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A Revolutionary Sandinista

Omar Cabezas, in Fire From the Mountain, portrays his own coming of age as a member of the revolutionary Sandinistas in Nicaragua. The book is essentially an effort to show the human side of an evolving Sandinista, to humanize the hazy and frightening image of the Nicaraguan revolutionary which is posited by enemies of the Sandinista revolution. The book is also meant to offer a non-romantic portrait of the same group, countering the image presented by those who would paint revolution as an entirely glorious and endlessly inspiring adventure.

Cabezas tells us offhandedly --- in the immediate aftermath of a description of a popular pool hall in the author's hometown of Leon --- that "I remember it was during Holy Week that I joined Frente Sandinista, right after I graduated from high school" (p. 15). The reader is unprepared for such information, and that is precisely what the author intends. He does not try to present his joining up with the revolutionaries as a well-thought-out and ideologically-based move, but rather as a step taken by a young man not entirely certain of what he is doing. After all, the author is taking us on a journey of discovery. He was, indeed, uncertain, and he wants to make that clear from the beginning. If he had known what he was getting into from the beginning, if he had been prepared, if he was fully and forever committed to the cause when he first joined, the story would not be the compelling coming-of-age tale which it is, nor would it have been factual.

At the same time, Cabezas makes clear that his entrance into the Sandinistas was hardly taken on a whim. He tells us he despised the National Guard, not because of political ideals, but because they beat up brawling drunks who he liked to watch fight. The man who recruited him was admired by Cabezas not particularly because of any wonderful and uplifting ideas of justice, but because "He was an expert in karate and judo, a killer in kara...

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A Revolutionary Sandinista. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 19:37, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1704653.html