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Feature Article Nicaragua: A Personal Reflection by Tom Ciancone (BMath '70) Tom Ciancone graduated from St. Jerome's in 1970 with a BMath degree in Applied Analysis and Computer Science. He received a B.Ed. and an M.Ed. from the University of Toronto and taught high school mathematics with the Hamilton and Toronto Separate School Boards until 1976. He spent a year in Milan, Italy and since then has been teaching English as a second language to adults in Toronto. In addition, Tom began a four year apprenticeship in cabinet making and is today self-employed as a custom cabinetmaker. He also teaches English-atthe-Workplace instruction on a part-time basis for Humber College and is active in the Italian-Canadian community of Toronto. Tom recently returned from Nicaragua and was approached by Update! to share his experiences. He graciously obliged and spoke of his "tremendous need to tell people what I saw." His story follows. "Implacable en combate, generoso en victoria" - this is one of the slogans that I saw on a billboard in Managua, Nicaragua, in October, 1983. To me, it characterizes the four-year-old Nicaraguan revolution. People everywhere in Nicaragua are willing to fight for their country's sovereignty while striving to construct a new society based on moral and humanitarian principles. During the three-week study tour I participated in along with other Ontario adult educators, I saw much evidence of this "implacability" and "generosity". During the 45-year dictatorship of the Somoza family, most of the Nicaraguan people lived in extreme poverty and terror. With the revolution in 1979 led by the Sandinista Liberation Front, the people now have a government they believe in, a government responding to the needs of the poor. Especially in health and education, the gains in four years have been phenomenal. The number of schools and hospitals has doubled and an extensive public health program has practically eliminated diseases like polio and malaria. I met many "popular educators", volunteers who work in the countryside and in urban working class areas teaching basic reading, writing and mathematics. With few resources, these educators have created curricula and methodology which is very progressive. In fact, illiteracy has dropped from 52% to 12%. When praised for these achievements one coordinator of a popular education collective modestly stated: "contact with the people is the best university in the world". The "generosity" of the revolution is evident in the treatment of prisoners. In a prison farm, I talked to some ex-National Guardsmen who had committed atrocities against their own people during the time of Somoza. Now the former Guardsmen are being treated very humanely; their guards did not even carry arms and capital punishment has also been abolished. The Sandinistas have avenged their torturers with forgiveness. Sister Joan, an American missionary, told us: "All the signs of the Kingdom are in this revolution". "Go, the mass is not ended" The role of Christianity in the Nicaraguan revolution is extremely important. One Sunday our group went to Mass in a working class neighbourhood of Managua. The people's participation in the Mass was both amazing and inspiring. The folk music, the group homily, the priest's prayers - in fact, every aspect of the Eucharistic celebration integrated the people's personal faith with their everyday struggle. From the word of God, they came to believe that their revolution was just and that they must defend it against the unjust aggression sponsored by the U.S. government. At the end of the Mass, the celebrant, Father Uriel Molino, proclaimed "Go, the Mass is not ended, but it continues in our daily struggle at home, at work and in the struggle for peace and justice". Teresa, a lively middle-aged woman I met in another poor area of Managua, is a member of her neighbourhood Sandinista Defence Committee. Along with many others, she takes her weekly turn in the neighbourhood nightwatch which looks out for problems such as illness, common delinquency, or possible counter- revolutionary attacks. Another task of hers is to make sure everyone's food needs in the neighbourhood are met and to prevent hoarding and price gouging. At the same time, she is on the parish council and talked proudly of the new church the people were building - right next to the new community centre being built with aid from Denmark. Teresa, like many others who are taking care of one another, is an example of another common slogan in Nicaragua: "Between Christianity and revolution, there is no contradiction." The accomplishments of the Nicaraguan people and their Sandinista government, regrettably, are being undermined by the direct actions of the U.S. administration. For example, farmers are being forced to stop planting and harvesting their fields because of counter-revolutionary attacks; some volunteer teachers and health workers have been killed while working in the countryside; many soldiers and voluntary reservists are leaving productive jobs to go to the front in defence of their country's sovereignty. Many Canadians, including Members of Parliament and Christian leaders, have been to Nicaragua and have made official appeals to the Canadian government to adopt a just and independent policy toward Central America. Our government is slow to respond. As concerned Canadians and concerned Christians, we must help nourish, and not destroy, the "signs of the Kingdom" that we have seen in Nicaragua. Do you have a question or comment about this article? Why not offer your own view on this topic or submit an article on a topic that interests you? All submissions should be no more than 500 words in length and are subject to editing. The opinions expressed in Update! are not necessarily those of the University of St. Jerome's College. We welcome your views. Alumnus Tom Ciancone and friends at a Managuan day-care centre. 2/Update!