President-Comandante Daniel and Compañera Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua,
at the ceremony marking the 41st Anniversary of the National Literacy Crusade
March 23rd, 2021
Daniel's address
We are approaching 6 o'clock in the evening, and on this day in which we are commemorating the 41st Anniversary of the Great National Literacy Crusade, we salute all the Literacy Educators who participated in that Great Crusade. And we pay homage also to those who have already passed on to another Plane of Life.
We are also accompanied by a living symbol, at work constantly teaching literacy, he has never stopped teaching literacy, Professor Orlando Pineda, holder of the Order of Sandino.
Nicaraguan Brothers and Sisters, Nicaraguan Families, here accompanied by the Ministers and officials who are in charge of educational activities; accompanied by the President of the National Assembly, our brother Doctor Gustavo Porras, we want to celebrate this day with a big embrace to this young man who went to school as a child, then he went to school with Alexis, our brother, and today we say to Román "Chocolatito" González: Welcome, Champion of Champions! Welcome always! Welcome, Champion of Champions! And to his partner Katherine also, welcome. Applause for Katherine. Katherine inspires him to go forward.
Let us remember some facts about the National Literacy Crusade. We have already pointed them out on several occasions. The Revolution triumphed and the First Great Task, as Carlos had said there in the mountains, in Pancasán, when Francisco Moreno was, on his own initiative, teaching a peasant who had joined the guerrillas in the Quirragua Zone to read and write. When Carlos passed by and says: "Yes, teach them to read". Magical words.
In knowledge lies the power to be free. In knowledge, in education lies the power to be free. Ignorance makes us slaves. Knowledge, culture, education, sets us free. That is why the First Great Task was to take on the Literacy Campaign.
And we had the immediate help, generous as ever, of Comandante Fidel. They had already carried out their literacy campaign after the Triumph of their Revolution, and naturally we were also taking that step and we asked them to share their experience and for the participation of their teachers who also came to accompany us, Cuban teachers, Cuban teachers, who went with Nicaraguan teachers and Nicaraguan youth visiting the urban neighborhoods.
Because illiteracy prevailed in the city neighborhoods, among impoverished families. In the wealthy families there was no illiteracy, but it was there in the urban neighborhoods, where most of the population lives in the city neighborhoods.
Illiteracy prevailed in rural areas, in the countryside, apart from the populations in urban centers that had more access to education, that had better economic conditions, so they could access Primary Education, but then they could not access Secondary Education. Only a few could access Secondary Education, much less could anyone think of reaching Higher Education, that is, University Education. There was no way they could.
And well, we started to explore all the ways, to discover all those communities, to discover all those families in extreme poverty, in extreme misery, and the teenagers who joined the Crusade and who had, let's say, an average income, were surprised and moved when they found so much pain and so much misery in the families of the urban barrios and in the families of the countryside, in the families up in the mountains, and the families in the communities of the Northern and Southern Caribbean Region, in the communities along the Coco River, and along the entire Caribbean Coast.
Everywhere there was extreme poverty, and because there was extreme poverty then there was illiteracy. And there was illiteracy because we had a system that took pride in deeming itself the most "democratic", imposed by US intervention after murdering General Sandino.
With the Somozas ruling here in Nicaragua, the North American governors that followed one after the other, you can see, how after 1934 when Sandino was murdered, "American democratic peace" was imposed in Nicaragua, via blood and fire. Well, these were difficult, hard times for Nicaragua's people, and given the extreme poverty what the US governors had was the opportunity to enslave Nicaragua's people. With illiteracy it was easier for them to dominate and enslave the Nicaraguan people.
That is why when the Revolution triumphed, you see, since 1934 when Sandino was murdered, and if we go even further back, since Independence, the legacy of the governments calling themselves "democratic", imposed by the Yankees, all of them imposed by the Yankees, with a few exceptions such as Zelaya, what they bequeathed was pain, misery, illiteracy.
And as the rich in this country grew and built themselves very good houses, and built themselves very good Private Hospitals, this also allowed them to make more wealth, more and more wealth every day. And that is why the growth rates of the Nicaraguan economy, up until the overthrow of the Somoza tyranny on July 19, 1979, were showing growth they continue to call "historic". They continue to call that growth "historic".
