Augusto Cesar Sandino

"Sandino" by Daniel Pulido. Augusto Cesar Sandino (1895 - 1934) was the illegitimate son of a landowner of Spanish descent and an indigenous woman employed by the Sandino family. He spent the majority of his childhood with his mother in miserable conditions that afflict many peasants in Nicaragua. At the age of ten, Sandino accompanied his mother to jail, where she was mistreated and later suffered an abortion. As a result of these hardships in his formative years, Sandino formed a strong disdain for the inequalities separating the rich and poor in Nicaragua. Why study Nicaragua's history of armed struggle and theory? By tracing the history of revolutionary thought in Nicaragua - initiated by Augusto Cesar Sandino and developed by FSLN founder and theorist, Carlos Fonseca - you can gain insight into this country's political and economic development. "While the drive to power for its own sake should not be neglected," writes David Nolan, "belief in an ideology can serve as the major motivating force behind the quest for power, and thus can determine the ends toward which that power is used, once it has been attained."

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