It was like a trip to the moon with all its precise and complicated details taking into account all that was foreseen and also what was not.
A trip to the moon in which the slightest mistake could be fatal. 'Workshop calling!' – 'Hullo Assumption!' – 'Hullo Maizefield!' Workshop was León, Assumption Masaya, Maizefield Estelí.
And young Dora María's placid voice from Workshop saying enemy reinforcements were surrounding them dangerously, her calm singing voice: 'Workshop calling! Can you hear me?' Rubén's voice in Estelí. Joaquin's voice in Office – Office was Managua.
Office would run out of munitions in two days' time ('Over!') Precise instructions in code where the landing would be...
And Dora María: 'Our rearguard is not well covered.
Over!' Serene calm voices crossing back and forth on the Sandinista radio.
And there was a time when the two forces were balancing, balancing, and things were very dangerous.
It was like a trip to the moon.
And there was no mistake.
So many working together in the one great project.
The moon was the Earth. Our bit of Earth.
And we got there.
And now Rugama, it’s beginning to belong to the poor; the Earth is (with its moon).
In May 1979 the Sandinistas launched their Final Offensive which overthrew the dictator Somoza. They entered Managua in triumph on 19th July 1979. Poet Ernesto Cardenal became Minister of Culture, Dora María Tellez became Minister of Health. The Sandinistas ran a prize-winning literacy campaign, made enormous advancements in public health and education, redistributed land, giving land titles to peasants and supporting co-operatives. The Revolution was defeated in 1990 mainly through the implacable violent hostility of the USA, which squeezed Nicaragua’s economy, mined her ports, financed and trained the Contra rebels, who exhausted the country in war, specialising in attacks on villages, schools and health posts.
Translated by Dinah Livingstone, first published in Nicaraguan New Time (Journeyman, London 1989)