Solidarity Networks: Trajectories of Nicaraguan Political Refugees in Costa Rica
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Solidarity Networks: Trajectories of Nicaraguan Political Refugees in Costa Rica A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts In the Department of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences 2020 by Gracia Silva B.A. Central American University, 2017 Committee Chair: C. Jeffrey Jacobson, Ph. D. Committee Member: Leila Rodriguez Soto, Ph. D. ABSTRACT This work tells the stories of young Nicaraguan people that fled to Costa Rica to escape political persecution within the context of Nicaragua’s political violence and repression, which began in April 2018. Through these stories, I want to shed light on the psychosocial impact of political violence and forced migration and contribute to improve people’s empathetic understanding of the realities of refugees. My aim was to understand the personal and collective meanings that these refugees give to their experiences during the protests using a social perspective based on Martín-Baró’s liberation psychology. I also became interested in understanding how Nicaraguan refugees were creating networks of support to survive and heal in Costa Rica. To conduct my fieldwork, I spent three months in Costa Rica serving as an accompanier and conducting participant observation in collective houses inhabited by young political refugees, with whom I also conducted individual interviews. I was really interested in listening to the trajectories of their lives since April 2018 and I was really surprised when I discovered they were also interested in telling me their stories, not just because I was asking, but because they had been waiting for someone they could trust and who was willing to listen to them. For this reason, I felt that my most important task as an accompanier was to be a witness of the things that happened to them. I came to realize that their motivations to participate in the protests were rooted in the search for justice that awakes solidarity. During the protests, they were spurred to act against the political repression and to resist by working together. The company of others in similar situations has helped them make sense of what has happened to them and to cope with dire i circumstances. Nowadays in Costa Rica, they are facing other series of difficulties such as feelings of frustration, xenophobia and labor discriminations, and once again their work as a community has helped them resisting by taking care of each other. ii iii DEDICATION This work is dedicated to the memories of Michael Humberto Cruz Sánchez and Bryan Aburto “Comando”. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank all my co-researchers and all the Nicaraguan refugees who in one way or another supported this work. Thank you for your interest and for your time. My most sincere appreciation to my thesis committee for your support and contributions to this work. I am also grateful to my friends Sarah Terheide and Caleigh Richissin for their company and support during these two years of studies. I am thankful to my family, especially my mother Marta Silva Pérez, my aunt Ada Esperanza Silva Pérez and my grandma Mercedes Pérez de Silva, who taught me to think about others, to fight for what I think is fair and to follow my dreams. I would also like to thank the people who helped me while I was in Costa Rica. Thank you to the CENDEROS team in San José, who were a huge support for me during 2018 and 2019, especially to Yadira López Centeno, Cristina Valerio and Eduardo Bolaños. And also thanks to the Mok-Porter family who took care of me during my time in Costa Rica. My deepest thanks to Yerling Aguilera, Enrieth Martínez, Jessica Martínez, Marissa Olivares, Fiore Bran, and Yalani Caldera, for showing me how to be strong and for listening to me. To my group of “Nicas y Eduardos”. As a safety measure, I do not mention your names but I carry all of you in my heart, and I would have never survived the separation from my country and my family if it was not for you. I am grateful to my beloved partner, Ulises Tadeo Munguía Fonseca. I am glad that it was with you with whom I escaped the attack of the night of April 18, 2018. Thank you for always being present since that day. v TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 1 NICARAGUAN 2018-2019 WAVE OF PROTESTS ........................................................................ 6 METHODS ....................................................................................................................................... 19 SOLIDARITY AND LIBERATION PSYCHOLOGY .................................................................... 30 MOTIVATIONS FOR JOINING THE PROTESTS ........................................................................ 34 Abril .............................................................................................................................................. 34 Dámaso .......................................................................................................................................... 36 Slam............................................................................................................................................... 38 Reflections..................................................................................................................................... 40 IMPACT OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE ........................................................................................... 45 Alissa ............................................................................................................................................. 45 Karen ............................................................................................................................................. 47 Lyris .............................................................................................................................................. 50 Police Abuse .................................................................................................................................. 53 Reflections..................................................................................................................................... 55 LIFE IN COSTA RICA .................................................................................................................... 59 Jorge .............................................................................................................................................. 59 Flor de Luz .................................................................................................................................... 62 Accumulated Distress .................................................................................................................... 65 Reflections..................................................................................................................................... 68 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 75 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................. 80 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................... 85 Appendix A: Co-researchers information ..................................................................................... 85 Appendix B: Spanish quotes ......................................................................................................... 87 vi INTRODUCTION On the night of April 18, 2018, I was in front of the main entrance of the Central American University in Managua, Nicaragua, protesting against the social security reforms the government had just approved, when pro-government shock groups arrived. A group of motorcycles started running on the street from one side to the other threatening us with bats and guns, right in front of the police. Then, they threw a rain of rocks at us, and we ran inside the university to take cover. I was one of the last to get inside and some guys behind me closed the door. I did not know where my friends were but I was inside the university and I felt safer. A couple of minutes later I heard a huge noise and people screaming that the shock groups were inside, so I felt frightened and ran, trying to find a place to hide. You could hear mortar noises and something that sounded like gun shots. I was never sure if they were real bullets. You could hear people running and screaming. I remember later that night when I finally arrived to my house I talked to one of my friends on the phone and I told him that at one moment, when I was running, I thought they were going to kill us. I felt relieved talking about this as if it were an exaggerated thought. I did not know the killing was going to start the next day. That night marks the beginning of the ongoing socio-political crisis in Nicaragua, during which the government has used various repression strategies to respond to protestors in an effort to crush and silence any trace of dissent. Among these strategies prevail the disproportionate use of force and criminalization of participants and supporters of the protests, which left more than 300 people dead and thousands injured (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for