Nicaragua Report

Part of the Global Perspectives on War and Peace Collection. Through narration over still photographs, this tape pays tribute to the 40,000 Nicaraguans who gave their lives in the revolution against the Samoza dictatorship. The video was provided by the The Instituto de Cine Nicaraguense in celebration of the first Christmas in 45 years free from the Samoza dynasty.

0:15Copy video clip URL The narration opens with an ode to the Sandinistas: “A man who once knew Sandino said that Sandino did not have the face of a soldier, but rather, the face of a poet who became a soldier out of necessity. And the same thing could be said of today’s Sandinistas, that they do not have the faces of soldiers, but rather the faces of poets who became soldiers out of necessity.”

3:28Copy video clip URL After memorializing the fallen sons and daughters of Nicaragua, the narrator calls for continued struggle to ensure education, housing, and medical care for every citizen of Nicaragua.

6:28Copy video clip URL The tape closes with images of graffiti spelling “F.S.L.N.”, which stands for “Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional” (Sandinista National Liberation Front), but here changed to stand for “Felices Somos Los Nicaraguenses” – “Happy are we, the Nicaraguans.”