Philippine E-Journals

History, Textuality, Revolution: Sergio Ramirez’s To Bury Our Fathers

E. San Juan Jr.

Discipline: Literature

 

Abstract:

.. .I believe that the contemporary La tin American novel is profoundly committed to its time--this vital moment in the history of our age. Just as Breton said "beauty must be disturbing or it isn't beauty," so we could say that the Latin American novel must be committed or it can't exist. --Alejo Carpentier

 

Elected vice-president of Nicaragua in November 1985, Sergio Ramirez is internationally recognized as one of the most intelligent revolutionary intellectuals of Latin America. His apprenticeship began with the rebellious "Autonomy Generation" of university students in the late Fifties; he was founding editor of the avant-garde literary journal Ventana. In the late Seventies, he became one of the "Group of Twelve," intellectual supporters of the Sandinista movement; with the victory of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation in July 1979, Ramirez. Joined by poet-priest Ernesto Cardenal and other artists, has emerged as one of the leading forces in the socialist reconstruction of Nicaragua and its defense against continuing "CS supported Contra attacks. It was during his exile in West Berlin in1973-75 that Ramirez wrote To Bury Our Fathers (original title: Te dio miedo la sangre?) when it was published in 1979, Ramirez was publicly calling for a broad alliance of the masses against the beleaguered Somoza dictatorship.