In the months of March through August of 1980, Nicaragua began a radical experiment in revolutionary popular education. The Frente Sandinista de Liberacíon Nacional (FSLN), blamed the Somoza regime using the country’s widespread illiteracy and lackluster educational infrastructure as a tool of politically imprison and disenfranchise Nicaragua’s poor. After the ousting of the Somoza regime, the FSLN-led government sought to repeal the sociopolitical norms of the Somocismo through instituting mass popular education. Even before the outset of the rebellion, the FLSN expressed a significant deal of concern for the state and welfare of Nicaragua’s people. Literacy, through the perspective of the FSLN provided people not only a sense of personal liberation, but also opened the door to political and economic involvement. Robert Arnove, argued the extension of educational opportunities to Nicaragua’s masses served to “integrat[e] the country[’s] rural and urban populations [as well as] the middle and lower classes,” in …show more content…
to the Sandinista regime. In the interest of generating an anti-Somocismo political conscious for Nicaraguans, the FSLN considered education as a crucial element to increasing the political involvement, economic productivity, and democratization of Nicaraguan society. The FSLN took their revolutionary crusade to eradicate ‘ignorance’ in Nicaragua from rhetoric to reality shortly after the new government assumed power. Within months of The Sandinista education initiatives were multifaceted in their objectives. The most apparent goal of the Sandinista education policies was the education of the millions of illiterate Nicaraguans to read and write. Illiteracy served as a major barrier for political and economic participation, which the Sandinistas sought to break down. Beyond the task of teaching the uneducated masses, the 1980 literacy campaign and the Sandinista education agenda as a whole intended to politicize Nicaraguans and instill a sense of unified Sandinista nationalism amongst those involved with the campaign at all levels: as organizers, educators, and those who received education. This paper argues the CNA and the Sandinista’s education efforts as part of its people’s revolution did increase the political consciousness of many of the Sandinista organizers, volunteers, and students and fostered ideological concepts of economic, societal, and gender egalitarianism. However, the declining economic and security situation in Nicaragua outweighed the political support of FSLN policies for the men, women, and children influenced by Sandinista education. Disheartened by the instability of the revolutionary Nicaraguan state, the people of Nicaragua voted the FSLN and their revolutionary policies out of power in favor of a moderate government promising stability. The Sandinista education programs presented a significant opposition to the historical cultural and socioeconomic barriers of Nicaraguan society. Traditionally marginalized groups found themselves able to latch onto new chances at liberation. The efforts of increasing the political consciousness of its citizenry, the Sandinistas regime’s popular education programs allowed many Nicaraguans to participate in government and society in ways not possible under Somocismo. To understand the importance of popular education programs to the history of the Sandinista state this paper will explore the experiences of Nicaraguans who organized, volunteered, were educated by the CNA and the CEPs under the Sandinista regime. In analyzing the experiences of Nicaraguans with popular education programs, the paper will determine what role individual involved with education programs played in the Sandinista revolutionary state and the end of the people’s revolution. In July of 1979, after years of fighting the repressive Somoza regime, the FSLN and their allies seized Managua and with it the seat of Nicaragua’s government.
The toppling of Anastasio Somoza Debayle marked the end of a four decades long dynasty defined by cruelty and cronyism. The Somocista government actively denied or failed to provide the majority of Nicaraguans with any meaningful access to education, health services, running drinking-water, and in many cases food. The frustrations of life under Somoza rule fueled the struggled to topple the old regime. From the groups small roots as an anti-Somoza student organization, the FSLN capitalized on Nicaragua’s increasing civil unrest of the 1970s and won the support of the country’s poor. Along with a coalition of other revolutionary fronts of varying political ideology, the FSLN rose in an armed struggle against in 1978. The insurrection culminated in the surrender of the Somoza
government. True to the goals of the Sandinista Programa, the FLSN, set its educational reformation plans into motion. Within weeks of the formation of the Government Junta for National Reconstruction (JGRN), the newly established Ministry of Education began to plan and organize the Cruzada Nacional de Alfabetización (CNA). The Ministry of Education designed the CNA campaign, with the intent to educating the approximately fifty-two percent of Nicaraguans unable to read and write, the majority of whom were rural peasants. Between seventy-five and eighty percent of Nicaragua’s rural population was illiterate before the 1980 literacy campaign, with one-hundred percent of women in many rural areas completely illiterate. To overcome the logistical problems presented by Nicaragua’s geography, the Ministry of Education structured their education policies around non-formal Freirean-style pedagogical techniques whilst relying heavily on a decentralized network of people’s organizations and unions for support of the educators dispatched across the country. In spite of the technical and logistical limitations, within five months of the CNA’s start, the illiteracy rate dropped from fifty-two to less than thirteen. From a strictly numerical view, the popular education efforts of the Sandinista government failed in comparison to literacy efforts in other countries such as Cuba and Mexico. However, more staggering than the numerical achievements of the CNA and the subsequent Popular Education Collectives (CEPs) were the socio-cultural and psychological impacts of the Sandinista education initiatives. Sandinista education programs broke and crossed multiple cultural, economic, gender, social institutions and norms. The educational portion of the Sandinista’s popular revolution provided historically disenfranchised Nicaraguans with opportunities of authority, knowledge, and an increase to their socio-political status.
Guillermo González Camarena was a Mexican electrical engineer who was the inventor of a color-wheel type of color television, and who also introduced color television to Mexico,
Many countries have the pleasure of celebrating Independence Days. These historic holidays are filled with nationalistic celebrations and delicious traditional food. In Chile, the natives celebrate their break from Spain with Fiestas Patrias. In Mexico, the president begins the celebration by ringing a bell and reciting the “Grito de Dolores” and he ends his speech by saying “Viva Mexico” three times.
