1981/No. 41 by Chades L. Stansifer CULTURAL POLICY IN South [CLS-2-'81] THE OLD AND THE NEW America

Rub6n Darlo of Nicaragua ranks as one of the Darlo left Nicaragua as a teen-ager and began his greatest literary figures of the . climb to the peaks of literary success in the salons As innumerable critics have pointed out, his of Santiago and Buenos Aires. Although in 1916 greatness rests on his revolutionary approach to he came home to die, he spent the greatest part of language and to poetry. He is considered the his career in and . Compared to central figure and greatest exponent of the Cuba's hero, Jos Martl, whose life of abnegation modernist literary movement that overwhelmed and commitment to independence fit comfortably the Hispanic world of letters in the late nineteenth within the ideology ofthe Cuban revolution, Darlo and early twentieth centuries. Darlo's impact on appears to have spent little time worrying about his native country has been so deep that no gov- national problems. ernment of Nicaragua, no matter what its political coloration, can fail to pay him homage. Second, after the first phase of his career when with Central It is not that the Sandinista he did indeed deal intensively surprising, then, American political questions, his fame depended movement which has ruled Nicaragua since it on with their themes of ousted the Somoza dynas.ty in 1979 has hastened fundamentally his poems to to beauty, love, and death and his lyrical use of the identify itself with Darlo. The first book be Spanish language. Rather than presenting popu- published by the new Ministry of Culture in the lar or naturalistic scenes of his Nicaraguan child- Popular Collection of his ailude-to Greek and series was Nuestro Rube'n Dar(o (Our Rub6n hood., poems Roman Dano). of classics and Western European literature. There The Ministry Education likewise is little in his vast to indicate he was quickly brought out a selection of Darlo's poems literary output Dar(o (Rub6n a nationalist, a socialist, or a revolutionary (in the entitled Rube'n y su tiempo Darlo political not the literary sense). His opinions, I and his Time).2A third book, Textos Socio- of the politicos de Ruben Dar{o (Sociopolitical Texts of suspect, reflected political controversies :1 day, and like many great nonpolitical writers of Ruben Darlo), was published in early 1981. voluminous output, Daro expressed varying, These books are evidence both of an unprece- often contradictory, views on issues. He does not dented Nicaraguan governmental cultural initia- to committed himself to tive and an effort by the Sandinistas to identify a appear have any political cultural hero of international prominence with the ideology. revolutionary principles now reigning in Nica- How then can Darlo be considered a hero in ragua. revolutionary Nicaragua? How can a government The bare facts of Darlo's life are not altogether loudly committed to popular culture and egali- helpful in a campaign to identify him with revolu- tarianism and to breaking the bonds of cultural tionary principles. True, he was born (in 1867) in imperialism make Darlo an object of veneration? humble circumstances. It is also true that among Nicaragua's Minister of Culture Father Ernesto his numerous literary works he touched on social- Cardenal, himself a poet of international stand- ist and anti-imperialist themes. There are two ing, answers these questions, saying, "Darfo was a problems, however. The first is doubt about his true poet ofthe people. Many of his poems demon- attachment to his homeland and to America. strate his love of Nicaragua and his revolutionary 2/CLS-2-'81

reputation depends as much on content as Wheelock Roman, "it was essentially a reaction- form."4 ary cultural movement which not only structured The books Nuestro Ruben Daro and Ruben itself to idealize somocismo but it also attacked Dar[o y su tiempo advance the same theme. At its Darlo and Sandino in the name of a pretentious most extreme the Sandinista interpretation insists veneration that was inspired by none other than the Somoza dynasty, and its supporters deliber- the politics of Fascism and Nazism." Further- ately concealed Dano's social concerns. "Never more, Wheelock writes, "in the realm of literature did the [Somoza] tyranny," one Sandinista writes, [the movement] was limited to making a pastiche "mention the poet's social writing. This is the of the decadent cultural movements of the United Ruben that they kept us from knowing...they States and Europ.e from the 1920s."aNeverthe only showed us...the superficial poetry of the less Somoza Garcla's patronage ofthe arts was not Poet, his his to unlike that in other Latin American countries at hiding anti-imperialist work, call the time, and Nicaragua's cultural performance the defense of the Latin race against Caliban, the against the Yankee imperialism that was country's artistic contributionsgiven the characteristic s country's small population (1,109,000 in 1950 for of[Daro]" example), its per capita income (about $500 in In the outpouring of literature by journalists 1950), and its literacy rate (no more than 30% in and social scientists on the phenomena of the fall 1950), were, if not outstanding, certainly re- of Somoza and the rise of Sandinismo, fully jus- spectable. tified by the importance of these events to Latin Diplomatic Appointments America and the , there is a ten- One way for a Latin American ruler to demon- dency to overlook the existence of a deep and sys- strate his support for the arts is to appoint a tematic effort by the Sandinista government to literary figure to an important diplomatic post in alter Nicaragua's traditional cultural patterns. , particularly in Paris or Madrid, and to Contradictions such as the remaking of Darlo in a give him enough administrative and secretarial revolutionary image are better understood when help so that the diplomatic duties do not interfere placed in the perspective of Nicaragua's cultural with the Muse. The first Somoza, Anastasio history. Thus a review of the cultural history of Somoza Garca (1936-1956)doubtless spent little Nicaragua from 1936-1979 is a necessary pre- time worrying about the vigor of Nicaraguan liminary to illuminate Sandinista cultural policy cultural life, but he did recognize leading literary differences. By cultural policy I mean official and lights in the traditional manner. Just as President unofficial efforts of the government, semiautono- Jos Santos Zelaya appointed Daro Minister to mous agencies, and private groups to promote Spain so did President Somoza award Jos culture. Culture, for the purposes of this article, Coronel Urtecho (born in Granada, Nicaragua, in simply means the arts. The importance of litera- 1906) with a diplomatic post in Madrid that he ture in Nicaragua, especially poetry, as opposed to might pursue his career in letters among Spanish painting and other art forms leads to emphasis on and Latin American intellectuals in the tertulias the art of poetry. of franquista Spain. Cultural Policy under Anastasio Somoza Garc'a While a student in , , To those who believe that dictatorship is in- Coronel had become enamored of the poetry of compatible with cultural accomplishment it may Ezra Pound. Upon his return to Nicaragua in 1927 come as a surprise that the Somoza dynasty pro- he became the co-founder (with Luis Alberto moted (or even permitted)cultural expression. Of Cabrales) of the right-wing Vanguard Movement, course since December 1972, when an earthquake an important vehicle for the introduction of the leveled the city of , and especially since poetic style of Pound and other North American 1978, when the insurrection intensified, neither poets to Nicaragua. An essayist, short-story the government nor artists were able to give much writer, historian, poet of great erudition and attention to cultural matters, a But in the years of reputation in the Hispanic world, and above all a Anastasio Somoza Garcla, who seized power in teacher, Coronel had a profound influence on 1936, then dominated Nicaraguan politics until Nicaraguan intellectual life. According to his his assassination in 1956, there was a small most famous pupil, , Coronel cultural renaissance which stands in contrast to "was the master of his generation [of poets] and he the cultural depression following the death of has been the master of all succeeding generations Darlo in 1916. Current Sandinista judgment of up to the present. ''9 If Cardenal is correct (and I this movement is harsh. According to Jaime believe that he is), the generation gap between the CLS-2-'81/3

