But Is It Art? : Nicaraguans Well Versed in Politics

It has been said that Nicaragua is a nation of poets, and it is a fact that, from President Daniel Ortega to humble farmers, thousands of Nicaraguans put their verses on paper.

So, naturally, when the passions of Nicaraguans soar, so does the level of their poetic production. And passions excited by the Sandinista revolution have given rise to an outpouring of revolutionary verse.

Still, six years after the Marxist-led Sandinistas fought their way to power, the poetry of the revolution has failed to reach the creative heights that might have been expected.

Critics See Propaganda

Critics of revolutionary poetry say that much of it is no more than propaganda. They accuse the Sandinistas of undermining Nicaragua’s poetic tradition by emphasizing political content over literary quality.

Sandinistas deny the charge. But they concede that revolutionary duties leave their finest poets little time for writing or helping other poets.

Among the frustrated Sandinista poets is Luis Rocha, 42, editor of the Sunday cultural supplement to the pro-revolution newspaper El Nuevo Diario. One of Rocha’s most time-consuming tasks is going through a flood of poems sent to the paper.

So much of it, he said, is so bad that reading it often puts him in a foul mood. Most of it is pro-revolution, and most of it goes directly into the wastebasket.

Criteria for Publishing

“We don’t publish something just because it speaks favorably of the revolution,” he said, “but because it has quality, and also speaks favorably of the revolution.”

A plump man with a tired, ruddy face, Rocha sat behind a desk covered with papers and unopened envelopes. He said the most popular themes of revolutionary poetry these days are President Reagan, the Washington-backed contras who are fighting the Sandinistas, and fears of a U.S. invasion.

He selected an envelope from the desk-top clutter, and, sure enough, it contained a sheaf of poems. Among them was one that began:

Reagan, the atomic cowboy,

Shouts and threatens

But the simple people

Will pull him off his cow.

“The sentiment is good,” Rocha said, “because it is patriotic. But literature is not made of sentiment alone. You also need skill.”

No poet in Nicaragua today has the luxury of honing his skills full-time, he said, and added that the country “can’t afford to support professional poets because of the war.”

There is a long string of professional poets in Nicaragua’s past, among them some of the best in Latin America. The great Ruben Dario, who died in 1916 after an illustrious writing career, was a product of this tradition and an inspiration to his followers.

Culture Minister Ernesto Cardenal said poetry played an important inspirational role in the Sandinista struggle that triumphed in July, 1979. Like Cardenal, many of the revolutionaries were poets and are now government officials.

Cardenal, in black beret, white beard, jeans and open-collared tunic, looks like a poet. But he spends his days dealing with administrative matters. Only occasionally does he produce a poem.

“Literary production in Nicaragua after the triumph has been hurt by the fact that almost all of our writers and poets are in public posts,” Cardenal said. “The poetry of the professionals, who are in these posts, is in a slump.”

One of several examples cited by Cardenal is President Ortega, of whom he said: “He writes very good poetry although he publishes little.”

Priest, Poet, Marxist

Cardenal, who at 60 is regarded as one of Nicaragua’s foremost poets, is also a priest and a self-proclaimed Marxist.

A cousin of Cardenal, Pablo Antonio Cuadra, is another of Nicaragua’s leading poets. But Cuadra, 72, is anti-Marxist. He is the editor of the opposition newspaper La Prensa, and he personally edits La Prensa’s weekly literary supplement.

Cuadra said the supplement publishes some revolutionary poetry but that he finds little value in most of it.

“We are against the idea that the Sandinistas want to impose, that culture and literature are to serve the revolution,” Cuadra said. “Propaganda is not literature. What they make to serve them is nothing but propaganda.”

According to Cuadra, aspiring young poets are under pressure to toe the ideological line. He said his literary supplement has published verse by at least three young poets using pseudonyms because they were afraid of reprisals for collaborating with the opposition newspaper.

‘Many Left Country’

“Many good poets have left the country,” he said. “I think that at least five of the best have left.”

Although La Prensa’s literary supplement is not as heavily censored as its news columns, the government has barred publication of some poems. Cuadra recalled that about a month ago, censors cut out two poems that criticized military conscription.

As a result of the Sandinistas’ ideology and policies, he said, the quality of poetry has dropped visibly. He is collecting examples of what he considers the worst revolutionary poetry published in Sandinista newspapers and magazines and, when he has enough, he said, he may publish an “Anthology of Shame.”

“Some of the poems are servile, some are naked propaganda, some try to be didactic,” he said.

In the folder where he keeps the collection, Cuadra found a revolutionary poem by Culture Minister Cardenal entitled “The Price of Brassieres.” It tells of a young woman who criticizes the revolution because the price of bras has risen.

‘Price of Brassieres’

But it goes on to say that in a town called Esquipulas the children no longer die of hunger and disease, and that as a result a gravedigger has lost his job.

The poem concludes:

Before, brassieres were not so expensive.

Now, in Esquipulas there are almost no burials.

You tell me: Which is better?

“Cardenal’s latest poetry puts him far beneath the poet that he was,” Cuadra said.

Cuadra criticized the poetry workshops that Cardenal’s ministry created in 1979. He said young people who have taken part in the workshops complain that poems are criticized on the basis of political content, not poetic quality.

Juan Ramon Falcon, one of four “poet-orienters” who supervise the workshop program, said participants’ poems are submitted to collective criticism in the workshops and “there is political discussion when the poems are political in nature.”

He said that 90% to 95% of the workshop participants are committed to the revolution.

Dissent Called Unusual

“It is very unusual for a poet who is a dissenter to come to a workshop,” Falcon said.

He recalled that a critic of the revolution was expelled from one of the workshops by the other members. Yet, he said, there is no pressure in the workshops to write revolutionary poetry.

“Revolutionary poetry comes out spontaneously from the poet, the same way love poetry comes out,” he said. “The majority of the poems written in our workshops are on amorous subjects.”

Participants range in age from the teens to the 40s, Falcon said. He is 25. He said that students, farmers, laborers, professionals and members of the Sandinista security forces have taken part in the workshops. In 1982 and 1983, there were about 70 workshops around the country but only about 25 today.

Fewer Workshop Leaders

One reason for the decline, he said, is that the number of “poet-orienters” has decreased from nine to four. Four of those who left were transferred by the Sandinista party to political jobs, he said.

Luis Rivas Leiva, secretary general of the opposition Social Democratic Party, said Nicaraguans are tired of revolutionary poetry. He said it smacks of Sandinista publicity, which is so widespread that the saturation point has been reached.

Asked if he was, by any chance, a poet, Rivas Leiva smiled and produced a sheet of freshly penned verse, which he read aloud. It dealt with longing and undying love.

“My field is romantic poetry,” he said. “Our people are a romantic people, and that is the kind of poetry they want most.”