Popular Culture
Since the conflict with Nicaragua in the 1980s, variations of the term "Sandinista" are now sometimes used in the United States to refer to fanatical supporters of a certain cause. In the Spanish language, the suffix "-ista" is used to indicate a predilection towards the root. (It is the equivalent of "-ist" in English)
As a reaction to an anti-Sandinista statement by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her proposal to ban the use of the word itself, punk rock group The Clash used the title Sandinista! for their 1980 triple album. The album contains the song "Washington Bullets" which references the Sandinistas and other events and groups involved in Latin American history, starting from 1959.
English anarcho-punk band Chumbawamba recorded the song "An Interlude: Beginning To Take It Back" on their album "Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records". The song chronicles the history of the Sandinistas, as well as their conflict with the Contras, and reflects an optimistic hope for the future of Nicaragua.
Chilean social rock group Los Prisioneros mention the Sandinistas in their song ¿Quién mató a Marilyn?, in a passage asking who killed Marilyn Monroe.
In 2007, the popular Puerto Rican Reggaeton–rap band Calle 13 mentioned the Sandinista movement in their song "Llegale a mi guarida". The lyrics claimed: "Respeto a Nicaragua y a la lucha sandinista" ("I respect Nicaragua and the Sandinista struggle").
In an episode of the 1980s American sitcom The Golden Girls, Blanche, Dorothy, and Rose return home to find Sophia bound, gagged, and tied to a chair. When Dorothy removed the gag and asked who had done this to her, Sophia replied "the Sandinistas!" (It was really a released prisoner named Merrill, who was searching for Blanche.)
The 1983 film Last Plane Out about journalist Jack Cox's experiences in Nicaragua portrayed the Sandanistas as crazed communist psychopaths while making Anastasio Somoza Debayle look like a sympathetic hero.
The 2010 video game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker includes a fictional group of FSLN Revolutionaries forced into Costa Rica as an important group of supporting characters. The Anti-Somoza revolution itself figures prominently into the plot of the game as well, being described within the game's narrative as being started by the fictional KGB agent Vladimir Zadornov in order to make Nicaragua a communist state so the Soviet Union could force the United States out of Central America entirely.
Read more about this topic: Sandinista National Liberation Front
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“The lowest form of popular culture—lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives—has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.”
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