Woke up to the unmistakeable sound of sporadic small arms and rifle gunfire instead of the usual bombero siren...alarmed for a minute...then I remembered that today is 16 de Julio. It isnt a national holiday, that is on Saturday, 19 de Julio (the day the Sandanistas (FSLN) overthrew the Somosa dictatorship in Managua), but July 16, 1979 is the day that Estelí was liberated by the Sandinistas. The history of Nicaragua is very interesting to me. In particular, Estelís history. The war is so relatively recent that to many people here were directly involved in some way. It is also interesting given the revolutionary history of my own country how negatively some perceive this countrys revolution and how ignorant most are of how my government meddled in and mistreated Nicaragua over the years. However others individually feel about it, I am glad that the gunfire is celebratory today as I am currently unarmed. If you have time today, take a minute to read a little about Estelís rich history and remember the more than 5,000 Estelianos that died in 1979 freeing themselves from a dictatorship.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 12:21:11 +0000