MALACATOYA, NICARAGUA-- This month on creatingstrongenations.com, we’re journeying throughout Central America to examine leadership in the link. We’re talking about the link between the North and the South—and also—the link to a dark political past that, only until recently, has begun to see signs of significant social change.
To understand how the seven small countries making up Central America have overcome decades of brutal repression and civil war, we’ll explore Guatemala’s indigenous struggles, Costa Rica’s economic vision and a nation in constant recovery, as we begin our exploration from a ferryboat in Nicaragua.
Just east of the capital city of Managua and an estimated 20 miles outside of the colonial center of Granada, we land on a road-less-traveled to L.A.—not the City of Angels that you are most familiar with in the US—but the indigenous village of Malacatoya, Nicaragua. Home to about 1,000 thousand residents, villagers here re-named their community “Los Angeles” when they were forced to re-build in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch. Like many communities throughout the country, Malacatoya was hit hard by the 1998 storm. Fierce flooding left families homeless and hungry. The food supply was all but destroyed.
But it was village leaders like Martin Munoz who says that from this path of destruction emerged a new beginning for a community that was troubled even before Mitch; a community with few jobs and few basic needs being met. “As a result of that phenomenon, that atrocity, that seriously affected this country, Nicaragua,” said Munoz, “this project came to us, (the project) created that which we now call the community o Los Angeles.”
Completed in 2005, today, Malacatoya de Los Angeles is safely situated away from the vulnerable coastline where families now live in newly re-built rural homes. Less than a mile away, school children run and play in the central park. “They are very happy, because they have their own land, donated to them by the casa de los tres mundos foundation,” says Munoz. “Thank god, no, that we have casa de los tres mundos?”
Granada-based arts organization, Casa de los Tres Mundos is the non-profit group Munoz turned to when not even the Nicaraguan government could provide Malacatoya with much hurricane relief. Sadly, the country’s economy has been in shambles, some say as far back as the early 1970’s. That’s when another natural disaster--- the earthquake of 1972—shook up lives and completely destroyed the capital city, Managua.
Politically, Nicaragua was on shaky ground at this time as well under the corrupt leadership of President Anastasio Samoza. He would be the latest to step into national power from the long-standing Somoza family dynasty in the country. Shortly after the earthquake it would be revealed that President Somoza siphoned off relief money to lavishly fund the national army, leaving residents homeless and a city in ruins.
Meanwhile, a revolution was brewing by the Sandinista National Liberation Front, or the Sandinistas. At the time, they would represent a group of young, disaffected Nicaraguans whose main mission was to put an end to the Somoza regime. What erupted was the beginning of a historic, decade-long civil war sparked by Somaza’s fall and the Sandinistas rise to Nicaraguan political power.
US President Ronald Reagan would condemn the new Sandinista leadership. Based on anti-communist, cold war ideology, Reagan would help fund, arm and train anti-Sandinista rebels--or contras--in an effort to undermine the Sandinista regime. It would leave Nicaragua crippled politically, socially and economically.
Today, Nicaragua’s economy is still in recovery and remains the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Meanwhile, the needs are only mounting for villagers like Martin Munoz. “So we have this problem of potable water and nowhere to store it. Another is the streets. We're going to fight for that. And for construction. We're requesting 50 buildings,” says Munoz.
To meet these needs, Munoz plans to—once again—turn to Casa de los Tres Mundos for help. The non-profit has won the support of the Austrian government and others across the globe to help build “Los Angeles”, including the European Union, the German Embassy, the City of Granada and non-governmental organizations or NGO’s. It is this kind of leadership that aims to unravel decades of civil strife for the social good of one community at a time.
Great leadership often recognizes its own limitations and sometimes it requires looking beyond our own government and institutions for help. In turn, it may also mean reaching out and helping others beyond our own borders as well.
As we continue our examination of Central America’s bounce from the era of Civil War, we discover that leadership is often built upon stories of inspiration; and one inspiring woman helps us tell a remarkable chapter of indigenous struggle and survival in the region.
Join us as we further explore leadership in the link by journeying to Guatemala, home to one of the bloodiest civil wars in the region and also home to Rigoberta Menchu—an indigenous hero, a Nobel Peace prize recipient, and a woman born to lead.
Jenni Monet is a freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker whose work has been broadcast nationally through TV and radio outlets, including CBS affiliate stations, NPR and local PBS networks.
