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War in paradise: Solentiname and the Sandinista revolution

This article presents a case study of the Solentiname archipelago in Nicaragua theorised as a site for the construction of utopia, an idealised environment where an alternative community was formed during the 1960s and 1970s, in opposition to the Somoza dictatorship (1936–79). The leadership of Ernesto Cardenal led to the creation of an enduring cultural legacy, which was essential to the development of the Sandinista revolutionary movement as well as to sustaining the Sandinista government following the victory in July 1979, particularly during the Contra War (1981–90). Applying art historical analysis, the article investigates how photography contributes to the formation of revolutionary identities, by fulfilling both descriptive and ideological purposes. Despite the scarcity of the surviving visual record from the islands, I argue that photographs of the site were fundamental in establishing the role of the community as a strategic ally for the rising opposition against the Somoza dictatorship. Not only did photography help envision utopia, it equally contributed to situating these hopes in the context of daily realities, resisting the regime. Other forms of art and literature that developed in Solentiname in the years leading up to the Revolution of 1978–79 further shaped revolutionary identities, as grievances about poverty, inequality and political repression were expressed through egalitarian high–low aesthetics. The case of Solentiname thus serves to open a discussion concerning under-explored cultural alliances within Latin America and beyond, providing a close-up view of localised aesthetic practices seen in relation to transnational solidarity networks, framed by the context of the massive sociopolitical transformations underway during the Cold War.