LANGUAGE: Spanish; English; indigenous dialects

LOCATION: Nicaragua

POPULATION: 4.4 million

PRONUNCIATION:

RELIGION: Roman Catholicism; Protestantism (Moravian church)

Source Database: Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life

Table of Contents
CLOTHING | CULTURAL HERITAGE | EDUCATION | ENTERTAINMENT AND RECREATION | FAMILY LIFE | FOLK ART, CRAFTS, AND HOBBIES | FOLKLORE | FOOD | FURTHER READINGS | HISTORICAL OVERVIEW | INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS | LANGUAGE | LIVING CONDITIONS | LOCATION AND HOMELAND | MAJOR HOLIDAYS | RELIGION | RITES OF PASSAGE | SOCIAL PROBLEMS | SOURCE CITATION | SPORTS | VIEW MULTIMEDIA FILE(S) | WORK

LOCATION AND HOMELAND

Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America, about the size of New York state. It is bounded on the north by Honduras, on the south by Costa Rica, on the east by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The central highlands, including a belt of mountains, 25 of them volcanic, separate the Pacific lowlands from the more extensive Caribbean lowlands (the Miskito Coast), which occupy the eastern half of the country. Lake Nicaragua in the southwest is the largest lake in Central America and has the unusual distinction of being the only lake inhabited by freshwater sharks.

More than 50% of Nicaragua's population of nearly 4.4 million people in 1996 lived in the Pacific lowlands and about 33% lived in the central highlands; fewer than 10% lived in the hot and swampy Caribbean lowlands. Some 69% of the people are mestizo, of mixed ethnic Spanish and indigenous Indian descent. About 17% are of European descent, about 9% are black, and 5% are native Indian.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

Spanish forces subdued the Indian peoples occupying what is now Nicaragua in the 1520s. During the colonial period, Nicaragua was weak and neglected, subject to destructive earthquakes, and plagued by raids from English, Dutch, and French buccaneers. The Caribbean coast was effectively under British control from 1687 until 1894. Nicaragua was one of the five provinces of Central America that declared independence from Spain in 1821. In 1838 it declared its independence from the federation that followed. William Walker, an American adventurer, exploited internal rivalries to briefly install himself as president during the 1850s. A half-century of peace and relative prosperity, during which many coffee and banana plantations were established, followed Walker's execution in neighboring Honduras.

US Marines landed in Nicaragua in 1909 and were kept there almost continuously from 1912 to 1933 to support conservative governments. They fought a guerrilla uprising led by Augusto Cesar Sandino, who was assassinated in 1934, and helped Anastasio Somoza García attain power. The Somoza family ruled Nicaragua with an iron hand until overthrown by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in 1979, after fighting in which an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 people died. Alarmed by the Sandinistas'warm ties with the Soviet Union and Cuba and the insurgents in El Salvador, the United States imposed a trade embargo and sent money and arms to resistance groups known collectively as the Contras. Some 30,000 people died in the decade-long struggle. A 1989 cease-fire was followed by elections in which the Sandinistas were defeated and surrendered political power to the UNO opposition coalition led by Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. Although they continued to control the police and armed forces for a while afterward, under President Chamorro the Nicaraguan Army became more professional and subject to civilian authority.

CULTURAL HERITAGE

Native to Central America is the marimba, a kind of xylophone which, however, may have come from Africa. The son nica is a driving rhythm overlaid with instrumentals. In Masaya, the traditional capital of the country, the marimba is sometimes accompanied by the oboe, "asses jaw," and a single-string bow with gourd resonator. In the east the music is typically Afro- Caribbean, with banjos, accordions, guitars, and drums.

Traditional dance is sponsored and patronized in Nicaragua more than anywhere else in Central America. There are many dance groups. Dances include Las Negras, Los Diablitos, El Torovenado, Las Inditas, and El Toro Huaco, all with masked characters, some of them pink and large-nosed to burlesque the Spanish. In La Gigantora, a giant woman is paired with a midget. In the pale volador, participants unwind from a rope wound around a high pole, swinging to the accompaniment of native Indian percussive instruments. The Caribbean coast also has a maypole dance.

An important specimen of folk drama as well as dance is El Güegüense, a farce going back to the 16th or 17th century that combines dance and pointed social satire. As in the nation 's fables, the hero is a trickster who uses his wits to frustrate the powerful, in this case the wielders of royal authority.

Foremost of Nicaragua's writers was the poet Rubén Darío (1867 -1916), whose innovative verse had a profound effect on Spanish literature. He is known as the "prince of Spanish- American literature." Other important writers have included the poets Azarias Pallais, Alfonso Cortés, Sálomon de la Selva, and Ernesto Cardenal, and the poet and dramatist Santiago Argüello.

FOLKLORE

Spanish folk practices survived in Nicaragua in combination with Indian folklore, which attributed the very creation of the world to magic. A lively traffic in witchcraft developed from these roots. Love potions, for example, can always find customers. Folk medicine relies both on knowledge of plants native to Nicaragua and on superstitions that derive from the Indian and Spanish past. The cuadro, or picture of a saint found in most households, is often credited with magical powers derived from native cult idols. Feasts for local patron saints are often held at the times of planting and harvesting and reflect folk beliefs that divine intervention will result in bountiful crops.

In the Indian mythology found in Nicaragua at the time of the Spanish conquest, the Corn Goddess Cinteotl was an aspect of the Mother Goddess Chicomecoatl. A feast called Xóchitl was held annually in honor of Cinteotl. Soups and fermented drinks derived from corn preserve some of the ritual significance once attributed to that most basic, and hence sacred, grain.

Nicaraguan folk literature abounds in tall tales and fantastic heroes like Pedro Urdemales. In fables, Uncle Coyote is constantly outwitted by the jokester and trickster Uncle Rabbit.

CLOTHING

Typically women wear simple cotton dresses, while many men wear work shirts, jeans, sneakers or sandals, and straw hats. Even businessmen will often wear sport shirts, or doff their jackets in hot weather in favor of the guayabera -a long cotton shirt.

Traditional dress for women varies. In Masaya it consists of a long, loose cotton skirt and short-sleeved cotton blouse, in red, blue, green, or yellow. The fringes of the skirt and blouse and the waistline are embroidered. A shawl is thrown over the shoulder, and a necklace and earrings are worn, with flowers in the hair. For men the native costume is blue cotton trousers, a long-sleeved collarless white cotton shirt, a sheathed machete strapped to the waist, a high-peaked straw hat, and sandals. (Women go barefoot.) More elaborate costumes are worn only for folk dances.

FOOD

Beans, which provide the main source of protein, and corn tortillas are the basics of the Nicaraguan diet. Nicaraguans like gallo pinto -small red beans with rice-for breakfast. The nacatamal, wrapped in a banana-like leaf rather than a corn husk, is the local form of the tamale. In addition to cornmeal, it may contain rice, tomatoes, potatoes, chili, cassava root, and a small piece of meat. The Christmas Eve meal consists of nacatamales with a filling of turkey, chicken, or pork, and raisins, almonds, olives, and chili, served with sopa borracha ("drunken soup")-slices of caramel or rice-flour cake covered with a rum-flavored syrup. Another distinctive dish is vaho, slowly steaming salted meat and various vegetables piled in layers over banana-like leaves and then covered while heating. Charcoal-grilled steak in a peppery marinade is another favorite. Tiste is a beverage made from ground tortillas and cacao beans, with fruit and sugar added. A snack food, the tajada, is a deep-fried plantain chip.

Meals usually last longer than they do in the United States, complemented with pleasant conversation. The main meal is eaten at midday, often followed by a siesta, or afternoon rest. The siesta allows people to rest or even sleep during the hottest time of the day, when work is difficult.

Glorious Bananas

Recipe courtesy of Embassy of Nicaragua.

Slice the plantains and brown them in the cooking oil in a frying pan. In a bowl, mix the sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon; add the milk and mix well. Add the grated cheese and vanilla. Use half the butter (1/2 Tablespoon) to grease a Pyrex pan. Pour half the milk mixture into the greased pan, then place the fried plantains on top. Cover with rest of the milk mixture and dot with the remaining butter. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes, or until the milk is set. Note: Do not use small yellow bananas, but plantains, a sort that is used for cooking. They are called when green and when ripe, but they always need to be cooked.

MAJOR HOLIDAYS

La Purísima is the most important holiday in Nicaragua. This is a week-long celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 8 December on the Church calendar. Elaborate altars to the Virgin Mary are erected or decorated in homes and workplaces, and people, especially children, go from altar to altar singing songs and reciting prayers.

The posadas are nine consecutive nights, ending on Christmas Eve (24 December), dedicated to nightly caroling processions commemorating the Holy Family's wanderings in search of shelter in Bethlehem. Holy Week (Easter, in late March or early April) processions are most impressive in Leon and Granada. Managua holds a fiesta in honor of St. Dominic, the city's patron saint, between 1 and 10 August. Masaya has a notable feast to St. Jerome on 30 September, complete with Indian dancers in costume, and a pilgrimage on 16 March in which the Virgin of Masaya and the Christ of Miracles of Nindirí is taken down to Lake Masaya, whose waters are blessed.

An important secular holiday is Independence Day, 15 September, which commemorates the 1821 Central American declaration of independence from Spain. Liberation Day, 19 July, marks the 1979 overthrow of the Somoza regime.

LANGUAGE

Spanish is the official and predominant language spoken in Nicaragua. Speech tends to be "aspirated," especially in words ending with the letter "s." As in some other Spanish American countries, vos tends to replace tú as the singular familiar pronoun, with corresponding changes in verb conjugations. Nicas, as the people call themselves, are known for the quantity and variety of irreverent and off-color jokes in their everyday speech.

English is the predominant language in the Caribbean half of the country, as well as in the capital city, and is the native tongue of the Creoles, blacks who came from Jamaica and other British West Indies islands as laborers on banana plantations. The Miskito, Nicaragua's main indigenous group, also live in this region. Of mixed Indian, African, and European ancestry, they speak an Indian language related to the Chibcha of South America.

As in many Latin American nations, people have two family names: the mother's family name, which acts as a surname, followed by the father's family name. For example, Mario Garcia Sanchez would be addressed as Señor Garcia.

LIVING CONDITIONS

The civil war of the 1980s left a bitter legacy as Nicaragua plunged to last place among Central American countries in national income. Indeed, the standard of living fell to that of 1960 or even before. In the mid-1990s, some 75% of Nicaraguans were living below the poverty line.

The Sandinista regime substantially increased spending on health care, broadening and equalizing access to services. There was a substantial drop in infant mortality and the transmission of communicable diseases. However, the system was increasingly strained by shortages of funds and the need to treat war victims. Because health care was subsidized under the Spanish, the economy suffered great damage. In the mid-1990s, most people had no choice but to rely on public facilities that were inadequately staffed, underequipped, and often mismanaged. Most people were malnourished, taking in well below the minimum recommended allowances of calories and protein.

Most people are also poorly sheltered. The national housing deficit, according to a 1990 estimate, was 420,600 units. In rural areas, the most basic dwelling is a dirt-floor straw or palm-frond hut supported by poles and sticks. Its counterpart in towns and cities is a low adobe structure with a tile roof. Squatter settlements are found on the outskirts of the cities. The more substantial homes of the middle and upper classes, of Spanish or Mediterranean style, are nevertheless sparing in ornament, their restraint perhaps reflecting the national vulnerability to earthquakes.

RELIGION

Approximately 90% of the Nicaraguan people are Roman Catholic. City dwellers and those from the middle and upper classes are most likely to attend Mass and receive the sacraments. The lower classes tend to be less religious. There is a shortage of priests, and the Church's ability to reach people in rural areas is limited. During the civil war, the bishops were hostile to the ruling Sandinistas, but some priests and nuns have been activists who employ Marxist terminology in what has been described as "liberation theology."

The 10% of the population that are Protestant chiefly live in the Caribbean part of the nation. The Moravian Church is dominant in this region; almost all Miskito and many Creoles are Moravian. Pentecostal churches have made important gains among Nicaragua's poor. The Assemblies of God is the largest of the Pentecostal denominations.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

In spite of the fact that the civil war had ended, at least 270 people died in political violence between 1990 and 1994, with police, army, and Sandinistas killing demobilized Contras, and northern Contra bands committing similar acts, often because of land disputes.

Previously undeveloped tracts of rain forest are being cut down at an alarming pace to grow crops and gather fuel wood. Health care is suffering from shortages of food, medicine, and basic medical supplies. Malnutrition and tropical diseases, such as yellow fever and malaria, are serious problems.

