Book Reviews 205

Chávez, Daniel. Nicaragua and the Politics of Utopia. Development and Culture in
the Modern State. Nashville: vanderbilt UP, 2015. 363 pp. ISBN: 978-08-2652-
047-0.

Daniel Chavez’s Nicaragua and the Politics of Utopia. Development and Cul-
ture in the Modern State seeks to analyze the last eight decades of Nicaraguan histo-
ry (from the 1930’s to the present). Chávez explores this time span that includes
Somocismo, the Sandinista revolution, and the neoliberal era through the lens of
utopian discourses. According to Chávez, regardless of the violence, corruption, and
social injustice experienced during these periods, behind them “there is always an
envisioned horizon for justice, effective political participation, and material abun-
dance” (1) and, therefore, in any of the three major epochs in recent Nicaraguan his-
tory, “there was a specific brand of utopian thought” (1). To develop this hypothesis
Chávez addresses a wide variety of sources such as public speeches, poetry, novels,
testimonios, and film, among others.
The first three chapters offer a comprehensive analysis of the Somocismo
(1937-1979) and address the utopian discourses in the “three Somozas” (Anastasio
Somoza [Sr.], Luis Somoza, and Anastasio Somoza [Jr.]). Although the three dicta-
tors shared, according to Chávez, a “conservative utopian” view, the book demon-
strates the differences among them such as the use of the “majestic us” in Luis
Somoza instead of the personal “I” of his father and brother, the “Panamericanism”
perspective of Anastasio Somoza (Sr.), and the will to inscribe Nicaragua in the
world market during Anastasio Somoza (Jr.) administration, among others. Howev-
er, although the book intends to focus on utopian discourses, these chapters also
tackle non-utopian works of literature from the Generation of 1940 (Ernesto Mejías
Sánchez, Carlos Ernesto Martínez Rivas, and Ernesto Cardenal), Sergio Ramírez,
and Lizandro Chávez. While the inclusion of these authors in the second and third
chapters may be seen as contradictory to the book’s aim, it results in an important
counterpoint to the three Somozas’ utopian view that enables the reader to have a
better understanding of the intellectual debates during this period.
Chapters 4 through 6 focus on the mythical construction of Sandinismo after the
triumph of the revolution in 1979. In chapter 4, Chávez engages with contemporary
criticism arguing that, contrary to critics like Ileana Rodríguez, the Sandinista revo-
lution did defy Nicaraguan patriarchal society by reconstructing the relationship
among men, nature, and women in a more horizontal manner. According to Chávez,
without this will of challenging traditional gender roles, the revolution would not
have had the popular support from both men and women it actually had. To support
his argument, Chávez reads Omar Cabezas Lacayo’s La montaña es algo más que
una inmensa estepa verde and Gioconda Belli’s poetry. In the following two chap-
ters (5 and 6) the author pays attention to Sandinismo’s cultural politics. While
chapter 5 focuses on the educational reform and the political and intellectual discus-
sion on art and literature, chapter 6 analyzes the production and distribution of films
during the 1980’s. The latter is a very thought-provoking chapter that explores how
the Sandinistas tried to build a new “spectatorship” through the production and
206 Book Reviews

exhibition of politically engaged films. However, at the same time, it shows how
Sandinismo had to negotiate with the international film industry in order to allow the
exhibition of non-revolutionary movies, mostly Americans, as a way to prove their
commitment against censorship.
Ultimately, chapter 7 evaluates the 1990-2002 period, which includes violeta
Chamorro’s and Arnoldo Alemán’s administrations. Chávez closely observes their
Inaugural Address (1990 and 1996 respectively) to identify some of their most rep-
resentative ideas. The common thread, according to Chávez, is the establishment of
a technocratic utopia based on neoliberalism. However, Chamorro’s discourse was
strongly oriented toward national reconciliation and profoundly marked by a con-
stant negotiation with Sandinismo. Alemán, on the contrary, put a definitive end to
Sandinistas’ policies emphasizing the need of efficiency over ideology and politics.
This resulted in the modification of the political process to make democracy more
“efficient” by privileging bipartisanship. In the second part of the chapter, Chávez
goes through a general review of post-Sandinista literature shaped mainly by disen-
chantment and dystopian views (Gioconda Belli, Anastasio Lovo, and Juan Sobal-
varro, among others), and then pays close attention to Erik Aguire’s Un sol sobre
Managua, considering it one of the most representative novels of this period.
There are at least two clear ideas lying at the book’s core. First, utopian thought
is not exclusive for revolutionary processes. Quite the contrary, as Chávez convinc-
ingly argues, regardless of their goals, means, and apparent depolitization, a certain
utopian view lies behind any political thought. Second, literature has played a major
role in recent Nicaraguan history. This is certainly true for the Somocismo and San-
dinismo eras where literary authors had a close relationship with the exercise of
political power, either as critics or as supporters. However, this statement may be
argued in present-day Nicaragua, especially if we consider the split between the cul-
tural/literary sphere and the political one in the 1990’s.
Though there is no doubt this is a well documented and comprehensive book, it
is also true that the chapters are relatively uneven. For instance, the first three chap-
ters not only offer an analysis of public speeches and literary works, but also an
extensive historical contextualization. This does not occur in the other four chapters,
where previous knowledge of the historical events is assumed and, therefore, chap-
ters are considerably shorter. Also, while in the first four chapters Chávez dialogues
extensively with criticism, the large discussion on postwar Central American litera-
ture is partially overlooked in chapter 7. Despite this, Nicaragua and the Politics of
Utopia is a solid piece of criticism that successfully reaches its goal of analyzing
utopian discourses in 20th and early 21st century Nicaraguan history, proving that,
regardless time, governments, and political ideas, Nicaragua has been constantly ruled
under the politics of utopia.

IGNACIO SARMIENTO
Tulane University