intellectuals of the 1930s and those of the 1980s is when he died in Paris in 1959. Later, in the 1960s, nowhere near as large as the political gap between Poet Carlos Martlnez Rivas and Historian Carlos Somocistas and Sandinistas. Molina Arguello served the Somoza government Diplomatic service in Spain apparently satis- as diplomatic representatives in Spain and . fied both Somoza and Coronel. Coronel's stature While these appointments do not add up to a cul- undoubtedly diminished somewhat the "banana tural policy, it may be said that Anastasio Somoza republic" image of Nicaragua and Coronel did Garciagave more to support intellectuals than he write a number of works while in Spain. Among received from them in return. his accomplishments was the outline for his Cultural Institutions renowned first volume of Reflexiones sobre la Patronage of culture (in the sense of the dic- historia de Nicaragua (Reflections on the History tator's support of intellectuals) characterized the of Nicaragua), an apology for Spanish coloniza- early Somoza years. Cultural institutions, how- tion worthy of Salvador de Madariaga. ever, did not flourish. The National Museum, However, Coronel, who returned to Nicaragua founded in the 1890s, was a derelict cared for by in 1941 and served briefly as a deputy in the the penniless daughter of its founder. It had National Assembly, gradually grew disenchanted practically no government support during the with Somoza and ultimately became a severe critic entire Somoza dynasty. The Ruben Daro of the Somoza dynasty. Two of his sons were Museum in Le6n, founded in the 1950s at great leaders in the Sandinista insurrection. Coronel is personal sacrifice by Edgardo Buitrago, received a now a full-fledged Sandinista whose anti-United pittance from the government. The National States and prorevolutionary barbs are as sharp as Library, which had enough European classics in those of any Nicaraguan government spokesman. the 1880s to inspire Ruben Daro in his illustrious In an atmosphere where "Somocista" is the vilest career, suffered heavy damage in the earthquake of the epithets in the Sandinista repertory, it s of 1931 and was virtually abandoned in the next 40 comforting to know that Coronel, master of poets, years, failing in its daily battle against the creep- Spanish apologist, and sometime supporter of ing expansion of the Managua Central Market. Somoza, is forgiven and accepted. From the day of its founding in 1896 the National Archives occupied a small room with a striking There were other Somoza diplomatic appoint- view of Lake Managua, atop the National Palace, ments from the intellectual realm. Andres Vega but it was doomed to a spartan budget and Bolaos was Nicaraguan ambassador to Spain ignorant political appointees ostensibly in charge from 1944 to 1959. Vega Bolaos did not enjoy the of its precious material. reputation of Coronel as a writer, but as the country's leading historian, he coveted the Education was clearly not a high priority item in Spanish post in order to do historical research. On the Somoza administration. The once proud Uni- the basis of his lengthy investigations in Spanish versidad de Le6n, second oldest in Central archives (with apparently few interruptions for America, had a smaller annual budget in 1940 diplomatic necessities) he wrote several books on than in 1900. Primary and secondary education Nicaraguan subjects and gathered documentation fared no better. The Ministry of Education under for the Colecci6n Somoza, a 17-volume compila- Mariano Fiallos Gil and others, intellectual tion of colonial documents dealing with Nica- leaders whose humanism and apolitical approach ragua. The collection is particularly valuable saved them from the stain of collaborationism, because few colonial documents in the Nica- fought gamely, but for the most part unsuccess- raguan archives survived the ravages of neglect, fully, against the first Somoza's neglect of these fire, and earthquake. Vega Bolaos, who is now institutions. Apart from a weak cultural extension past 90 years of age and living in retirement near service their chief success was the establishment of his native city of Masaya, correctly observed in the the periodical Educacidn, a magazine promoting preface that the collection is "one of the most the broad cultural heritage of Nicaragua. Pub- valuable contributions to Nicaraguan culture" of lished sporadically in the 1950s, it had brought the Anastasio Somoza government. 45 issues to light when the earthquake of 1972 Three other intellectuals in Somoza's diplo- silenced it. matic service may be cited. One of the few great A partial exception to Somoza's cultural Nicaraguan men of letters of the generation neglect was the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes between Dar{o and Coronel, Salom6n de la Selva, (National School of Fine Arts), established in was serving in his country's diplomatic service 1939. Never adequately funded, it began to 4/CLS-2-'81

flourish only when Rodrigo Pealba gave up his Cardenal, who took over as editor of his family's involvement in cosmopolitan painting centers in newspaper La Prensa in 1950, also studied at the the United States, , and Europe in 1947 to Colegio. return to Nicaragua as director of the school's painting and sculpture section. 2 Armando Although after his graduation Jos Coronel Morales, Nicaragua's best known, currently active Urtecho had no formal connection with the painter, trained there in the 1940s. school, it was he who influenced its students most. As a resident of Granada in the early 1940s, Granada as Cultural Nucleus Coronelserved as mentor for a remarkable gen- In the absence of governmental support for eration of Granadan poets, who, besides Cuadra education or cultural activities during the early and Cardenal, include Carlos Martlnez Rivas, years of the Somoza dynasty, a small but very Ernesto Meja Stnchez, Guillermo Rothschuh significant private cultural nucleus began to Tablada, Fernando Silva, Ernesto Guti6rrez, and develop in the city of Granada in the 1930s and Joaquin Pasos. Most of these poets joined with especially in the 1940s. Granada's rise to cultural historians and artists to form the Society of prominence came at the expense of Le6n, Catholic Writers and Artists of the San Lucas Nicaragua's colonial capital, home of the Liberal Workshop, focal point of Nicaraguan arts and Party establishment, seat of the university, and criticism during its brief lifetime, 1942-1944.s last resting place of Rub6n Daro. The catalyst for During the 1940s Coronel and Cuadra were in- the transition from Le6n to Granada was the volved in the editing of the Cuadernos and a Jesuit secondary school Colegio Centro Am6rica, number of other publications where Hispanism, founded in Granada in 1921. In a magnificent Nicaraguan-ness, reaction, and revolution vied for setting overlooking Lake Nicaragua, Jesuit priests space. provided a classical Hispano-Catholic education. there on Although the Colegio slipped Although was heavy emphasis the Latin in influence after its transfer to Managua in 1967, and Greek classics, Nicaragua's Indian origins its graduates form the heart of Nicaragua's also received scholarly attention. Indeed, the current intellectual elite. Anastasio Somoza Colegio's spacious open patio, which contained Garcfa saw little danger in this elitist cultural dozens of indigenous stone idols gathered by enclave, but a number of Granadan intellectuals North American minister E. George Squier a helped eventually to undermine the dynasty. century earlier and by the school's instructors in While at first they tended to tolerate Anastasio the 1920s, was a daily reminder of the power and Somoza Garca, the increasing repressiveness of artistic dedication of Nicaragua's Indian an- a his regime and particularly that of Anastasio cestors. As reflected in the writings and artistic Somoza Debayle drove the members of the group accomplishments of the Colegio's graduates, into exile or opposition. teachers also emphasized appreciation of the arts and experimentation with all art forms. The only significant Nicaraguan poet outside the Granada circle in the era of Anastasio Somoza Families named Cuadra, Pasos, Coronel, Garcla and the only one of the Vanguard genera- Zavala, Chamorro, Cardenal, and others of the tion claimed by the Sandinistas as a revolutionary Granadan conservative elite sent their children to poet was Manolo Cuadra. Ironically, Cuadra was the Colegio Centro Am6rica. Prominent early indeed a member of a distinguished Granadan graduates were Coronel, Pablo Antonio Cuadra family and was friendly with the Vanguard poets, (another Nicaraguan poet of international stature) but he separated himself from the Granadan and Joaquln Zavala Urtecho, Nicaragua's leading tradition, identified with the common man, and caricaturist in the 1930s and later founder of the lived as a soldier, worker, and adventurer. His country's best-known scholarly periodical, Re- poetry earns him the plaudits of Sandinista ide- vista del Pensamiento Centroamericano. These ologues but his lifestyle left him with little or no three were the principal figures of the Vanguard influence on other literary Movement. 4 They profoundly influenced cur- figures.a rent Minister of Culture Ernesto Cardenal, a The Lugs Somoza Debayle Period student at the Colegio in the early 1940s. Between 1956, the year Anastasio Somoza Cardenal's first published poems appeared in the Garca was assassinated, and 1967 a new political Cuadernos del Taller San Lucas (Notebooks of the climate evolved. After an initial repressive phase San Lucas Workshop), founded by Cuadra in immediately following the assassination, the Granada in 1942. Pedro Joaquin Chamorro political philosophy and personal character of CLS-2-'81/5

