Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Echoes of History
Central America in the 1980s was a low point of the Cold War, and not a shining moment for the USA - to fight the leftists, good and bad, at all costs, we allied ourselves with hoodlums, tyrants, and goons.. And it came on the heels of a 150 years of boorish, selfish, short-sighted US behavior in the region.. Today, happily, democracy and pluralism reign in nearly all of Latin America - which in some cases has resulted in the legitimate return to office of our former leftist 'rogues,' now older and wiser, including Alain Garcia of Peru and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. Here's an Ortega poster honoring 1930s progressive icon, Carlos Sandino, for whom the Sandinistas were named - it says loosely translated 'Sandino: we're fulfilling (your dream, vision)' - Ortega 07Another Ortega poster, with Ortega himself. 'Translation: Up With The Poor of The World!' By the way, two more 80s/90s 'comeback' Presidents recently elected to non-consecutive terms are centrists Oscar Arias of Costa Rica and Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic.
Central America moves forward slowly, but the eradication of extreme poverty has a long way to go, as this picture attests...
Is it 2008 here, or 1808? Hard to tell sometimes when you're in Granada, Nicaragua being guided by the incomparable Gioconda..
I'm fascinated by Gioconda, and Erik teases me that I'm in love with her. Is this the gay man's version of a straight man's 'man-crush' - ie non-sexual infatuation...
Food on the run, served in pink tin foil? My memories are vague, but those are my hairy arms and the edges of Gioconda's frilly dress, so it must have been on the way to an outlying Volcano near Granada...
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