Sandino's Daughters Revisited: Feminism in Nicaragua - Softcover

Randall, Margaret

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813520258 ISBN 13: 9780813520254

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 1994

Synopsis

Sandino's Daughters, Margaret Randall's conversations with Nicaraguan women in their struggle against the dictator Somoza in 1979, brought the lives of a group of extraordinary female revolutionaries to the American and world public. The book remains a landmark. Now, a decade later, Randall returns to interview many of the same women and others. In Sandino's Daughters Revisited, they speak of their lives during and since the Sandinista administration, the ways in which the revolution made them strong--and also held them back. Ironically, the 1990 defeat of the Sandinistas at the ballot box has given Sandinista women greater freedom to express their feelings and ideas.

Randall interviewed these outspoken women from all walks of life: working-class Diana Espinoza, head bookkeeper of a employee-owned factory; Daisy Zamora, a vice minister of culture under the Sandinistas; and Vidaluz Meneses, daughter of a Somozan official, who ties her revolutionary ideals to her Catholicism. The voices of these women, along with nine others, lead us to recognize both the failed promises and continuing attraction of the Sandinista movement for women. This is a moving account of the relationship between feminism and revolution as it is expressed in the daily lives of Nicaraguan women.

About this title

About the Author:

Born in New York in 1936, Randall grew up in New Mexico before living for twenty-three years in Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua. In Mexico she co-founded and edited El corno emplumado/The Plumed Horn, a vanguard bilingual literary journal of the 1960s. In Cuba and Nicaragua she worked with other artists to contribute to social change. Randall returned to the U.S. in 1984, only to face attacks on her writing that led to an effort to deport her under the McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality Act. After a five-year battle, joined by many of the nation's outstanding artists, writers, unionists, religious leaders, and others, she won her case in 1989.

From Publishers Weekly:

Randall ( Sandino's Daughters ) lived for more than three years in Nicaragua and supported the Sandinistas. Returning there in 1991 after the Sandinista defeat, she concluded that the party's inability to confront feminism was a major failure, and resolved to explore the state of Nicaraguan feminism. What emerged are deeply textured interviews with 12 women, a worthy contribution to the literature concerning both Nicaragua and the role of women in social change. Poet Michele Najlis recalls Daniel Ortega dismissing abortion and family planning as exotic ideas important only to intellectuals. Doctor Mirna Cunningham, raped by contras in a notorious incident, says that ethnically diverse women from the Atlantic Coast face ``an inordinate degree of violence.'' Daisy Zamora, the former vice-minister of culture, reflects that the few women in power should have protested in louder voices. Lawyer Milu Vargas makes the central point that a revolution means both external and internal change. Despite their detailed and thoughtful criticisms, these women remain proud of the progress of their country and retain many of their revolutionary ideals. Illustrations not seen by PW.

Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0813520258
• ISBN 13: 9780813520254
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 334