Inspired by the Sandinista victory of 1979, artists from all over Latin America, Europe and North America came to Nicaragua in the 1980s and filled the newly liberated Central American country's public spaces with murals. As in previous Latin American revolutions, such as in Mexico, Cuba and Chile, the murals they painted depicted socialist themes of free health care and education, struggles against poverty and corruption, Spanish colonialism and U.S. imperialism. The Sandinista murals, however, were unique in that they often incorporated religious themes, and were the world's first socialist revolutionary murals to be painted in churches.

Several members of the community have provided analysis on the ever-changing political situation in Nicaragua.

The Ecumenical Committee describes the arrogant and offensive statements from the US ambassador to Nicaragua and what you can do about it. NicaNet is organizing a delegation to Nicaragua that will focus specifically on US interference. Finally, Brynne Keith-Jennings has an article in CounterPunch on the ambassador.

Hello all! I am a volunteer that has been working with the Padilla family and others supporting their struggle to regain control of their land, a small farm in San Ramon, Matagalpa.

If anyone is interested in learning more about the Vicente Padilla case, feel free to check out the newly created blog with lots of information and pictures at VicentePadilla.blogspot.com

Thanks,
Grace Cary

WE ARE NOT SILENT

Please adapt, print, and send your postal letter(s) today. See below the postal addresses and the suggested letter.

Send your letter(s) to:

Ms. Barbara C. Moore, Embajadora
Embajada de los Estados Unidos en Nicaragua
KM 4 1/2 Carretera Sur
Managua, Nicaragua
NICARAGUA
Tel. 00 - (505) 266010
Fax: 00 - (505) 2663861

Mr. Luis Espada-Platet, Consul General
Sección Consular, Embajada de los Estados Unidos
Costado Oeste del edificio de la Embajada Americana
Km. 4 1/2 Carretera Sur
Managua, Nicaragua
NICARAGUA
Tel. 00 - (505) 268-0123 & 00 - (505) 266-6010

You can now download a letter signed by many academics in the US and Canada protesting the State Department's decision to deny Dora Maria Tellez a visa to come to the US and teach at Harvard.

As part of our fundraising efforts, we are selling Sandino pins and teddy bears. Jeanne Nash, who makes both, says...

Meeting Representatives of CEPRHI (Comité Ecuménico de Personal Religioso de Habla Inglesa) with the Consul General of the United States Embassy in Nicaragua, Luís Espada Platel.

May 24, 2005

Present:
Nan McCurdy, United Methodist Church Missionary
Lillian Hall, Quaker
Becca Mohally Renk, Quaker
Jennifer Tee, Presbyterian
Jim Felps, Unaffiliated
Doug Orbaker, Presbyterian Church Missionary
Steve Herrick, Presbyterian Church Missionary
Grant Gallup, Priest of the Episcopalian Church
Maggie Fisher, Sister of Charity

Nan began by explaining that our group represents more than 120 US citizens living in Nicaragua from 20 different Catholic orders and Protestant denominations. Many members have been here for more than 20 years, but one member has been living in Nicaragua for more than 50 years.

“A ship in the harbor is safe, but it’s not what ships are for”,
Thomas Mann

September 10, 1986. La Cumplida State farm, Km 147 Carreterra a El Tuma, Department of Matagalpa.

by Tom Peterson

I dreamed the other night that all the maps in the world had been turned upside down. Library atlases, roadmaps of Cincinnati, wall-sized maps in the war rooms of the great nations, even antique maps with such inscriptions as "Here be Dragons" were flipped over. What had been north was now south, east was west. Like a glob of melting vanilla ice cream, Antarctica now capped schoolroom globes.

In my dream, a cloud of anxieties closed around me. The United States was now at the bottom. Would we have to stand upside-down, causing the blood to rush to our heads? Would we need suction-cup shoes to stay on the planet, and would autumn leaves fall up? No, I remembered, an apple once bopped Newton on the head - no need to worry about these things.