The Nicaraguan National Literacy Crusade, an inexhaustible source of historical awareness and revolutionary transformations

Abstract

This paper is aimed at perpetuating and strengthening the historical memory of one of the most important feats developed by the Nicaraguan people after the triumph of the Sandinista Popular Revolution over the Somoza military dictatorship.  Throughout the text, the meaning of the National Literacy Crusade is presented as a substantial element that contributed, in addition to significantly decreasing illiteracy figures, to the strengthening of historical consciousness and national identity. It explains how popular mobilization and levels of organization around the revolutionary leadership were key to the success of this important and exemplary patriotic campaign. An important aspect of the development of collective memory, which is addressed in this essay, was the experience of the Historical Rescue Brigade “Germán Pomares Ordóñez” to which it was assigned, as part of the social commitment of the literacy teachers of the EPA (Popular Army of Literacy Teachers, for its Acronyms in Spanish), the rescue of the popular Sandinista insurrection. The author of this essay makes an overview of the substantial elements of the National Literacy Crusade based on primary documents and bibliographic and documentary references compiled in the context of the Crusade and the eighties of the 20th century in Nicaragua; likewise, he establishes some elements about how the spirit of such a noble cause remains latent in the new generations of Nicaraguans.