estados Unidos y para mejorar la relación entre los EEUU y los otros paises del mundo.
Es obvio en todos lugares, especialmente estando aquí en Centro América, que esta elección no solo afecta a los EEUU... Ha sido impresionante la energía y interés que hemos recibido por muchos Centro Americanos sobre las elecciones estadounidenses. Muchos nos han mencionado como les afectan las elecciones... como muchos que hemos conocido nos querían votar para Barack... Ha sido muy interesante.. .

Espero que sientan bien con los resultos y que vengan el progreso positivo...!!!!¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

Tanto amor-------

Annika

Now in Nica

After arriving back from a week-long vacation in various parts of Nicaragua, the 17 other students and I reunited this afternoon back at our home-base in Managua, Nicaragua´s capital. With the Municipal Elections ocurring soon, political tensions, excitement and, of course, advertisements have been booming. On nearly every street post and on many city walls one sees bright pink signs displaying sayings such as "¡Vamos por más victorias!" "Luchamos por el pueblo." and "El amor es más fuerte que el odio." These phrases and more have been posted by the FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional - aka Sandinista National Liberation Front) that is a "socialist" Nicaraguan political party that is led by the current president, Daniel Ortega.
Daniel Ortega is not only in power now, but he was also the leader of the Sandinista revolutionary movement which overthrew the Somoza regime in 1979, forming a revolutionary government in its place. In the following years the Sandinistas ruled Nicaragua for 11 years from 1979 to 1990, initially as part of a Junta of National Reconstruction. Later the FSLN took exclusive power in March 1981 after some centrist members from this Junta resigned. In the 1984 Nicaraguan elections it was almost universally declared that the elections were free and fair, and it was in these elections where the FSLN won the majority of votes.
So there is a quick history but here is the deal now... Rather than running a social political party, an overwhelming majority of Nicaraguans believe that Ortega´s ruling has turned into a form of dictatorship. The key saying by the people is "We are (still) Sandinistas but we are not Danielistas." These few words hold a great deal of significance by the way they essentially purvey the people´s belief and pride in the 1979 revolutionary movement, but at the same time the words demonstrate the people´s dissaprovement with how Ortega has dramatically changed since the revolution. Lately, for example, Ortega (indirectly through "his people") has been verbally (if not in many cases physically - being broken into, etc.) harassing a number of NGO´s and grassroots social, political and environmental organizations - charging them with false claims and stating that "rather than international money going through NGO´s it should go directly to the government." But if this money goes straight to Daniel´s officials, where will it end up?? The general populous virtually does not see this money that the government uses on "social spending" or "development." Nicaragua remains to be factually the most impoverished country in Central America. This is evident when one walks and drives through the streets. Even where we are living, a block away from Ortega´s house, there are wood shacks lining many streets that people inhabit. Aren´t the above organizations (and specifically their purposes) something the Sandinista Revolution advocated and fought for?? Isn´t their mission part of the revolution - you know, for the people...
More to come-- but definitely stay in-tune with especially independent news sources and even other outlets such as the BBC (if you´re interested) because what has been going on (and continues to go on) with Ortega and his version of what it is to be Sandinista is gripping.
Tomorrow we will start classes.
More updates to come---

Much, much love to all and GOOD VIBES FOR THE U.S. ELECTIONS (El cambio viene-eso esperamos mucho)

Annika

GLBTQIA right in Cuba

I just read an article that brought to my attention some positive movements that have been happening in Cuba that work to further the rights for the GLBTQIA community.
Maybe this is old news, but I just thought I´d share it because the surprise of what I read made me very happy...
One of Fidel Castro´s daughters has been a big pusher for the acceptance of the GLBTQIA community in Cuba, and therefore has helped some laws pass in support of GLBTQIA people /couples. This lucha for justice is setting a progressive tone over Cuba and its residents... More continue to partake in this process for human rights; it´s impresionante.
The BBC News has some neat articles on the above; I recommend checking them out!

A good good afternoon!

About an hour ago the group and I arrived in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua.
Our bodies can already tell the difference between climates, and they show it by giving off a decent amount of sweat. It feels good to be starting in a new place, but I think we´ll need a couple days to let the good stress settle down.

Well, tomorrow four others friends and I are going to Granada, Nicaragua, and then we´ll be there for a day or two before moving on to Lake Ometepe. We´ve got some neat hostels lined up and we´re ready for some spontaneous relaxing, exploring and people-meeting...

