Pedro Javier Soles, president of the Nicaraguan Language Academy, criticizes the president’s decision to cancel the institution and wishes to reopen it in the future: “The last thing you lose is hope”.
Pedro Javier Sol Cuadra (Managua, 1963) Answers questions in this newspaper with caution because he lives in a country where talking excessively can get you into trouble. Last week, Daniel Ortega’s regime took a decisive step in its repressive escalation by closing 179 civil society organizations, on the pretext that they failed to comply with their registration as “foreign agents”. was one of the affected Nicaraguan Academy of LanguagesA cultural reference in the country since its inception in 1928. Seoul, its last president, admits he is incredulous about what happened, although he is confident that things will change sooner or later.
- What contribution has the Academy made to Nicaraguan society?
- Since its foundation, the Nicaraguan Academy of Languages (ANL) has developed continuous and determined work to promote the study of Spanish in the country and our cultural traditions. Our innumerable publications of linguistic and literary nature have been donated to various public and private libraries, thus contributing to the bibliographic heritage of the country. And our participation in pan-Hispanic commissions contributes to our distinctive brand of dictionaries.
- The ruling parties accuse organizations like the ANL of giving part of their donations to funding opposition movements that want to “coup”, do you understand why they have withdrawn their legal persona?
- This is really incomprehensible, we have been a non-political organization with statutory mandate and institutional trust. We are only concentrating on our academic work. Of course, we are not a sheep-like entity, and each academic has their own individual way of understanding “inter-history,” to use a term from Unamuno.
- In September 2021 itself, the government stopped giving them public money according to them, how did they keep working?
- It affected us dramatically. We have a social responsibility with the people who work for us that we don’t end raffling.
- What are the consequences of the Academy’s closure for Nicaraguan society?
- Every civic organization is a socio-cultural channel. With every bandh there is a vision of the country which has been lost.
- Are you considering any legal action or pressure to reverse this situation?
- Doesn’t seem like a realistic option to me.
- What do you think about the mass cancellation of this type of organization?
- Before neoliberalism “democracy” was coined, the Greeks had used the terms “isonoma” (equality before law) and “isgora” (equality of opinion) to describe the strongholds of the new system being invented. was done for. I hope these directions will strengthen further. Of course, history often becomes a parody of our hope…
- And on a personal level, what are you going to do from now on?
- Keep reading and keep writing. The Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez used to say that the work of a writer is like that of a bricklayer, who lays one brick and another brick and another. Words are like mosaic tiles. And in the work of that ant, the written pages of one leaf and another leaf and another’s constant weight, are attached to the poet like leaves to their stem.
- Will ANL ever open its doors again?
- Hope is the last thing to be lost.
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