Fractured solidarities: Utopian projects and local hegemonies among a Sandinista peasantry, Nicaragua, 1979-1995.

Abstract

On the basis of two case studies, this work examines relations of conflict and domination among peasantries with long-standing participation in the Sandinista movement, and explains the Sandinistas' failures in their attempt to transform these during their decade in government and its aftermath. In both cases, the convergence between Sandinismo's public discourse and peasant social ideals allowed the peasants to use the language of Sandinismo to make sense of past sufferings and articulate hopes for a (socialist) society guided by the principles of equality and sharing. However, when the government tried to incorporate its interpretation of these ideals into its programs to transform Nicaraguan society, a disjuncture arose between its programs and peasant social dynamics. I argue that this disjuncture reflected a contradiction that exists between the ideals of both Sandinismo and peasant utopian ideologies, and key aspects of peasant ethical and social systems. In particular, these ideologies are in contradiction with the ethical and social underpinnings of patriarchal households, village factionalism, and preference for solidarity with kin, rather than with the village (or peasant class) as a whole. While I examine at length the difficulties and tensions in villagers' engagement with Sandinismo, I also explore the transformations in values and practices that arose from involvement in Sandinista-sponsored development projects and community organizations, and the unintended consequences of these changes on villagers' class and gender relations. In some cases--notably in the case of women activists--these transformations resulted in new gender arrangements that went beyond the Sandinistas' rather modest gender agenda and created ongoing clashes with most men (and some women) in the community. These struggles gave way to unexpected shifts in family and gender relations toward the end of the Sandinista decade and subsequently under the Chamorro government. I analyze in detail the dynamics of these processes by exploring the way in which villagers lived out the contradictions derived from their differential insertion in distinct, partially overlapping social and ethical configurations. The dissertation contributes to current theoretical discussions of hegemony in the construction of community, class, and national identities; the dynamics of state and community formation; and of sexuality and gender in rural Latin America.