HONDURAS

JINOTEGA

NUEVA SEGOVIA MADRIZ

ESTELI

ZELAYA MATAGALPA CHINANDEGA LEON eCiudad Dari'o

eLe6n BOACO

CHONTALES eJuigalpa

COSTA RICA

KANSAS UNIVERSITY CARTOGRAPHIC SERVICE Luis Somoza Debayle, son of Anastasio Somoza Prosperity and the breathing room in the more Garcia, permitted the birth and survival of private tolerant atmosphere of Lu{s Somoza permitted cultural institutions. Luis Somoza, more the Granada elite to take positive steps to defend moderate and more open than his father, was the and promote Nicaraguan culture. To be sure, dominant political figure until his fatal heart there was still no government cultural policy; attack in 1967, whereupon his brother Anastasio there was merely an attitude ofpermissiveness. Somoza Debayle, of a military background, took over. Prosperity generated by the rapidly expand- It was in the Lu{s Somoza period that the Banco ing cotton industry was another important in- Central de Nicaragua began to assume its role as gredient in the growth of cultural institutions. guardian of the Nicaraguan heritage. Collecting 8/CLS-2-'81

A Selected List of Twentieth-Century Nicaraguan Poets, Artists, and Intellectuals* Name Birthplace Dates Current Position RubSn Daro Me,tapa** 1867-1916 Azaras H. Pallais Leon 1886-1954 AndrSs Vega ,B ola os Masaya 1891- Retired Alfonso Cortes Len 1893-1969 Salom(n de la Selva Le6n 1893-1959 Joss Coronel Urtecho Granada 1906- Writer Manolo Cuadra Vega Ma la catoya + 1907-1957 Mariano Fiallos Gil Le(n 1907-1964 Rodrig,o Pe'alba Le(n 1908-1979- Joaqun Zavala Urtecho Granada 1910-1971 Pablo Antonio Cuadra Cardenal Managua ++ 1912- Director, La Prensa Joaqun Paso,s Arg{Jello Granada 1914-1949 Enrique Fernandez Morales Granada 1919- Retired Carlos Molina Arg{Jello Granada 1921- In Spain Ernesto Meja Sanchez Masaya 1923- Amb. to Carlos Martnez Rvas +++ 1924- Agrar. Reform Inst. Pedro Joaqun Chamorro Cardenal Granada 1924-1978 Ernesto Cardenal Granada 1925- Min. of Culture Guillermo Rothschuh Tablada Juigalpa 1926- Min. of Education Fernando Silva Granada 1927- Min. of Culture Armando Morales Granada 1927- In New Jersey Ernesto Guterrez Granada 1929- Amb. to Brazil Lizandro Chvez Alfaro Bluefields 1929- Min. of Culture Mario Cajina Vega Masaya 1929- Writer Luis Rocha Urtecho Granada 1942- Nuevo Diario Sergio Rami'rez Mercado Masatepe 1942- Government Junta Francisco de Ass Fernandez' Granada 1945- Pres., ASTC # Jorge Eduardo Arellano Granada 1946- Dir. Natl. Archives Daisy Zamora Managua 1950- Min. of Culture Julio Valle Castillo Masaya 1952- Min. of Culture

* Selected because of their success as poets or artists, and prominence as leaders and promoters of Nicaraguan culture. ** Now Ciudad Daro. Childhood in Le(n. + Near Granada ++ Moved to Granada at age 4. +++ Moved to Granada at early age. # ASTC- Asociaci(n Sandinista de Trabajadores de Cultura (Sandinista Association of Cultural Workers)

Nicaraguan imprints under the guise of informa- later, of Nicaraguan painting and sculpture.7 tion for prospective investors, the Banco Central Jaime Incer's and Francisco. Tern's comprehen- library surreptitiously became, in effect, the sive geography of Nicaragua inaugurated the national library. (The phenomenon of the Banco bank's high quality publications series in 1964, Central serving as a national library is not unique, the same year the bank's striking skyscraper for the practice is common in Central America.) opened in downtown Managua.a In 1974 the The Bank quietly began other efforts to promote bank launched a periodical dealing broadly with Nicaraguan culture, such as buying paintings and Nicaraguan culture under the editorship of the art objects. Acquisition in 1975 of the art collec- indefatigable bibliographer, poet, historian, and tion of Enrique Fernfindez Morales, a member of critic, jorge Eduardo Arellano, another Colegio the San Lucas group, made possible a compre- Centro America graduate. Independent hensive study, published by the bank a few years scholars were hired to do research only remotely CLS-2-'81/7

related to economics. The Banco Central estab- also occasionally published books on Nicaraguan lished the National Park of Masaya, created the history and culture, but these efforts to identify National School of Ceramics, sponsored several the Somoza regime with Nicaraguan culture were archaeological investigations, and awarded schol- amateurish compared to the sophisticated arships for study abroadall with the blessing of accomplishments of the Banco Central and the the dictator and with minimum political inter- Banco de America. The Banco Nicaragiiense's ference. subsidization of a gigantic mural by three Nica- As Jos Coronel put it, "Finally we have an raguan painters at the Nejapa Shopping Center did, however, win the acclaim of Nicaragua's intelligent bank in Nicaragua For the first time a2 in Nicaragua a bank set itself the task of publish- cultural promoters, ing books of cultural importance and not simply The Universities banking reports and bulletins of information and ''2o Despite enormous difficulties, the Universidad propaganda. By the 1970s, under the en- Nacional Aut6noma de Nicaragua (UNAN), with lightened directorship ofRoberto Incer Barquero, headquarters in Le6n and a new branch campus the Banco Central had become an informal min- in the capital, began to show signs of intellectual istry of culture. leadership during the regime of Luls Somoza. There were, however, selection and censorship. Rectors Mariano Fiallos Gil (1957-1964), who Under the circumstances of dependency on the convinced the government to grant the university dictatorship it was not likely that the publications autonomy in 1958, and Carlos Tiinnerman Bern- committee would directly challenge or antagonize heim (1964-1974), although preoccupied with the regime. One example of such censorship efforts to preserve the university's autonomy and occurred when Luciano Cuadra submitted his financing and with protection of students and translation of E. George Squier's classic travel faculty from government respression, provided account of Nicaragua, first published in English an additional forum for discussion of the arts. a3 in 1851, to the Banco Central for publication. The Mariano Fiallos Oyanguren, son of Mariano publications committee insisted on suppressing a Fiallos Gil, led the student fight for autonomy in passage hostile to Bernab Somoza, one of the the 1950s as a student at UNAN. 4 Then, upon president's ancestors. Rather than submit to the his return from doctoral studies in the United emasculation of his manuscript Cuadra withdrew States, he provided inspirational leadership, first it and submitted it to the publishing organ of the as dean of humanities and after 1974 as rector. organization of Central American universities Not surprisingly, the greatest success was in (Editorial Universitaria Centroamericana), which poetry. Ernesto Gutirrez, scholar, teacher, and published it in 1970. poet in his own right, directed the university pub- Private banks also became a cultural force. The lication service and for 15 years edited Cuadernos Banco de America, founded in 1952, and known Universitarios, which, among other things, of its connec- collected the writings of Nicaragua's poets. Not as the "Conservative" bank because the least of Gutirrez's accomplishments was to tions with the Granada conservative aristocracy, Coronel Urtecho to was to accumulate a persuade his mentor Jos6 especially active. It began allow a book of his poems to be published, Pol-la library and to promote an ambitious publications Katanta the of which series under the supervision of the Fondo de D 'ananta Paranta, preface o is entitled, "At last: a Book of Poems by Jos Promocon Cultural (Cultural Promotion In- Coronel." 5 stitute). Its library never compared to that of the Banco Central, but by 1979, when the Sandinista Anti-Somoza intellectuals were nourished in government nationalized the bank and killed the the university environment. Among the most im- series, over 50 titles of historical documents, portant of them was Sergio Ramrez, whose archaeological treatises, and Nicaraguan litera-- editing of the student magazine Ventana ture and history had been published. Like the (Window) attracted attention in the 1960s. The Banco Central, the Banco de America hosted Ventana group, as a front for the Frente Sandi- visiting foreign scholars, arranged scholarly con- nista de Liberaci6n Nacional (FSLN, Sandinista ferences, and in general promoted Nicaraguan National Liberation Front), foreshadowed the culture. It also gave donations to deserving cul- cultural policy of the Sandinista government. As tural causes. Two other private banks, the Banco explained by Ramrez, the Ventana front "coun- Nicaragiiense (the "Liberal" bank) and the Banco terposed a national culture against an imported, Nacional de Vivienda (National Bank of Housing) purist culture where the words, worker, blood, 8/CLS-2-'81

