Nicaragua: Revolution, Transformation, and Civil Society

Educational Excursions

The program includes three in-depth educational excursions:

San Ramón and surrounding communities in Matagalpa (northern Nicaragua) This excursion focuses on sustainable agriculture development models and includes a rural homestay in Matagalpa. The rural homestay excursion is set up in collaboration with a small, local NGO in San Ramon, Matagalpa.

Highlights of the excursion include:

Learning about campesina life directly from campesinos/as and sharing in their production and daily chores
Meeting with community leaders for information on crops, cooperatives, and social services
Experiencing the process of reconciliation as rural Nicaraguans put aside past animosities and struggle to survive in an unfavorable economic environment.

While physically challenging— students often sleep in hammocks in homes with 12-16 family members—the excursion in Matagalpa provides an important framework for the rest of the semester’s lectures.

El Salvador. In El Salvador, students explore current Salvadoran issues and the reasons why El Salvador, similar to Nicaragua in many ways, has developed differently following its revolutionary movement.

Highlights of the excursion include:

Meeting with popular education groups and other NGOs who work on relevant Salvadoran issues in San Salvador
A visit to Santa Marta, a rural community of war refugees where students work at a youth-run community radio station "Radio Victoria" and stay with families of radio workers. When students return to San Salvador, they are able to spend a day with the students from Santa Marta studying at the National University of El Salvador.
Meeting with national deputies of the FMLN (the opposition party) and the ARENA party—which has governed since the late 1980s—to learn more about the country’s current political issues

Caribbean Coast. An excursion to the Caribbean Coast provides students a far broader understanding of the ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity of Nicaraguan society. Though rich in culture and many natural resources, the people of the Caribbean Coast are the poorest in Nicaragua and struggle to survive through fishing and subsistence agriculture. The South Autonomous Region (RAAS) is predominately Creole, comprised of people of Afro-Caribbean descent. Today, the region faces increasing pressure from the dominant, Spanish-speaking portion of Nicaragua, which has been pushing eastward from the Pacific coast, expanding the agricultural frontier.

Highlights of the excursion include:

Learning about Afro-Caribbean culture in Bluefields, which resembles a Caribbean Island city where English is spoken. The Afro-Caribbean population comprises the majority of the population.
Visiting Pearl Lagoon basin communities

In both communities, students have meetings with community leaders, health activists, and other individuals involved in protecting the cultural and political rights of the Costeños/as.
During the excursion to the Caribbean Coast, students also have the opportunity to live in indigenous communities, where they learn about the special issues facing this region, including resource management, indigenous rights, and autonomy.

"I learned the word concientizar in Nicaragua, "to come to one's consciousness," from my friends and mentors, be they in the capital working on building a more just country, be they women protesting and being persecuted in the streets, be they campesinas, working their land. The wide variety of people I lived and learned with in Nicaragua raised my consciousness and the process continues for me and for them."

Alicia Quiros, University of Notre Dame