19 de Julio

¡Viva la Revolución!

30 years ago the Somoza dictatorship was overthrown by a popular uprising led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). Yesterday in the plaza a crowd of thousands gathered to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the revolution. It was an amazing turnout. Yesterday morning we boarded a Sandinista bus in our neighborhood headed to the plaza. As we stepped on board we were given red and black flags and took our seats. We didn’t know whether to give our flags away or fly them out the window like everyone else on the bus. It’s a fine line between observing a cultural and political manifestation and participating in it. We wanted to observe and be with our friends while keeping a healthy distance from aligning ourselves with either the Sandinistas or any opposition group. Back to the bus ride—our bus joined an enormous caravan of buses headed down to the plaza. The bus in front of us was laden with people hanging out windows and about twenty people were sitting on top waving the red and black flags. As it was rounding a bend a young man fell off the roof and violently hit the ground. The police were on the scene in mere minutes and then the caravan kept moving toward the plaza. Just a little background about Nicaraguan politics, Daniel Ortega was president during the revolutionary years of the eighties and is the current president. Sandinistas make up about 35% of the electorate with other minor parties filling in the other 65%. On July 19^th it seemed like everyone was a Sandinista. Daniel Ortega spoke along with other speakers including Rigoberta Menchú, and states people from Honduras and Venezuela. We were a little disappointed that neither Mel Zelaya nor Hugo Chavez showed up. There were many political songs played, some made us feel a little uncomfortable. A good example was the song: “El Yanqui se va joder” or “The Yankee’s gonna get screwed.” There was a lot of anti-American sentiment in the speeches, especially from the Venezuelan representative. At one point a drunken guy leaned over to us and asked if we were Canadian. Michael immediately said, “YES!” We were definitely all Canadians yesterday. I never felt particularly unsafe but there were certainly moments when I felt uncomfortable.

Check out some of these great of the day from the BBC. We were smack dab in the middle of all those people! If you can find us you get a prize! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8158477.stm