The Sandinista Revolution (1974–79) protested the Somoza family dictatorship and the long-standing latifundio system that favored a select few while fostering overall political and economic inequality. An earthquake exacerbated the problem in 1972, with foreign aid funneled to allies of President Somoza. By 1974, the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (also called the FSLN, Sandinista National Liberation Front, or Sandinistas) began kidnapping government officials. Violence and nationwide strikes forced Somoza from Nicaragua in 1979 and brought the Sandinistas to power. They faced massive problems, from debt to environmental disaster and American hostility and in 1990, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro won a surprising victory for a coalition opposing the Sandinistas. Chamorro's own family reflected national divisions during the conflict, with two of her children Sandinistas, two opposed to the regime, and her newspaper-editor husband assassinated in 1978 during Somoza's dictatorship. Her campaign – emphasizing her desire to heal the rifts in the country as she had within her family – resonated with a country tired of fighting. President George H. W. Bush lifted the embargo and the United States has continued to work with the Nicaraguan government even after a Sandinista leader, who broke with many of his compatriots, won the presidency again in 2006.

I was born in December 1967 in Nicaragua. After escaping with some of my family at the age of twelve, I relocated to the Midwest, then eventually California in the pursuit of a new life with and for my family. Since then, I’ve lived a moderate life with my husband and two children as a city employee.