Women in the Nicaraguan guerilla movement

Author: Kosna Beker

Originally Published at Peace and Conflict Monitor on: 08/07/2008

Category: Essay

“If the twentieth century was the age of revolution, then
surely Latin America was the region of revolution. Over the course of that
century, new revolutionary movements emerged every few years across the region,
movements that promoted goals such as overturning dictatorships, confronting
economic inequalities, and creating what Cuban revolutionary hero Che Guevara called
the ‘new man’. But in fact, many of those new men were not men. Thousands of
them, especially in the second half of the century, were women.” (Karen
Kampwirth, Women and Guerrilla Movement)

 

Introduction
Nicaragua is one of Central American states, former Spanish colony which
gained its independence from Spain in 1821, for a short time becoming a part of
the Mexican Empire and then a member of the federation of independent Central
American provinces. In 1838, Nicaragua became an independent republic[1].
From then on, Nicaraguan history could be depicted through the rivalries,
conflicts and civil wars. Because of Nicaraguan very important geo-political
position in the region, U.S. has had an interest to intervene in the governance
and internal politics of Nicaragua. Therefore, with the exception of 9-month
period in 1925-1926, Nicaragua was under U.S. military occupation from 1911 to
1933.[2]
In the period between 1927 and 1933, U.S. forces engaged in fight with rebel
forces led by General Augusto Sandino.[3]
Empowered by the foreign troops, National Guard Commander Anastasio Somoza
Garcia conducted several tactical movements in order to overthrow his political
opponents-including Gen. Sandino, who was assassinated by the National Guard.[4]
Somoza took over the presidency in 1936. The Somoza family dynasty lasted from
1936-1979, owing to constant and generous U.S. support. The Sandinista National
Liberation Front (FSLN), originally a student
organization, was established in 1961. During the 1960s and the 1970s, FSLN
guerrilla struggled against Somoza’s regime and sometimes they met with
remarkable success.[5]
The Somoza dynasty ended in 1979 with a massive rebellion led by the FSLN
guerrilla forces.[6]
What happened after this moment is part of Nicaraguan contemporary history,
which for the purposes of this paper will not be necessary to mention in
detail, but in a few words, the FSLN established an authoritarian dictatorship
for one, the relations with the U.S. weakened rapidly, which eventually led to the
U.S. support of the Nicaraguan resistance to the FSLN and imposing of an
economic embargo. In the end, the regime nationalized private industries and
confiscated private property.[7]
In February 1990, as a result of both domestic and international pressure, the
first nationwide democratic elections were held, proclaimed to be free and fair
by the international observers,[8]
which was a great success story. It could be said that since this time,
democracy with its institution has been developing very fast in Nicaragua, followed by national reconciliation, stabilizing of the economy, and decrease in
human rights violations.[9]