Our last day in El Salvador was finished off by presenting our group projects. One of mine was about globalization in El Salvador and the other was a dance that two friends and I choreographed to demonstrate oppression and liberation.
Packing went on late into the night... actually early into the morning, and then at 2:30 am we left for the bus station!

Echale ganas siempre...

copapayo/suchitoto

Copapayo is an island near the colonial city of Suchitoto, around an hour away from San Salvador. I spent last weekend there - staying two nights in the Center for Art and Peace and one night in a rural community of Copapayo.
Once again the time was filled with hearing testimonies from the armed conflict. We had an extremely deep, touching talk with two survivors of the Massacre of Copapayo. One recounted images of seeing his mother and sister lying massacred upon the barren ground, surrounded by others who had just been killed by the military minutes before. The other told of her fleeing to the woods in order to escape the military raids of her community and those surrounding.
This was only one of eight massacres that plagued the area around Suchitoto and Copapayo during El Salvador's armed conflict.

Recent update

Hey everyone!

I thought I would take this quick chance to stop reading about Liberation Theology homework (I'm currently on a chapter which speaks about social justice and eco-feminist insights - of Elizabeth Johnson's book Quest for the Living God) and write a few words...
Our first weekend in a rural homestay in San Jose de Las Flores (in Chalatenango), I went on a hike and finished with some big "rashes" on my arms and hands... The next day, after swimming in the Pacific, I got to experience El Salvador's emergency room situation because the supposed rashes actually turned out to be burns... 2nd degree burns with some growing, yellow blisters...;) sorry! The doctor made a plastic surgeon come in and during this whole time I was not believing all that was going on... my friend and I actually had a great time during this whole emergency room endeavor...laughing and all.
As my blisters were being attended to the "Pequena cirugia" room's door was wide open... people were passing by and many decided to stay and watch in the doorway... way to make new friends, eh! Haha but it was all de buena onda and like I said, this was a great opportunity to see different styles of health care systems, how needs are met, etc.
*PS: While in San Jose de Las Flores, the Vice Presidential candidate for (leftist) FMLN (january 2009 elections) Salvador Sanchez passed through (as he was doing his weekend travels of visiting small, rural communities) the community and spoke. I got to hug him and exchanged some words--it was awesome and very unexpected.
ARENA has been in power here for a very long time. The majority of Salvadorans (specifically the impoverished) want (and have wanted) a change from ARENA -- need a change from ARENA. ARENA is expected to win in the upcoming elections, but the people also have a great deal of fear that their will be another electoral fraud. I have met some foreigners here who will be serving as official observers in January for the elections. If I would be here, I would do it too.
The Presidential candidate for FMLN is hailed by many (specifically progressives). He was a journalist/reporter and took a great social justice stance during the armed conflict... following he continued to speak out publicly against oppression, corruption and injustices.
Sure, doing that in the US, for example, is seen commonly - but here it is dangerous, literally life-threatening to speak out against the system (specifically during the armed conflict).

Today was one of the busiest-- we had class (like we do three times a week) at San Salvador's public university (which costs $25 per month to attend). At noon we headed back to the house and had lunch, then it was nap time... By 1:45 we had to leave for the UCA (University of Central America)-- which is a private Jesuit university (where the 7 Jesuit priests along with the gardener's wife and daughter were assassinated in 1989 during El Salvador's armed conflict). There we talked with a Jesuit UCA professor who is originally from the Bronx. He spoke with us a lot about economic and political situations in El Salvador, then we later talked about migration. Around 740 Salvadorans migrate to the US daily. If one doesn't make it or is deported, then one usually makes 3 to 4 more attempts. Number one and two reasons for migration: unemployment and poverty.
El Salvador's number one source of income is from family remittances - Salvadoran migrants in the US sending back money to their families in El Salvador.
Whatever goes on with the US economically (specifically because ES is on/uses the Dollar) affects incredibly ES.
The vast majority of goods (including the Dollar) are imported here. This is covered up greatly by the Salvadoran system.

Regardless, there exists beautiful and absolutely monumental grassroots movements here. The group and I have been graced with the presence of some of the most revolutionary people I have met in my life. We have been invited into, and learned greatly from, numerous small, rural communities that personify - embody - the most genuine definition of solidarity and progressive, unified action. Although they do exist, I have never seen such movements by small pueblos like this in the US.
Despite the system, transformative, effective actions are being done... There is a saying in Guatemala famous amongst the people: Somos jodidos, pero estamos contentos.

Very much love,

The Future of the Human Soul

This book is awesome thus far. I recommend it incredibly.
Our profesora for Liberation Theology is having some of us read it in order to do a presentation this weekend when we'll be in Suchitoto.

Anyway, I will update with some of the book's information when I get further into it...
I just wanted to put that recommendation out there!
Last night I realized I had not been sucked into a book so much for a long time:))

Minnesotans thinking wrong about Barack?

Last Sunday I watched a BBC News clip about one of John McCain's visits to MN in October. It showed McCain with a crowd taking questions... one woman actually said Barack is "an Arab."
WRONG
People are even calling Barack a terrorist.
I was soo disappointed to see that Minnesotans were saying this!!
People--- we must become informed!!!

McCain at least corrected this woman, telling her essentially that she did not know what she was saying...

Eek, I know I sound harsh but it may be because of McCain's performance tonight on the debate...

First embassy visit

An emergency trip to the Embassy happened two days ago--- we had to get our voting ballots sent out-and pronto.
The trip was pesado... but a success!
This Friday we will have an actual official visit there, meeting with officials and everything.

Home from Nueva Esperanza

Nueva Esperanza is a small community around two hours from San Salvador. The group and I spent the weekend there involving ourselves in the communities grassroots movements, becoming acquainted with the leaders and members of the community, and hearing testimonies about the history and present conditions of Nueva Esperanza and its surrounding pueblos.
I was fortunate enough to have my homestay with one of Nueva Esperanza's leaders. She was a woman in her sixties who had lived in Nueva Esperanza since its start, 16 years ago. The name comes from the struggle of the people and their active aspirations for a life of solidarity and dignity; the name means new hope.
Being closer further to the south and therefore closer to the coast, Nueva Esperanza was hot, quite hot. At night we slept with mosquito nets above and around our bodies. They helped a great deal, but unfortunately engulfed the heat around us more. The community struggles with a lot of flooding, especially in the months of September and October; I realized the truth in this last night... As my roommate and I tried to fall asleep it began to rain. We could hear the scratches fall upon the tin roof and the dog outside moving closer and closer to our door. Luckily the roosters were sound asleep, so they only made their music during the early morning hours. But I can truthfully say that until last night, I had never once in my life heard rain pour and literally flood down from the sky like that. Mud is commonplace there, and you get used to it.
This morning it was bittersweet saying goodbye to Grandma. Grandma is 94 and has 19 children. Many generations lived in and around the house where we were at. Humanness was so present, as well as sincere care for the wellbeing of others.
"La organizacion es la solucion." --the motto of Nueva Esperanza and the surrounding pueblos...

An important reality brought to our attention de nuevo by Tim Wise

A fascinating reflection by Tim Wise:

Whether or not you are enthusiastic about Obama, the issue of racism and white privilege in this election is important, so please, if you like this piece, please send it around.

Thanks,

Tim


This is Your Nation on White Privilege
By Tim Wise
9/13/08

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."�

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.

White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Equipo Maiz

Equipo Maiz is a progressive organization that originated out of El Salvador in 1983. Its focus is on popular education, breaking down traditional forms of education, generating participation and solidarity. The inspiration for Equipo Maiz's stance on popular education came from Latin America in the 1960's with Pablo Freirie's (from Brazil) "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" which detailed and promoted the educative process of liberation.
To go back to more of its history, Equipo Maiz generated from the necessity of speaking honestly about El Salvador's realities (in the 1960's), gathering vast information and knowledge. Community groups began forming that developed songs, games, drawings, and public meetings to discuss and critique the aspects of Latin American life at that time. Initially Equipo Maiz workers were connected with Ecclesiastical Base Communities and now work with political parties, cooperatives, unions, NGO's, student organizations, etc.
Equipo Maiz focuses upon five essential programs:
1) management of environmental risks
2) historic memory (Oscar Romero; El Salvador conflict)
3) economic literacy (Free Trade; capitalism in total)
4) sexuality and gender
5) participative methodology
Equipo Maiz has international solidarity connections and travels to the Unites States when possible. They just visited and held a forum in Minneapolis last year!
Participative education for all! Pass along the stories of liberation to the youth!
No privatization of education!

Presidential Debate tonight--- be there!

