i Patrick W. Staib Anthropology This dissertation is approved, and it ...

who is president of the Carlos Fonseca base-level coop in El Bálsamo Abajo, Augusto
Lazo, like several others, had access to the “great giveaway,” or la piñata, when state-
formed entities were privatized at the end of Sandinismo and distributed to Sandinista
allies (Walker 1997; Close 1999). These operations were privatized in the reconciliation
of the 1990s, and according to Jaime, Lazo took advantage of both his position in the
Agrarian Reform and his relationships with small farmers who were vulnerable to market
inconsistencies. To some, Lazo, took advantage of his power during the revolution. To
others, he is an important and influential part of the community. Similarly, Elizabeth
Dore’s ethnography depicts poor Diriomeños accepting the elite classes’ access to wealth
and resources as part of the “social order of things” (Dore 2007:95).
Ernesto Valle was also a technician during Sandinismo and has a history similar
to Augusto Lazo’s. Ernesto Valle’s finca, Santa Luisa, is one of the best known in the
community. Doña Marta, Danilo’s wife, in whose home we stayed, prominently displays
a picture of her father, who was the manager for the original owner of Santa Luisa farm,
Pedro Molina, a large latifundista of the early 1900s. Ernesto Valle’s extensive
plantations border the farms of Las Grietas (discussed in Chapter 1). On several
occasions we encountered his work crews and observed the progress on his large-scale
production. One afternoon, while walking through Valle’s property to get to the far end
of Danilo’s farm, I asked Danilo how Ernesto Valle acquired all this land.
“El vino a San Juan como lustrador.” Danilo replied. “ Cuando comenzó no tenía
nada. Consiguió pege en la UP y empezo conocer gente. El Frente lo hizo.
Cuando cayó el Frente aprovecho la opportunidad a consiguir terreno. (He was a
shoe shiner when he came to San Juan. He started out with nothing. He found
work at the UP 38 and started meeting people. The Frente made him who he is
today. He took the opportunity to accumulate land when the Frente fell.)”
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