and poverty were considered vulgar."2 Unlike orientation and to become a Central American other Nicaraguan intellectuals Ramlrez, who is regional institution, those efforts were never com- currently one of the three members of the Nica- pletely successful. Partially dependent on wealthy raguan Government Junta of National Recon- patrons for the purchase of advertising space, it struction, rose to a position of intellectual leader- could not be otherwise. It remained basically ship as a short-story writer and novelist rather Nicaraguan and, in the short run, politically non- than as a poet. threatening. In the long run it undermined the Somoza dynasty by reminding of the The Universidad Centro Am6rica (UCA), Nica- cultural heritage the government was doing so ragua's first private university, began operations little to protect. Limitations notwithstanding, no under Jesuit management in the Lu{s Somoza magazine in Central America has done more to period. Appropriately, it was Jos Coronel who encourage scholarly discussion of cultural issues. gave the inaugural address at UCA's opening in z7 Until the earthquake of December 1972 destroyed 1961. UCA made a significant contribution to its offices, the editorial staff never failed to filling Nicaragua's official cultural policy void by produce an issue. Even the earthquake, which beginning a program of library science and by destroyed Joaquln Zavala's public relations busi- establishing the Institute of Historical Studies. ness along with the Revista offices, failed to end Professional librarians and bibliographers, now the magazine. It renewed operations with the for the first time in positions in the nation's January 1975 issue. libraries, began to push for improvements. The Institute of Historical Studies inherited the his- Despite predictions of its demise from financial torical archive of the Colegio Centro Am6rica and difficulties and an adverse political climate since began to promote historical studies. One project, July 1979, the Revista is still alive, and upon it a plan to publish Nicaraguan colonial documents rests Nicaragua's best hopes for cultural criticism in the Colegio's possession, had been launched independent of the Sandinista government. with great fanfare in 1950 at the First Congress of Joaqun Zavala s son, Xavier Zavala Cuadra, a Nicaraguan Intellectuals, but was not finally com- graduate of the Colegio Centro Am6rica, is the pleted until 1965, when the Institute sponsored its current editor. Students of Nicaraguan and Cen- publication.2a By 1972, when the earthquake tral American history, regardless of political ori- destroyed its building (but not the contents), the entation, recognize the Revista as one of the great- Institute had accumulated a fine collection of est single periodical resources for the study of Cen- Nicaraguan documents, newspapers, ministry tral American history and culture published in the and agency reports, and secondary works. UCA region. Publication of a comprehensive index of also launched a magazine of general culture, the Revista by the Banco Central library after the Encuentro. As a preserver and promoter of Nica- Sandinista victory is proof of general esteem.29 raguan culture UCA thus deserves to be recog- La Prensa Literaria is of comparable impor- nized; however, as a crucible of a new generation tance. Edited since the 1950s by Pablo Antonio of Nicaraguan intellectuals, it appears to have Cuadra, it is the Sunday literary supplement to La disappointed its founders. Not only did it fail to Prensa, the famous newspaper founded by Pedro play the central role in Nicaraguan cultural life Joaquln Chamorro Zelaya in 1925, focal point of which had been played by the Colegio Centro political opposition to the Somoza ,regime during America, it yielded overall intellectual leadership the editorship of Pedro Joaqmn Chamorro to UNAN. Cardenal (1950-1978). Like the Revista del Pen- Other Private Institutions samiento Centroamericano, La Prensa Literaria Other private institutions also attempted to fill suffered a temporary lapse in publication follow- the void. Beginning in August 1960, Joaquln ing the 1972 earthquake, but it too recovered, Zavala Urtecho introduced the magazine Revista emphasizing, as always, poetry. The Banco Cen- Conservadora, which was to become one of the tral's comprehensive index toLa Prensa Literaria, most remarkable scholarly journals in Central published in 1978, serves as a guide to a genera- America in its regularity and comprehensiveness. tion of new Nicaraguan poets and painters.aO Later it became the R evista Conservadora del Together with Luis Rocha Urtecho, another Pensamiento Centroamericano (Conservative Granadan poet (born in 1942, son of Octavio Review of Central American Thought). Still later Rocha, poet of the Vanguard generation), Cuadra it dropped "Conservadora." Although the title also began publication in 1961 ofEl Pez y La Ser- changes suggest efforts to shed a Granadan elitist piente (The Fish and the Serpent), one ofthe finest CLS-2-'81/9

