Women in the Nicaraguan Revolution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11241252 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Maria Santos (0000-0001-9297-4539), Maria Manuela Nováis Santos (corresponding author), Barbara Alpern Engel |
| Year | 1983 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 42 |
| Publication date | 1983-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Frontiers A Journal of Women Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0160-9009 • E-ISSN: 1536-0334 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3346284 |
| OpenAlex | W2325995066 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
MARIA SANTOS: Oh, yes. What I saw was a national consensus that I've never seen in this country. It was evident that 85-90 percent of people support what's happening in that country, although there are some people who are disaffected because they are losing their privileges or disagree with direction of revolution. The government is following what they call the logic of majority, attempting to benefit most people at one time, beginning with poorest people. The support that they have from this predominantly poor country is just amazing. We spoke to a fifty-five-year-old woman with a heart condition who told me that under Somoza she went to doctor, who told her to prepare to die; that she didn't have money for care and she couldn't get to clinic, so she might as well make her peace with God and die. The Sandinista government now picks her up from her home, takes her to clinic, and she gets her medicine free; and she is digging a trench in her back yard to defend revolution against what she perceives as an imminent CIA invasion. We talked to nuns, not wearing habit but wearing nun-like clothing. They were standing up very militantly at meetings and saying, No pasaran (they shall not pass). We talked to young women who participated in literacy campaign as teachers-who went out and lived with campesinos for five months in countryside, lived their life, a very, very hard life without running water, without electricity, with very little to eatand came back completely transformed and with a realization that Nicaragua was a lot of different people, but very, very poor. We saw a nation that's disposed to speak out, that is not going to be kept quiet. Their leaders go through a monthly process called Face People where they go to different districts inside country and meet face to face with people, not on television, not through telephones. And people ask them very hard questions. They want to know why things are being rationed. They want to know why their wages have not been raised when they've been demanding higher wages to keep up with cost of living. They want to know why a family of seven only gets one small bar of soap. They want to know why this person down street has not had his property taken away even though he's not producing what peasants think he should be producing. I was most impressed by humility of leadership. They still dress like people dress; they still talk like people talk; they don't drive around in a chauffeured limousine; and they go out and meet people, shake their hands, touch them, answer their questions
History · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Social and Political Issues · Social Sciences and Policies
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,08 |
| Citation span | 1990 - 1995 (6) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |