Revolution, Literature and Motherhood

The Country under My Skin, by Gioconda Belli is an autobiographical narrative that describes her life as a Sandinista, poet, mother, and wife. Her role as a woman in the country of Nicaragua gives us a great glimpse of the historical position of this nation at the time. Her experience shows us the country's development from dictatorship to liberation. Her writings dictate to us her personal development from writer to revolutionary. All this time, we also see how this true story of her life reflects and relates to the everyday struggles of, not only women, but Latinos in general.

To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the underlying personal story that constitutes the bulk of the book, we must first understand the historical context that compliments it. It is more practical to begin explaining the history of Nicaragua in relation to the narrative, in the year 1893. In this year, Jose Santos Zalaya, heads a liberal revolution and amidst his victory becomes president of Nicaragua. After assuming presidency, Zelaya puts restrictions on the inter-oceanic canal that the United States of America was planning on building in Nicaragua. The United States decided to take their business elsewhere to Panama. When Zelaya attempted to negotiate the building of the canal with other European nations, the United States intervened.

In 1909, Adolfo Diaz becomes president of Nicaragua. The United States takes control of the country's banks, trading zones, and railroads. In 1912 the Marines occupy Nicaragua in order to protect the conservative government and their capitalist interests. This occupation brings about one of Nicaragua's most influential revolutionary figure, El general Augusto Cesar Sandino, who took up arms against the U.S forces in the year 1927. In retaliation to these guerilla forces, the United States organized a national army under Anastasio Somoza Garcia and removed the marines from the country in the year 1933. In 1934, Somoza orders the assassination of Sandino and a few years later he declares himself president.

A poet, Rigoberto LÐ"Ñ-pez PÐ"©rez, assassinated Anastasio Somoza GarcÐ"­a in 1956. This does not end the Somoza rule, as his sons take over and rule until 1979. Earlier, in 1961, el Frente Sandinista was founded by Carlos Fonseca Amador. They formed guerilla fronts that attempted to rid Nicaragua of the tumultuous dictatorship that reigned over the country via the Somoza dynasty.

Gioconda Belli, the author and protagonist of this autobiography is amongst the revolution. We first brought into the story in Cuba in the year 1979. With the help of Fidel Castro, the Sandinista forces are being trained. She is shooting different weapons and begins to tell us the horrible feeling she experiences. Here we see the influence of outside forces in their attempt to help Nicaragua. At a young age, Belli was exposed to revolutionary ideas; we see this as she mentions her cousin's attempt to overthrow the dictatorship.

Her life as a woman is quickly addressed as she speaks of her desire to leave home as soon as she was eighteen. In Nicaragua, like in almost all of Latin America, women must marry before leaving their family. She fell in love and married at this young age. At the same time, she also reveals her intuition to stray away from the traditional as she says, "No se me ocurrÐ"­a que un hombre tuviera el derecho de impedirme ser quien era." She reflects on this thought as her husband had asked her to be a housewife. She wanted to pursue a career outside of the norm and refused to comply with tradition. Here we begin to notice a feminist approach in the way that Gioconda Belli decides to carry her image in society. This is later send in her poetry, which celebrated sex and was something uncommon amongst women writers of the time.

She comes to meet a poet, named Bosco, who became her intellectual tutor and later her lover. Bosco introduced Gioconda Belli to the Public Sphere in which revolutionary ideology through literature, music, and art was discussed. These people were hippies who often used drugs, but she stayed away from that influence and simply reaped the benefits of this enlightening exposure. Another poet, Camilo Ortega, who was involved with El Frente Sandinista, request Gioconda Belli to join the cause and fight for the liberation, from tyranny, of Nicaragua.