Murals of Revolutionary Nicaragua

Updated on Jan 20, 2024

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Overview

In the decade of Sandinista rule following the Triumph of the Nicaraguan Revolution in 1979, close to 300 murals were created in a tiny poor country of three million or so inhabitants. These murals offer a history of the past, recent and more distant, and the projection of a better future promised by the revolution. Some of the very best, oldest, and most centrally placed murals have been painted over, completely obliterated. None are safe. Despite the laws passed by the Sandinista government, declaring as many murals as they could to be historic patrimony, and therefore untouchable, nearly all were destroyed. These murals are a narrative of the revolution and are an education tool revealing what really happened.

Historical Context

In the 1920s an anti-imperialist movement was founded by Augusto Sandino to break U.S. dominance in Nicaragua. Although its success in winning back Nicaraguan independence was short-lived, the victory of his guerrilla army an socialist values were legendary. Following his treacherous assassination in 1934, Nicaragua was plunged into forty years of repression and violence as the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza took hold, with U.S. support. His overthrow in 1979 by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) brought Nicaragua to prominence world. Daniel Ortega, the revolution’s clan leader enacted a serious of major literacy, healthcare, and land reforms. Caught up during the time of the Cold War and anti-communist movements in the U.S., Nicaragua’s attempts to redistribute land and wealth unleashed a hostile response from the U.S., which financed and armed the Contras, a counter-revolutionary force.

The mural movement was in response to the original movement of Sandino and the revolution that was inspired by him nearly 50 years later. The murals both offer a realistic portrayal of what happened in the Sandinista-Contra War and reflect the socialistic and optimistic values of the FSLN government. It was in the 1990s, when the Sandinista government was voted out of office and replaced by a U.S. supported rightest government that the murals painted only years earlier began to be destroyed.

The Felicia Santizo Brigade of Panama

In the 1970s, brothers Virgilio and Ignacio Ortega formed the Felicia Santizo Brigade of Panama. Inspired by the Ramona Parra Brigades in Chile they began to paint murals all over Panama. Choosing locations on and around army bases, their murals centered on themes of nationalism, Marxism, anti-imperialism, pro-Palestinian and Pro-Sandinista view points.

The Felicia Santizo Brigade of Panama marks the story of the first muralist expression of solidarity with Nicaragua from the outside in the struggle against Somoza. Historically, theirs were the first revolutionary themed murals painted throughout Nicaragua. In September 1979, within two months of the triumph of the Sandinistas, arrangements were made to have the brigade paint a mural in Nicaragua. This guerilla brigade had their entry into Nicaragua via the FSLN army and, similar to their work in Panama, most of their mural were painted in army and police bases. Their themes—in consultation with local sponsors and residents—were militant and military centered, focusing on the hard physical facts of the insurrection.

A mural from the Nicarao Community Center in Managua depicts an angry mob of men and women—some armed with rifles and others with knives—looking down at a prostrate National Guardsman. A dagger hovers just above his throat, and his eyes are white with horror. Other murals by the Felicia Santizo Brigade adorn long walls, crowded with gun-toting figures, reclining corpses, and noble portraits of those revolutionary predecessors who require simply one name: Lenin, Sandino, Che. The Panamanians were but the first of many artists from abroad who came to Nicaragua in the years after the Revolution to express their solidarity with and share in nation's new political climate. Ironically, having the first murals painted throughout Nicaragua, theirs was the first to be destroyed as well.

Mural Themes

According to David Kunzle’s “The Murals of Revolutionary Nicaragua” these murals reveal a large range of themes regarding politics, the people and the undocumented history of the nation. The themes he sees in the murals consist of those that follow:

The Insurrection:The pivotal event leading up to mural movement in Nicaragua was the Sandinista Insurrection over Somoza’s government. The muralists took a different perspective than most artists previously in Nicaragua, and depicted the horrific battles against the Somoza government not necessarily one of oppression, but rather preached resistance against Somoza.

Power to the People: Nearly every mural was predominantly figural centering on both monumental and miniature bodies, gestures and attitudes. The murals represent the idea of ordinary people taking power into their own hands. Many of the murals present what actually happened in history and paint representatives of the masses under the flags of Nicaragua and Sandinismo. Unarmed peasants and workers merge with the military scenes of the rebels in the defiant assertion of liberation and self-governance. The murals attempt to emphasis for whom the liberation is an ongoing struggle. The ideology of these paintings, in general, is not hidden. It is obvious who is the enemy and for what purpose is his fall (that is the fall of Somocismo, the Contras, and U.S. imperialism for the sake of the people).