literary magazines of Central America. Granadan Sandinista Cultural Policy poets Jos6 Coronel, Ernesto Cardenal, Fernando By the time the Sandinista victory was com- Silva, and Ernesto Gutirrez, have made up the plete, in July 1979, plans had been laid for a editorial board from the beginning. The peri- transformation of cultural (as well as social and odical E1 Pez y La Serpiente concentrated, of economic) policy. It is this cultural policy, with the course, on poetry, but the publishing house of the ideology of anti-dependency and anti-imperialism same name, also directed by Cuadra, was an like the social and economic policy, which holds outlet for a wide range of books, including some the long-range promise of a radical transforma- critical of the Somoza regime. E1 Pez was tion of Nicaraguan life. It is too significant to be financially dependent on advertisers and con- overlooked in the preoccupation with political tributors. decisions and international pressures. Both Zavala and Cuadra were extraordinarily Nicaragua's cultural policy is concerned first successful in persuading wealthy conservative with the fundamental education of all the Nica- families and prominent Managua business houses raguan people. For that reason one of the priori- to part with surplus wealth for cultural purposes. ties of the Sandinista revolution was the National So too was the Banco de Am6rica, with its Literacy Crusade, carried on with great success Granadan connections. The conservative elite did from March to August 1980, and currently being not often contest the dynasty in the open political followed up by the Vice Ministry of Adult Educa- arena, although Pedro Joaqun Chamorro is of tion. a2 Second, the emphasis is on popular, or course a monumental exception, but they prided folk, culture, attempting to involve the masses in themselves on their substantial efforts to preserve efforts to rescue folk art, songs, and literature, the Nicaraguan cultural heritage. particularly that with indigenous roots, and to persuade Nicaraguans of all classes and educa- Colonia Dambaeh tional levels to appreciate the artistic products of In December 1972 the great Managua earth- their own creation. (During the literacy crusade quake seriously damaged several cultural in- special brigades prepared by the Ministry of stitutions including the National Museum, the Culture--none too successfully to judge by the National Library (which preserved only 7,600 out resultswere given the task of locating and pre- of approximately 80,000 volumes), and the two serving examples of folk art for display in the universities. In the aftermath of the earthquake museums then in formation.) Third, the Sandi- and the preoccupation with providing food and nista government is undertaking a full scale basic shelter, few voices were heard in behalf of attack on Nicaragua's cultural dependency on the reconstruction ofthese institutions. United States and Europe, which, according to One man, Paul Dambach, a Swiss architect and Sandinistas, grew worse during the Somoza builder who had come to Managua to rebuild the dynasty. cathedral following the earthquake of 1931, saw Writings by leading Sandinista ideologues like the need to salvage cultural entities. He gave his Sergio Ramrez and Jaime Wheelock Romfin Spanish-style apartment villa, Colonia Dambach, during the long campaign against the Somoza located on Candelaria Avenue near Lake regime sketched cultural preferences and preju- Managua, to the government on condition that it dices and foreshadowed elements of Sandinista be turned into a cultural complex. Thus was born cultural policy, aa although after two years in the Centro Cultural Nacional, consisting of the power the Sandinista government still has devoted National Museum, the National Library, the little energy to defining the concept of cultural National Archives, the National Conservatory, dependency which it is attacking. Nevertheless, and the National School of Art (successor to the isolated statements by key Sandinista leaders National School of Fine Arts). It was inaugurated indicate the outlines of a new, developing cultural ceremoniously by Doffa Hope Portocarrero de policy. The government is against abstract art, Somoza, wife of Anastasio Somoza Debayle, on scholarly or elitist literature, meaningless poetry, her birthday June 28, 1977. z The event was, of disco dancing and disco music, and in general course, not a turning point in cultural policy; it cultural influences from the United States and was, rather, one of the more cynical gestures in Western Europe. United States, British, and behalf of the arts by a government that had lost Spanish cultural institutions are associated with popular support. The institutions' budgets were imperialism and not admired. Sandinistas as threadbare as before. They merely moved their approve primitive painting, folk art, poetry work- poverty to genteel surroundings. shops, popular theater, popular literature, 10/CLS-2-'81 posters, and murals. The artistic accomplish- ments of the people of Mexico, Vietnam, Vene- zuela, North Korea, Yugoslavia, and Cuba, here- tofore not frequently available in Nicaragua, are especially promoted. In the words of Bayardo Arce, one of the FSLN commanders most influential in cultural policy. "We place popu- lar protest music against disco music.., tasteless poetry aimed only at creating beautiful words against poetry of revolutionary content.., opulent theater that nobody can stage against that which reflects the national reality." The intellectual leaders of Nicaragua, Arce insisted before the inaugural meeting of the Asociaci6n Sandinista de Trabajadores de Cultura (Sandinista Asso- ciation of Cultural Workers) in February 1980, must show the way to create the new man. They must show the way, he said, "to shed the cloak of deceit in which colonial and imperialist domina- tion has held us for so many years." "It will be necessary," he continued, "to find a way in which every artistic and cultural manifestation con- tributes to the elimination of negative ideological values inherited from the period of domination and at the same time contribute to the exaltation, development, and study of the new values spawned by the revolution. ''a4 Another influen- tial FSLN commander, Jaime Wheelock Roman, in his 1974 book Ra[ces indigenistas de la lucha anti-colonialista en Nicaragua (Indigenous Roots of the Anti-Colonial Struggle in Nicaragua) pointed the way toward rescue of indigenous traditions as part of Sandinista cultural policy.aS Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaraguan Minister of Culture, speaking Ministry ofCulture at Harvard, April 1981. To accomplish these ends, the Sandinista gov- ernment created a Ministry of Culture (which now well as in Sandinista circles. His dedication to an occupies $omoza Debayle's former rural retreat, ascetic life, as demonstrated by his years (1957- "El Rctiro," on Managua's outskirts) and 1959) in a Trappist monastery in Gethsemane, appointed Father Erncsto Cardcnal, one of the Kentucky and his years on his Solentiname most admired intellectual figures in Nicaragua Islands (Lake Nicaragua) retreat (1965-1977) today (and perhaps even more admired in inter- where he founded a religious, artistic, contem- national intellectual circles) as minister.3e Car- plative community contributed to his appeal. His denal's stature as a poet and priest made him a commitment to Nicaragua's indigenes, dating particularly attractive spokesman for Nicaraguan back to his schooling at the Colegio Centro intellectuals of conservative ideology. As a gradu- Am6rica and manifested in his studies for the ate ofthe Colegio Centro America and a respected priesthood in Mexico and and in much member of the aristocratic Granadan clan which of his poetry, matched the somewhat romanticized has attempted for years to preserve and promote FSLN vision of a pristine Nicaraguan culture, free Nicaraguan culture, Cardenal was the finest of colonial overlays. Furthermore, as a teacher of product of the Nicaraguan Hispano-Catholic poetry, painting, and sculpture to the untutored educational tradition. Although he never took up campesinos of Solentiname, Cardenal had proved arms, his support of the Sandinista cause was well his commitment to popular or revolutionary cul- known. His defiance of the Somoza regime, par- ture. He was not an orator or political figure, but ticularly in heavily publicized trips to Cuba in the his life and career spoke eloquently for a new, 1970s, won him admiration in international as popular Nicaraguan culture. CLS-2-'81/11

As a poet Cardenal is probably best known for anti-imperialist, and national it must also be his books Marilyn Monroe y otros poemas popular. In order to avoid "elitist culture," im- (Marilyn Monroe and other Poems), E1 estrecho posed by the Somoza dynasty and the bourgeoisie, dudoso (The Doubtful Strait), Homenaje a los the true values and artistic talents of the Nica- indios de America (Homage to the Indians of raguan people must be carried to all corners of the America), Salmos (Psalms), and La hora cero country. A further modifier, "democratic," was (Zero Hour). In these works Cardenal avoids the added by Cardenal in the speech; by democratic abstract and subjective and treats specific events he said that he meant that Nicaraguans must not in concrete terms. This is the imagist poetry of only be consumers ofculture but also producers of Ezra Pound--or more particularly, exteriorist culture.a poetry, to use the term popularized by Jos Coronel. ("Exteriorism," Cardenal explains, "is The Ministry of Culture's far-flung empire is an when the poet speaks to us of a Caterpillar tractor indication ofthe tasks that it has assumed and the D4, or of the mahogany log...being towed by a seriousness of the government's commitment to tugboat called the Falcon ,,a7) In La hora cero the transformation of Nicaragua. The Patrimonio Cardenal wrote of Sandino's fi,ght against the Cultural, charged with the preservation of United States Marines. In Poesta revolucionaria archaeological and artistic objects, occupies the (Revolutionary Poetry), sold clandestinely in Casa Mintica, one of the few mansions in down- Nicaragua during the Somoza Debayle regime, he town Managua to survive the earthquake of 1972. exposed Somoza's brutalities. Cardenal is also (The Mntica family, formerly financial con- well known, along with Coronel, for his transla- tributors to the R evista del Pensamiento Centro- tions of North American poetry. americano, donated the building to the new gov- ernment.) Offices of the new cultural magazine, Cardenal's off-and-on career as a sculptor, Nicarduac, repose on the third floor. The particularly of birds and animals, brought him Comisi6n de Historia, which has the task of re- additional international renown. His first ex- writing Nicaragua's history books and composing hibition outside Nicaragua occurred at the the history of the insurrection, occupies a Organization of American States in Washington, sprawling mansion, formerly the property of one D.C., in 1956. He exhibited often in Cuba from of Somoza's generals, in the beautiful Managua 1969 to 1977. suburb Las Colinas. New museums have appeared Selection of Cardenal as Minister of Culture in almost every department, the first and foremost was a dramatic departure from the past. Instead of which is the Sandino Museum in the hero's of subsidizing the poet of the hour by granting him birthplace, Niquinohono. Old museums, like the a diplomatic appointment, the Sandinista govern- Daro Museum in Le6n, have received increased ment made him a central figure. No previous budgetary support. Nicaraguan poet had ever been given such a Twenty-four Popular Centers of Culture (for powerful role in cultural policy, and none was cultural activities of all kinds) have been estab- better suited by multiple talent and international lished. Some 90 theater groups are functioning. reputation to exercise that role. Forty poetry workshops and six dance workshops Cardenal's speech in February 1980, "Anti- are scattered throughout the poor barrios of the imperialist, Popular, National, Revolutionary cities. The sculpture foundry, formerly at Colonia Culture" is a clear indication of the Minister of Dambach, is under reconstruction at Villa San Culture's understanding of his role in the new Jacinto, one of the poorest neighborhoods of Nicaragua. Nicaraguan culture must be revolu- Managua. A workshop for graphic arts is also tionary, he said, "because our cultural struggle under construction in the same place. Exhibits of must transform society where exploitation Of man primitive painting, which is especially favored in a by man does not exist." "Our culture must be popular cultural revolution, are given prime anti-imperialist," because in a world divided by gallery space in Managua and elsewhere. The imperialists into exploiters and exploited, Nica- sections of the ministry which have overall super- ragua's place "as a liberated people is to fight vision of literature an,d poetry are located in E1 against imperialist aggression." Cardenal asserts Retiro. Ernesto Gutierrez, Daisy Zamora, and that Nicaraguans must "define, develop, and dis- Julio Valleall poets of considerable intellectual cover our national identity and our national stature and reputationhave high posts in the history" without forgetting the regions of the ministry. Offices for the Popular Culture Brigades country. If Nicaraguan culture is revolutionary, are located in the stables at E1 Retiro. In short 12/CLS-2-'81