But who benefited from that growth? Who did that growth enrich? For whom did that growth guarantee health care? For whom did that growth guarantee Education? For whom did that growth guarantee a plot of land? In fact, there was a concentration of land in the hands of large landowners who had stolen it from small farmers, from medium-sized farmers, from Indigenous communities, both in the Nicaragua's Pacific Zone, in the Central Zone, and too in the Caribbean Zone. They had swept and seized the land.
That is why the Revolution had established in its Program: first, Education; second, Health Care; third, land for Rural Families. And that is why here too, before the Literacy Program began after the Revolution had triumphed, there in Leon, I remember, the Agrarian Reform began. There in Leon we first gave land to the rural families.
And I was telling you that the accumulated, that is to say, we started in 1934, where the "peace of the cemetery" was imposed here in Nicaragua by the North American rulers along with the Somoza family; from 1934 to 1944, to 1954, to 1964, to 1974, to 1979, 45 years... 45 years! 45 years! In other words, the oligarchs, the sellouts had every opportunity, all with the support of the Yankees and all with the complicity also of the European governments that call themselves "very democratic", all of them got along just fine with Somoza.
And after all, the reality is that, in those 45 years, what was the result? The savage capitalism that was unleashed with full force over 45 years, what did it leave behind? Groups of oligarchs, owners of wealth at the expense of the country's Workers, at the expense of the country's Peasants, at the expense of the unemployed. And the more unemployed, the better for them, because they could pay less. Because of course, when more people are in work, then the capitalists have to find a way to pay a bit more so as to keep the people they need to work for them, but when a huge number of people are unemployed, wages fall to rock bottom which allows the capitalists to concentrate wealth, to accumulate wealth.
And on the other hand, hunger, poverty, unemployment, infant mortality. Infant mortality in Nicaragua during all those years was really terrible, children dying of malnutrition, children dying of hunger, children who because they were in very precarious conditions suffered all kinds of disease, that killed them. Yes!
I have mentioned this on other occasions, I have commented that when I was not yet born, my parents were looking to make a living... My father was originally from the outskirts of Masatepe, his mother was a humble peasant who worked as a maid, my father reached sixth grade and after that self-taught, cultivating himself, he went to look for work in La Libertad, Chontales, because it was a time when the companies were extracting gold and there was enough trade, enough economic activity, back then there was work available in that nucleus. But it was not like that in all of Nicaragua.
There my father met my mother, born in La Libertad, also of Liberteño parents, and my grandfather, my mother's father, was also hardworking and had a shop, and my mother had also studied, she had managed to study with great effort.
So, that is where she met my father, they got together, they got married, and they had their first child, a girl; the girl was one year old, she was two years old, and she continued well, three years old, four years old, and in her fifth year of life she was attacked by one of those epidemics that had to do with the virus that caused influenza and that in those times was called "La Chifladora", as people used to say.
And so, what hospital service existed in those times for the benefit of people who had few resources? It did not exist! What resources could my parents have to take that girl to a private hospital, to a private clinic, which did not even exist there in La Libertad, and perhaps they would have had to bring her to Managua? They hadn't the resources to do it. So the girl died. There I keep the portrait of La Niña, it is there in the cemetery of La Libertad, her remains lie there.
Well, the girl passed away; then soon after, a boy was born, that is, I have two older siblings who are now in another plane of Life. The boy was born, and 1 year, 2 years of life, 3 years, and then again the notorious disease caught him and killed him too, the boy died.
These are children who are being killed by the system. Yes, we have to see it this way, the system, the model is killing them, an economic model that care little about the fate of the poor, in Health Care, in Education. They had nowhere to go to find a way to save the life of children who under other conditions, in other circumstances would have been saved.
In other words, two children, my older siblings who arrived early, arrived first, and who also departed early, which was the epitaph my father put on their grave.
So, it is the system that was imposed on this country, endorsed by an international community claiming to be "democratic", one claiming to respect Human Rights, one that claims to respect all the greatest freedoms, that system day by day murdered children here in Nicaragua.
Like the children who died of poliomyelitis, every year many children died of poliomyelitis, and others were left with their limbs affected. By the way, in the field of healthcare, the first thing we attacked was poliomyelitis, at the Triumph of the Revolution; that is, a health campaign to eradicate the epidemics of Poliomyelitis, and we succeeded in doing so, because they indeed were epidemics!