Schutz, Jorian Polis. "The Impact of the Sandinistas on Nicaragua." Jorian Polis Shutz, 1998. <http://www.jorian.com/san.html>.
The Civil War in El Salvador lasted from 1980 to 1992, and the El SAlvadoran government was doing their best to minimize the threat of their opposition. Their main opposition, The Frente Farabundo Marti Para La Liberacion Nacional; otherwise known as the FMLN, was a guerrilla group that was organized to fight the corruption in the country. 175). One of the main goals of the organization was to create a new society that is not degrading its citizens and promotes equality. Throughout El Salvador’s history, one organization to the next would run the country through repressive actions and social injustice. One of the main reasons that the FMLN fought the acting government were due to these social restraints on the lower- class citizens in El Salvador.
Vianica. History of the Sandinista Revolution: the union of a whole nation. January 2010. http://vianica.com/go/specials/15-sandinista-revolution-in-nicaragua.html (accessed November 2010).
Gleijeses Piero. Shattered Hope The Guatemalan Revolution and The United States, 1944-1954. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Under the Bush administration, Noreiga’s orders to organize drug trafficking and support the Nicaraguan Sandinista rebels ensured ...
Latin America’s independence kicked of with the independence of Haiti. Before the the independence movement that overtook Latin America, Haiti had gained independence twenty years before the movement. The Spanish Empire had been in decline for a period of time after the rise of the English empire and many failed battles on the Spanish (class notes). The French Revolution and the American Revolution had inspired many of the Latin American countries to fight for independence (Chapter 3). They were inspired by the Enlightenment that washed over Europe. Of the inspired, one man stood out and took the movement by heart.
In In the summer of 1968, Mexico was experiencing the beginning of a new student movement. The students sought liberal reform from the political system in Mexico. These students were determined to reveal the realities of poverty and misery and corruption in their country. (Guttmann) They were involved in different movements that would lead up to one event that would change the lives of everyone, “The Tlatelolco Massacre of 1968”. A day that ended the lives and shattered the dreams of many people. This event was the confirmation that the government could not be trusted and their lives would be determined by the actions they would take. This day would be brushed underneath the carpet and never spoken about for the sake
Immediately following the war with Spain, the United States had both the political will to pursue imperial policies and the geopolitical circumstances conducive to doing so. But the way in which these policies would manifest was an open question; was the impulse to actively remake the world in America’s Anglo-Saxon image justified? Hence, there were several models of American imperialism at the turn of the twentieth century. In the Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Samoa, the United States asserted unwavering political control. In Cuba, and later throughout most of the Caribbean basin, the economic and political domination of customarily sovereign governments became the policy. Ultimately, the United States was able to expand its territory
The rebellion against Nicaraguan leader Anastasio Somoza Debayle was supported by virtually all sectors of Nicaraguan society. The FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) spearheaded the revolt through the support of the poor, the working class, students, businessmen, professionals, the Roman Catholic Church and various oppositional political parties. Somoza had alienated all of society including, “the upper class with his disastrous economic policies which threatened the economic well-being of the propertied and entrepreneurial class.” (Booth, 125) He also alienated t...
The exodus of the majority of skilled workers brought about a rapid change in the methods employed in educating Cuba’s population. If the revolution was to be successful, Cuba needed to replace the skilled workers that left with other skilled workers in the shortest amount of time possible. In 1961, the revolutionary government developed a nationwide campaign to rid Cuba of illiteracy. The program was given slogans like “ The people should teach the people and If you don’t know learn; if you know teach”. This program consisted of volunteer teachers who would help illiterate Cubans increase their education by teaching them the fundamentals. According to Fitzgerald, “(The literacy campaign) helped to integrate town and county and to galvanize support for revolutionary goals by bringing urban and rural populations into direct contact. ( p. 41)” Also, according to Fitzgerald, “ Enrollment in adult education rose dramatically from 66,577 students in the 1960-1961 school year to a peak of 842,024 students in the 1964-1965 school year, but plummeted to 309,717 students in 1969-1970. (P. 42)” This program benefited the poorer citizens of Cuba who remained in Cuba. They w...
Social Revolutions in the Modern World is a compilation of essays, which updates and expands arguments Skocpol posed years earlier regarding social revolutions in her previous book, States and Social Revolutions. The updated arguments seek to explain how we can better understand recent revolutionary upheavals in countries across the globe and why social revolutions have happened in some countries, but not in others. Throughout the book, Skocpol illustrates how ideas about states and societies can aid in identifying the particular types of regimes that are susceptible to the growth of revolutionary movements as well as those that are vulnerable to seizure of state power by revolutionary aggressors. Skocpol argu...
Lancaster, Roger N. Life is Hard, Machismo, Danger, and the Intimacy of Power in Nicaragua. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992.
The Philippine Revolution was a military conflict between the Filipinos and Spanish colonial regime that started in the year 1896. The Filipinos were growing exhausted of the Spaniards’ rule over them. A charismatic leader, Andrès Bonifacio, formed a ghost propaganda movement, The Katipunan, to battle the Spaniards for independence. The Katipunan leaders and everyone associated with the revolution all knew the risks of getting captured: dying and risking the chance at freedom. War and bloodshed was the only decision for freedom; it was necessary to gain independence from Spain. The Filipino people joined as a whole to overthrow their Spanish dictators. It was a long fought war that seemed to last an eternity but on Dec. 15, 1897, the pact of Biak-na-Bato was declared. Though it wasn’t the perfect deal for each side, the pact brought a temporary end to the Philippine Revolution. The Philippine Revolution was a frightening, but necessary action by the Filipinos to pave way to their independence from Spain.