Nicaragua

The Last Word

Envío team

Over these ten years I’ve seen that little by little Sandino’s ideals are being fulfilled, that the revolution is doing all it can to benefit the majority of the Nicaraguan people. The best way I can think of to celebrate these 10 years is to go to the plaza on the 19th.
Ernesto Martinez, engineer at the Momotombo geothermal plant

I didn’t have this house. I lived in a thatch-roofed sack. I didn’t have this land. The revolution has been an achievement, a total change.
Apolonio Carrasco, campesino, Ranchería, Chinandega

The first big victory for Nicarguan women is the fact that in this country we have a revolution. If we’re going to make more progress in the future, as women, we have to defend and expand this revolution. The streets belong to us now, and we’ll take to them to show the enemy that the future belongs to us, the women of Nicaragua.
Speaker from the floor at a June assembly of 1500 union women in Managua

I lost my eyesight in the mountains. But I lost it defending the revolution, so that's all right I went to Czechoslovakia to study, because I didn't want to be a parasite on the revolution. I had to learn a lot of things all over again, like it was the first time. Now I'm working, throwing myself into it, so that I can advance, and help the country move forward, too.
Francisco Gonzalez, blinded in combat in 1984, currently an occupational therapist in Rivas

The contras killed one of my sons and the two smaller ones are often sick. Sometimes it's not that they're sick, but rather hungry, because with my salary, what can I give them to eat? There's just not enough. The government economists' plan is to tighten, and tighten, our belts. They tell us not to do this, not to do that, to remember the difficult situation.
Felix Lopez, textile worker affiliated with the Sandinista Workers' Federation, CST

As women we don't have anything against the revolution. The FSLN has never caused us problems nor we them. People complain about military service, but all countries have military service. All countries are in an economic crisis. I sold things before the triumph. We never thought we'd have land.
Miriam Useda Galeano, president of a wo men's cooperative that recently took over land north of Chinandega
It's something wonderful to reach the tenth anniversary of the revolution, with so many maneuvers to destroy it that failed.
Fermin Torres, construction worker, member of Christian base community, CDS activist, Barrio Venezuela, Managu
Here in Nicaragua we should respect the rights of individuals. I do live in a community, but I'm going to look out for myself first. We're not all "the masses." We've had ten years of "the masses.* It's time we return to respect for the individual.
Enrique Bolaños, COSEP leader, addressing Christian communities in Managua

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