Term
|
Definition
| Somoza Garcia twenty year rule (1936-56) saw uninterrupted effort at social and political alliance formation with some success. power sharing between conservatives and liberals |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| enters only public secondary school in Matagalpa, the National Institute of the North (INN) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| early 1950s, attended several meetings at Conservative youth group and worked with the National Union of Popular Action (UNAP)- a movement led by anti-Somoza intellectuals who led demonstrations in 1940s |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| 1957- "UNAP and its national leaders were too well off economically, they were too perfumed, too bourgeosified, and that turned me off. Growing interest in Marxism and Nicaragua's Communist Party (PSN) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| 1953-54, told UNAP he could no longer support the organization because he had become a Marxist |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| couldn't find many Marxist books in librarys at Matagalpa; teacher at inn, Rafael Antonio Diaz, secretly lent radical books from his personal library |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Joined PSN in July 1955 after leaving Matagalpa for Managua. 1956- organized first student cell of PSN in Leon; delivered party newspaper, Unidad which he sold everywhere |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Fonseca's mature political writings extremely critical of PSN condemning them as class collaborationist and bureaucratic, unable and unwilling to lead a revolution in Nicaragua |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Why he joined? in Matagalpa the PSN cell included fifteen young workers; this was opposed to the Managua Communists who were middle class and professionals |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| PSN banned and some of its leaders arrested as Cold War began and Somoza moved out of his "pro-labor" populist stage of 1944-46 and into mending fences with elite opposition. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Matagalpa PSN cell; Fonseca convinced them to pass a resolution calling for armed workers and peasants revolution; PSn chief Man9uel Prerez Estrada rediculed resolution calling it "adventurist," threatening to invoke "party discipline" and complaining about the backwardness of the peasantry. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| discription of Fonseca at gatherings in the home of Marxist intellectual Manolo Cuadra in mid 1950s as restless, questioning teenager, lacking in social graces; skinny, reserved, serious youth, who spoke only to his host |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Fifth/final year of high school worked with two young friends: Ramon Gutierrez had been involved in opposition activities half a decade earlier; lived in Guatemala during Jacobo Arbenz presidency, obtained copy of The Communist Manifesto in French and some Mao Zedong writings in spanish; brought back to Matagalpa with him in 1954; sometimes called "Moncho" |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Francisco Chico Buitrago moved to Matagalpa from northern village to finish high school. seminary student (priest) but he and two others no longer accepted the teachings of the church |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Fonseca, Gutierrez and Buitrago organized student group at the INN called the Centro Cultural; August 1954, Fonseca published a cultural journal called Segovia |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Segovia did not take on Somoza government directly and avoided overtly political subjects; After only a few issues, the influential opposition daily La Prensa published a short article entitled "The Red Seeds of Matagalpa"; poetry, editorials on student life, analytical pieces on female suffrage and 19th century independence wars |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Segovia: key role of youth and the close relationship between education and the nation or : PATRIA. most important role students could play was to bring literacy and therefore civilization to poor workers and peasants: 80% of rural population illterate at time |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Fonseca and Buitragos writings: concept of progress and modernization as nearly inevitiable, the automatic result of the spread of education; believed modern nationhood would come through industrialization and economic progress like US. Cuban Revolution changed this view |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| represented something new in its rejection of framework of traditional Conservative and Liberal party politics. INN youth had little interest in elections; had fiery youthful enthusiasm and regional character. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Augusto Cesar Sandino never appears in eleven issues |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| After graduation, moved to Managua. hired as organizer of the school's library at El Goyena (Instituto Ramirez Goyena); leading secular high school in Nicaragua with close links to Somocista Liberal Party. Fonseca did work with archiving what the real histories are and political contact with students |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| abstinence from drinking, smoking and sexual activity |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Fonseca, Buitrago, and Rothschuh organized march in which students from three public high schools converged on San Jacinto hacienda. on September 1955, in celebration of Nicraguan national holiday. beginning to try to reach out to students at private Catholic high schools, his contacts in mid 1950s were all public institutions |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Fonseca left Instituto Goyena and moved to Leon, where he enrolled in the National University of Nicaragua as a law student. Leon: traditional stronghold of Liberal wing of Nicaraguan oligarchy and since 18th century, the rival of Conservative Granada. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Leon: huge support for Somoza's Nationalist Liberal Party with own Liberal newspapers. Two other wings of Liberalism based in Leon: Liberal obrerismo (concerns of artisans and other urban workers) and the Independent Liberal Party, or PLI, formed in Leon in 1944 by middle class bourgeois opponents of Somoza |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Leon spring 1956: The Student Center (CUN, later CUUN) named him editor in chief of its newspaper, El Universitario; in 1957, still believed change could be won through a civil peaceful campaign |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Leon: put together first all student cell of PSn in Nicaragua: included Tomas Borge, fellow Matagalpan AND Silvio Mayorga |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Initiative for all student cell came from Fonseca rather than from the PSn national leadership. Fonseca complaigned that his party paid little attention to campus organizing. dissonance between wanting to follow PSN's orders and the student movement itself |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Nicaraguan president Anastasio Somoza Garcia was assassinated in Leon in September 1956. His older son, Luis Somoza Debayle, was immediately named president; his second son, Anastasio Somoza Debayle (Tachito) educated from West Point was already head of the National Guard |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| President Luis Somoza intense, especially in Leon, roundup of suspected conspirators. Area outside university turned into an armed camp. Fonseca arrested from 27Septebmer to 14November and released without charges probably due to his connection with father. Tomas Borge remained in jail more than two years, winning release only after sustained student protests. confiscated 80 books leaflets and newspapers. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| 1957: PSN sent Fonseca to Soviet Union for Sixth World Congress of Studetns and Youth for Peace and Friendship. 35,000 young people attended Moscow festival. Fonseca best known student PSN |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Un Nicaraguense en Moscu: written early 1958. Described Soviet Union as a workers paradise, its five year plans accomplished in full, social evils like prostitution abolished completly, unemployment and discrimination eliminated for all time. claimed Soviet officials led humble lifestyle and that the newspapers are one of the main means of criticism. Only criticism on United States was that it refused to recognized USSR's peaceful intentions. He probably was swept away by the technological and social achievements of the Soviet Union; tours hid bad parts. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| 1958- him and PSN organized support for Somoza's new labor legislation, which provided increased social security while raising taxes on workers' wages |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| UNAN won autonomy in March 1958 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Cuban Revolution Jan 1, 1959. celebrations nationwide. Many armed actions against Somoza dictatorship during 1958-1959: these were all coup atempts that included former emmbers of National Guard and Air Force. Most coups surrendered without seeing any real combat. Fonseca's uprising in 1959 was commanded by former National Guard officer. Armed movements only sought to replace Somoza with their own party leaders. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Chamorro-Selva group went on to organize ineffective Olama y Mollejones operation, which entered Nicaragua from Costa Rica at end of May 1959 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Convinced Che Guevara that PSN was immobile and the only solution is armed struggle. Che organized military operation with commander Rafael Somarriba, a former member of the Nicaraguan National Guard |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Fonseca left Cuba, only to be arrested in Managua on 8April and deported to Guatemala City at first for law school. But then he went to Honduras and began training for the anti-Somoza expedition |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| May 29, President Luis Somoza said a Honduras invasion of communist style is being cooked up which will be have to be exterminated |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Column marched, ambushed by Honduran army troops and Nicaraguan National Guard at El Chaparral, Honduras on 24 June 1959. Nine rebels killed and 15 wounded including Fonseca |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Main lesson learned from EL chaparral was the leadership required for a successful revolution. Last straw for relationship with PSN. After El Chaprral, abandoned any idea of an armed struggle. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| direct result of El Chaparral: 23 July 1959, National Guard attacked unarmed protesters, killing four students and wounding nearly a hundred people. This created "Generation of '59" |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| During this period in Cuba Fonseca began serious study of Sandino thanks to Cuban revolution. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Cubans had national hero and antiimperialist symbol in Jose Marti, who was killed fighting Spanish colonialism in 1895. Sandino used in Nicaragua in same manner |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Fonseca organized demonstrations in Managua and Leon on first anniversay of 23 July student massacre. protests attacked by police and acquired two more martyrs. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| CUUN in Leon published a manifesto called 23 July 1960. commemorate student matyrs, condemnations of the democratic farce of Somoza government, need for radical social revolution, identification of student interests with those of the worker and peasant majority, call for revolutionary land reform, the responsibility of Us imperialism for imposing dictatorial regimes in Central America, inspiration of the cuban revolution, example of Sandino, and historical role of youth as the agent of change |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| sporadic armed actions, combined with student protests led President Luis Somoza to declare his second state of siega in November 1960. Young Conservatives responded with violent attacks in several cities that gave them a certain authority among the urban petit bourgeoisie. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Conservative Party was most influential group talking about armed struggle. Conse3rvative candidate for president 1963 threatened to launch an armed revolution if he lost the election |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| split with PSN issues of revolutionary violence but also different goals, an orientation to different social classes, and even a different concept of internationalism. He tok issue with view of pro-Moscow parties such as PSN that internationalism meant subordinating local struggles to the diplomatic needs of the Soviet government. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| FSLN founded to provide an instrument of struggle |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Most of activists in short lived student groups of early 1960s did not go on to become members of FSLN, but groups were important precursors of the FSLN in their emphasis on militant street actions, solidarity with Cuban revolution, indpendence from both the traditional bourgeois parties and the Communist Party |
|
|
Term
| National Liberation Front began late 1961 or early 1962 |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| FSLN: what came first was action, not theory. Action had to come with organization |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| FSLN took several years to form and involved many meetings in at least four countries. Jan 1963, its politics were heterogeneous |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| FSLN did not publish programmatic document until 1969. Consensus on some things: example of Cuba; Independecne from Conservative, Liberal and Communist parties, the need for a clandestine organiztion, commitment to armed struggle, and identification with the struggle of Augusto Cesar Sandino |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| FSLN formed while working class mobilizations in Cuba during 1960-61, increasing nationalization of economy, sharp polarization of society along class lines, and Castro's 1961 declaration of the socialist character of the revolution |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| FSLN concluded that following Cuban road meant not just overthrowing the US backed Somoza dictatorship but also beginning the socialist transformation of Nicaragua. FSLN: revolutionary goals of wiping out imperialist domination and domination of exploiting classes |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Foco strategy: it was a mistake hindsight. Guerrilla army shrank through death and desertion faster than it could be built up by student recruits from the city; the FSLn never established control over any territory until 1979 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| 1963- still hope to reproduce Cuban experience |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Fonseca concerned about prepardness of FSLN to launch armed struggle; did not hold the optimism of many |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| FSLN virtually unknown inside Nicaragua. In area where many didn't know how to speak Spanish (Sumo or Miskito languages) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| June 1964- arrested inside Nicaragua for eighth and final time |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Declaration of 9 July- spirited defense of the history and program of FSLN. La Prensa provided voice for SAndinista defendents |
|
|
