My Spanish Prof
Trip Start
Nov 2007
1
24
33
Trip End
Dec 2007
Leon,
Nicaragua
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
He would spend days at a time marooned on the outskirts of contra positions, hiding in trees, waiting for rebels. He said he was usually given only a handfull of cheese and survived by drinking water from puddles. this apparantly turned him atheist as he mentioned ´how can there be a god when i am choking on mud while trying to slurp up the water to stay alive?´. One day while sleeping, a rebel found him and attempted to bayonette him to death. Luckily the rebel missed, hitting his arm which left a scar that he showed me. He used his other hand to grab his gun and shoot the man... the closest he ever came to death.
All the while he said, you could find russian and american military relaxing and drinking beer in the leon center square after a long day of teaching the contras\rebels respectively how to go out and kill each other. Seeing the russians relaxing in the square was one of his prime motivations for joining the contras.
In general, you could never tell any of this by looking at him. He is frail and gentle, a skinny meek man..a poet who hosts a weekly radio show on Nica culuture and arts and once had his poetry published in the Cal Berkely journal.
Then he told me how we must experience the big party this friday together...This friday is the biggest holiday of the year in Leon. It will be a massive celebration that my teacher described as a ´religious halloween´. Hundreds of thousands of people will fill the streets and party. There is a special question that people will ask you something like ¨Who is the mother of Jesus¨ and if you give the proper answer they give you candy.
Also, there is the ´nica running of the bulls´. This is what they call it when people begin lobbing fireworks in the center square and you must run to avoid them! I said this sounds very dangerous but prof said no. He said we were going to go together for some trick or treating and bull avoidance on friday night ;). Look for a good post on saturday!
He also explained to me many of the customs of Nica. The theme is that they are a weak country and therefor abused by their neighbors. There are the bigger than life size dolls that patrol the streets. One is a tall beautiful woman, the other a short fat headed man. They were created by nicas during the Spanish conquisition because the nicas felt that the tall, beautiful spanish women looked down on the short big headed nica men. So they created these dolls to make fun of the spanish women. As i wrote this, an 8 foot tall woman doll walked down the street behind me to the beat of 4 drummers. Somewhere behind is the poor stumbling, fat headed nica man.
There is also the doll that represents the headless priest. The story goes that the Spanish killed the priest as they ravaged the country looking for gold and riches. The priest comes back to life once a year to revenge the killing. Go into a restaurant here and you are likely to see the headless priest doll on a wall.
Then there is how Honduras invaded and took over Nica territory in the North. How Costa rica runs police boats through a river on the south that is in Nica territory and how columbia has taken rites to petrolium reserves off nica´s coast. they definately have a martyr complex!
ok, gotta run. later all.
