The man who demands of his homeland not even a handful of earth for his grave deserves to be heard, and not just heard, but heeded. I am a Nicaraguan and proud that American Indian blood, more than any other, flows through my veins, for it contains the mystery of loyal and sincere patriotism. The bond of nationality gives me the right to assume responsibility for my actions in matters regarding Nicaragua, and hence Central America and the entire continent of our language, unconcerned that the pessimists and cowards call me whatever name best suits their character as eunuchs. I am a city worker, an artisan as they say in this country, but my ideals range on the broad horizon of internationalism, on the right to be free and demand justice, even though to reach that state of perfection it may be necessary to spill my own blood and that of others. The oligarchs, the geese of the marsh, will say I am a plebeian. It doesn’t matter. My greatest honor is to emerge from the bosom of the oppressed—those who are the soul and nerves of the race, who have been disregarded and at the mercy of the shameless assassins who helped incubate the crime of high treason—the Nicaraguan Conservatives who wounded the free heart of the Fatherland, who persecute us viciously as if we weren’t all children of the same nation.
1. Campo de Marte (Field of Mars)—an army base in central Managua where US Marines were garrisoned during their occupation of the country.Seventeen years ago Adolfo Diaz and Emiliano Chamorro ceased to be Nicaraguans; ambition killed their right to nationality when they tore the Nicaraguan flag from its staff. Today that flag waves languidly, humiliated by the ingratitude and indifference of its children, who do not make the superhuman effort necessary to free it from the talons of the monstrous hooked-beak eagle that feeds on this people’s blood, while over Managua’s Campo de Marte1 flies the flag representing the murder of weak peoples and hostility toward our race.
Who are they that bind my country to the stake of ignominy? — Diaz and Chamorro and their accomplices, who still claim the right to govern this ill-fated nation, supported by the invaders’ Springfields [rifles] and bayonets. No! A thousand.times no! The Liberal revolution lives. There are those who have not committed treachery, who have not wavered nor sold their rifles to satisfy Moncada’s ambition. The revolution lives and is today stronger than ever, because today only those of valor and self-denial remain.
The traitor Moncada naturally failed in his duties as a soldier and patriot. Those who followed him were not illiterates, nor was he an emperor to impose his unchecked ambition. I accuse Moncada before his contemporaries and before history of being a deserter who, bag and baggage, went over to the foreign enemy. An unpar- donable crime that demands punishment!
The big shots say Iam very small for the work Ihave undertaken; but my insignificance is overshadowed by the pride in my patriot’s heart, and I swear before the nation and before history that my sword will defend the nation’s honor and be the redemption of the oppressed. I accept the invitation to combat; I welcome it. I will answer with my battle cry the challenge of the cowardly invader and the traitors to my country; my breast and that of my soldiers will form ramparts against which the legions of Nicaragua’s enemies will shatter. Before the last of my soldiers, the soldiers of Nicaragua’s liberty, have died, more than a battalion of yours, blond invader, will eat the dust of my rugged mountains.
I am not Mary Magdalene to beg on bended knee forgiveness from my enemies, the enemies of Nicaragua, because I believe no one on earth has the right to be a demigod. I want to convince the unconcerned Nicaraguans, the apathetic Central Americans, and the entire Indo-Hispanic race that in a spur of the Andean cordillera there isa group of patriots who know how to fight and die like men.
Come, you bunch of drug addicts; come murder us on our own soil where I await you, standing firmly on my own feet at the head of my patriot soldiers, unconcerned with your number. But remember that when that happens the destruction of your grandeur will shake the Capitol in Washington, and the dome that crowns the famous White House, the den where you plot your crimes, will be reddened with your blood.
I wish to advise the governments of Central America, especially that of Honduras, that my stance should not lead them to worry that, because I have more than enough equipment, I will invade their territory. No. I am not a mercenary, but a patriot who refuses to permit an outrage to our sovereignty.
2. An allusion to the 1914 Bryan-Chamorro Treaty, which gave the United States exclusive control over the prospective canal route through Nicaragua.3. “Liberty or Death.”
4. Two of the “snakes” Sandino had in mind were certainly Adolfo Diaz and Emiliano Chamorro. As for the others, he may have been thinking of Juan J. Estrada (whom he later writes about) and Luis Mena, signers with the first two of the 1910 Dawson Pact. Or he may have been referring to Carlos Cuadra Pasos, at that time Diaz’s foreign minister (whom he mentions below) and, perhaps, Moncada. Moncada was not instrumental in bringing the Marines to Nicaragua originally, but his signing of the Espino Negro pact did legitimize their remaining there after 1927.
5. During the economic boom of the 1920s traffic through the Panama Canal approached the point of congestion, renewing talk in the United States of a second canal through Nicaragua. For the full story of the Nicaragua canal, as well as other aspects of US- Nicaraguan relations, see Karl Bermann, Under the Big Stick: Nicaragua and the United States Since 1848 (Boston: South End Press, 1986).
Nature has bestowed enviable wealth on our country, designating it the world’s meeting point. This natural advantage has caused us to be coveted to the extent that they would enslave us, and that is why I aspire to break the tether with which disastrous Chamorrismo has bound us.2 Our young nation, this dark-haired girl of the tropics, should wear the Phrygian cap, inscribed with the beautiful motto symbolized by our red and black emblem,3 not be violated by the drug-addicted Yankee adventurers brought here by four snakes who claim to have been born here.4 Allowing the United States to be master of our canal would throw the entire world into disequilibrium.5 Itwould then be at the mercy of the Colossus of the North, and would have to pay tribute to those bad faith absorbers who want to be masters, with no justification for their pretensions.
Civilization demands that the Nicaragua Canal be opened, but that itbe done with the entire world’s capital, not exclusively that of North America. At least half the value of the construction ought to be with Latin American capital, with the rest coming from all the other countries that want to share in the enterprise. The United States should get only the $3 million worth given them by the traitors Chamorro, Diaz, and Cuadra Pasos. Nicaragua should receive the fees that by right and justice belong to it, which would give us sufficient income to crisscross our entire territory with railroads, to educate our people in the true atmosphere of effective democracy, and to be respected and not looked down upon with flagrant contempt as is now the case.
Brother people: having set forth my ardent desire to defend our Fatherland, I welcome you in my ranks without distinction as to political coloration, so long as you come with good intentions and keep in mind that anyone can be fooled sometimes, but not everyone can be fooled all the time.
San Albino Mine, Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua
Fatherland and Liberty
A.C. Sandino