Benigna Mendiola
Benigna Mendiola (born 1944) is a Nicaraguan socialist, revolutionary, peasant leader and member of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Spanish: Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN). She participated in guerrilla action against the Somoza dictatorships in Nicaragua.
Biography
[edit]Mendiola was born in 1944 to a peasant family. Before the introduction of widespread education and local schooling in Nicaragua, she learned to read in her rural home.[1]
Mendiola's partner was Bernandino Díaz Ochoa (1941–1971) [es].[2] Together, they operated as peasant leaders and organised the compañeras, known as "the Heroic Women of El Cuá," for guerrilla action against the Somoza dictatorships.[2][3] After the Somoza family was finally deposed by the Sandinistas in 1979, Mendiola remained a leader of workers the agricultural sector,[1] becoming the head of the women's section of the Farmers and Ranchers Association.[4] In 1992, she called for peasant women to have access to land, titles, and loans.[5]
As part of a movement to increase women's representation at the highest levels of the FSLN (with 30% of all positions in the party reserved for women[6]) Mendiola was elected to the national directorate of the FSLN in 1994, alongside Monica Baltodano, Mirna Cunningham, Dora Maria Tellez and Dorotea Wilson.[7][8] To facilitate their election, the directorate was enlarged from nine to fifteen members.[9] She was nevertheless critical of the FSLN's Luisa Amanda Espinoza Association of Nicaraguan Women (Spanish: Asociación de Mujeres Nicaragüenses Luisa Amanda Espinoza, AMNLAE),[10] including commenting on AMNLAE's "tendency to centralize" and "insensitivity to peasant women's realities."[11] Mendiola later returned to working organising peasant farming women.[12]
Mendiola's son Lenin Mendiola was shot to death in 2018 during a confrontation in Matagalpa between anti-government demonstrators and groups related to the Nicaraguan government.[13][14]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Saint-Germain, Michelle A.; Metoyer, Cynthia Chavez (16 March 2009). Women Legislators in Central America: Politics, Democracy, and Policy. University of Texas Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-292-77474-2.
- ^ a b Primerisima, La (5 March 2024). "El ejemplo inmortal de las «Mujeres de El Cuá»". Radio La Primerisima (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 May 2025.
- ^ "Bernardino Díaz Ochoa gran exponente de la clase campesina". Cuaderno Sandinista (in Spanish). 3 September 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2025.
- ^ Hoyt, Katherine (1997). The Many Faces of Sandinista Democracy. Ohio University Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-89680-197-4.
- ^ Heyck, Denis L. (1 August 2002). Surviving Globalization in Three Latin American Communities. University of Toronto Press. p. 281. ISBN 978-1-55111-477-4.
- ^ Latin America News Update. Vol. 9–11. Latin America News Update. 1993. p. 13.
- ^ Conway-Turner, Kate (1998). Women's Studies in Transition: The Pursuit of Interdisciplinarity. University of Delaware Press. ISBN 978-0-87413-643-2.
- ^ Hoyt, Katherine (1997). The Many Faces of Sandinista Democracy. Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0-89680-197-4.
- ^ Luciak, Ilja A. (1 May 2003). After the Revolution: Gender and Democracy in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. JHU Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-7641-7.
- ^ "Palabras de mujeres revolucionarias que nos inspiran con su ejemplo". Cuaderno Sandinista (in Spanish). 9 March 2023. Retrieved 4 May 2025.
- ^ Prevost, Gary; Vanden, Harry E. (27 July 2016). The Undermining of the Sandinista Revolution. Springer. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-349-27511-3.
- ^ Randall, Margaret (1994). Sandino's Daughters Revisited: Feminism in Nicaragua. Rutgers University Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-8135-2025-4.
- ^ Salazar, Maynor (27 October 2018). "Farm Leader Benigna Mendiola Sows Doubt about Those Accused of Shooting Her Son". Confidencial (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 May 2025.
- ^ "Policía esclarece el asesinato del compañero Lenin Mendiola" (in European Spanish). Retrieved 4 May 2025.