July 19 - Again!

I was a way from this blog for the best part of a year. It wasn't until I found myself posting a story about July 19 on another blog (mainly to get up the noses of US posters who were making a great deal of noise about their 4th of July celebrations), that I suddenly remembered that my last post here was July 19 post, in memory of the Sandinista revolution. So little by little I have started posting across to this blog. Who knows, it might be resuscitated to a new life, much like the Sandinistas, who have made a comeback in the last year.

July 19 1979 was the day of the Triumph of the Sandinista Revolution which overthrew 40 years of dictatorship of Nicarabgua by the Somoza Dynasty, and serial invasions by the US dating back to the 1890s (William Walker who declared himself President for several years and sold the right to gather taxes to the Morgan Bank), the early 1900s, when the US sent in marines (and incidentally, first used aircraft as a weapon of war), and throughout the eighties, financed the mercenary remnant of Somoza's National Guard, (the 'contras' financed illegally by the CIA and cocaine connections) and eventually, through a near total economic blockade,starved the country until a government more to their liking was elected in 1990.



This song holds fond memories for me. When I was working in Nicaragua I used to stay in a kind of 'backpackers' where international supporters and workers would come and stay. There was a Nicaraguan guy who was actually a trained opera singer, believe it or not. But we would all sit around in the courtyard in the evenings, and he would bring out his guitar, and he taught us all this song. He'd stride around, singing the lyrics, playing his guitar, and have us all yelling out the words of the chorus.