Writer
of revolution speaks
By Alexis Kindig
On-line Forty-Niner
Writer
and ex-Sandinista revolutionary Gioconda
Belli revealed her life in Nicaragua as
a child, a revolutionary, a poet and a woman
to an audience gathered in the Family and
Consumer Sciences Building Monday.
Belli is on a book tour promoting her latest
work “The Country Beneath My Skin,’
She grew up as a member of Nicaragua’s upper
class during the Samoza regime. Samoza,
a dictator who was at first backed by the
U.S. government, kept tight control on the
country through military force, leaving
Nicaraguans to live “in a state of impotence
and defenselessness,” Belli said.
Belli said she can remember going to buy
candy one day as a child and seeing blood
on her neighbor’s doorstep. She said he
had allegedly been shot by the police for
suspected involvement in revolutionary activities.
Belli also recalled her mother’s influence
on her life.
“My mother was a very contradictory human
being,” Belli said. She raised Belli with
the traditional expectations that she would
marry, have children, and run a household,
but also filled Belli with a sense of the
“power of femininity.” Her mother told her
that the female body was especially beautiful
and powerful because it has the ability
to bring life into the world.
Belli did marry young, and had two daughters,
Margam and Melissa. Not long after, she
met people who had ties to the Sandinista
rebels, a group who opposed Somoza and had
communist tendencies. The people Belli met
were artists and poets, who admired the
Sandinistas. Belli eventually joined the
revolution herself.
Belli said being part of the political revolution
led to personal revolutions. She had an
affair with a poet and published erotic
poetry that caused a scandal in Nicaragua
— not because of its imagery, but because
it was written by a woman, Belli said.
“All these rebellions were connected, and
had to do with a search for wholeness,”
Belli said.
Belli encouraged the audience to question
the norms and values of their society.
“A revolution begins inside,” Belli said.
“In order to revolutionize society, we must
revolutionize ourselves from within.”
Since the 1970s, Belli has written six books
of poetry and three novels. Her latest book
is a memoir titled “The Country Beneath
my Skin,” which she signed copies of after
the lecture.
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