Nicaraguan women and
guerrilla

Although during
the second half of 20^th century many countries in both Central
America and Latin America had guerrilla movements and/or revolutions, the FSLN
was one of the most important revolutionary guerrilla groups in the history of the
region because they successfully overthrew a corrupt Somoza family dictatorship
in Nicaragua, implemented one of the first socialist governments in Central
America, and fought against constant United States intervention.[10]
What is maybe less known is the fact that 30 percent of the combatants, and
many of the top guerrilla leaders within the FSLN, were women.[11]
In addition, the study of the records of the Sandinista Social Security
Institute found that 6.6 percent of people who were killed in the struggle
against Somoza were female.[12]
It could also be argued that this percentage of women’s engagement is really
high, especially when compared to the other guerrilla movements across the
world, but the question still remains – why is this the case or why is that the
Nicaraguan women were involved in such high numbers in the guerrilla struggle.
According to Karen Kampwirth’s study, the reasons why women have chosen to
participate in the guerrilla movement are the same as the reasons given by
their male counterparts, such as: the end of the dictatorship, the end of the
exploitation of poor and indigenous, and the creation of better society for their
children.[13]
Yet, despite the same initial motivations for joining the guerrilla movements,
men and women did not share either the same position or the same importance in
Nicaraguan society historically. Women have been ignored and marginalized in
politics, in history, and within society in Nicaragua, as in the rest of the
world. According to Anna M. Fernandez Poncela: ‘Women’s social and political
role in Nicaraguan history has been reduced to “history as legend”: the stories
of individual women, elevated to the status of “national heroines” (such as
mythical Xochitl, Rafaela Herrera, and few female guerrilla commanders-Monica
Baltodano, Dora Maria Tellez)’[14]
These examples are part of the ‘official’ version of history, but if we look
under the surface, we can see the existence of the social and cultural
resistance of many anonymous women, from the colonial times to nowadays. Women
have been involved in all struggles taking place in Nicaragua, starting with
the indigenous women during the conquest time. Afterwards, women were part of
the struggle for independence in 1811, in the civil wars of 1854 and 1856, then
in the uprising led by Benjamin Zeledon in 1912, next in the Sandino’s war
(1926-1934), the national strike of 1936, workers struggle in the Patco textile
factory, and the student demonstrations of 1956.[15]
Although not so visible at the first sight, Nicaraguan women have a long
tradition in social and political movements, as well as significant importance.
During the four decades of the Somoza’s family reign, some crucial changes
happened in the Nicaraguan society, which were of great importance for numerous
women engagement in the guerrilla. In 1955, women were given the right to vote
through Somoza’s constitutional reform.[16]
Besides positive international image he wanted to have, the other reason for
that decision was an idea that women are mainly conservative, and that female
vote would serve his political goals.[17]
Widespread belief across the whole Latin America is that women more likely than
men to support conservative politicians, and one of the reasons for such belief
is analogous to the peasants’ conservatism.[18]
Women, like peasants, tend to be especially vulnerable, less literate, with
underpaid jobs, and more likely to be hurt by political and economic change;
thus, they are considered to be supportive of the stable dictatorships rather
than risky unstable democracies.[19]
During Somoza’s dictatorship, for the mentioned reasons, equity and equality of
men and women were proclaimed, along with continual emphasis on the importance
of women in Nicaraguan society. This strategy had two main oversights: the
contradiction between empowerment of women on the one hand, and violent
exclusion of both women and men on the other hand, as well as the fact that
vulnerable groups may be more conservative than others in one set of
circumstances, while under different circumstances they also may be more
radical, because they did not have anything to lose.[20]
Other reason for the mobilization of Nicaraguan women in the guerrilla movement
was the combination of social, political, structural, and personal factors. Economic
reasons were predominant, both inequalities and level of poverty grew, land was
concentrated in the hands of the elite members. For that reason, Nicaraguan family
faced with increased rates of family abandonment on the part of fathers[21],
leaving behind numerous female-headed households. In order to find a way to
support their children, single mothers moved to the big cities[22],
where they had greater chances for better jobs and for independence. In
addition, the Sandinistas had different strategy for recruiting people, they
gave up Cuban recipe (small foco bands), and employed mass mobilization
strategy in which all new members were accepted regardless of their gender.[23]
In the study of women in the guerrilla movements Karen Kampwirth argues that
considerable number of female guerrilla activists came from the lower-middle
class families with long resistance tradition; mostly young women, well
educated, freed from many patriarchal constrains, as well as aware of serious
risks that participation in the FSLN entailed.[24]

Conclusion

The combination of all various
factors mentioned before could be an answer to the question of why the FSLN was
the first guerrilla movement with such a large number of women both combatants
and supporters. While initial motivation for joining the guerrilla movement was
the same for men and women, their social origin, personal background, and later
motivation diverge. As pinpointed by Karen Kampwirth – ‘To some extend, males
and females always see the world differently, and act differently, because
their experiences and opportunities differ. The greater the disparity between
the way men and women are treated in a given society, the more likely that male
political activists (including guerrillas) will differ from female political
activists.’[25]
Nevertheless, Nicaraguan case is a good example of united forces, resulted in
the multiclass, dual-gender guerrilla movement which effectively ended up the
Somoza dictatorship.

Footnote: