|Central American University - UCA
Number 4 | Septiembre 1981
A Look At A Popular Nicaraguan Barrio
Ciudad Sandino is a populous section of Managua that was set up to receive the earthquake victims of 1972 and that today welcomes the hopes of change stemming by the revolution. How do the inhabitants experience the daily changes that their country is going through?
Historical NotesCiudad Sandino is a popular barrio near the city of Managua. Although it is considered part of the capital, it is located on the road to Leon, 13 kilometers from what was, before the earthquake, the center of the city.
From its beginnings and until shortly after the Sandinista victory on July 19, 1979, it was called OPEN 3. The name is intimately tied to the barrio’s origin. In November, 1970, there was a severe flood of Lake Managua, leaving a thirteen mile strip along the lake shore, from the Bajos de Santa Clara to the Bajos de Acahualinca, practically buried in water. The flood left a large number of homeless people who were forced to “emigrate” to a new area. The result was the relocation of many fishing barrios to an area west of Managua, in what the government called an Organismo Permanente de Emergencia Nacional (OPEN) – the Permanent National Emergency Organism – and it was assigned the number 3. Similar settlements (numbers 1 and 2) were formed on the east side of Managua.
Without a doubt “OPEN” was, in its inception, a place open and propitious to the arbitrary policies of the owners of the land, the Blandones. This was a Somocista family owning extensive cotton land. They heaped repression, brutality and arbitrariness upon this newly arrived mass of humanity.
OPEN 3 grew rapidly. In spite of the extraordinarily high price of the lots, the necessity for housing was so great that the barrio saw a rapid expansion. In less than two years, the barrio had 30,000 residents.
A new and definitive wave of people arrived at the end of 1972 and the beginning of 1973. This was caused by the earthquake that devastated the greater part of the center of Managua and forced the evacuation and relocation of a huge number of residents. OPEN 3 received a large number of those affected and continued growing until it became one of the most populous urban areas in all of Nicaragua.
From then until the Insurrection in 1979, the history of OPEN was marked by innumerable incidents, mobilizations, protests, etc. From the beginning, struggles arose over rights: water, transportation, creation of a cemetery in the barrio, and many more, that gave the people who lived there an experience of confrontation. These struggles were strongly supported and encouraged by the Jesuit priests and Maryknoll sisters who had lived and worked in the barrio from the beginning and who deeply understood their Christian obligation to struggle against the injustices of poverty. The pre-insurrection months and the final offensive found the people of OPEN 3 among the most valiant in the city. The July 19 victory brought the barrio its much deserved new name, CIUDAD SANDINO.
Objectives Of Analysis With this report, we would like to give a limited description of the daily life in this barrio; its activities, worries, joys and frustrations, in order to look at the accomplishments of the revolutionary process begun in July, 1979, and also to learn the problems that continue to exist, many inherited from the time of Somoza, other coming from this new process.
Form Of Presentation We will begin with a “Description of the Present Structure” then continue with a “Week’s Guided Tour Through Ciudad Sandino”. The method of looking, day by day, at some of the representative activities of the routine of the barrio has its limitations. But we will try to present an overall view, in the most concrete way possible, of what a popular Nicaraguan barrio is like. We should clarify that this “week’s presentation” is the result of several months of living with and analyzing the situations which we describe.
Present Structure Of The Barrio At present, Ciudad Sandino has close to 72,000 residents (almost the same population as Leon, Nicaragua’s second largest city which had 77,000 people in 1977). It is administratively divided into ten zones, including Bello Amanecer and Eduardo Contreras, which used to be independent barrios.
The distance from the entrance of the barrio to the end is over five kilometers. There is only one paved street which covers the first kilometer. All of the rest of the streets that run through the barrio are dirt.
At the transportation level, two bus lines serve the barrio (one covers the entire barrio, the other only a part), but this fails to effectively meet the great demand. Great effort over a long period of time was necessary to obtain the second line which began three months ago. There are also small pick-ups which serve as semi-public transportation but with a very limited capacity.
There is running water and electricity in almost all zones of the barrio. The same is not true for street lighting which is minimal, only existing on the principal street and a few side streets. There are no sewer lines, with most houses having outside latrines.
There are only two telephones in the barrio: one crank phone in the branch office of TELCOR (National Telecommunications Company); the other, a private automatic phone, at the entrance to the barrio which costs two and a half times as much to use as the TELCOR phone. In addition, the TELCOR office is only open during business hours. Outside of these hours and on Sundays one has to use the private phone. This means that if someone in the farthest zone (Zone 5) needs to use the phone, he/she must go through the entire barrio to do so. There is a third phone, in the bank, which cannot be used by the public.
The barrio has several schools, both primary and secondary, which are used at night for the adult education program. The four largest schools are located in four distinct zones. There are three medical clinics: two very small ones, and a third, the Health Center, that is centrally located and slightly larger. The clinics are only open during the day, requiring the transfer of any emergency at night to Managua.
There is not presently any important center of production within the barrio; the residents have to go into Managua in order to find work in activities such as the Mercado Oriental (a large market with all types of food and other goods), or other jobs or services. It could be said that the principal activity in the barrio is buying things and then re-selling them. There are many small businesses called “ventas” where one can find, above all, food which has itself been bought and brought in small quantities from the principal markets. These “ventas” provide a certain limited economic activity. This marginal productivity that has characterized the barrio from the beginning means that many inhabitants have subsistence level salaries, which often force many members of the family to work, including the small children.
The most common type of construction is wood over a small cement base. In many cases the whole building is of wood with a zinc roof; there are almost no houses made of brick or stucco which shows the low standard of living of most of the residents.
There has not been centralized or directed urban planning in the barrio. This means that it is a new barrio, but it is built according to the private initiative of each resident. The only uniform criteria has been the low economic level of all of the residents, an economic level that, with the tremendous force of poverty, has united Ciudad Sandino, making it a poor but dignified barrio.
THE WEEKMonday: Meeting of the CDS (Sandinista Defense Committee)
A CDS exists on each block, that is, for about every forty families. We attend the weekly meeting, and we find ourselves with a fairly large group of participants, about 25 or 30 persons, of whom 60 or 70% are women. All residents over fourteen can and should participate, but it is sufficient if one person per family participates. Although participation is voluntary, obtaining letters of recommendation, which are an important function of the CDS, depends on attendance. These letters are necessary for innumerable activities such as job applications, licenses, permits, etc.
The coordinator presents a basic topic which can be expanded. The coordinator and the heads of committees form the team which facilitates the meetings and sees that the projects are carried out. In this meeting there are several matters for consideration. The CDS is the most basic popular organizational structure and needs to concern itself with all of the problems of the block.
The meeting begins with a discussion of the need for repairing the streets which are deteriorating with the rains. The people want a more permanent solution than periodic grading.
From that, they go on to organize the next Health Workshop that will be held the following Sunday. If there are general orientations that come from the zone, these should be carried to the block level.
Next, they organize shifts for the Revolutionary Patrol, a voluntary night watch, for the whole week. This job is assumed by the head of the Community Security and Defense Committee of the block.
After discussing these points, they come to the problem of food staples. Some neighbors express their concern about the shortage of sugar and beans. This prompts a detailed explanation by the coordinator, clarifying the causes of the problem, trying to see that the neighbors assimilate and understand the information: the increase in consumption of basic foodstuffs compared to what it was under Somoza; the problem of unscrupulous merchants who operate a black market of basic goods to raise the price, increasing their profits and creating instability among the population; the problem of lack of good distribution and sales centers; and also setting up the long-awaited new market, located in the barrio, which will undoubtedly facilitate the provision of those basic products used by the family.
The new market is one of the largest, almost gigantic, projects that is going on now in Ciudad Sandino. Construction began several months ago and they estimate completion in September. It is a very modern complex in the same style as other new markets that have been constructed in several other barrios. It is the result of a policy of decentralization in the retail activity of the barrios.
There used to be one central market, the Oriental. Its conditions were unsanitary, impractical, almost inhuman. Now the plan is to install markets in each important sector of the city, in this way reducing trips to the shopping centers. (It takes more than an hour each way to go to the Oriental Market). The new system will save time and transportation money. In addition, it will promote the economy of the barrio and provide sources of work which, as we said before, are almost non-existent in this barrio.
The new market has long been a hope of the neighborhood, and so there is always a lot of enthusiasm in the meetings when the topic arises.
When the meeting is almost over, one of the members invites the men of the barrio to join the Production Collective which is being implemented in the barrio. It will begin with planting beans in the fields on the outskirts of the barrio, using funds from the Managua Junta (municipal government) and INRA (Nicaraguan Agrarian Reform Institute). This will certainly be a source of production for the barrio. Many of the residents have campesino backgrounds and understand this type of work very well. The Collective will begin toward the end of September and, if it is successful, they will add vegetable gardens, corn, poultry hatcheries, and possibly a handcrafts workshop.
The project expects to provide 200 jobs, 20 in each zone. The invitation to participate in the Collective is open to the entire population and, although it has been proposed for several months, it has not been easy to find 200 men willing to join the project. Some people can’t overcome a lack of confidence which prohibits them from participating. This is fairly common in new proposals. It is necessary to recall that Nicaraguans have put up with their marginalization for years and that has been one of the sources of a lack of confidence in new government projects.
Some very good people have been incorporated within the CDS that we visit, workers who really want to advance and to live this “new adventure”. Talking with one of them, he tells us that what is important at this time is to begin and to show those who lack confidence that the Production Collective is a good proposal and that it will permit those who participate in it, as well as the barrio as a whole, to advance. He is sure that the example will be followed and soon all the positions will be filled.
The participants in the Collective will receive everything they need: tools, seeds, and the use of the land for the time specified in the contract. It is left up to those who participate to contribute their work and their will to make it succeed.
The meeting ends. They collect the “quota”, dues for the CDS, which is practically symbolic (one córdoba, equivalent to ten cents, per family per week) but which is of great value in getting those tasks that should be carried out off the ground.
The topics covered have been varied, some of them, very important. The participation of the neighbors has been unequal and, for the moment, poor. It appears that there is a tendency by the people to treat the CDS as a traditional political party; a tendency to delegate authority to others, to listen without contributing. Some are not conscious of the great importance and responsibility that the popular organizations have in this structure. They don’t really understand that the CDS is supposed to be a daily expression of popular power, where neighbors, the people in general, can elect, propose and change how things are run. It is hard to say to what extent the people feel themselves to be the owners of that meeting, of the decisions and proposals considered.
The coordinator tells us that between Sunday and Monday all the CDS’s in the barrio meet so that while this CDS meets, there are 20 others in Zone 6 and perhaps a good part of the 200 in Ciudad Sandino that are meeting. It is a good way to stimulate a participatory democracy.
Tuesday: Adult Education.An evening visit to the Astrashell of Venezuela School, located in Zona 6.
As every week night between 6 and 8 p.m., we find the CEP (Popular Education Collective) in session. It serves all the illiterate and semi-literate people of zones 5 and 6 of the barrio. The CEP is a permanent group who receive the daily programmed classes during each semester. In each CEP there are close to 15 people, instructed by a popular teacher (coordinator).
The CEP’s are divided into three different levels:
a) Beginning level, for those persons who are illiterate and have recently begun to study. They use the same material that was used during the Literacy Campaign in 1979.
b) The first level which corresponds to the first and second grades in a regular primary school.
c) The second level, which was started this August and corresponds to the regular third and fourth grades.
The majority of those attending are adults, mostly women, but there are also a number of children, (theoretically all over 12) who work during the day selling newspapers or food, which prevents them from attending school during the day.
We find two promoters supervising the work, one for Zone 5 and the other for Zone 6. They are in charge of giving the weekly formation to the coordinators and guaranteeing the functioning of all the Collectives of which they are in charge. One of the promoters is a teacher, the other is a university student. There is great variety among the coordinators. In general, they are young people who are in their first two years of secondary school or the fifth and sixth grade of primary school. The person in charge of the CEP for children (a type of nursery for the children of the adult students) is not over 12 years old.
Adult education is one of the major projects of the barrio. It functions with very few material resources but has at its disposal the tremendous resource of coordinators and promoters who work almost as volunteers. (They receive a small stipend which they often use to buy teaching materials or for activities related to their work.)
We are told that in Zone 6 there have not been problems in finding coordinators. In other zones where the leadership is less strong they have had a shortage of coordinators. This is demanding work, both in time and effort.
Although the enrolment did not reach that projected for this semester at the barrio level, in Zone 5 and 6 it exceeded the projection. The projection for Ciudad Sandino was 900 students, realizing 550. In the whole barrio there are 54 CED’s functioning: 12 introductory, 15 at the first level with 152 students, and 27 second level with 290 students.
In addition to the daily work, the teachers participate in a weekly four-hour workshop of programming, pedagogical formation and discussions of learning and teaching problems. In general, these workshops are held on Saturday afternoons. The promoter in charge of giving the workshops to the coordinators also has another weekly workshop where he/she receives formation and orientation for the week. The promoters of the ten zones are assisted and supervised by a Zone Advisor who is responsible for the work of the whole barrio. This group, consisting of an advisor, 10 promoters and 54 coordinators who function in a reverse pyramid to reproduce the formation and the orientations, constitute the team that is in charge of teaching literacy to the 550 students of Ciudad Sandino.
Wednesday: Meeting of a Christian Base CommunityWe attend a meeting of the most active group in the barrio. The group of approximately 13 or 14 persons, mostly women, meets every Wednesday at 5 p.m. From what we are told, the community began to form in Zone 6 six months ago. The main organizational work was undertaken three months ago, in conjunction with the construction of a chapel, which solidified the group.
The first half-hour of the meeting is dedicated to group instruction. With a small introductory topic (generally a Scripture reading), the more comprehensive discussion begins. They then arrive at the specific problems of the barrio. We see the presentation of a wide variety of questions from the people of this community: their relationship with the non-Catholics in the barrio; the meaning of Christian participation in the organized politics of the barrio; the general problems of the Nicaraguan Church, such as the removal by the bishops of priests and religious who are loved by the people in the popular barrios, etc.
The participation is fairly lively in the meeting, especially when we come to the second part, in which the concrete tasks are defined and distributed among the members of the community. A series of jobs are given out: those who will give the pre-Baptismal classes for parents and sponsors; those who will clean the chapel this week; those who will visit the sick in the barrio; those who will sell pamphlets at Mass. The most serious discussion comes over the use of the chapel for non-religious meetings. Not all believe that helping to organize the people is a form of loving one’s neighbor. Some have a more traditional view of what a chapel or church ought to be. They bring up their concern about criticism from the people of the barrio over the use of the chapel for a CDS zone meeting. They are afraid that they won’t be able to explain and answer the questions of people who are critical and who don’t accept a Church open to community necessities and to political participation. They arrive at a certain consensus: the CDS will borrow the church. There are some who continue to express their misgivings.
The diversity of conceptions in the heart of this community clearly emerges. It is young and trying to find its own identity in spite of the fact that the priest, who directs the reunion, strongly projects his concept of Christianity within a revolutionary process. The popular slogan, “Christianity and revolution, there is no contradiction”, is used as a motto by some of the members but they don’t make the transfer of it to the daily life of the community. Some continue to have certain fears about the process and reflect the strong weight of a traditional religious formation. Some who have fears now participated as Christians in the Insurrection against the dictatorship. That was clear and conclusive. This is reconstruction, and it seems more difficult. Many carried an idealistic hope for overnight change. On July 19 they expected a miraculous and rapid transformation without understanding that history is not made by miracles, but by a difficult process of collective participation.
The group plans the Thursday Bible study of the Christian community and the Sunday Mass.
Ciudad Sandino is a very religious barrio. The great majority of the people are Catholic, although there is intense work by distinct protestant groups. There are three or four Catholic centers in the whole barrio and numerous evangelical groups and meeting centers. In Zone 6 alone there are more than 20 evangelical meeting places. Some of these have a purely spiritual vision and, as a result, are not involved in the revolutionary process. Others, perhaps the minority, are more involved and concerned about some of the community activities such as the Health Workshops, etc.
This difference is also seen in the Catholic Church. One part of the barrio is served by priests totally committed to the revolution and is organized in Christian Base Communities; the other part has “neo-Catechumenate” priests, very spiritually oriented, and is organized in neo- Catechumenate communities whose commitment with the process has not been as great and is diminishing.
This ecclesiastical reality is extremely complex and even contradictory; on the one hand there are Christian groups who totally promote integration in the Popular Sandinista Revolution with a truly Christian meaning, and on the other hand, there are Christian groups who question in their own practice their integration in the process.
Thursday: Meeting with the women of AMNLAE (Luisa Amanda Espinoza Association of Nicaraguan Women)
Thursday night we go to the house of the zone coordinator of AMNLAE, where the women’s organization meets every week. In Ciudad Sandino there are four zone coordinators who, together with the general coordinator, supervise and generate the work of the whole barrio. There are zones where AMNLAE as an organization still doesn’t exist, or where it has just recently begun.
We find fifteen women of different ages – not many, we think, for a zone of 8,000 residents. There are two basic reasons: many don’t attend for lack of the cooperation of their husbands who does not want to take care of the children and who even, in some cases, forbids the wife to participate in meetings or to leave the house; others because they are single mothers, abandoned by their former husbands or companions and have no one with whom to leave the small children.
The principal items of today’s meeting are: discussion of the proposed Law of Parental Authority; and the preparation and organization of the Health Workshop for the following Sunday.
In respect to the first point, the coordinator explains that the objective of this Law is to end irresponsible parenthood and to give equal rights and obligations to men and women over their children. There is a discussion about what irresponsible parenthood means and examples are given, well known by most from personal experience or from the experience of friends or neighbors. It seems that the number of men who assume responsibility for their family, who help both financially and in the work at home, who stay with their companions with whom they have children, is not very large. As one woman says, “It is much easier for them to make the children than to worry about them afterwards”. Many times the number of children is large, as is the number of women with whom they conceive the children, often two or three different women.
All agree that the Law is very important, above all for women alone, in order that all the responsibility for their children not fall on them and that they have greater rights, such as financial support from the husband who abandons them. They decide to bring the discussion to the CDS to discuss it with everyone, including the men.
The second item is discussed: the Health Workshop. AMNLAE, together with the CDS, has a large responsibility in this task. They are going to work with the health brigadistas (there are three for each block) whose work is completely voluntary and who are usually young people. The brigadistas receive instruction from the barrio Health Center and are a very important complement for the Center which is over-burdened with work and which has a precarious infrastructure.
On Sunday brigades will be formed, each one with one person in charge. Almost all the women at the AMNLAE meeting will be heads of brigades.
The meeting ends with the resolution of administrative questions and problems.
Friday: Revolutionary Night patrolWe accompany a group who make up the night watch on Friday night. This is a job that goes on each night on every block. The watch is promoted by the CDS on each block and consists in forming a group of three or four unarmed volunteers who patrol their block, some 300 or 400 meters. The objective, they tell us, is to guarantee safety in the zone and prevent whatever possible counterrevolutionary or criminal activity.
The first shift patrols the block between 11 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. when they are replaced by the second shift who continues until 4:30 A.M. At that time, the watch ends as many workers in the barrio are beginning to leave for work, and there is sufficient activity to considerably diminish the problems that prompt the patrol. The head of the Security and Community Defense Committee organizes the schedule for the week.
Each group uses whistles to communicate with nearby groups and thus they can control the night activity of the whole zone. Neighbors in the zones are quite enthusiastic about the patrol, since a group of thieves has been detected by the patrol and captured. This has encouraged the work, which is completely voluntary.
Every night, due to rain or lack of responsibility by some people, some patrols only take place for one shift or do not even take place. But it must be noted that all the volunteers have to work the following day, or study, or take care of the house, and to do this with only three hours sleep is a great sacrifice.
During the night we see a group observing the work two or three times. Sometimes this supervision is done by people from the zone CDS. Other times the Volunteer Police or the militia (reserve) battalions do it.
The patrols began in Managua about a month and a half ago and, in Ciudad Sandino, the directors estimate the participation of more than 4,000 people.
Problems of crime in the barrio are real. Although it is a poor barrio, there are frequent robberies and assaults at night, especially in the least lighted and most remote zones. In general there is no criticism of the patrol within the barrio and it is noteworthy that some people who do not participate in the CDS have joined the patrols. In other words, in practice it is another form, another channel, of organized neighborhood participation.
Saturday: Militia TrainingAbout four p.m. we come to the Militia Training Center which operates in the same barrio. It is called “Mauricio Hernández” and is nothing more than a large vacant lot with some light posts that has been given the name, “Militia Plaza”. Every night during the week there are two hours of practice which is part of a three-month course.
In the center of the field we find a group of people dressed in old clothes appropriate for the practice, most of whom are women. They are waiting to begin an all night 50 – kilometer hike to measure the fitness of each person and make him/her see that certain efforts that seem impossible are really very possible. This hike is one of the tests that are required to pass the three-month course and be considered a militia member. We see close to 100 persons.
It should be mentioned that two reserve battalions of 600 persons each have been formed. The first was formed at the beginning of the year, the second in June. These 1200 men have been specially trained and can be called up at any time to defend any part of the country. Both battalions have a headquarters in the barrio which serves as a central meeting place for all the reservists. In the next few days two more battalions, one of men and one of women, will go out of the barrio. According to schedule, by the end of the year the barrio will be able to count on 2400 reservists in addition to a large number who, although they have made the three-month course, for various reasons were unable to leave for the two-week special preparation and thus are considered local reservists. This means that, in case of problems, they would stay in the barrio to serve in local protection. All reservists are volunteers and receive no salary.
Joining the militia is also a completely voluntary decision and, as repeated often, it is a defensive and not an aggressive preparation. Speaking with some of the militia, we see that they understand that their role will not be to attack another country or people, but to defend the revolutionary process and guarantee its continuation.
The people gathered in the training camp will leave at 5 p.m. and return at dawn the next day after the long march. They are waiting for the trucks that will take them to the place where they will begin the endurance hike. They have the normal anxiety of people who know that the task is important but are not sure of their capacity to achieve it.
A Party:Returning from the training fields, we go to the house of a boy in the barrio who is having a birthday party. There are a lot of young people, most of them dancing. At this same time, all over the barrio, there are many similar parties, dances organized by individuals or by the CDS’s as fund-raisers. When they are organized by the CDS, there is a small entrance charge which is used to finance some of the community projects.
The dance, or fiesta as it is called here, is almost the only group recreational activity that takes place in the barrio. In the whole barrio there is only one movie theater, and occasionally a circus comes. Thus, all the cultural recreational activity is limited to the fiestas. They are a good meeting place when other more creative forms of contact are lacking. We know that there is a Center of Popular Culture in the barrio and that through it groups of young people are creating workshops and classes in theater, music and folk dancing. In some places close to the schools there are musical groups who give classes and are helping in the cultural formation of the barrio.
There is a rich popular creative talent that is expressed in the daily life. There is an effort to try to stimulate and to direct it, but the results are slow, and in the barrio the new popular culture is something that needs developing.
Sunday: Clean-Up Campaign It is a day of work and clean-Up. The movement of the barrio begins at 6 a.m. There has been a proposal for a clean-up Sunday in the barrio, started by the Popular Health Workshops. In these workshops, they have concentrated their efforts to combat dengue and malaria. Both diseases are transmitted by mosquitoes. For this, brigades have been formed with three members in each to begin to visit each house and check for standing water, spray with insecticide, give pointers on how to clean the house and bathrooms or latrines and how to keep the garbage from being a problem and source of illness.
Besides the brigadistas who go from house to house, we find many neighbors working hard with hoes, machetes, shovels, etc. The organization has been by the CDS and other popular organizations and we see people working everywhere, cutting weeds, cleaning vacant lots, forming piles of trash. All of this will be collected by trucks that come from Managua. For this clean-up campaign, we know that more than 200 trucks from the city of Managua and others from various ministries have been mobilized. The campaign is national, in all the cities, towns, villages and rural areas.
Although the participation of the neighbors is good, it is not total. There are neighbors who stay in their houses and yards, away from the activity. Health is one of the most important priorities, especially preventive measures, and one that requires everyone’s help. The organizers try to explain to everyone that these measures go beyond supporting or not the process. Illness attacks everyone and although the work is organized by the CDS, hygiene benefits all. This is not always understood. However in the last three Sundays a large part of the barrio has participated in the collective clean-up job.
FINAL NOTE:For many outside Nicaragua it will be difficult to accept as representative what we have presented. But this is how life is in Ciudad Sandino, the first week of August, 1981.
Differences of opinion, of expectations, and of life-style as well as the possibilities of real participation in the neighborhoods are some of the richest aspects of life today in Nicaragua. The richness and complexity are part of the mystery present in this collective process of liberation.