WORK

Reflecting the dismal state of the economy, unemployment and underemployment were estimated at 60% of the work force in the mid-1990s, but reliable statistics are hard to come by because many people eke out a living as street vendors or are engaged in other aspects of the informal economy. Social class is based on whether or not one works with the hands, and on that basis 80% of the people are lower class (those who do work with their hands). Nearly 50% of the work force lives by farming, mostly with hand tools and oxen-drawn plows on small subsistence plots. Farm hands are even worse off, employed mostly by large estates only at planting time and harvest season. Most industrial workers are employed in food-processing plants.

EDUCATION

By making spending on education a priority, the Sandinista government lowered the rate of illiteracy from 52% to 23% of the adult population. School is mandatory and free between the ages of 6 and 13. In the mid-1990s, nearly 80% of primary- school-age children were in school; however, only 39% of females and 44% of males were attending secondary school. Nicaragua's two principal universities are Central American University and the National University of Nicaragua. There are four others.

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS

The Hispanic style of greeting is generally more demonstrative than in the United States, and among Hispanics Nicaraguans tends to be more gregarious and demonstrative than most. Friends almost always shake hands when greeting and parting and often embrace. Women often kiss on one or both cheeks as well as embracing. People often stand closer to one another in conversation than is customary in the United States. A common casual greeting, especially among teenagers, is "Hola!" ("Hi").

Visitors may drop in on friends without previous arrangement. Calling cards are often exchanged in social situations as well as in business relations. People of some social standing are greeted with respectful titles such as Señor, Señora, and Señorita (Mr., Mrs., and Miss, respectively). Older people are often addressed by the respectful titles of don or doña. Titles reflecting professional attainment are also in common use.

The concept of honor is important in Nicaragua and is upheld vigorously. Personal criticism is considered to be in poor taste. Urban residents are more cosmopolitan, adopting "modern" values, but people in rural areas tend to be more traditional. The concept of machismo, in which men are seen as more important than women, is still common in rural areas.

RITES OF PASSAGE

The baptism ceremony for the newly born is important. Godparents are responsible for the ceremony and the festivities that follow, and they are expected to concern themselves with the welfare of the child and to provide aid in times of hardship. A child receiving First Communion, usually at the age of nine, is given many gifts. A girl's 15th birthday is often celebrated as denoting that she has come of age. Among the middle and upper classes, dating does not begin until later. Among adults, birthdays have little importance, but the person's saint's day may be marked. Death may be accompanied by a novena for the deceased as well as by the funeral ceremony.

FAMILY LIFE

Nicaraguans turn to the family for support because community and church ties tend to be weak. Individuals are judged on the basis of their families and careers are advanced through family ties. The nuclear family of father, mother, and children is fundamental, but the household may be augmented by a grandparent, aunt or uncle, or orphaned children. Newly married couples may take up residence with one or the other set of parents. Godparents, although unrelated by blood or marriage, are also important to the family structure.

Except for the middle and upper classes, marriage is not often formalized, although both civil and church ceremonies have the force of law, and common-law unions were given legal status in the 1980s. The birth rate is high, with the average woman giving birth to nearly six children during her childbearing years. Abortion is illegal except to save the woman's life, but it is not uncommon. Women have major representation in the government, unions, and social organizations, but not in business. Many are heads of households and, in addition to their domestic duties, have joined the labor force in small-scale commerce, personal services, low-wage sectors such as the garment industry, and, to an increasing degree, in harvesting plantation crops.

FOLK ART, CRAFTS, AND HOBBIES

Locally made earthenware is decorated much as it was before the Spanish conquest. Other handicraft items include hammocks, baskets, mats, embroidery, leatherwork, coral jewelry, and carved and painted gourds and dolls. Masaya's Artisans Market has the nation 's most extensive selection.

ENTERTAINMENT AND RECREATION

Fiestas are an important part of public life and include such diversions as cockfighting, bull-riding, and bull-baiting. Dancing in clubs is popular; Lobo Jack's, in Managua, is the largest disco in Central America. Most films are in English, with Spanish subtitles. In 1993 eight towns had television stations, and there were about 210,000 television sets in use.

Even though the family is the most important unit of society, youth clubs for socializing are becoming more popular.

SPORTS

In other Central American countries soccer reigns supreme, but in Nicaragua (and Panama ) baseball is the most popular sport. Nicaraguans were playing in organized leagues in the 1890s, and by the early 1960s even the isolated Miskito were playing regularly. The nation 's most famous player is major-league star pitcher Dennis Martínez. Also popular, besides soccer, are boxing, basketball, volleyball, and water sports. Children's games abound; one authority has put their number at no less than 134.