Let's try a different kind of blog post this time: a book review.
I put "review" in quotes in the title, because this will probably have more to do with events around the book than the literature itself.
The author of interest is Sergio Ramírez. Last year, he became the first Nicaraguan to be announced as the winner of the Cervantes Prize for Spanish literature. At the moment, he is in Spain to receive his prize. He has an interesting background, which I won't make claims to understand in any detail, but he was among the FSLN revolutionary effort, and between 1985-1990, he served as Daniel Ortega's Vice President. Since then he has dedicated himself more exclusively to literature, although his perspective on politics seem to be around as well, through articles in La Prensa, sharing on Twitter, and of course, through his books themselves. Interestingly, his view of the reorganized, rebranded FSLN which returned to power in 2006, is critical.
As I'm writing this evening we have unusual protests and government resistance that has actually sent our kids home early from school today and cancelled classes tomorrow. People were recently protesting because of a perception that the government wasn't doing enough to put out a fire in the Indio Maiz nature reserve. Just as those protests were settling, a separate issue stirred public anger as the government approved a reform to the Social Security system, which will have businesses and individuals paying in more, and ultimately receiving less.
Like I said, Sergio Ramirez is in Spain, about to receive his literature prize, and he writes on Twitter, condemning the "violence and repression against the protesters".
At the beginning of the year, I sat down to write some resolutions, and among the was the idea that I should get around to reading something by Ramírez, since he's apparently a great author from Nicaragua. So I picked up his latest book,
Ya nadie llora por mí (Alfaguara, 2017), without really knowing anything about the book. I just was going to read it to read Ramírez.
The story is of a set of characters who are wildly interconnected across small world Managua, who attempt to find the step-daughter of a very wealthy and powerful businessman. It's a fiction novel, but it is packed full of present day references: people, places, products, etc. It was interesting to read the book, travelling along to the real-life places where the characters take us. The characters have their unique qualities and there is some humor along the way, but the story itself is sobering.
The businessman's wife, encourages her husband to hire a low quality private detective to keep the search for the young woman, Marcela, out of the public eye. The detective, Dolores Morales, a former Sandinista who lost a leg for the cause, accepts the case. He and his official and unofficial team, begin at the businessman's estate on a wealthy hill behind Club Terraza and eventually find their way to one of the poorest parts of the city, at a church/soup kitchen in the enormous Oriental Market.
The plot shifts from finding Marcela to understanding why she was missing. This begins to open up themes of domestic violence and of a society where power and justice can be bought. It sheds light on the dramatic economic inequality, even though everyone is at the same time close and interconnected. It describes a police force that is essentially available for hire to the powerful, and uses brutal tactics in public and torture in private to extract information and maintain control.
There is a glimmer of hope for Marcela, and her mother, as they find allies who organize to support and publicize their cause before sending her to safety out of the country. But, ultimately, the powers are able to weather the embarrassment and re-frame the story in order maintain their economic and sociopolitical position. Like the title suggests, there is nothing or nobody to cry for anymore.
In light of current events, the book raises timeless questions. How can a people's demand for just and democratic government be realized? And, how can just and democratic government for the people be sustained?