So, what those governing Nicaragua during all those years, with every support from the United States, what they left this country was extreme poverty. Because you can see for yourselves, at the Triumph of the Revolution, growth rates were high, but it was not money distributed for the benefit of the population, to build schools, to build hospitals, to build housing... No. All at one a housing program might take place... but as a business venture. So really no conditions existed for Nicaragua's people to live with dignity. People could not even aspire to live with dignity.
And what this shows is how terrible the model of savage capitalism is, it is terrible, it is devastating, and here we lived under it for 45 years. And that explains why when the people reached the moment of the overthrow, it was not just about overthrowing one person, who was Somoza, it was not about that. It was about overthrowing an economic, social, political Model, created to strengthen the rich and to exploit and crush the people who impoverished.
We all know the names and surnames of those who were constantly fighting to hand over the country to the Yankees, some as Liberals and others as Conservatives. Who led these groups? The Oligarchs. Who supported and financed those political forces? The Oligarchs.
And of course, when the Revolution took place and the Revolution set out to change the System, neither the Oligarchs nor the Empire could like that, since changing the system meant giving land to the Peasants, giving Health Care, giving Education to the People, and making the People literate.
And on March 23rd, March 23rd of 1980, 95,582 young people and teachers mobilized and formed what was known as the Army, one that did not march with rifles, which did not go accompanied by cannon, but with notebooks, with pencils, with the Word and with the Solidarity of the People, with the Word and the Solidarity of the young people who had already learned to read and write and who were willing to join as Literacy Educators, leaving aside for a few months their school classes, some of them from Sixth Grade, others from Secondary School, others from University.
All of them together going along those Ways of God that were immiserated, many of those young people discovering for the first time what Misery and Poverty were. And upon seeing this, all that Youth felt hurt, they felt pained, and that Youth said unquestionably: We cannot allow that Model of Savage Capitalism to return to this Country!
And the illiteracy rate discovered here, take note, was 50.3%! Total illiteracy! But if we add to that figure the kinds of illiteracy that do not allow a person who has half-learned to read, does not allow them to read well, does not allow them to write well, then the figure reached 60%. In other words, out of every 100 Nicaraguans, only 40 could read and write correctly, communicate correctly.
And in that Literacy Campaign we managed to reduce illiteracy to 12.9%; a reduction that was immediately recognized by the international community, by the Specialized Organizations, which evaluated the Literacy Campaign as a successful Campaign that fulfilled its objectives. But of course, it was necessary to continue so as to eradicate the remaining 12.9%.
But the historical circumstances the country lived through then were of a war imposed on us. We did not want war, war was imposed on us, acts of terrorism, war proclaimed by the President of the United States at the time, President Ronald Reagan.
Presidents in the United States do not really decide much, they are instruments of the system. I am sure that President Reagan did not even know where Nicaragua was, he had no idea where Nicaragua was. His background was the cinema, he was a film Artist and that led him to be put forward as President, by whom? By the masters, the owners of war in the United States, the owners of power in the United States, who are also the rich who concentrate wealth in the United States too, they concentrate it! A group of billionaires are the ones who concentrate wealth in the United States. And that is why there has never ceased to be poverty in the United States, there has always been poverty in the United States, and there is still poverty in the United States.
I have told you in other moments, how when our great poet Rubén Darío passed through the United States he saw the misery there. He saw the poverty there, and he wrote about it, because he saw it; and on the other side he saw the opulence, the wealth, the contrast. And anyone who goes around the United States now, or turns on American television, will see how people sleep in the streets in the most extreme misery.
Not everyone sleeps well in the United States, even setting to one side the fate of migrants. Being a migrant is more difficult. Of course, many Central American and Latin American brothers and sisters, even Nicaraguans, migrate to the United States, searching for what? Searching for a way to make some savings and from there send those savings, some money to the family. But they work themselves to death, they work themselves to death, and the immense majority of Central Americans, of Nicaraguans who travel to the United States, do not travel on a whim, for tourism, no, they travel out of necessity. And when they get there they have to do the jobs that no North American is willing to do nowadays.
What American is willing to go to work in the family home of another American to take care of the children, to clean the house, to clean the bathrooms? Or again, who is willing to cut the fruit when the harvest comes? That is all in the hands of the migrants, a labor force that helps make big North American companies even wealthier.
It is certainly not that they are doing the migrants a favor... No! No! It is because they need the migrants. But of course the wave of migrants is so strong that they restrict entry. They have even closed entry to migrants. There was an expectation that the doors were going to be opened, no, rather the doors of the United States have been closed to migrants. Even so, people still find a way to go there.
Going back to the Crusade, I was telling you how we were able to reduce illiteracy. Then came the neoliberal period here in Nicaragua, the neoliberal model was imposed again, and during the 16 years of neoliberal governments the illiteracy which had fallen to 12.9% increased again to 22.9%; that is when we returned to office in 2007, in January 2007, we started again with the campaign we called "From Martí to Fidel".
There we applied all our force, and Professor Pineda was everywhere going from one place to another, on the coast, on the rivers, everywhere, moving and mobilizing new generations of young people, young people who had not participated earlier , of course, they had not even been born. This Boxing Champion would have been just a few years old then, I don't know how old, in the 1980's.
Well, other young people joined in, and this made it possible to reduce illiteracy from the 22.9% we had received in 2007, to 4.7%. We achieved this, and we declared, in August 2009: "Nicaragua Territory Free of Illiteracy", although we still had that 4.7%.
But according to the indices, a country that reaches these percentages can be declared free of Illiteracy. But we are not satisfied, and we have continued. Because in order to be satisfied, we cannot be satisfied until the day that in our country, and I am sure we are going to achieve it and we are achieving it, because every day there are fewer illiterate people in Nicaragua, the day that in Nicaragua there is not a single illiterate, and that all Nicaraguans know how to read and write, know how to communicate, know how to strengthen their knowledge, their education, and can then advance in Primary School, in Secondary School.
As I was saying, the recognition we have received and everything we have been promoting in recent years, how we are not only carrying out campaigns against Illiteracy where there may be a few little outliers here and there... Professor Pineda, there are still some illiterate people, we have to continue there. Now we have managed to develop Primary Education Campaigns, Secondary Education Campaigns, Technical Education Campaigns linked to productive activities. I remember that Professor Pineda proposed the idea, when we were governing from below, to develop this type of initiative, linking literacy to productive activities.
And now we have Education in the countryside, Education Programs in the Countryside , the Countryside Schools, where boys and girls, Young People in areas where school is not close to them, or who work, can meet and join these Schools on weekends. And this is a leap forward, Primary Education, Secondary Education, taking Technical Education, University Education as well, taking it to the countryside.
And how much is charged to a student? How much is charged to a student who goes to the People's Schools, which are the Public Schools, which are the State Schools? No, those who go to private schools have to pay, because they have the means to pay, and we respect that. But not in the Public Schools, which is where the vast majority of Nicaraguans go to study Primary, Secondary, Technical Careers, University, we have been multiplying University Education in different regions of our country.
Because in those times, in the long oppressive years of Savage Capitalism, here the University of Leon was the center, there was the whole University in Leon, and then came the extensions here in Managua. But now out of the National University, from the CNU we have a network that covers the whole country and the Caribbean Coast. And education in Miskito, of course!
There is the URACCAN University where they have graduated today, you see, Rosario is giving me the information here, today 17 doctors of Miskito origin have graduated. Whenever before in Life has that happened! When in History before? When? They are doctors that we call Intercultural Doctors. Obviously the Miskito population speaks Miskito, they speak English too, because English is widely spoken on the Coast, and then Spanish.
I remember that when we started the Literacy Crusade we insisted that education on the Caribbean Coast had to be in the different languages, because there is Miskito, there are Ramaquíes, where Professor Pineda was working with the Ramaquíes. On the little island near Bluefields there are the Ramas, the Ramaquíes, they are on that little island and they are also on the Coast; there are the Mayangnas, the Creoles, the Afro-descendant peoples.
In other words, we have a community and each one has managed to preserve its language. This is a heritage that we have, and we have to find a way to ensure that their languages do not become extinct, but rather to ensure that the fact that they are gaining access to another language, Spanish, English, is not detrimental to the survival of their native language... No! No! Rather, they know how to value it and we have to support them so that these languages do not disappear and continue to be passed on from generation to generation.
I do not want to make this address too long, and to the Nicaraguan brothers and sisters who are following this conversation through the media, we are on national radio and television throughout the country, because although the Chocolatito fight was well known, how many saw it? Quite a few, more especially in the cities. Well, now they are getting to know "Chocolatito" also in those places where they were not able to see the fights.
"Chocolatito" is the result of all this Education Process, because Education is Culture, and with Education goes also Sport, and all of us are there. Look how many champions Nicaragua has produced in boxing, and how Nicaragua has been advancing in the different sports activities where before we did not compete at all.
