Nicaragua reflections....

12/14

Los Hermanos Mejia

Last week was a truly memorable night when los hermanos Mejia performed  at St. Paul and St.Andrews Church in New York City in what could be their last concert here. That alone would  have been enough to have drawn the hundreds of Nicaraguans to filled the church to hear--and sing along with-- these national icons, the expression of the soul and dream of los nicaraguenses.

But something more critical was at stake, the country's current crisis and descent into authoritarian oppression. The new songs of Luis Enrique, Canciones de Abril, lifting up the events that catalyzed this current moment. The uprisings that have resulted in hundreds dead, others disappeared or imprisioned, 50-60000 in exile in Costa Rica and more in Honduras, itself a country of emigration. Meanwhile the population is terrorized by paramilitarios and violent turbas. It is for this los hermanos sing.

As I listen and watch, I have two reflections. The first has to do with nationalism. We all reject with revulsion President Trump's declaration that he is a "nationalist." Most of us are by ideology internationalists, which is why we are here. Still the optics are moving.

The flowing blue and white flags and banners. The women dancing, pride and defiance in their eyes as they wrap themselves in and  dance with the flag. What is the difference? Can it be as simple as love of the people as opposed to jingoistic exceptionalism? Certainly, revolutions are often expressed in terms of movements of national liberation.

Perhaps the words of Finlandia: Song of Peace express it best:

This is my song
Oh gods of all the nations
A song of peace for lands so far away
This is my home, a country where my heart is

Here grew my hopes and dreams for all mankind
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean
And sunlight shines on clover leaf and pine
But other lands have sunlight too and clover

And skies are everywhere as blue as mine
Oh hear my prayer, o gods of all the nations
A song of peace for their lands and for mine

It's the love expressed in songs like Carlos' "Nicaragua, Nicaraguita":

Oh Nicaragua Nicaraguita
Most beautiful flower of my love
Fertilized with the blessed blood of Diriangen

Oh Nicaragua you are even sweeter
Than the honey from Tamagas
But now that you are free
Nicaraguita
I love you much more
But now that you are free
Nicaraguita
I love you much more

A love that sustains a people in exile. That sustains until we return. And it connects us to all peoples....we learn the universal through the particular.

But I have another more disturbing concern. I look around and with a handful of exceptions, the  crowd is totally nicaraguense. In the 80's, there would, have been many cadres of internacionalistas and companeros de solidaridad. Not today. What's going on?

Let's face it, the struggle to overthrow right wing fascist regimes is romantic, even sexy. We get to live out our own Spanish Civil War fantasy. Our own Hemmingway or Abraham Lincoln Brigade experience. In the 80's we even had the evocative graffitti, no pasaran. Nicaragua was the perfect mix of socialism and liberationist Christianity with cool peasant art work as a bonus.

But not now. Nothjng sexy about seeking to remove a corrupt former leftist oligarch and  his self absorbed power hoarding partner. That's just hard work. And if that caudillito is a former revolutionary icon, sorry guys you're on your own. 

The former companions in solidarity are today the biggest roadblock to developing support for the movement to restore democracy to Nicaragua. This despite the fact that every major Sandinista figure—has spoken out against the duo: Ernesto Cardenal, Sergio Ramírez, Dora María Téllez, Carlos Fernando Chamorro, Gioconda Belli and  Daisy Zamora. Ortega has lost the singers of revolution like los Mejia and Katia Cardenal who can no longer return home after their current concert tours. At SPSA was the young student who had gone cara a cara with Daniel. 

He stood up to Daniel

For those of us  for whom solidarity with Nicaragua was such an important part of their life, the time is now to move beyond romance to reality in the name of the suffering Nicaraguan people. What's at stake is much more important than ideology, it is the very real lives of very real people.

Luis Enrique, Robert, Carlos and Russ