REVOLUTIONARY, POET, AND MUSICIAN NICARAGUANow we are in a new stage when we have concrete achievements. They are tangible. There is the fruit of my sister’s sacrifice. It was not in vain.
—MARLON SIU, ARLEN’S BROTHER
Arlen sat at her desk, her pen poised above a sheet of paper. She was feeling angry and frustrated. Her country had so many poor people—so many families without food, without hope. She wanted to help them, all of them.
But what could she do? She was just a teenager.
With her church, she often helped poor families—brought them food, helped tutor their children. Sometimes she even did these things on her own. But it wasn’t enough. There were thousands who needed help. They needed something bigger.
Arlen remembered a recent trip to el campo (the countryside) where she had seen a mother walking down the country road, a crying baby in her arms . . . Arlen’s pen began scratching at the paper.
Words flowed out of Arlen like water, like a flood.
“Today I want to sing about you, Rural Maria . . .”1
This was how she could help. She would tell the world about the suffering of Nicaragua. She would show them with her words.
Arlen’s passionate words became a song, “Rural Maria,” about the suffering and poverty of rural mothers in Nicaragua—a song that soon gained fame across the country. In fact, Arlen and her song would become the symbols for an entire revolution! And at the young age of twenty, Arlen would become the first martyr to die in that revolution, fighting for her beliefs.
Arlen’s father was from China, where he was a soldier in the Communist Revolution army. He immigrated to Nicaragua and married a Nicaraguan woman, and Arlen was born in 1955.
Arlen was raised as a Christian in Jinotepe, Nicaragua. She was always concerned about the poor people of her country and wanted to do something to help. “She gave away everything to the poor,” remembered her brother, Marlon.2 At that time, the government of Nicaragua, run by the Somoza family, was corrupt. The rich families, including the Somozas, kept everything for themselves and not much trickled down to the poorest people. Arlen, like many others in Nicaragua, wanted wealth and property to be more equally distributed between the rich and poor.
Grupo Pancasán is a Nicaraguan folk band. They are considered an iconic group of revolutionary music in their country. “Rural Maria” was officially released on their 1978 self-titled album.
Arlen was also a talented artist who played the accordion, guitar, and flute, as well as painted and wrote poetry. In the end, it was her art that truly made a difference for her people. As a teenager, she wrote the poem “Rural Maria,” which was set to music and performed by Grupo Pancasán. It became a hit with the Nicaraguan people who were fed up with the corruption and looking for a change.
Arlen’s fame grew as she continued to write and create music—especially with the revolutionaries. Decades before, university students formed the Sandinista National Liberation Front (in Spanish, it’s Frente Sandinista de Liberactión or FSLN), which was growing in power and popularity. The Sandinistas stood up for the rights of the workers, rural populations, and the poor. They wanted the Somoza government to change. Arlen began joining in their protests and hunger strikes.
In 1972, the political situation in Nicaragua came to a head. There was a huge earthquake in the capital city, Managua. Ten thousand people died, fifty thousand were left homeless, and 80 percent of the city was destroyed.3 Arlen Siu went to the capital to help victims and witnessed the corruption of the Somoza government firsthand. They were taking millions of dollars in international relief money and keeping it for themselves instead of giving it to the victims of the earthquake. Arlen spent months helping the victims, living in refugee camps, witnessing their suffering. Her revolutionary beliefs intensified, and at age eighteen, she joined the Sandinistas.
Arlen was already a national celebrity, and the Sandinistas knew she would be a powerful voice to have on their side. They asked her to help recruit young people to the cause, and she agreed. In 1974, the revolution began in earnest as the Sandinista guerillas launched attacks on the national guard. President Anastasio Somoza Debayle (the last member of the family to rule) retaliated by capturing Sandinistas wherever he could. Arlen performed at rallies and protests, her songs condemning Somoza’s tactics: mass kidnapping, torture, and execution. She also criticized the government’s record: high poverty, illiteracy, and infant mortality rates.4 Arlen’s words fanned the flames of the revolution.
The government wanted to silence her.
In August 1975, as Arlen worked at a Sandinista training school in the city of León, the national guard launched a surprise attack. She and others fought off the attackers in a desperate two-hour armed battle. In the end, Arlen and seven other Sandinistas were killed as they covered their comrades who were making an escape. She was just twenty years old.
HERE’S A QUICK HISTORY:5
• The United States occupied Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933 to stop anyone else from building a canal through the country.
• In the 1930s, Augusto Cesár Sandino (the Sandinistas’ namesake) led a nationalist revolt against the occupiers and eventually forced them out. However, a United States–supported regime led by the Somoza family took over, and the Somozas’ government was corrupt and oppressive to the Nicaraguans, especially the poor.
• A rebellion against the Somozas grew during the ’50s and ’60s, and in the 1970s, the Frente Sandinista de Liberactión (FSLN, or Sandinista National Liberation Front) began actively fighting the government.
• In 1979, after five years of fighting, the Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza government and took over running the country.
• Through much of the 1980s, the FSLN had further conflicts with the United States, which, through the CIA, financed and trained former Somoza national guards (renamed “the Contras”) to take back Nicaragua. After 10 years of covert operations, the United States finally gave up for good and left Nicaragua alone.
If the Somoza regime thought they had silenced Arlen, however, they were wrong. After her death, she became an even more powerful symbol for the Sandinistas. To them, she was the first martyr of the revolution (someone who dies for their beliefs), and they proudly displayed her picture at protests and rallies across the country. “Maria Rural” became the rallying cry of the guerillas, and Arlen’s essays about Marxism and Feminism were an inspiration to the Sandinistas and to the growing Nicaraguan women’s movement. Arlen’s voice was louder than ever.
The uprising continued for years, and Nicaragua was plunged into what was nearly a civil war. Finally, in 1979, Somoza fled to Miami, and hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans celebrated the end of the war. The Sandinistas took over the government and implemented social programs to improve literacy, healthcare, education, unions, and land reform. Finally, Arlen’s dreams became a reality.
Today, the Sandinistas are still one of Nicaragua’s most powerful parties, holding a majority of seats in the National Assembly. And they haven’t forgotten one of their youngest heroes. In cities across Nicaragua, you will find neighborhoods, roads, ports, schools, and parks all bearing the name of Arlen Siu.