Sunday morning I took advantage of the free pancakes and
bananas for breakfast at the hostel in Granada and packed up to leave. I caught
a bus to Managua where I then had to take a taxi across town to the other bus
station (there are like four bus stations in Managua). I was planning on
catching the bus to Jinotega. However, when I arrived the bus to Jinotega wasn’t
going to leave until later in the afternoon and I would likely have arrived
close to dark. Sunday is a hard day to travel. There just aren’t as many buses
leaving as usual due to the fact that more people are staying close to home on
what is often the only day off that they have each week. There was an express
bus leaving for Matagalpa, another location I was planning on going anyway, so
I hopped on that one. Sometimes you have to be flexible when you’re traveling.
Luckily, I had researched both areas so I wasn’t going to Matagalpa completely
unprepared.
I found the hotel that I was looking for easily, located
kitty corner from Parque Ruben Dario, which was not the central park, but
turned out to be much prettier than the central park. The hotel was located
behind and above a pharmacy owned by a couple who were both retired doctors.
They were very friendly and welcoming. I wandered around town for a bit after
dropping off my things and ran into an American man, Dave, who had lived in
Costa Rica, then moved to Granada, then to Matagalpa, searching for a location
that was less touristy. He had moved from each location because of the increase
in tourism there. He was rather in his cups and feeling very chatty. I joined
him for a couple beers and then headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit
before dinner.
Parque Dario |
The paths in Parque Dario |
So, of course, the power went out. When I went out looking
for dinner everything was shutting down since there was no electricity. There
was a grocery store open so I was able to buy some bread to go with the peanut
butter I had picked up in San Juan del Sur. It wasn’t a fancy dinner but it worked
in a pinch.
I spent Monday and Tuesday wandering around the town of
Matagalpa. I found a great little coffee place where I could get granola and
yogurt with fresh fruit for breakfast which was a treat. Supposedly they even
had chai, but the two times I asked for it I got a latte instead. I’m not sure
if they didn’t have it or if they had just never had anyone order it before so
didn’t know what it was. Luckily, I was in coffee country so the latte was
really good (and this is coming from a reluctant coffee drinker).
El Templo de San Jose de Laborio |
Tuesday I headed to the museum of Carlos Fonseca, the
founder of the FSLN (Frente Sandinsta de Liberacion Nacional), which was the
group that finally brought the Somoza family dictatorship to an end in 1979. The
museum was based in his childhood home, just a couple blocks up from Parque
Dario. It was filled with photos, examples of his writing, and memorabilia from
old guns to typewriters. His story is an interesting one.
Carlos Fonseca Amador was born in 1936 to a woman who worked
as a cook in the house of his father who was an accountant for a U.S. owned
mining company. At a young age he began helping his mother take care of his
other four siblings by selling candies on the street and later on selling
newspapers.
When Carlos entered secondary school he learned about Augusto
Sandino who had fought against the increasing inequalities in Nicaraguan
society in the 1920s and 1930s, but whose story had been all but obliterated
from Nicaraguan history books by the Somoza dictatorship. It is necessary to
know a bit more about Sandino to understand why he became so important to
Carlos Fonseca and the Sandinistas (as they came to be known).
Sandino was born the illegitimate child of wealthy judge and
one of his servant women. Early on Sandino became aware of the injustices that
existed in his society and that they were being reinforced not only by the
Nicaraguan government, but by the Catholic Church, and also by the U.S.
government that had arrived in 1910 to shore up a failing presidency. Sandino
fought from the mountains with small groups of men who were quite effective at “hit-and-run”
raids. Sandino became a popular figure throughout the country fighting for the
rights of those most in need in his country, which was the majority of the
population. However, when Anastasio Somoza became president in 1933 (the
beginning of 66 year of a family dictatorship), he invited Sandino to Managua
for a meeting to discuss a ceasefire in February of 1934. At some point during
his time in Managua he was assassinated. His body has never been found.
As Carlos and other young people began to group together to
protest the repressive dictatorship of Somoza in the 50s and 60s, Sandino
became an important figure to them as a Nicaraguan who had stood up to tyranny
before. Many of them were imprisoned and tortured various times throughout the
50s, 60s, and 70s. They were also often exiled from the country as well and
during these times often met with sympathetic leaders of other countries in
Central America and the Caribbean. In 1961 the FSLN was established by Fonseca
and many of his comrades. They drew support from huge numbers of Nicaraguans
who were tired of living in fear and poverty brought on by the Somoza
dictatorship. Once again, the Nicaraguans took to the mountains to fight in the
mid-60s. In 1976, an informant told the military where Carlos could be found
and witnesses say he was killed after he was captured. His body was mutilated
and his hands were sent to Managua to be identified. However, Fonseca’s death
proved to be a rallying cry for the people of Nicaragua. They continued to
battle against Somoza and eventually in July of 1979 were able to defeat the
dictatorship. He is still regarded as a national hero. I will share more on this era later.