A THONY KERRIGAN
563
APODADO "MANDALA" EN VISITA DE SOLIDARIDAD CON
NlCA Y LA REVOLUCION
After our verdant and fruity breakfast we greeted Chief Mandala in
the lobby of the hotel. He was wearing a smile of approval. With the mod–
esty of approved office (the modesty of moveable office), he also wore only
one chain, the one which only the Chiefwears when the braves are about to
go into action.
He confided in us by telling us the news. He had just had the newspa–
per piece read to him, in translation - he knew no Spanish - and announced
the ramifications of his reception:
"Rosario Murillo, the Chiefs wife, Mrs. Daniel Ortega, has kindly con–
sented to meet with us. Later Ernesto Cardenal, the Minister of Culture, will
address us." ("Us?" Not us, of course.)
We went to see Rosario Murillo, poetess and wife
to
the Revolution's
Chief, on our own. She was not available at her complex. A friend of a friend
to whom we had an introduction told us, without much furtive paraphrasing:
"She'sjust aborted another child.
Again."
She had already had several children born or aborted but in her press–
photographs looked none the worse for wear. A very chic radical.
"She's resting under doctor's orders. And the doctor is afraid she'll try
to get up the mountain to Estell."
The anniversary of the Revolution on 19 July was being celebrated in
Esteli this year. As did the Cubans, the
comandantes
of the Politburo changed
the venue every year. Hordes of pilgrims had already arrived. (We'd
eventually have to move from the Intercontinental, we were told, because of
the press of "delegates from fraternal countries already booked.")
On our own again, we went out, my diva ("lover") and I to visit Father
Cardenal, the poet, in his compound at the edge of town, a town which was
itself centerless,
plaza-less,
a series of edges. There was much memorabilia
at his office, but no Cardenal.
His secretaries or receptionists seemed to be called Dulce and Alrnibar.
"He's already left for Estell. He must be there a week in advance."
Should we follow the masses to Estell in a few days? We'd have to
sleep, my diva ("lover") and I, in the fields.
Before deciding, the next day we went along with some acquaintances
to the unveiling and installation ofa mural painted and paid for and dedicated
To the People, by the "Northamerican Collective for Latin America." There
were speeches of "solidarity" in Spanish and English underscored by attacks
against the State (the U.S. state, somehow even the South African state, but
not the Nicaraguan or Cuban states, which were praised effusively). The
highly-charged mural was an amalgam ofwrath and overindulgence in paint.
Later the same afternoon we attended a species of seminar under a
thatched-roof open-air annex off the hotel garden. As we entered we were
