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

no saben trabajar, sólo pelean, y piden. Les enseñó la violencia en vez del orden. (The
only thing that the revolution did was replace the machete with a rifle. Now they don’t
know how to work, all they do is fight and beg. They taught them to be violent instead of
maintaining order).
Sandinista Development Perspective
Don Ramón Guillén is an agronomist in his mid fifties. He experienced the revolution as
a compa in San Juan del Río Coco, 34 but he arrived there as an outsider. Don Ramón
owns a vast coffee farm outside of Matagalpa with our neighbor at my parents’ beach
house in Rivas, Adán Luis Talavera. Don Ramón worked for the Agrarian Reform in
Region One, Las Segovias, during the revolution. I was introduced to him in 2004 while I
was staying at my family’s beach house. The Talaveras are influential in the Sandinista
party, and they insisted that I get to know this gentleman.
Don Ramón explained much of what I have described regarding the Agrarian
Reform. He was assigned to provide technical assistance to the Salinas Pinell APP in San
Juan del Río Coco, as well as other projects in the Segovias. He had not visited the region
in more than ten years, but his recollections of the area and of the treacherous travel from
Palacagüina and Telpaneca were in line with my experience.
“Las oportunidades durante la Revolución eran grandes (There were great
opportunities during the Revolution)” was the way he began his description of the
Agrarian Reform. He added, “Era una zona dificil. Los lugares pobres eran de la
Guardia. Los Contras eran ex-Guardia (It was a difficult zone. The Guardia ran the poor
34 Compa is short for compañero. It was used during the mid to late 1980s to describe
Sandinistas, in contrast to the Contrarevolucionarios, or Contras. Both terms are still in
use today to describe Sandinista sympathizers and opponents.
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