A Nation Tempered by Poetry

Los Angeles Times, July 26, 1999

Nicaraguans, hardened by a history of invasions, brutal dictatorships and natural disasters, turn to poets for healing and guidance. They are the country's heroes.

By JUANITA DARLING, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

MANAGUA, Nicaragua--Poetry arguably is all that still unites Nicaragua after 20 years of revolution, counterrevolution and corruption. "Nicaragua needs a lot of healing, and through its best product, poetry, it can be healed," contemporary Nicaraguan poet Yolanda Blanco said by telephone from her New York City home. "Great poets are like teachers--they are listened to in Nicaragua."

Why do poets and poetry have such an important voice in the second-poorest nation in the Americas, a country where nearly one-third of its 4 million people are unable to read, and where all are marked by their history of invasions, brutal dictatorships and natural disasters?

Blanco's hope is that poetry can help Nicaraguans find a way from a violent past to a peaceful future. This fall, she will release "Nonantzin," or "Beloved," a collection of verse by well-known Nicaraguan writers of different political stripes, which she has set to music.

"Today's Nicaragua wants to purge itself of the 1980s," Blanco said. "The poetical-musical anthology I offer is a little song to give a good birth to a new people, a people who deserve a better fate."

She chose poems by Cuadra, who was exiled by the Sandinistas, and by two prominent Sandinistas, Cardenal and the late Urtecho. She said politics weren't a consideration in her selection.

"They are poems looking for a guitar," she said. "I want this to be a balm for wounds, a way to say, 'Listen, follow your poets; there is wisdom in their words.' "