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Calling Into Being a Free Nicaragua: Fusing Exteriorism, Sandinism and Liberation Theology in the Poems of Ernesto Cardenal Ellin S. Jimmerson indepedent researcher and writer Ernesto Cardenal is the premier storyteller among Latin America’s liberation theologians. There are two layers to his storytelling—his poems and his involvement with the ecclesial base community at Solentiname, Nicaragua. Therefore, there would be two sections in this paper. One would be devoted to his poems. The other would be devoted to his involvement with the bible study group, dramatized by Cardenal in his The Gospel in Solentiname. The group engaged in poetry-writing and group Bible discussions—both forms of conscientizing storytelling. The political outcome is clear—many of the members participated in the October, 1977 assault on the barracks at San Carlos which precipitated the final push of the Sandinista overthrow of the notorious Somoza regime which had been installed and backed by the United States. This paper would be interdisciplinary. First, it would consist of literary criticism—it would limn how Cardenal’s Ezra Pound-influenced exteriorista poetry and the Gospel in Solentiname, work. Second, it would consist of historical criticism. It would sketch the historical subject matter of his poems e. g. the William Walker affair by which an American adventurer took over Nicaragua during the 1850s, the 1954 April Rebellion which sought the assassination of Anastasio Somoza Garcίa (and in which Cardenal participated) and the contra counter-revolution of the 1980s as well as the Sandinista implications of the storytelling Bible study group. In addition, it would make it clear that Cardenal’s poems of historical remembrance and interpretation became the poetry of the Nicaraguan resistance to the U. S. backed Somoza/contra regimes. Third, it would consist of biblical/theological criticism in that it would limn the biblical/theological filters through which he interprets his poems as well as the major interpretations reached by the peasants at Solentiname e.g. the validity of revolution. A sample of the works which I would discuss is as follows. “Zero Hour” (1959) the Biblical filter for which was Isaiah 21:11 (“Watchman, what hour is it of the night?”). In it he recalls the international and Nicaraguan context of the April Rebellion, as well as his part in it, and examines the theological meaning of its defeat. A key literary devise is that of reversal which in turn becomes a theological rational for the eventual triumph of Nicaragua. His Psalms foregrounds his profound conviction that God ultimately would intervene in Nicaragua’s history. In his contra-era major work, Cosmic Canticle, offers the Nicaraguan people consolation for the overthrow of the Sandinistas via theological and other interpretations of eroticism and the second law of thermodynamics.
About Ellin S. Jimmerson My qualifications for presenting this paper are a Ph. D. in U. S. cultural and intellectual history with post-doctoral study in Latin America/Nicaragua. I also hold the M. T. S. degree (Master of Theological Studies) with an emphasis in liberation studies.
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