there is ample physical evidence of a popular cul- taneous Monimb6 uprising in February 1978 tural revolution under way in Nicaragua. against Somoza's National Guard and on the commitment to 4 Artists in the new Nicaragua are better organ- government's indigenism. ized than they were in the old. To be sure such Poet Mayra Jimnez coordinates the work- groups as the Academia Nicaragiiense de la shops. She explains that their intent is to get indi- Lengua (Nicaraguan Language Academy) and the viduals to write clearly, simply, directly, con- Academia de Geografia and Historia de Nica- cretelyalong the lines ofthe exteriorist poetry so ragua (Nicaraguan Geography and History identified with Jos Coronel and Ernesto Car- Academy) continue to function. But their connec- denaland not necessarily to create poets.4 tionby chronology if nothing elsewith the Workshop leaders hand out a set of rules adapted Somoza period makes them suspect as elitist. from Ezra Pound's guide to the writing of poetry: Compared to similar institutions in other coun- Verses should not rhyme, descriptions should be tries, they were certainly small and ineffective specific, and cliches should be avoided. The anyway. annual Leonel Rugama poetry prize of $500, re- stricted to young poets, is an incentive to partici- In the new Nicaragua there is strong, pressure pants to polish their work and see it in print. for artists to participate in the Asociacion Sandi- Additionally, an admitted purpose of the work- nista de Trabajadores de Cultura (Sandinista shops is to advance the cause of the Sandinista Association of Cultural Workers), which had a Cardenal does not view as in 1980 and an revolution. poetry preliminary meeting February aa merely entertainment. "Poetry can be useful," he organizational meeting in July 1980. At the said in 1972, it can "build a country, create a new February meeting Sandinistas Bayardo Arce, man, change society, make the future Nicaragua." Sergio Ramlrez, and Ernesto Cardenal spoke to "Literature for literature's sake," according to the assembled artists of their responsibilities to Cardenal, "is worthless...poetry also must be promote the new, revolutionary society. Artists not but political echoed these sentiments in their speeches. Inclu- political, political propaganda sion of the name Sandinista in the title of the poetry."4a organization would appear to be a limitation on In Nicaragua, where poetry is taken very seri- academic freedom, but the majority apparently ously, the workshops have become a controversial saw no threat to their independence. At the July subject. The country's top-ranking poets and meeting Poet/Artist Francisco de Ass Ferntndez, many government spokesmen (not a few of whom son of Enrique Fernandez Morales, was elected are amateur poets) have strongly supported the president of the organization amid revolutionary workshop idea. But other intellectuals have criti- cries, "No more elitism," and "Down with literary cized them for fostering an expression too direct gleanings." In view of the fact that his father had and shorn of imagery; for excessive emphasis on an honored place in the Society of Catholic revolutionary themes; for presenting exteriorism Writers and Artists of the San Lucas Workshop, as the preferred form of poetical expression; and, Francisco de Ass Ferntndez has an unusual per- in general, for stimulating much bad poetry. And sonal opportunity to bridge the cultural gap in answer to Francisco de Ass Fernndez's criti- between the old and new Nicaragua. While the cism that only revolutionary themes are encour- academies are branded as elitist and the new aged, Minister Cardenal responded, "On the con- Association is by definition Sandinista and there- trary young poets are taught that their poetry can fore "revolutionary," it remains to be seen which be on any kind of theme, and many poems are is the more independent of government direction. written on intimate themes, of love, of childhood Poetry Workshops memories, landscape descriptions, etc." As for of the bad poetry Cardenal responds that the "purpose Perhaps the most unusual aspect popular of the workshops is to give to the people indis- cultural revolutionand the most appropriate for pensable tools so that they can create their own a land of poetsare the poetry workshops. Poetry poetry and among amateur poets there will be workshops are not new, but elsewhere they are ones and some not so good. ''4a usually connected with universities. In Nicaragua some good the Ministry of Culture has fostered the creation The less subtle view of Sergio Ramlrez" corre- of 40 to 50 poetry workshops in poor barrios, army sponds more closely with the fervent revolutionary posts, and factories. The most famous workshop is atmosphere of contemporary Nicaragua. He says in the Indian barrio, Monimb6, in Masaya. Sym- that the workshops "have produced creative bolically it focuses attention both on the spon- works much more important than the dilettantist CLS-2-'81/13

elitists have produced in all the history of our the appearance after many years' lapse of the national culture." 44 Coronel Urtecho, founder of Bolet[n delArchivo (Archive Bulletin). his own distinguished poetry workshop in Granada in the 1940s, is even more ecstatic. He The National Library, alas, still awaits an believes that the workshops are the "most inter- awakening as a cultural institution. It has never esting thing going on in the cultural field in our recovered from the earthquake of 1972, which de- country, in , and perhaps in the stroyed most of its meager collection. Short of world It is like being in a mine and we are books, short of staff, short of space, it can only about to see ifthere is gold. ''45 hope that the Sandinista government responds to its great needs. By July 1981 four issues of the Ministry of Cul- ture's new cultural magazin Nicarduac, edited by At the National Museum the staffis the same as Xavier Argiiello, Jr., had been published. As before but the hope is new, due to the Ministry of Cardenal explained in the first issue, Nicaruac, Culture's sympathy and government financial indigenous name for Nicaragua, was chosen both support in the form of short courses on museum to emphasize Nicaragua's proud Indian heritage curatorship by Mexican experts. Additional signs and to establish a link with Indian cultures in all of renewal come from the Conservatory and the America. 46 The emphasis, however, was on National School of Art. Still, limited space, sparse poetry of the insurrection. No fewer than 37 poets, funds, and an avowed Sandinista .region/list ranging from the Granadan poets of the older policy will doubtless curtail dreams of expansion generation to many whose careers were ended by of the Centro Cultural. death in the insurrection, were represented in the At the financial institutions the Sandinista first issue. approach appears to have lowered morale among The beneficiary of government support, employees dedicated to cultural pursuits. Librari- Nicarduac must carry the government's cultural ans at the Banco Central library fear that its message to intellectuals at home and abroad, and possessions, painstakingly collected in the time of the political situation in Nicaragua in mid-1981 Anastasio Somoza Debayle (no thanks to him), demands that this message be a Sandinista mes- will be dissipated, perhaps taken over by the sage. The editorial board consists of three poets Ministry of Culture. Nevertheless, it continues to from the Ministry of Culture (Ernesto Cardenal, turn out scholarly work and detailed bibliog- Daisy Zamora, and Lizandro Chvez Alfaro), one raphies in its Bolet{n. That the directors of the member of the governing junta (Sergio Ramlrez), Bolet[n see fit to give ample space to Sandino and one member of the nine-man directorate of history and bibliography is to be expected, but it the FSLN (Bayardo Arce). Although it is early to has not ceased to accommodate poetry, criticism, make a judgment, it appears to be less indepen- and articles on painting and sculpture. The Banco dent politically than the Revista del Pensamiento de Am6rica, now nationalized, maintains that its Centroamericano was in Somoza's time. As an cultural promotion section still has a job to do, but agent of Nicaragua's cultural policy, it cannot at some of its leading proponents are living abroad the same time be independently critical of it. and the remainder face an uncertain future. In an era of centralized cultural planning and pro- Activity ofCultural Institutions motion what cultural role can a government finan- What has happened to the old institutional cial institution have? support for cultural activity? The Centro Cultural Nacional, still known to the man on the street and Universities also have a reduced cultural role in to taxi drivers as Colonia Dambach, continues to the new Nicaragua. The more active the Ministry function. The National Archive is under new of Culture is in the promotion of the arts, the less vigorous leadership in the person of Jorge active must be the universities, UNAN and UCA, Eduardo Arellano (born in Granada in 1946 and although they cling to pre-Sandinista activities in educated at the Colegio Centro America), whose publication and cultural extension. While in the reputation as a historian and bibliographer give $omoza era university autonomy offered a refuge credibility to the institution. His Granadan for intellectuals, today the intellectuals are in the origins, incidentally, provide an additional link government, particularly in the Ministry of between the old cultural policy and the new. Not Culture. The role of the universities, as delineated surprisingly every exhibit space in the National by Sandinista spokesmen, is not to offer inde- Archive is given over to a display of Sandino letters pendent criticism and least of all to produce a and memorabilia. One encouraging sign of life is cultural elite; it is to produce professionals and 14/CLS-2-'81

