page_title: Murals of revolutionary Nicaragua
section_title: Mural themes
hierarchical_section_title: Murals of revolutionary Nicaragua / Mural themes
caption_attribution_description: English: Revolutionary wall paintings in León, Nicaragua.
context_page_description: In the decade of Sandinista rule following the triumph of the Nicaraguan Revolution in 1979, close to 300 murals were created in that country. These murals provided a narrative of the revolution, portraying recent and more distant history, and visualizing the better future promised by the revolution.
  The first murals expressing solidarity with the Sandinistas were painted outside the country in Panama, by brothers Virgilio and Ignacio Ortega. They entered Nicaragua after the Sandinista takeover and continued their work there, and many other artists also took part over the following years. Despite the laws passed by the Sandinista government to protect the murals, most of them have since been destroyed.
context_section_description: The murals express a wide range of themes regarding politics, the people and the undocumented history of the nation, such as:
  Insurrection:The pivotal event leading up to mural movement in Nicaragua was the Sandinista Insurrection over Somoza's government. The muralists took a different perspective than most artists previously in Nicaragua, depicting the battles against the Somoza government and preaching resistance against Somoza.
  Power to the People: Nearly every mural centered on human figures: both monumental and miniature bodies, gestures and attitudes.  The murals represent the idea of ordinary people taking power into their own hands. Many of the murals depict historical events and show representatives of the masses under the flags of Nicaragua and Sandinismo. Unarmed peasants and workers merge with the military scenes of the rebels in the defiant assertion of liberation and self-governance. The ideology of these paintings, in general, is not hidden. It is obvious who is the enemy and for what purpose is his fall (that is the fall of Somocismo, the Contras, and U.S. imperialism for the sake of the people).
  A better society: Sandinista Socialist Programs: Except for a few murals that attack Somocismo and one that highlights the dangers of alcoholism, many of the murals convey positive social messages. They are looking forward to a better life, improved health, a world of play not poverty for children. The muralists paint the ideal life of a socialized society including especially figures of workers, peasants, Christians, women and youth. Many of the murals speak to the feminist agenda combating eloquently to the life, work, desires and achievements of women. Certain feminist issues, such as abortion issues, were not included in murals because they were considered too divisive for the still Catholic and traditional society. The willingness for women to bear arms, however, was included and depicted in several murals of an armed mother and child. Murals in hospitals depict Sandinista ideals of universal and free health care. A special concentration on murals that included the handicapped was also included, appropriately for a nation where tens of thousands had been maimed in the war.
  An economy producing happiness: The murals, as a whole, never show a hope for a future of industrial growth and technological advance. The murals, with a touch of romanticism, paint Nicaragua as continuing in its traditional dependence on agricultural export crops, particularly coffee and cotton. The painters' simplification of the future of Nicaragua's economy, although aesthetically pleasing and hopeful, are not congruent with the Sandinista's plans to diversify and industrialize the Nicaragua economy, making it less dependent on western markets. However, in contrast to agriculture historically, the muralists paint coffee and cotton production no longer as a source of profit for U.S. capitalists and a production for markets wherever they may be, but rather for the purpose of human happiness and the profit of the workers. The peasants painted in the murals are beneficiaries of the hoped-for Sandinista land reform; however, many argue that this depiction of happy workers may simply be socialist optimism.
  Identity of culture and revolution: Ernesto Cardenal, a poet, priest, Minister of Culture and propagator of Nicaragua revolutionary culture saw the revolution as a work of art. He saw no separation between the revolution and art. Consequently, to him and many others, the mural movement was another powerful weapon even during the aftermath of the revolution through its depiction of past injustice and of future, hopeful prosperity.
  The Sandinista Pantheon: Through the murals, the key figures of the Nicaraguan revolution and counter-revolution lived on as representatives of what the Sandinistas historically and presently stood for. With few paintings centered on actual comandantes of the military, the Sandinista pantheon consists more of Nicaraguan martyrs, revolutionary figures of other countries such as Marx, Lenin and Che, and of Sandino.
caption: Revolutionary wall paintings in León, Nicaragua.
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