Susan Meiselas captured Nicaragua’s revolution in stark, powerful detail

By 1890, the Amer­i­can West had been won, but the colo­nial dream of Man­i­fest Des­tiny had only just begun. ​“The con­struc­tion of the Nicaraguan canal will secure the dom­i­na­tion of the Unit­ed States over the Amer­i­can con­ti­nent, polit­i­cal­ly as well as com­mer­cial­ly,” William L. Mer­ry, Amer­i­can min­is­ter to Nicaragua wrote in 1890. 

In 1936, the Somoza fam­i­ly began their reign over Nicaragua. Over the next four decades, three gen­er­a­tions of dic­ta­tors made their mark through state sanc­tioned vio­lence, land theft, bribery, and embez­zle­ment, in part thanks to finan­cial back­ing of the Unit­ed States government. 

The San­din­ista Nation­al Lib­er­a­tion Front (FSLN) rose to promi­nence fol­low­ing the earth­quake that lev­elled the cap­i­tal city of Man­agua in 1972, gain­ing wide­spread sup­port among the peo­ple under a com­mu­nist ban­ner. Fol­low­ing the dic­tum of Chair­man Mao, ​“Polit­i­cal pow­er grows out of the bar­rel of a gun,” the FSLN staged a series of guer­ril­la actions against the Somoza régime, who respond­ed with mar­tial law and censorship. 

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But Pedro Joaquín Chamor­ro Car­de­nal, the edi­tor of Nicaragua’s La Pren­sa news­pa­per and promi­nent polit­i­cal oppo­nent, would not be cowed, know­ing full well the price of free­dom of the press in a fas­cist coun­try was often death. On Jan­u­ary 10, 1978, an unknown gun­man assas­si­nat­ed Chamor­ro, his death a full-page sto­ry in the New York Times.

It was a sto­ry that would change the course of Susan Meise­las​’s life. She had joined Mag­num Pho­tos two years ear­li­er, and took a leap of faith, trav­el­ing to Nicaragua in June 1978 with­out a plan of action. But what she did have was two cam­eras: one for black-and-white, the oth­er colour. She would spend the next year on the grounds, doc­u­ment­ing the rev­o­lu­tion and the col­lapse of the Somoza gov­ern­ment in July 1979. 

In 1981, Pan­theon pub­lished Nicaragua: June 1978 – July 1979 to crit­i­cal acclaim. But Meise­las was not con­tent to walk away. She returned a decade lat­er to cre­ate the 1991 doc­u­men­tary film, Pic­tures from the Rev­o­lu­tion. She walked through the streets of Nicaragua retrac­ing her foot­steps, giv­ing voice to the peo­ple she had pho­tographed. Fea­tur­ing illu­mi­nat­ing inter­views along­side the pic­tures, the sto­ries of guer­ril­las, San­din­istas, and bystanders dur­ing and after the war added depth and con­text rarely afford­ed to pho­tog­ra­phy books, affirm­ing Meiselas’s under­stand­ing that his­to­ries are liv­ing documents. 

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With every new edi­tion of Nicaragua, the orig­i­nal frame­work of the book remained the same; the images nev­er chang­ing but rather find­ing their place in the long arc of his­to­ry. Now in its fourth edi­tion, Nicaragua has become not just a clas­sic pho­tog­ra­phy book; it has become part of the nation’s visu­al lan­guage itself. ​“The book is a fixed form and I’m try­ing to stretch its bound­aries in time and over time,” says Meiselas. 

Despite her efforts, Meise­las reveals, ​“I’m plagued by the fact that I can’t do enough. Under Pres­i­dent Biden, 222 polit­i­cal pris­on­ers were released from Nicaragua. Their cit­i­zen­ship was stripped and all their prop­er­ty tak­en, but they land­ed in the States with a two year tran­si­tion­al visa. Trump has now put them on the list of depor­ta­tions with­in the next month. If peo­ple are hear­ing today about Nicaragua, I’m sure they have no mem­o­ry of what hap­pened over 45 years ago.” 

As Nicaragua reveals, they are intrin­si­cal­ly con­nect­ed, just as Meise­las is to the peo­ple who refused to bow to Amer­i­can impe­ri­al­ism. ​“What do you stay close to? What stays in your heart?” Meise­las asks. ​“Cer­tain rela­tion­ships stay sig­nif­i­cant, and maybe that’s all I can say.”

Nicaragua: June 1978-July 1979 by Susan Meise­las is pub­lished by Aper­ture.

Miss Rosen is a free­lance arts and pho­tog­ra­phy writer, fol­low her on X.

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