No competition at all. Even in soccer we are already giving some competition, and in basketball too. Although we talk more about baseball.
Here we have two, among all the champions, because we have a lot of champions, even the twins, those twins who are champions and also gave a great demonstration recently, there in the United States where they had contests. And there's Rosendo and there's "El Matador", and how many other fighters who have been champions. But we have here two exceptional fighters who have broken all records. Undoubtedly Alexis, the Grand Master there, the Grand Master of "Chocolatito", Alexis, and the student who has already surpassed the Master, but I am sure Alexis is more than happy to have forged you, "Chocolatito", and that you have surpassed him. I am sure he is happy and that he is proud of you.
On this day when we are commemorating 41 years since the start of the Literacy Crusade, the Crusade began in the Plaza of the Revolution in front of Carlos' Mausoleum, Carlos there and Colonel Santos López there too at the time when we began the Crusade. And today, from this place, with these young people who are with us, who are present with us here, and the other thousands of young people who want to participate, but as we know, we have to continue to keep measures in place so as to avoid greater contagion from the notorious virus, COVID-19, which is now accompanying influenza, that influenza also should not be underestimated, because one can say "it's just a cold", but if that "just a cold" is not taken care of, they call it 'flu, which also kills people, of course it kills people, it kills millions in the United States itself.
So, do not be complacent, but continue working, continue studying, continue playing sports, continue developing businesses, continue as Darío said, continue full of hope, full of hope, and be happy with the struggle we are engaged in, which is a battle for the people, a battle for all Nicaraguans.
Because we in government make no exceptions; that is to say, just because the rich used inflict barbarities on us that now we are going to inflict barbarities on the rich and are not going to give them medical attention... No! Or that the vaccine is not going to be available to them... No! No! The vaccine is going to be available for everyone.
Bu,t as we have said, first for the most serious cases, people who have cancer, people who suffer from kidney problems and have to do three sessions of dialysis, hemodialysis a week. That is hard. Or those who have serious heart conditions. They are the people who must be protected in the first place. They are thousands! And it doesn't matter if they are poor or rich, they will all be vaccinated. It is already being done and will continue to be done.
And I want to thank the countries that have contributed vaccines to Nicaragua. The first shipment was sent from the Russian Federation, and now they have also announced, from Russia they have announced that 250 buses are coming, first 250 donated buses, then another 250 buses are going to be purchased with favorable terms of credit. In fact, exactly 550 buses will arrive.
You already know the Russian buses, the first Russian buses came when the Mexican buses also arrived, we had Mexican buses and Russian buses, and so we were able to renew Managua's vehicle fleet which was in disarray.
Just as there was no electrical energy, nor had they been incapable of renewing the vehicle fleet for the transport of the poor, the transport of workers, the transport of students. Ah, but they did renew their own vehicles every year, changing vehicles from one day to the next, every year, but they cared little for the fate of the People. And those buses were in disarray, they were buses that had arrived here in the 1980's, buses that had come from Russia, from Spain, from Mexico as well, from all those places we had made contracts to bring new buses, and we incorporated new buses.
After 1990, in 16 years they did made no effort when this is also an imperative need, to be able to travel to Hospital, to School, wherever, to have a vehicle available to travel.
Beloved Nicaraguan Brothers and Sisters, beloved Families, on this day our Homage to the Literacy Workers who were murdered. Yes, at the beginning of the Crusade, sister and brother literacy educators were assassinated, they walked unarmed with only a notebook and a pencil, and they were murdered.
Our Recognition to all the Brothers and Sisters who participated in that Great National Literacy Crusade, and to those who have also continued in those educational labors, as Teachers, as Education Professionals, forming the country's Youth.
And our commitment is to continue fighting, to continue fighting for Peace, for Stability, for all Nicaraguans, and that this will allow us, as it has allowed us so far, to continue reinforcing this Model, which is not the model of Savage Capitalism, but the Christian, Socialist and Solidarity Model.
Long Live Free Nicaragua!
Sandino Lives On, the Struggle Continues!
Remarks by Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua,
after the 41st Anniversary Ceremony of the National Literacy Crusade
March 23rd, 2021
Good evening, Beloved Families of this Nicaragua of ours that fills us all with Pride. Of Victorious History !
It is an extraordinary epic our people have been waged over the years and in particular today we want to talk about the Literacy Crusade that made possible the encounter between the countryside and the city in an encounter of mutual learning.
