Gloria Carrión, filmmaker: “Ortega and Murillo's betrayal of the Sandinista revolution became indisputable”

Before learning to read or write, the Nicaraguan director Gloria Carrión (Managua, 43 years old) was already singing at the age of two: “Fascists, thieves, tie your pants because here comes the working class with its battalions.” Daughter of the Sandinista revolutionaries Carlos Carrión, who became mayor of Managua between 1988 and 1990, and Ivette Fonseca, her life has been marked by the insurrection that put an end to the autocracy of Anastasio Somoza and the subsequent civil war. As a child she played in bomb shelters with her schoolmates and she saw her uncle die when she was 5 years old.

The filmmaker confronts her family memory with official history in her filmography, mostly of a documentary nature and which was screened this week at Casa de América in Madrid. She had to go into exile in 2018 to Rome due to Daniel Ortega's regime. A paradox that represents the disenchantment of Nicaraguan society against a leader “who became what she swore to destroy,” as she herself points out.

Ask.

What is your relationship with the Sandinista revolution?

Answer.

I am the daughter of the revolution, of two revolutionaries who at a very young age committed themselves to the liberation of Nicaragua. I was born a year after the overthrow of Somoza that brought about a civil war and my childhood was marked by that, not only mine, but that of an entire generation that inherited the revolution. The conflict has always accompanied me because it was a transcendental event in my life and that of Nicaragua, it put an end to years of cruel Somoza dictatorship but at the same time it made mistakes that undermined good will.

Q.

How has that relationship evolved over the years?

A.

In my childhood it was something abstract, it was a non-entity with which I had to compete for my parents' attention. I remember when the revolution lost the 1990 elections and I experienced it as if a family member had died. I remember the shocked face of my parents in the face of that loss and that's when my questions began: why does it hurt us so much? What did it mean to us? Later, at university I began to study history from other points of view and questioned the official discourse, which was talked about in the family. Now, in light of what is happening in Nicaragua, the revolution has taken on another meaning, it is impossible to look at it without understanding what happened in 2018, the massive protests that occurred and the brutal repression, which still continues, mark a before and after . How is it possible that Ortega and Murillo are repeating a dictatorship against which an entire people fought? The betrayal of the revolution became palpable and indisputable. Now, the revolution for me is a ghost that always haunts me, it is an experience with which I continue to dialogue, question, especially from the point of view of a critic of the left.

Q.

What do your parents think about the current government of Daniel Ortega?

A.

I would prefer not to comment on that. My father still lives in Nicaragua, he is critical of the Government, but if I say something I could put everything from his property to his life in danger.

Q.

What was it like growing up with parents dedicated to the revolution?

A.

I thought my parents were superheroes. I loved fantasizing about it but it also made me sad because it was a childhood where I felt the need to have my parents a little more for me. I understood some time later that it was my personal offering to the revolution.

Q.

They could have died at any moment...

R.

​He lived in constant fear. The next idea when my uncle was murdered was that my parents could die. For a 5-year-old girl it was very hard to manage. They were very violent experiences that no child in the world should have to experience and they continue to experience them.

Q.

In your documentary

Heiress of the Wind

she confronts her parents and her memories as a child. Did the film serve as a kind of reconciliation for you?

A.

Definitely. It has been a reunion with my parents that has allowed us to speak with greater freedom and greater affection about those years. It rebuilt our intimate personal fabric, I wanted to invite that to also happen with other families who saw the film, to put on the table the discussion of the pain of that generation.

Q.

Is your short film

Hojas de K

, about the Government's repression of the 2018 protests, a continuation of Her

edera del viento

?

A.

It has a common thread. It is a reflection of the situation in Nicaragua, from the revolution and its consequences of the war to the transformation of the Sandinista front into a dictatorial party, a regime that has committed crimes against humanity. The combination of both films gives an account of the entire political-social journey that the country and Nicaraguans have experienced.

Q.

How can the current situation be reversed?

A.

First we need to return to a democratic system in the country. Afterwards, it is essential to do a deep review of what we experienced as a society, including the Somoza dictatorship, the revolution and the counterrevolution, that conflict has never ended. We must carry out a deep and collective examination of these violent legacies that have been accumulating as geological layers and end up constituting that traditionalist, violent and deeply polarizing social fabric. We need a cultural and social refoundation to stop repeating cycles of violence.

Q.

Why did you have to go into exile from Nicaragua?

A. He worked at the Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development (Funides), an institution persecuted by the regime since 2021. There is a complete attack on the board of directors that includes freezing their bank accounts and calling them for interrogations. I had a public profile and was especially vulnerable after my two sisters-in-law were imprisoned. It hurts a lot to have to go out like this, to do critical research, to make films that questioned the monopoly that Daniel and Rosario [Murillo] have on memory and the revolution. They took over these processes as if they were the revolution.

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