İyo Luché!: Uncovering and Interrupting Silencing in an Indigenous and Afro-Descendant Community
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University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 6-21-2020 İYo luché!: Uncovering and Interrupting Silencing in an Indigenous and Afro-descendant Community Eileen Cecelia Deluca University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Latin American History Commons, Latin American Studies Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Scholar Commons Citation Deluca, Eileen Cecelia, "İYo luché!: Uncovering and Interrupting Silencing in an Indigenous and Afro- descendant Community" (2020). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/8180 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. İYo luché!: Uncovering and Interrupting Silencing in an Indigenous and Afro-descendant Community by Eileen Cecelia DeLuca A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Applied Anthropology with a concentration in cultural anthropology Department of Anthropology College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Antoinette Jackson, Ph.D. Kevin Yelvington, D.Phil. Roberta Baer, Ph.D. Date of Approval: June 15, 2020 Keywords: oral history, heritage, critical theory, feminist epistemology, critical discourse, applied anthropology Copyright © 2020, Eileen Cecelia DeLuca DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to Suhar, Galil, Kalwa, Nata Tiara, Avance, Bolondrina, Tigrilla, and to all the guerrilleras in the world who refuse to be silenced. May the power of your voice always be your greatest weapon, and may you wield it widely and wisely. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank the community of Waspán and especially the aiklakabra mairin who shared their stories with me. My understanding about women’s participation in armed conflict will be forever changed by the time I spent with the members of the community. Thank you for the generous spirit and for being fearless in your rejection of the dominant national narratives about Miskitu women combatants. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Antoinette Jackson, who served as the committee chair for this project. There are some professors that do more than inspire learning; they completely transform your way of thinking. Through her rigorous course reading list, informative lectures, and challenging assignments, Dr. Jackson compels her students to think critically about the production of heritage narratives, and the voices that may be silenced within them. After each course I completed with her, I felt like another veil had been lifted from the lens through which I view world. I will be forever grateful to have studied under this amazing scholar. I would also like to thank Dr. Kevin Yelvington who is a fellow disruptor and a Marxist scholar par excellence. I much enjoyed debating and analyzing the readings in his course, and I am a much better scholar for having done so. Dr. Yelvignton’s knowledge of Latin American and Caribbean politics and history led to valuable input for this project. His critical feedback on course assignments and on this thesis compelled me to engage in a substantial amount of revision that ultimately improved my work vastly. Thanks also to Dr. Roberta Baer, who is “the woman” when it comes to applied anthropology. In taking her course, I was able to better define and truly understand the purpose of applied anthropology and how it contributes to creating a just society. Dr. Baer’s model of using oral history to better the lives of a refugee community inspired the applied project detailed in this thesis. She also provided valuable feedback about organizing each chapter to provide better clarity to the work. This project would have never come to be if it were not for an invitation to participate in an oral history project from my colleague, Dr. Bruno Baltodano. That invitation led me seemingly through the looking glass, into the world of the beautiful and complicated country of Nicaragua. During the period of my research, Nicaragua, which for many years had been a relatively peaceful and safe country, became engulfed in a civil conflict that led to a series of documented human rights violations at the hands of the government. While we were trying to make sense of this whirlwind period of chaos and conflict, my colleague suffered an unrelated and unimaginable personal tragedy. I continue to be filled with a profound sadness about all of these events, and recognize that my feelings about these tragedies cannot be disentangled from the research or the writing of this thesis. I want to acknowledge the resilience of all Nicaraguans, and especially my colleague, Bruno. I hope he and his country find peace and redemption in the face of all of life’s challenge. Finally, I would like to thank my husband, Dan DeLuca, and our three beautiful children, Molly, Jamie, and Lisa for all their love and support during these years I have spent conducting this research. Thank you for taking an interest in this project that has become so important to me. My daughters proved to be three fierce luchadoras in their own right as they traveled with me through Central America during a period of civil conflict. I was delighted by their desire to learn as much as they could about the region, and humbled by their generous spirit towards the community of La Concepción. We have all grown in our understanding of the world through this project. Thanks as always to Dan for being patient and supportive of all my academic misadventures. My husband and children have all taught me more than they will ever know about love and resilience. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. iv Abstract ......................................................................................................................... viii Chapter One: Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 Entry into the Community ..................................................................................... 1 Purpose and Goals ............................................................................................... 5 Chapter Two: Structural Roots of Silencing – Relevant History of the Fieldwork Site ... 10 Silencing of Indigenous and Afro-Descendant Groups in Nicaragua .................. 10 Silencing and Political Affiliation ......................................................................... 21 Silencing of Women’s Stories in Nicaraguan Conflict Narratives ........................ 31 Chapter Three: Relevant Literature and Theoretical Framework .................................. 38 Critical Theory .................................................................................................... 38 Critical Theory and Heritage Production ............................................................. 39 Critical Theory and Silencing .............................................................................. 47 Critical Theory and Oral History .......................................................................... 51 Chapter Four: Methods of Data Collection and Analysis ............................................... 56 Data Collection – Dominant National Narratives................................................. 56 Data Collection – Interrupting Silences through an Oral History Project ............. 62 Chapter Five: Findings – Heritage Narratives of Nicaragua .......................................... 73 Analysis of Heritage Production - ¡Sandino Vive! and so do his Sandinista “Descendants” .............................................................................................. 73 Museums, Monuments, and Heritage Sites ........................................................ 73 Heritage Production and Political Party .............................................................. 94 Heritage Production and Indigeneity ................................................................. 103 Heritage Production in Institutions of Education ............................................... 108 Chapter Six: Findings – Oral History Themes and Analysis ........................................ 126 Persecution of Miskitu People as Motivation to Become a Combatant ............. 127 Descriptions of Life in the Refugee Camp/Military Base ................................... 133 Gringo Support ................................................................................................. 135 Combat Training and Military Roles .................................................................. 137 Like a Man: Memories of Gender Equality ........................................................ 142 i Marginalization of Miskitu, Contra, Females after the War ............................... 148 Racial and Political Persecution in the Present-Day ......................................... 148 Loss of Gender Equality ................................................................................... 157 Silencing in Curriculum and National Narratives..............................................