Culture and Arts in Post Revolutionary Nicaragua: The Chamorro Years (1990-1996) A thesis presented to the faculty of the Center for International Studies of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Tatiana Argüello Vargas August 2010 © 2010 Tatiana Argüello Vargas. All Rights Reserved. 2 This thesis titled Culture and Arts in Post Revolutionary Nicaragua: The Chamorro Years (1990-1996) by TATIANA ARGÜELLO VARGAS has been approved for the Center for International Studies by Patrick Barr-Melej Associate Professor of History José A. Delgado Director, Latin American Studies Daniel Weiner Executive Director, Center for International Studies 3 ABSTRACT ARGÜELLO VARGAS, TATIANA, M.A., August 2010, Latin American Studies Culture and Arts in Post Revolutionary Nicaragua: The Chamorro Years (1990-1996) (100 pp.) Director of Thesis: Patrick Barr-Melej This thesis explores the role of culture in post-revolutionary Nicaragua during the administration of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1996). In particular, this research analyzes the negotiation and redefinition of culture between Nicaragua’s revolutionary past and its neoliberal present. In order to expose what aspects of the cultural project survived and what new manifestations appear, this thesis examines the followings elements: 1) the cultural policy and institutional apparatus created by the government of President Chamorro; 2) the effects and consequences that this cultural policy produced in the country through the battle between revolutionary and post-revolutionary cultural symbols in Managua as a urban space; and 3), the role and evolution of Managua’s mayor and future president Arnoldo Alemán as an important actor redefining culture in the 1990s. After the Sandinista revolution, Nicaraguan culture was remade not only by its political leaders such as Ortega, Chamorro and Alemán, but also by the economic development and cultural values brought by neoliberalism. Approved: _____________________________________________________________ Patrick Barr-Melej Associate Professor of History 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing a thesis about Nicaragua has been a challenging experience but rewarding rediscovery of culture and arts in my own country. The impact of the end of the Sandinismo and the beginning of the transition years in the 1990s were fragmented pieces in my memory but my thesis has helped me to join the puzzle pieces together. This thesis could not have been accomplished without the support of several individuals whose contributions I gratefully acknowledge. Firstly, I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Patrick Barr-Melej, who has been the ideal thesis supervisor. His advices, insightful criticisms, and patient encouragement aided the writing of this thesis in innumerable ways. He believed in my thesis and I would have been lost without his support and guidance. I am also greatly indebted to my advisor, mentor and committee member, Dr. Betsy Partyka, who provided me encouragement, good teaching and who patiently proofread this entire thesis. In addition, I would equally like to thank my other committee member, Dr. Thomas Walker, whose passion for Nicaragua is remarkable and who has supported me throughout my thesis with his knowledge of my country. My deepest gratitude goes to my parents, Luis Argüello and Maira Vargas, for their unconditional love and support throughout my studies and life; this thesis would simply be impossible without them. I am indebted to my many friends who gave me encouragement during my thesis-writing period, specially Cindy Ordoñez-Bogart and her husband Michael Bogart, who not only checked my spelling and grammar but gave me 5 several practical ideas for improving the structure of my thesis. Lastly, I am grateful to Hernán Medina, who has been very special in my life and has shared with me the challenging and enjoyable intellectual experience of studying two Masters. Writing a thesis was a journey perhaps comparable to Kavafis’ Ithaca journey. Paraphrasing the poet, my road was a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 4 List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1: Historical background on Nicaraguan culture: from the Somoza Dictatorship to the Sandinista Revolution ............................................................................................. 12 Culture in Nicaraguan History ...................................................................................... 12 The Somoza Dictatorship .............................................................................................. 14 The Sandinista Revolution ............................................................................................ 19 Chapter 2: The New Cultural Order in the Chamorro Years (1990-1996) ....................... 32 Historical Background of the New Political System in the Chamorro Era .................. 32 Cultural Policies in the Nicaraguan Transitional Government ..................................... 36 Artistic expressions in Post Revolutionary Nicaragua: literature as a demystification of a revolutionary past ....................................................................................................... 48 Chapter 3: New Regime vs. Old Regime: Cultural Realities of the Sandinistas and Chamorro Governments .................................................................................................... 54 Was Sandinista Culture eroded in Neoliberal Nicaragua? ............................................ 54 The Survival of Revolutionary Nicaragua: Empowerment of Cultural Sectors and Recycling Darío ............................................................................................................ 55 Erasing and Transforming Revolutionary Symbols: the Cultural ―Cleaning of the City‖ and the Cultural Hybridization of Managua ................................................................. 64 Chapter 4: Alemán and the Reconstruction of Nicaraguan Culture ................................. 81 The Elections of 1996 ................................................................................................... 81 Arnoldo Alemán: the Roguish ―Güegüense‖ inside each Nicaraguan? ........................ 82 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 91 Epilogue ............................................................................................................................ 94 References………………………………………………………………………………..95 7 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Nicaragua in 1857 ...........................................................................................13 Figure 2: Political Map of Nicaragua..............................................................................13 Figure 3: Diagram of the Network of Programs under the Ministry of Culture (1979- 1988) ..............................................................................................................................26 Figure 4: Organization Chart of the Nicaraguan Institute of Culture-INC (1990-1996) .........................................................................................................................................45 Figure 5: Canales Mural Homage to Woman ..................................................................67 Figure 6: Destruction of Canales’ Mural Homage to woman .........................................67 Figure 7: The Only Surviving Mural by Canales in Düsseldorf, Germany ....................68 Figure 8: Managua’s New Cathedral ..............................................................................74 Figure 9: Chart with Physical and Symbolic Changes between the Sandinista and the Chamorro Administrations..............................................................................................77 Figure 10: Characters of El Güegüense ..........................................................................83 8 INTRODUCTION Culture and arts during the Nicaraguan revolution (1979-1990) were at the center of international debate. Few nations with the size and economic situation of Nicaragua have ever captured the world’s attention and popular imagination. During those years, the Sandinista revolution’s cultural project was an area of interest for a multitude of academics who became part of this revolutionary project as activists. Important intellectuals and writers such as Noam Chomsky, Salman Rushdie, Julio Cortázar and Gabriel García Márquez wrote about this cultural project characterized by the involvement of the masses in both the creation and production of art. Books such as On Power and Ideology: the Managua Lectures by Chomsky, Rushdie’s The Jaguar Smile: a Nicaraguan Journey, Apocalypse at Solentiname by Cortázar, or García Márquez’s Viva Sandino, present a portrait of Nicaragua during the Sandinista Revolution. People knew about Nicaragua because the Sandinistas used culture for political purposes, promoting their revolutionary project