Tuesday, June 13: Comité de Mujeres Rurales and visit to Comunidad Los Mangles in León
We began the day by riding in 2 pickup trucks on a dirt road out to the community of Los Mangles with Xiomara from the Comité de Mujeres Rurales (that is Susan from WCCN on her right and our interpreter Anne on her left).
Women came from the surrounding areas to meet with us. Rosa Gladys Palacios (in the red dress) was 65 years old, the oldest one of the group. Berta Carmen Mayora (with the black top) led a lot of the discussions. After the meeting, we took our obligatory delegation photo.
I love volcanos. This is Telica, I believe. I want to climb it.
We then got back into the pickup and drove back to León where we met with the directors of Pro-Mujer Nicaragua. Carlos is laughing at met because he thought I was taking too many pictures of exactly the same thing.
After our meetings, we walked around town. In the Ben Linder Cafe just across the street from our hotel was this nice wall mural celebrating his life. Around the university there were a lot of murals. The one on the left below represents the fight for 6% of the national budget to go to the public universities. The four faces are the martyrs of June 23, 1959 who were killed in a failed uprising against Somoza.
There are also many other revolutionary landmarks in León. The park on the left had a mural surrounding it describing the revolutionary struggles in Nicaragua. The museum on the right was dedicated to the heroes and martyrs in León. Rigoberto López Pérez (below) was a poet who killed the first Somoza on September 21, 1956. His house is now a meeting place for the FSLN.
Finally, we now have a different bus and are ready to continue on with our travels...