Chinandega

To a person from an industrialized country it might be difficult to appreciate with a natives eyes the beauty that is Nicaragua and in particular Chinandega. Aside from the Three Towering Volcanoes that hover and protect the city, the center of the town is in ruins. Unlike Granada and Leon and Diriamba we have lost our colonial splendor. Gone are the houses of our center that were the center of this colonial city. We have been unlucky in this sense. Gone are the scions of the noble families that goverened the cities with prudence and with respect for their workers.

Colonialism is a tricky concept to explain. But I think that the easiest manner to explain it is by stating that those who had positions of power in Nicaragua ruled and governed and managed their lands and their workers with compassion and with a sense of duty. I know its easy to talk about "salary" and "taxes" and "workers compensation" and "unfair business practices" but let me tell you that I have also seen the other side of the coin...where those who were owners of lands managed appropriatly not because the laws told them too..but because they thought it was the noble thing to do.

That maybe the true essence of the "white man´s" supremacy in Latin America (i hate the concept of the white man, and i think its more racist than those who offend people of other races and colors, precisely because it is said with such hatred and vile. In this sense the whites (spaniards, or french, or germans) were never seen with hatred by the natives (or locals, if you will) but with respect and admiration. In fact there was more warfare with tribes than with the Colony that helped secure laws and protection for all.

How does all this relate to Chinandega ? Well the fact that the Colony and the Independence were as much present here as they were in Leon or Granada. Alongside the Sacasas and Ortiz of Leon, and the Cuadra´s and Chamorros of Granada there were a serious number of families (albeit during this time they tended more towards the Conservatism than towards the liberal tendencies of Leon) that made of Chinandega their homeland. Manticas and Montealegres, Gasteazoros and Deshons, Sansons and Rivas, Arguellos and Cabreras, Ubillas and Callejas, and so on and so forth.

The easiest way to explain their virtues is by stating that during this period (aprox 1800-1950) these families were alongside being landowners devout Catholics who at least tried to act with a sense of propriety and duty. That was Colonialism in Nicaruaga...that was the remnant of the Colony in Chinandega. I hope the architecture of the center of the town is not all destroyed (commerce has done this) and that one day we can have our place alongside Leon and Granada as the city we deserve to be. Ciao and hope all is well with all.