technocrats for the purpose of raising production promotion and criticism. This is not a result of and enhancing the quality of life. 4 Sandinista cultural policy, but a spillover of the Somoza era custom of periodicals' coverage of the Newspapers arts, carefully nurtured in good times and bad by In Nicaragua, where the cultural activities of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro Cardenal and Pablo libraries, museums, and universities have tradi- Antonio Cuadra Cardenal and their poetry circle. tionally suffered from government neglect, news- To be sure, except for La Prensa Literaria and the papers have played a vital role in promoting the Revista del Pensamiento Centroamericano, all arts. The Sandinista government is much more cultural promotion is done in the name of active in the arts than any previous government, Sandinismo. but the newspapers continue their cultural func- tion as in the old days. a Prena's literary supple- Poet-Diplomats ment, a Prena teraHa, which has become The Sandinista government made great efforts identified with the poet Pablo Antonio Cuadra, to persuade Pablo Antonio Cuadra, Nicaragua's spans the old and new regimes, Although reduced third-ranking poet (after Ernesto Cardenal and in size because of the desertion of personnel and Jos Coronel Urtecho)to accept the diplomatic the increased editorial burdens assumed by assignment to Madrid, which according to tradi- Cuadra following the assassination of Pedro tion was reserved for one of Nicaragua's leading Joaqun Chamorro Cardenal in January 1978, a intellectuals. Cuadra refused, citing his duty to La Prena teraria is still the leading independent Prensa and his wish to maintain its independent voice of critics of the arts in Nicaragua. voice. The government had passed over Coronel because of his age (75) and because he had once The Nuevo raanecer Cultural (New Cultural served the Somoza regime. Cardenal was needed Dawn) is the Nuevo Diario's literary supplement, to head the Ministry of Culture. Still the govern- founded soon after the Nuevo DiaHo split from a ment did not break with the tradition; it merely Prena in March 1980. While a Prena is critical moved one step down the rankings. The appoint- of the Sandinista government Nuevo Diario is a ment went to Ernesto Mej[a SInchez, also a dis- strong government advocate. Nuevo Amanecer is tinguished poet and critic, and although a similar to La Prensa Literaria, which is not sur- Masayan by birth he was a Granadan by choice. 48 prising since the editor of Nuevo Diario is Xavier He had been one of the members of the San Lucas Chamorro Cardenal, brother of Pedro Joaqun, Workshop. After additional education in Mexico and the "coordinator" ofNuevo Amaneceris Luis and Spain he became a professor of Hispanic Rocha, long-time literary collaborator of Pablo letters at the National Autonomous University of Antonio Cuadra. Poets Jos6 Coronel and Mexico. Among the poets to spring from the San Fernando Silva and novelist Lizandro Chvez Lucas Workshop, Mejla S/tnchez is considered the Alfaro make up the editorial board. most intellectual and the master word craftsman, The third newspaper in Managua, Barricada, is and it was he who edited Rubdn Dar[o y su tiempo. the government organ. It is edited by still another Sandinista recognition of Nicaragua's poets is member of La Prensa's Chamorro family, Carlos not the same as in the old days. While intellectuals Chamorro, youngest son of Pedro Joaqu[n accepted Somoza's appointments because they Chamorro Cardenal. Barricada also has a literary needed support, none ofthe current top four Nica- supplement, called Barricada Cultural: Ventana. raguan poets needed subsidization. Rather, the Because of its official connections, Ventana is a Sandinista regime appeared to crave the active better source of information than the other two support of the poets. literary supplements on the activities of the Min- istry of Culture. Instead of merely promoting the Conclusion government's cultural policy, however, it has In view of the economic problems that the gov- opened its pages to dissent, especially on the ernment of Nicaragua has faced since July 1979, it poetry workshops. Several staff members of the is startling that so many financial resources have ministry, including two women poets, are on the been put into cultural infrastructure. During the editorial board. All members of the editorial Somoza regime promotion and preservation of board are published poets. Nicaragua's cultural heritage depended almost exclusively on the private sector. Now there is a No Central American capital city has such ex- Ministry of Culture which has attacked the prob- tensive newspaper coverage of the arts. No Central lem of Nicaragua's cultural impoverishment with American capital city has a more extensive net- revolutionary vigor and substantial financial re- work of intellectuals working for cultural sources. That decisions have been made favorable CLS-2-'81/15

to education, particularly literacy education and to independent thought and criticism than was more broadly to cultural promotion, is an indica- the Somoza dynasty's policy of neglect. tion of the faith of the Sandinistas in their The fresh of longevity and their determination to effect a per- interpretation Darlo and other manent on Nicaraguan cultural figures inspired by the Sandi- change Nicaraguan society. nista victory has many positive aspects. Doubtless Leaders of the cultural campaign of the Sandi- it is an exaggeration to claim that the Somoza nista government grew up, of course, during the regime concealed the social and political thoughts Somoza dynasty. Having survived cruelty and re- of Darlo. Experience with the reinterpretation of pression and having witnessed the neglect of Martl following the Cuban revolution of 1959, cultural institutions of that time they are now however, suggests that new perspectives often dedicated to the establishment of a new Sandi- reveal new truths about old masters.49 Daro re- nista cultural order. Most are resolved that the mains an enigmatic figure, particularly in his new order shall be both Christian, reflecting the attitude toward his homeland. depth of their Jesuit schooling, and Marxist, re- Perhaps Augusto Csar Sandino, guerrilla flecting what they perceive as needed for survival fighter against the U.S. Marines from 1927 to and dignity in the United States' orbit. 1933, martyred victim of the Somozas, and in- The Nicaraguan political system, whether spiration of the Sandinistas who came to power in Somocista or Sandinista, discourages dissent. In Nicaragua in mid-1979, is an incomplete hero. its quest for preservation the Sandinista govern- Dario, titan of Spanish letters and Nicaraguan by ment demands that cultural workers play a social birth, must therefore be molded to satisfy a role---in other words, support the Sandinista Sandinista longing for an intellectual . With a near monopoly of the instru- hero. That Dar(o is no Marff is no matter. He can ments of cultural promotion and with public be tailored to fit the need. The new Nicaragua revolutionary passion behind them, intellectuals needs him. in the Ministry of Culture may be more of a threat (August 1981)

