Gioconda Belli: “I carry Nicaragua with me, and no one can take it away”
Nicaragua is with me always. I always say that my country is so small, it’s portable,” affirmed the writer in Buenos Aires.
HAVANA TIMES – Over this past weekend, Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli, exiled in Madrid since 2022, presented her novel Un silencio lleno de murmullos [“a silence full of murmurings”] at the Buenos Aires, Argentina Book Fair. In a conversation with EFE, she shared that her country is living through a “tyranny,” and expressed her concern over the advance of authoritarianism in the world.
“I really feel that I’m who I am wherever I may be, because it’s taken a lot to become who I am. Nicaragua is with me all the time. I always say that my country is so small it’s portable; I carry it with me, and no one can take it away from me,” the author stated, speaking of her exile and the impossibility of returning to her native country.
In 2023, forty-four years after taking part in the Sandinista movement that overthrew Anastacio Somoza in 1979 – Gioconda Belli was stripped of her nationality and all her assets, together with 93 other intellectuals. The action was taken by her former comrade at arms, Nicaragua’s current President Daniel Ortega, who at that time had begun to stand out as a spokesperson for the movement.
The author and poet’s new book reflects her disillusionment with what she describes as “the collapse of the political project” in her country.
“It tells of overcoming a great defeat. In Nicaragua, after a revolution, we now have a tyranny again,” she declared, adding that within the novel is “the story of what happened in Nicaragua over the last few years, which isn’t very well known at an international level.”
The guilt of maternity
In addition to the theme of the revolution and Nicaraguan identity, Un silencio lleno de murmullos, published in 2024, takes on another central issue: maternity.
The novel follows Penelope, who after the death of her mother, a guerrilla fighter, must face the past and the family secrets, all while under lock-down in Madrid, during the pandemic.
“[It’s] a story that many of us women have lived: feminine guilt – that conflict between forging our lives and caring for our children. There’s always a contradiction between those two roles,” Gioconda Belli explained.
She shared that the work has been well received on a world level, because its themes are universal: “women, children, maternity.” The theme of struggle, of the search for justice. The issue of defeat. We all want to understand in some way what to do with defeats, how not to become depressed, how not to lose hope.”
“The novel leaves a feeling of hope, which continues to be something very revolutionary,” she added.
A novel set in the pandemic
The author affirmed that the Covid-19 pandemic was the perfect setting for her story, since it allowed her to portray the characters in solitude and isolation.
“That solitude was key to the characters’ development. It’s not a novel about the pandemic, but it plays an important role. It also speaks of how we continued working, living, even experiencing our sexuality, which has almost never been discussed in that context,” she said.
The novel also closes a personal trilogy for Gioconda Belli, that began with La Mujer Habitada [“The Inhabited Woman”], first published in 1988, and continued in 2001 with El pais bajo mi piel [“The country under my skin”]. “This third novel closes a cycle. I wanted to explore the mother-daughter tie. It’s not my life, it’s fiction, but obviously, there’s a connection.”
“When you give yourself over to a dream as large as a revolution – What happens with the people around you? To speak of my daughters, recognize their contribution since the time they were very small, was also part of this,” she highlighted.
The novel, written in the course of two years, is a complex work, according to the author, a psychological novel with elements of suspense.
“It has enough elements to hold your attention. It’s not extremely long. It was difficult for me to write, but I feel like it’s well put together,” she commented.
“Dark moments for humanity”
Gioconda Belli also spoke of her concerns about the rise of authoritarian and right-wing governments all over the world. She feels that humanity is entering a “dark moment.”
The author particularly emphasized the rise to power of presidents such as Donald Trump in the United States, Javier Milei in Argentina, and Nayib Bukele in El Salvador, and warned of the dangerous scorn for “certain values that were previously universal.”
She linked the rise of this type of figure to the achievements of feminism. “I believe we’re in a period of backlash, precisely because we’ve advanced so much. Today, men feel threatened and there’s a struggle against women. (…) Men have lost their sense of identity based on domination and haven’t found their sense of identity based on equality.
In this “dark” context, Gioconda Belli highlighted Spain, a country she says received her with open arms and which she considers politically interesting for being “the most resistant democracy in Europe.”
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.