Happy Birthday to the woman of my life--- my Mama Jeanie!!!

Hospital system in San Salvador

Last night I experienced what a typical Salvadoran emergency room is like.
To give you a hint, as I type right now I use only a few fingers because the others are wrapped in gauze...
So I have second degree burns for the first time---- and in El Salvador!!!

;)) Aaah how crazy; everything is an experience here.
The second degree burns came about during my weekend in San Jose de Las Flores, a rural pueblo in the state of Chalatenango. Three others and I spent last weekend there, integrating ourselves into the community - a community which is categorized as an Ecclesial Base Community. We heard testimonies from survivors of the Rio Sumpul Massacre and from survivors of various other massacres that occurred during the time of El Salvador's armed conflict that lasted for 12 years.
The group and I also witnessed how extremely organized the community is. They have nearly 10 women's organizations that raise solidarity and productivity levels. There is also a large farming cooperative and an eco-tourism center. All of the money earned in each area circulates back throughout the community. The State does not support San Jose de Las Flores and its initiatives; the people are community-sustaining and focused on justice for los campesinos and solidarity.
The first day I also met and hugged the candidate for VP for the FMLN party. It was monumental! FMLN is the revolutionary party, many would say, which is leftist. Elections are coming up in Jan 2009.

But burns or not, I do not regret going on the off-road hike that made me get these burns! It was beautiful--absolutely serene. We reached the clouds and could see the whole town...
Who would have known-- plantas de fuego

:)

Ronal Reagan supporter, eh?

Here are a couple of important facts to note about Ronald Reagan before this upcoming presidential election, as John McCain proudly raises up his admiration of Reagan without embarrassment...

During Nicaragua's armed conflict Ronald Reagan was the biggest supporter of the Nicaraguan National Guard, the group that factually committed the most atrocities during the civil war against its people - innocent Nicaraguans.

Reagan also refused, for much of his presidency, to talk openly about AIDS because of its relation with homosexuality.

Ballot information

Many of members of the group here in El Salvador have been anxiously awaiting our ballots to come in the mail.
One friend received her's yesterday, but the majority will still be running to the post office later this week.
Some friends and I went to the mega mall that is about four blocks away and took about an hour in a cyber cafe to arrange all of our materials to print off--the materials being those affiliated with voting.
I am worried now, though, because I did receive all my voting information for senate candidates, mayor candidates, etc; but what I found was missing was my ballot information for the presidential candidates. ...NOT GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Each state has rules unique to it, and in MN one can have their ballots mailed to them. So I did request for this to be done but now I am thinking that I made a mistake along the way...
Hopefully I will get this figured out tomorrow because THE PRESIDENTIAL VOTE IS CRUCIALLLLLLLLL

el salvador and green scissors

This afternoon we arrived in El Salvador!!!
The border held us up for around an hour but that was alright because just an hour and a half later... San Salvador!
Tonight we talked through some of our orientation, became inspired by Sister Peggy's (our Libteration Theologies teacher) passion, received some monumental reading assingments... aaand cut my hair!! Here is when the electric green scissors come in to play! Thanks to Julie, now my hair is off-balance, short, and I love it!
San Salvador is giving me the good vibes. Now we are all finally living together in one house. Tomorrow we will start off a busy week!

Pachaj, Cantel

Ending off our last week in Guatemala (before traveling to Antigua), twelve of us studied and lived in a pueblo called Pachaj, which is in the area of Cantel. This community is 100 percent indigenous and played a key role during Guatemala's armed conflict. Its location is great, too, being just 30 minutes away from Xela.
So noting above on Pachaj's unique role during the armed conflict, Cantel was the only region in all of Guatemala to not take part in the armed guard services. The armed guard services were organized by the Army; they forced men out of every community to patrol their village and report any guerrilla activity. Essentially what the armed guard services did was put many male community members' lives at stake and force families into uncomfortable, dangerous circumstances.
Also during the armed conflict, a textile mill was built in Cantel which from then on altered Cantel's economic situations and fomented a lasting dependence by the people of Cantel on the mill, ultimately a negative dependence at that.
So in all, learning about Cantel's history was an ongoing process throughout our week there. Cantel also has a huge amount of its population in North America. Since Guatemala's economy continues to struggle, economic hardships are the number one reason for migration to places like the US and Canada.