NOTES 1. Meji'a Snchez, Ernesto, intro., Nuestro Rubdn Dar[o 9. Ernesto Cardenal, ed., Poesa nueva de Nicaragua (Managua: Ministerio de Cultura, 1980). All translations {Buenos Aires: Ediciones Carlos Lohl6,1974), p. 55. are by the author. 10. Jos6 Coronel Urtecho, Reflexiones sobre la historia de 2. Torres, Edelberto, Rubdn Dar(o y su tiempo Nicaragua, vol. I {Managua: Instituto HistSrico Centr( (Managua: Ministerio de Educaclon,"" 1980). americano, 1962). 3. Arellano, Jorge Eduardo, ed., Textos sociopol(ticos de 11. AndrOs Vega Bolaos, ed., Colecci6n Somoza: docu- Rubdn Dar[o (Managua: Ministerio de Cultura, 1981). mentos para la historia de Nicaragua, 17 vols. {Madrid: Imprenta Viuda de Galo Saez, 1954-1957), p. vii. 4. Interview, Ernesto Cardenal, Managua, September 1980. 12. Jorge Eduardo Arellano, Pintura y escultura en 5. Bernardino Rodm'guez, "Daro, Comandante en Jefe Nicaragua (Managua: Banco Central de Nicaragua, 1978), de nuestro idioma nacional," Nuevo Dairio (Managua) p. 39. March 13,1981. 13. The collection of idols is described in Jorge Eduardo 6. The crisis facing cultural institutions in Nicaragua Arellano, "La ColecciSn 'Squier-Zapatera,'" Boletn following the 1972 earthquake is described in Richard Nicaragiense de Bibliografa y Documentacin, nos. 32-33, Severo, "The Cultural Life of Nicaragua Slow to Recover 35 {November 1979-February 1980; March-April 1980). from Quake," New York Times, February 4,1973. Regrettably, there is no study of the Colegio Centro Am6rica itself. 7. Three Nicaraguan poets, Alfonso Cort4s, Azam'as H. Pallais, and Salom6n de la Selva, known as "Los tres 14. The entire issue of No. 22-23 {Winter, 1978-Summer, grandes," were active in the 1916-1927 period but they 1979) of E1Pez y La Serpiente is devoted to the Vanguard worked separately and had little immediate impact on Movement. Nicaraguan cultural life: thus the cultural depression. 15. Pablo Antonio Cuadra, prologue of Ernesto Cardenal, 8. Jaime Wheelock Roman, ed., Obras, by Leonel Antologia (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Carlos Lohl, 1971), p. Rugama (Managua: Secretam'a Nacional de Propaganda y 11; Ernesto Meja Snchez captures the atmosphere of EducaciSn Poltica, Frente Sandinista de LiberaciSn Coronel's literary circle in his Tmptico de Coronel," Nacional, 1980), p. v. Cuadernos Universitarios: Homenaje a Josd Coronel 16/CLS-2-'81

Urtecho al cumplir 70 aos de edad, no. 16 (March 1976), 29. Antonio Acevedo Espinoza, comp., Indice temdtico de pp. 138-81. la "Revista del Pensamiento Centroamericano": No. 1, Agosto 1960-No. 161, Diciembre 1978 {Managua: Banco 16. Manuel S. Cruz, "Estampas literarias: Manolo Central de Nicaragua, 1980}. Cuadra," La Prensa Literaria {Managua), May 17, 1981; Bridget Aldaraca, et al., eds., Nicaragua in Revolution: 30. Ren$ Rodr{guez Mas{s and Antonio Acevedo The Poets Speak {Minneapolis= Marxist Educational Espinoza, comps., Indice selectivo de La Prensa Literaria Press, 1980), pp. 290-91. {Managua: Banco Central de Nicaragua, 1978). 17. Jorge Eduardo Arellano, "ColecciSn de arte nica- 31. Roberto Parrales Snchez, Centro Cultural Nacional rag{Jense del Banco Central de Nicaragua," Boletn Nica- {Managua= Secretar'a de InformaciSn y Prensa de la Presi- ragi'ense de Bibliografa y DocumentaciSn, no. 23 {May- dencia de la Repblica, 1977). June 1978), pp. 11-18; Arellano, Pintura escultura en y 32. Charles L. Stansifer, "The Nicaragua {Managua: Banc0 Central de Nicaragua, 1978). Nicaraguan National Lit- eracy Crusade" [CLS-I-'81 ],A UFSReports, no. 6 {1981}. 18. Jaime Incer and Francisco Ter{n, de Nica- Geograf{a 33. For Jaime Wheelock Roman, ragua {Managua: Banco Central de Nicaragua, 1964). example, Imperialismo y dictadura: crisis de una formaciSn social (Mexico City: 19. The Boletn Nicarag'ense de Bibliograf{a y Docu- Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1975). mentacon. 34. Bayardo Arce, "El dif{cil terreno de la lucha: el 20. Joss Coronel Urtecho, 3 conferencias a la empresa ldeologco, Nicarduac, no. 1 (May-June 1980), pp. 153-56. Ediciones E1Pez 1974), privada {Managua." y La Serpiente, 35. Jaime Wheelock Rom{n, Rm'ces indigenistas de la p. 75. lucha anticolonialista en Nicaragua (Mexico City: Siglo 21. E. George Squier, Nicaragua, sus genres y paisajes, Veintiuno Editores, 1974). Luciano Cuadra {San Editorial translated by Jos& The sketch of career draws on Centroamericana, 1970). 36. Cardenal's primarily Universitaria the excellent dissertation by Paul W. Borgeson, Jr., "The 22. Jos Coronel Urtecho, 3 conferencias a la empresa Poetry of Ernesto Cardenal" {Vanderbilt University, privada, p. 79; Jorge Eduardo Arellano, "La pintura en 1977), and on several studies by Jorge Eduardo Arellano, Nicaragua," Boletn Nicaragilense de Bibliograf{a y Docu- particularly his "Ernesto Cardenal: de Granada a mentacio'n, no. 39 {January-February 1981), pp. 41-42. Gethsemany, 1925-1957," Boletn Nicaragense de Biblio- graf'[a y DocumentaciSn, no. 31 {September-October 1979), 23. Sergio Raml'rez, a member of the Nicaraguan Govern- pp. 25-41. Cardenal's Cuban experiences are related in his ment Junta of National Reconstruction, has written a En Cuba {Buenos Aires: Ediciones Carlos Lohl$, 1972). biography of Mariano Fiallos Gil." Mariano Fiallos, biografa {Leon: Editorial Universitaria, 1971). 37. Ernesto Cardenal, ed., Poesa nicarag'ense {Havana: Casa de las Americas, 1973), p. viii. 24. Miguel de Castilla Urbina, ed., Universidad y sociedad en Nicaragua, 2 vols. {LeSn: Editorial Universitaria, Uni- 38. Ernesto Cardenal, "Cultura revolucionaria, popular, versidad Nacional AutSnoma de Nicaragua, 1980), I, p. 75. nacional, antimperialista," Nicara'uac, no. 1 {May-June 1980 }, pp. 163-68. 25. Joss Coronel Urtecho, Pol-la D'ananta Katanta Paranta: Imitaciones y traducciones (Le(n: Editorial Uni- 39. Principal speeches at the first meeting are reprinted versitaria, 1970). in Nicarduac, no 1 {May-June 1980); a full report of the second meeting is in Barricada {Managua), July 20,1980. 26. Speech by Raml"rez reported in Barricada {Managua), July 20,1980. 40. Alan Riding, "On the Ashes of War, the Arts Flower in Nicaragua," New York Times, August 1,1980. 27. Revista Conservadora {Managua), no. 9 {June 1961), pp. 1-5. 41. Ivonne Jim4nez, "Un nuevo despertar portico," Uni- versidad (San Jos, ), August 8-14,1980. 28. Federico Argiello SolSrzano, and Carlos Molina Arg{Jello, eds., Monumenta Centroamericae Historicae 42. Ernesto Cardenal, ed., Poesa nicarag'ense {Havana: colecciSn de documentos y materiales para el estudio de la Casa de las AmSricas, 1973), pp. vii & 11. historia y de la vida de los pueblos de la America Central 43. Barricada, April 9, 1981; Nuevo Amanecer Cultural {Managua= Instituto Centroamericano de Historia, Uni- {Managua), March 15,1981. versidad Centro AmSrica, 1965). Arg{lello and Molina, Jesuit historians at the Colegio Centro AmSrica, had 44. Barricada, July 19,1980. joined with Ernesto Mej{a S{nchez to form a historical branch of the Taller San Lucas in the 1940s. Carlos Molina 45. Barricada Cultural: Ventana {Managua), March 28, Arg{iello, Misiones nicaragienses en los archivos europeos 1981. {Mexico City: Pan American Institute of Geography and 46. Nicarduac, no. 1 {May-June 1980), p. 6. History, 1957), pp. 42-43. CLS-2-'81/17

47. Acerca de la coyuntura actual y nuestras tareas (Managua: ComisiSn Poh'tica Universitaria, 1980). This collection of speeches by Sandinista leaders is a clear statement of the role expected of universities in the new Nicaragua. 48. Subsequently, Mej{a Snchez was transferred to Argentina. 49. John M. Kirk, "From 'inadaptado sublime' to 'lder revolucionario': Some Further Thoughts on the Presenta- tion of Jos Mart," Latin American Research Review, XV, no. 3 (1980), pp. 127-47.