We learned a lot and above all we learned how to value, those of us who came from the Cities learned how to value the Peasant, the Rural Worker, the Families that in the midst of that terrible Poverty that we had inherited from 45 years of Dictatorship, promoted and reinforced every day by Yankee Imperialism, in the midst of that poverty they could be happy, they were honest, they were workers and they transmitted Joy, they transmitted Ability, Strength, Faith and Hope!
I remarked this morning looking at the pictures of the Crusade, of the departure of the Young Men and Young Women, and of the meetings in the humble rural houses and of the hamlets in more urban areas, we were nourishing our hearts, thankful to God first of all, because He allowed us to live all these experiences which are victorious experiences of our convictions of Christianity, of Common Good, of Solidarity!
Sharing the bread of Teaching, the bread of Culture. And I am not speaking of Culture just in the sense of Identity and Values, but Culture as what, as Comandante Daniel said, defends us because it gives us greater awareness of our value, of what we are, and we have Education, we have Learning, we have Dignity, and thus we do not allow anyone to humiliate us !
Today, 41 Years after that Epic Task, and today, when every day is an Epic Task, because we see and feel the Prodigious Good, the Miracles that God pours on Nicaragua, first of all the Love and the Teachings of Love, and the desire to live peacefully, as we deserve to, working and prospering, with Respect among all and promoting the Common Good. Never again permitting Hatred !
As Comandante Daniel spoke of what we have had to live through, we are able to say of ourselves that we are proud of our Country, proud of our People, proud of our History. We cannot be and cannot let others make us be ashamed. Of what? Aare they going to make us ashamed of such Heroic, Historic Deeds? No ! It is others who should be ashamed, who with so much power, as they themselves say, in the World, dare to declare: We feel proud of humiliating, of crushing underfoot, we feel proud, they say so themselves, proud of humiliating and crushing others.
But we are proud to be People devoted to Good, People of Good Will, Families and People of Convictions, of Christianity, of Solidarity. That is what we learned from our elders in our families, to live with Hope and Faith in Jesus Christ, and that is what we are proud of.
Hatred, Never Again ! Hate destroys and first of all destroys those who profess it. We say, we repeat, we reiterate, how ashamed some of those people must be that they will be remembered, a few, if at all, in the Pages of History, as sellers of their Nation, as hawkers of National Dignity, as grotesques, who have promoted terror, darkness; dark times we have already left behind. And they will not return, never again! That is the commitment we Nicaraguans have.
Hatred, Never Again! Darkness, Never Again! Light has defeated Darkness, and this has been proclaimed by the self same People who with their words and deeds, simple, forceful, daily, are generating a New Nicaragua, a Nicaragua where we gather together around Love, Work, Stability and Security. Daily, Sovereign, Citizen Security, and Assuredness in Ourselves, in what we want as our Destiny, what we want as a Legacy for our Children, for our Grandchildren.
We want to bequeath a Nicaragua ever more full Love, of living peacefully in Concord, and making of our Faith and our Convictions, our Culture of Family, of Community, our Emblems, our Standards for the Future.
We are a Dignified People, proud of ourselves, proud of our History. Shame for those who do not feel this pride despite having been born here, those few that unfortunately still remain, blind, deaf, dumb, impotent too. Because Hatred generates impotence, paralysis, and above all in the Hearts that suffer this fatal disease, I believe it generates many complicated, conflicted feelings, and much frustration.
I wish for all the Families of this Blessed Nicaragua, that we can go forward as Mothers, as Grandparents, as Uncles, as Brothers, as Sisters, as Children, as Youth, as Women, as Men, as Families, that we can go forward pursuing our Dreams and achieving our Dreams.
We are Nicaraguans, by the Grace of God, full of Pride. We are not ashamed. Shame belongs to others. Let those who deny their condition as Nicaraguans be ashamed, and above all those who deny this Nation that has seen us all born here and that it is up to all of us to make it grow in terms of Human Development, freeing us from Poverty, Ignominy, Misery, Indifference, which is also Hatred.
Thank you, Compañeras and Compañeros. And to all the Literacy Educators of yesterday, of today, because we continue to teach literacy, and to those who are no longer here, but are with us, because they are Heroes of our History, to all their Families, to all of them much Love, and the Conviction that God guides our steps, and that We Go Forward ! Thank you, Compañeras and Compañeros.