goodbye dear Guate

Guatemala now holds memories in my heart and nostalgia when I think of the people whom I encountered and lived with there...
Yesterday the group and I left Xela, which had been our home for three weeks, and went to spend one day and one night in Antigua. Antigua is a preserved colonial town that is, of course, filled with plenty of tourists and "westernized" trends.
I say this not with the intention of putting a shade of negativity around the image of Antigua, but rather just to recognize its reality.
It was quaint to spend our last day relaxing in the town. Right upon arrival the group and I went to a restaurant where we ate homemade pizza (talk about authentic Guatemalan food;) and then went off to explore. Arpita, a friend and I, later split off from the others to walk around more of the market area. She and I should have thought back to one of our past experiences (of getting lost together) when saying "Oh yes, this is the right direction..." So we did get lost; but then a bit after successfully wandered back to the hotel. Getting lost wasn't such a bummer though because after all, we did get to see more of the city. A bit sadly I must say, my afternoon and night in Antigua were filled with utter sickness. I should have known better than to keep drinking those yogurt fruit drinks with the pizza! They just were not sitting right. So the chills came and soon after started the vomiting... The group was great though! I definitely am not the only one who has gone through the sickness here...

Rounding up the last week

This week has been a stressful one, but at the same time I feel guilty for saying that because I AM IN GUATEMALA...!!!¡¡¡
Homework is accumulating, but more just the thoughts of finishing my final paper - which I have decided to do on Venezuela´s Hugo Chávez.
We just finished celebrating three compañeros´ birthdays here at the school.
I have a love and dislike relationship with the computer because I don´t have access to it very easily but then when I get on the internet I end up feeling like I should be in other places...

Tonight I also treated the host mama, Yoli, to an helado (ice cream). I must say that was the highlight of my day... sitting on the terrace in the middle of the house, under the sun, smiling and licking our ice cream cones together...

auras, energías, destinos

This afternoon we went to an indigenous (Maya) healing ceremony. The group and I met with a woman sacerdote (healer) who has grown up amongst the Mayan traditions and culture as a whole. Throughout her life, also her life as a mother, she has passed along this spirituality; so not only did we get to talk with her but we also got to learn from her daughter.
After learning of the significance of each day (out of the 20 of the Mayan calendar), we then lit candles and placed them into the fire that was filled with a specific type of sacred bark, some sort of natural incense, and other specifics from the earth (which I cannot remember)... As we set our candles down amongst the other burning particles we transferred our thoughts as petitions, which the fire would then transcend to a different dimension.
Later we discussed the relation of science and Mayan beliefs. I can say that I was positively surprised at what I learned... like how the Mayan suggested 3000 years prior to scientists that the sun was in the center of the universe.
After everything, the sacerdote talked to each of us about our destinies, our energies and our auras...
Whether one believes in the Mayan practices or not, it is captivating to take part in them and hold them sacred.

Guatemala--Today´s Charla

Today we had a meeting/chat with a Guatemalan businessman, who really wasn´t as corporate as that term makes him sound, but he talked with us about Guatemala´s development (especially the development here in Xela).
So get this -- Guatemala´s main, number one, source of income is from Family Remittances; number two is Tourism. By 1990 100,000 Guatemalans were in the US because of the sky-rocketing unemployment in Guatemala.

The man stated blatantly that "radical change" is needed and that personal development must happen first so that democratic development can occur. But in order to do this, he said that Guatemala must develop a system where the taxes will go back to the people.

El lago Atitlán

A few compañeros and I just got back a bit ago from checking out Ícara, which is a place that sets people up with some awesome treks, kayaking, etc.
So this weekend seven of us will probably be going on a two-day hike that will take us to Lake Atitlán, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in Guatemala. We will potentially be leaving Friday afternoon where we will drive for an hour or so and then hike until 10 or 11 pm. At the site we´ll arrive at, we´ll eat a late dinner and then stay with a family (in a more rural moutainous area). The next day we´ll get up early and set out hiking until lunch time. After quickly eating we´ll get going again until night and then either camp out or stay with another family. Basically, along the way we will pass rivers, volcanos, and other Guatemalan breath-taking sights... The hike is moderate and doesn´t have extremely inclines, but it will be two days and I am excited!!!!
Once we get to the lake we´ll have the night and the next morning. There, we´ve heard, there are different pueblos that are dedicated to certain things... for example, there is a yoga community and a meditation community. I think we will be hitting up the yoga area!

Until then, hikers---