/REPEAT FROM OCT. 26//ARTS WEELY/LITERATURE-NICARAGUA: The Long Shadows of Power

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Néfer Muñoz

SAN JOSE, Oct 29 2002 (IPS) - Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez recently released in his home country his newest book, “Sombras nada más” (shadows, nothing more), a novel that tells the tale of a collaborator of the Somoza dictatorship condemned to death by the residents of a small village in 1979, just days before the Sandinistas took over the government.

Ramírez, 60, one of the most noted writers in Latin America and the Caribbean, will tour other countries to promote his 400-page book, written in a pure language with noteworthy narrative devices, and published by Spain’s Alfaguara.

“This is an exploration of Latin America through a novel,” the Nicaraguan writer told IPS. Ramírez, former vice-president of Nicaragua, won the 1998 Alfaguara book prize for his novel “Margarita, está linda la mar” (Margarita, The Sea Is Lovely).

“Sombras nada más”, his sixth novel, is based on the true story of Cornelio Hüeck, former president of the Nicaraguan Congress, who in 1979 was subjected to “a revolutionary trial”, found guilty and executed.

In this type of “people’s proceedings”, the accused had to defend themselves, speak for themselves, and only those who were able to win applause or cheers from the public saved themselves from death by firing squad, the author said.

“This novel tells how human lives behave when subjected to power. and what they are capable of doing under the pressures of that power,” explained Ramírez.

Ramírez spent two years researching and writing about what happened to Hüeck in the southwestern village of Tola three weeks before the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) guerrillas overthrew the Anastasio Somoza dictatorship and launched their “socialist dream”, which proved contagious for many young people of that era.

The author travelled to Tola, where he interviewed witnesses of the “people’s trial” and took photos and recorded videos of the sites where the events took place.

The central character of the story is Hüeck, a close collaborator of Somoza, who was the last in a dynasty of dictators who ruled Nicaragua with an iron fist from 1937 to 1979.

However, Ramírez renames Hüeck, calling him Alirio Martinica and adding personal traits from his own imagination.

“The title of the novel is a reference to a bolero, ‘Sombras nada más’, by Mexican composer Javier Solís, a song recalled by the protagonist of the story.”

In the novel, Martinica is Somoza’s personal secretary and, although he does not participate in acts of repression against the population, he becomes caught up in the dirty dealings of the Somoza regime of the period.

Faced with the imminent demise of the dictatorship, Martinica tries to escape Nicaragua by sea, but is captured by a group of young FSLN guerrillas.

At the outdoor trial in Tola, he is accused of participating directly or indirectly in criminal activities of the regime under Somoza, for whom he had become “the all-powerful man of the shadows”, but who had been displaced from the dictator’s inner circle in 1976 in ambiguous circumstances.

In defending himself before the residents of the town who are judging him, the protagonist tries to decide whether to tell of how, when he was young, he dreamed about a revolution without blood, and how, even as a Somoza official, he had hidden a top FSLN leader in his own house.

The author utilises two narrative levels in this new book, the first of which is the moment of capture and interrogation of Martinica, and the second, the protagonist’s memories of his youth.

“This novel is narrated from the perspective of the main character, but also intervening is a series of voices that, like a chorus, go along composing the story. The novel is a world of shadows,” Ramírez explained in a conversation with IPS.

Ramírez’s career has produced an extensive literary opus, including essays, short stories, memoirs and novels, such as “De tropeles y tropelías” (1971), “Charles Atlas también muere” (Charles Atlas Also Dies, 1976), “Castigo divino” (Divine Punishment, 1988), “Un baile de máscaras” (A Masked Ball, 1995), “Margarita, está linda la mar” (1998) and “Adiós muchachos” (1999).

He has also been a protagonist of Nicaragua’s political life, serving as a member of the Sandinista Government Junta after the FSLN overthrew Somoza in 1979, as vice-president from 1985 to 1990, and from 1990 to 1995 head of the Sandinistas in the National Assembly (parliament).

Ramírez says he is optimistic about the current status and development of literature in Latin America.

“It is very diverse and very rich. We have a long future because ours is a very lively language,” he said.

Citing some examples of who he considers part of the positive generational shift he named Mexicans Juan Villor and Jorge Volpi, Chile’s Alberto Fuguet and Costa Rica’s Carlos Cortés.

Ramírez is now on an international tour to promote his new book, travels that will take him to Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico and the United States.

In a conversation with IPS, journalist and literary critic Manuel Bermúdez underscored the important influence Ramírez has on Central American literature in particular.

Without turning into a historical novel, says Bermúdez, the texts of the Nicaraguan writer are supported by historic facts as well as by references to cinema and journalism.

“His is one of the most prestigious voices of Latin America and, definitely, we must characterise him today as the author of an excellent work,” said the critic.

/REPEAT FROM OCT. 26/ /ARTS WEELY/LITERATURE-NICARAGUA: The Long Shadows of Power

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Néfer Muñoz

SAN JOSE, Oct 29 2002 (IPS) - Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez recently released in his home country his newest book, “Sombras nada más” (shadows, nothing more), a novel that tells the tale of a collaborator of the Somoza dictatorship condemned to death by the residents of a small village in 1979, just days before the Sandinistas took over the government.
(more…)