By Hannah Z. Morley
The people of Nicaragua are reclaiming their right to honor family members killed in the April 2018 protests, despite ongoing government repression, said University of Southern California Ph.D. student Emilia Yang last week.
Yang is part of the Association of Mothers of April that in 2019 established a museum to memorialize the more than 300 victims of 2018’s government crackdown.
“Memory has been a collective path for resistance and caring for life,” Yang told a UC Santa Barbara audience. She went on to say the current efforts of Nicaraguan activists “transform pain into a demand for justice, truth, and reparations.”
Latin & Iberian Studies Director Cecilia Méndez Gastelumendi welcomes audience members. Picture by Hannah Z. Morley
Yang was speaking as a part of the “Social Movements, Identity, and Resistance in Contemporary Nicaragua” tertulia – an informal discussion on politics and culture – hosted by the Latin American and Iberian Studies program.
Moderated by Global Studies professor Kai Thaler and featuring UCSB’s Dean of Social Sciences, Charles Hale, this event examined the history of social justice in Nicaragua in light of the 2018 protests and the country’s upcoming presidential election next fall.
In an interview with HFA, Thaler said organizing this panel was important because Nicaragua is a country that is often “overlooked.” But its current political conditions reflect a worldwide rise in authoritarianism. “Leaders around the world seemed to have discovered that they can repress their populations and hold onto power if they are willing to crack down hard enough,” Thaler said.
UCSB Global Studies professor Kai Thaler acted as this event’s moderator. Photo provided by UCSB Global Studies.
Currently, Nicaragua is under the rule of President Daniel Ortega, a former leader of Nicaragua’s first civil insurrection in the late 70s against the Somoza family. Over the years, he turned from a liberating rebel to the despot the people of Nicaragua are facing today.
In April 2018, individuals protesting changes to their social security were attacked by Nicaraguan forces. This state crackdown resulted in the killing of over 300 people and the arrest and torture of surviving political dissidents.
Publicly, all protestors were criminalized. And in contrast to Nicaragua's usual public displays of mourning, any public reminders, such as posters or shrines to those lost, were swiftly removed by the government. Many people did not even attend the funerals of the dead protestors out of fear of being associated with them.
But out of this loss arose the Association of Mothers of April, more commonly referred to by its acronym AMA, another word for love, to honor victims and connect their families. AMA’s work resulted in the creation of el Museo de la Memoria Contra la Impunidad (The Museum of Memory Against Impunity).
University of Southern California Ph.D. student Emilia Yang gives a tour of El Museo del la Memoria Contra la Impunidad. Picture by Hannah Z. Morley
After losing her uncle in the 2018 massacre, panelist Emilia Yang herself became an active member of AMA and its museum. In an online interactive exhibit, AMA has attempted to replicate the shrines that were originally created for a brief physical exhibition to remind the world that these victims were not nameless.
Each person who died belonged to a family, had a personality and beliefs, and were far more than nameless “criminals,” as the Nicaraguan government labeled them, Yang said. The museum was designed to be a place where these protestors could be remembered, and their family members could also develop a community.
As Thaler commented on Yang’s presentation about AMA, he noted that throughout history some of the strongest activists have been mothers and other family members of dead activists who were inspired to fight on behalf of their deceased children.
“The identity of being the family member of victims is a powerful one,” Thaler said. “For organizing and also for calling out governments or other groups for oppression and organizing members of society in protest.”
A fellow panelist, Chapman University history professor Mateo Jarquín, said the country’s culture displays its historical memory when today’s protestors compare Ortega to the dictator he replaced, Anastasio Somoza. Jarquín recounted how today’s protestors have use images and art originally used during the 1970s rebellion. According to Jarquín, the 2018 protests marked the end of Nicaragua’s stable authoritarianism.
University of Southern California Ph.D. student Emilia Yang introduces how the Association of Mothers of April created an online museum. Picture by Hannah Z. Morley
Another panelist, Michigan State University cultural anthropologist Jennifer Goett, described the contrasting feelings of horror and hope that the 2018 protests spurred in her. “Horror at the violence the state unleashed on the public, and the hopeful excitement at mass mobilization against oppression,” she said.
Although two years have passed since the original protests, Thaler believes that UCSB should still hold space for panels like this one. “It’s important to take advantage of the freedoms we have in the US to provide a space for Nicaraguan scholars and activists to speak freely,” he said.
UCSB’s Latin American Studies department and its Social Sciences division are fortunate to be able to host talks like this,“being open to these sorts of cross disciplinary and transdisciplinary conversations,” he said.
Hannah Z. Morley is a fourth-year UC Santa Barbara student, majoring in Writing & Literature at the College of Creative Studies. She is a web and social media intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.