Page 2 Portland Observer, May 9, 1964
American's view progress and problems in Nicaragua
fey Robert Lothian
This is the second article In a
series about the experiences o j a
group o j Portlanders who were in
Nicaragua in February helping har
vest cotton in an international
brigade.
W e spent our first night in
Managua in a stuffy, windowless
room behind an open-air "chicken
shack" restaurant. The room had a
single neon light and a fan that
didn't work. We weren’t there ten
minutes when a large cockroach
jumped down the back o f one of us.
We caught it and put it out for the
night.
It was hot and sunny when we
went for a walk the next morning.
Pedestrians crowded the street.
Some carried things on their heads.
Trucks and busses with bad m uf
flers filled the air with noise and
fumes. Taxis honked.
W alking along, we noticed a
Four-H our
M artinizing
laundry
with a revolutionary banner draped
across the front. Nearby was the
Mercado O riental— an exotic old
market, sprawling for blocks, where
everything under the sun is bought
and sold. We breakfasted on fried
cheese and bananas with gallo pinto
(small red beans and rice, the
national breakfast dish), served up
by a woman cooking over a charcoal
fire on the sidewalk.
Central
Managua is still a
wasteland of vacant lots, overgrown
streets and shells of old buildings
left over from the 1972 earthquake
which killed 20.000. Families oc
cupy ruined buildings, haul water in
buckets, burn trash in the vacant
lots, and hang their wash out to dry
over the rubble. Scrap lumber and
thin plywood shacks with rusty tin
roofing take up block after block.
Resources which could go toward
alleviating poverty must go into
defense against the CIA-financed
contras. In spite o f economic
problems caused by the border war
and
US
trade
embargo,
the
revolutionary government has in
stituted reading, innoculations, sub
sidized food, free health care and
education
programs.
Nicaragua
remains poor, but we were told the
poor have it better there than in the
other Central American countries.
We passed a several-block-long
mural depicting the history of
Nicaragua in bright colors. Slogans
decorated the walls and banners flew
over the streets patrolled by guards
toting the ever present AK -47. East
German troop trucks with San
dinista drivers roared by. We noticed
man> slit trench bomb shelters and
sandbagged guard posts.
The next night, we met for orien
tation at a conference center outside
Managua. We learned that we would
be going to a 4,000-acre state-owned
cotton plantation on the northwest
coast, called Apascali. In the three
days remaining in Managua, we
surrection
as
bullets
whizzed
through the thin walls o f their
house. We were told that plans for
Ciudad Sandino include paved
roads, a new hospital,
more
telephones, a bean and corn
cultivators' cooperative, and a
cultural center.
We arrived at Apascali after dark.
O ur First impressions were formed
in the revolutionary greetings o f
fered by farm leaders, who led the
crowd of workers, soldiers, children
and Americans in revolutionary
chants. Then, with a lot o f feeling,
the Nicaraguans sang the Sandinista
Hymn for us, which we were to hear
many times during our stay. Singing
with the campesinos under the stars
in Nicaragua Libre— a moving ex
We were up at 5 a m. for break
fast and our First daylight views o f
this wild and adventurous place. W e
discovered a small village with
several
dozen
farm
buildings,
workers' row houses, a store with
minimal supplies and a baseball
Field arranged around a dusty open
area bordered by a row o f dusty
trees. The cotton processing plant
droned nearby. Crop dusters buzzed
the Fields down toward the ocean,
which stretched away to the west.
Trucks and tractors raised clouds o f
dust. It was early, but already young
girls were washing clothes by hand
Women patted ground corn into
tortillas.
A
large
group
of
Nicaraguans took o ff for the Fields,
riding on a traitor.
Looking north over the Fields and
across the G u lf of Fonseca, we
could sec the mountains o f H on
duras and a huge volcanoe in El
Salvador. We learned that on the
day o f our arrival, contra airplanes
had attacked a Sandinista military
post near the road to Apascali. The
Nicaraguans told us that sinister
planes flew over the farm , and that
Select your public servants carefully—
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Elect
JOE LANE
COUNTY CLERK
Nlcaraguan children w ith thair pupplaa.
listened to lectures, visited markets
and talked to Americans from New
York, Georgia and many other
states.
We also took a day trip to Ciudad
Sandino, a former shantytown on
the outskirts of Managua which is
becoming a showcase o f
the
revolution. We toured a free health
clinic there, organized and built by
neighborhood women ("w h ile the
men played baseball," said (he head
nurse). We also talked to a family
who had spent three days in their
tile-lined shower during the 1979 in
(Photo: Kria Ahuchar)
perience.
We had our First meal on the
farm — salty Fish, beans, rice, tor
tillas and coffee. Then, dog tired,
we claimed our bunks in the dusty
old wooden bunkhouse with a
naked bulb hanging from the
ceiling. Some o f us soon found that
large
mice
inhabited
(his
bunkhouse. They scratch on the
walls and run over faces. Also, by
now, many o f us had diarrhea and
must take trips to the latrine
throughout the night. We didn't get
ft
PROVEN COMPETENCE AS A BUSINESSMAN AND ADMINISTRATOR
i,
MOST QUALIFIED BY EXPERIENCE Cr TRAINING
ft
ONE OF OREGON'S OUTSTANDING COMMUNITY
LEADERS
JOE LANE’a bualnaaa and management experience
are your best assurance that a department with a
budget in excess of a •M illion is run the way you
would operate your own business.
JOE LANE knows minorities —a Native American
w ith a Chinese-American w ife, he successfully led
the S ileti Restoration M ovam ant in tha 1970's.
JOE LANE HAS THE LEADERSHIP AND BUSINESS
EXPERIENCE YOU NEEDI VOTE FOR JOE LANEI
FORGET M E NOTI
P a id n n litic a l a d v.. Jo e L a n e 3335 SE 43rd. P ortland
much sleep.
Re-Elect
Senator
McCoy
v State Representative. 1973-1975.
▼ Democratic Precinct Committeeman, 1952 to present.
State Senator. 1975 to present.
v
they could see the lights o f US w ar
ships o ff the coast at night. They
had built several bomb shelters and
we helped them build another. The
farm was guarded by a militia
detachment.
The Nicaraguans seemed more
than happy to have us. Aside from
the spectacle o f having 150 North
Americans in their midst, with their
fancy
paraphenalia
from
the
wealthy north, we seemed to offer
them some protection from contra
attacks.
Next: We pick cotton.
President pro-tempore of the Senate, 1983 to present.
Democratic National Committeeman, 1976-1980.
▼ Chairman, Multnomah County Central Committee, 1968-1972.
Bill McCoy has become one of the most experienced and
respected members of the Oregon State Senate. That's why his
colleagues selected him President Pro Tempore and why he
serves on the important Legislative Emergency Board. His
experience as Chair of the Human Resources Committee and
on the Ways and Means, Labor, Trade and Economic Develop
ment, Education, Banking and Public Finance and Revenue
Committees means that he can get the job done for his people.