Dr, Arnold Matlin, January 2nd 2018
Las Sandinistas! (2018)
Recognize propaganda when you see this film!
This movie works for the first 75 minutes. It's a solid documentary about the great role that women played in the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua.
Sadly, the remainder of the film is propaganda for the Nicaraguan rightwing movement called the MRS. The MRS did, indeed, begin as a group that was going to push the Sandinistas from the left. As a political party, they never gained any traction. The highest percentage of votes they ever achieved was 5 percent.
Now, the MRS has allied itself with rightwing parties in Nicaragua, and with the U.S. right wing. (In particular, Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.) They are counter-revolutionaries, just like the Contras in the 1980's.
The World Economic Forum issues annual reports, based on information from 144 countries. These reports are a benchmark for gender equality. Countries are ranked according to economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; and political empowerment.
According to the World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2017, Nicaragua is the highest ranked country in the Americas in terms of gender equality. Nicaragua has the sixth highest position on gender equality in the world. (The United States ranks 49th!) <https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-gender-gap-report-2017>
Particularly noteworthy in this context is Nicaragua's second position on political empowerment: 46% of members of the Nicaraguan Assembly are women.
Please notice that no prominent pro-government Nicaraguan woman appears in the film. We get long interviews with MRS leaders, most of whom are highly educated, highly cultured, and highly respected in the U.S. They are like us, and we want to believe them.
However, in 2016, the Sandinista party won 72% of the vote. That's because the Sandinistas aren't the party of the intellectual elite. Sandinista women are clever, dynamic, effective, and talented. However, the Sandinista women don't teach poetry at San Francisco State, they don't direct films, and they aren't brilliant novelists, They are urban and rural workers, who know that the Sandinista government will give them access to health care, education, economic assistance, and an opportunity to hold public office.
My name appears at the end of the film as a GoFundMe donor. I regret that donation now. I thought the movie would pay tribute to the heroic women of the Sandinista revolution. It does, indeed, do this. However, the tribute was clearly meant as a way to lead up to the criticism of the present Sandinista government. I should have known better.
Arnold H Matlin, M.D.