A Better Society: Sandinista Socialist Programs: Except for a few murals that attack Somocismo and one that highlights the dangers of alcoholism, many of the murals carry with them an overwhelming amount of positive social messages. They are looking forward to a better life, improved health, a world of play not poverty for children. The muralists paint the ideal life of a socialized society including especially figures of workers, peasants, Christians, women and youth. Many of the murals speak to the feminist agenda combating eloquently to the life, work, desires and achievements of women. Certain feminist issues, such as abortion issues, were not included in murals because they were considered to divisive for the still Catholic and traditional society. The willingness for women to bear arms, however, was included and depicted in several murals of an armed mother and child. Murals in hospitals depict Sandinista ideals of universal and free health care. A special concentration on murals that included the handicapped was also included and quite appropriate for a nation of tens of thousands who had been maimed by the war.

An Economy producing happiness: The murals, as a whole, never show a hope for a future of industrial growth and technological advance. The murals, with a touch of romanticism, paint Nicaragua was continuing in its traditional dependence on agricultural export crops, particularly coffee and cotton. The painters simplification of the future of Nicaragua’ economy, although aesthetically pleasing and hopeful, are not congruent with the Sandinista’s plans to diversify and industrialize the Nicaragua economy, making it less dependent on western markets. However, in contrast to agriculture historically, the muralists paint coffee and cotton production no longer as a profit for U.S. capitalists and a production of process, wherever the markets outlets may be, but rather as something for the purpose of human happiness and the profit of the workers. The peasants painted in the murals are beneficiaries of the hopeful Sandinista land reform, however many argue that this depiction of happy workers may simply be socialist optimism.

Culture is Revolution, Revolution is culture: Ernesto Cardenal, a poet, priest, Minister of Culture and propagator of Nicaragua revolutionary cultural saw the revolution as a work of art. He thought of their being no separation between the revolution and art. Consequently, to him and many others, the mural movement was another powerful weapon even during the aftermath of the revolution through its revelation of past injustice and future, hopeful prosperity.

The Sandinista Pantheon: Through the murals, the key figures of the Nicaraguan revolution and counter-revolution lived on as representatives of what the Sandinistas historically and presently stood for. With little paintings of centered on actual comandantes of the military, the Sandinista Pantheon consists more of Nicaraguan martyrs, international heroes of other countries such as Marx, Lenin and Che, and the very infamous Sandino. These figures all work to emphasize the values present in the Revolution and the governments that followed it.

Key Locations of Murals

Throughout the mural movement, murals where painted all over Nicaragua, from the north to the south and west to the east. However, murals were unsurprisingly most concentrated in the areas in which the Nicaraguan revolution and Sandinista movements had been most intense. Following in a list of all the cities in which murals have been found and documented throughout Nicaragua and in parenthesis is the number of murals that each town contains.

Managua: Center (12)

Managua: Suburbs (113)

Achuapa (1)

Asturias (2)

Bluefields (7)

Boaco (2)

Chinandega (2)

Ciudad Sandino (3)

Corinto (2)

Diriamba (3)

Diriomo (1)

Estelí (20)

Granada (5)

Jalapa (2)

Jinotega (4)

Jinotepe (2)

Juigalpa (8)

León (26)

Masaya (13)

Matalgapa (5)

Ocotal (2)

Pearl Lagoon (1)

Puerto Cabezas (2)

Rivas (4)

San Benito (1)

San Carlos (9)

San Miguelito (1)

Sébaco (2)

Solentiname (1)

Tipitapa (2)

Tonalá (1)

Wasala (9)

Destruction of Murals

After the 1990 Sandinista loss in the Nicaraguan elections, the mayor of Managua, Arnoldo Alemán, started a campaign to paint over and destroy the murals, even though these murals were protected by various articles of the Nicaraguan constitution and Law 90. These statutes called for the protection of Nicaraguan culture, as well as for freedom of expression and preservation of "historic patrimony." None of these illegal actions of destruction were ever successfully accused and convicted. Aléman continually denied his sponsorship of the destructions and elimination of the murals and promised time after time to compensate the different Artist’s for their lost artwork, rarely ever actually paying them. It is suspected that much of the destruction movement was sponsored by the U.S. government in their attempt to eliminate pro-Sandinista anti U.S. imperialism propaganda from Nicaraguan society. Many of the oldest, best and most centrally placed murals were painted over and now only exist in memory or, if lucky, photo. After Alemán's campaign was underway, however, a movement of artists and concerned groups began to raise funds to restore and protect these murals and were successful to some extent; new murals were painted as well under the eventual return of Daniel Ortega and the Sandinista National Liberation Front leadership in 2008.

References

Murals of Revolutionary Nicaragua Wikipedia

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