Zamora, Daisy (1950—)

Nicaraguan revolutionary, government official, and poet. Born in 1950 in Managua, Nicaragua; attended the University of Central America in Managua, beginning in 1967; married Dionisio Marenco; married Oscar-Rene Vargas; children: (adopted) Maria Denise.

Selected works:

La violenta espuma, 1968–78 (1981); El limpio se escribela vida (1988); Riverbed of Memory (1992); Clean Slate: New and Selected Poems (1993); (ed.) The Nicaraguan Woman in Poetry (1992); Life for Each (1994); A cada quién la vida, 1989–1993 (1995).

The Nicaraguan poet and revolutionary Daisy Zamora was born in 1950 in Managua into an educated and well-off family with connections to the liberal Zelaya government. Zamora was raised by her grandparents and great-aunt Anita Gamez , and was influenced in her later political views by her grandfather, a political radical. A sensitive, reserved, and intelligent girl, Zamora was educated in convent schools, spending her free time reading and writing poetry.

In 1954, Zamora's father was taken prisoner after being involved in a coup against the regime of Anastasio Somoza. Her family tried to hide the truth from her, but when she found out she was traumatized by his sudden disappearance. After Zamora became a student at the University of Central America in Managua in 1967, where she majored in psychology, she continued writing poetry, became increasingly active in leftist causes, and joined the student congress representing freshman students. At the university, she met her future husband, Dionisio Marenco. They married after graduation and settled in Chinandega, where Marenco worked as an engineer at a sugar mill and Zamora taught at the mill's school.

Although she already held politically radical ideas, she had been raised in the upper class; thus working with poor laborers was a learning experience for Zamora. She quickly became sympathetic to the harsh realities they suffered under the liberal government and the rigid class hierarchy of the mill community. Yet she still felt too attached to her family and heritage and could not commit herself fully to pursuing her political ideology.

This changed in 1972, when Zamora returned to Managua to nurse her terminally ill grandfather. He encouraged her to take a strong stand for her political beliefs; after his death, she went back to the mill deeply moved. The couple began to organize the mill workers for the growing socialist Sandinista guerrilla movement. They collected money, purchased arms, and turned their home into a refuge for revolutionaries. At first, the couple were protected from suspicion by the government because of their elite family status. However, as she and Marenco increased their organizing efforts, they faced opposition from the Somoza government's National Guard, who infiltrated their network of supporters and killed an associate. Discouraged and fearful, Zamora and her husband moved back to Managua.

There she became involved in journalism and art, translating articles for Latinamerican Thought and volunteering for local art exhibitions. Yet the couple were also drawn back into the revolutionary movement. Zamora's primary duties involved monitoring the scanner for information about National Guard plans, keeping a safe house, and hiding arms. Despite her efforts, she was still dissatisfied, believing that other activists were preventing her from more involvement because she was from the upper class and her loyalty was suspect.

On August 22, 1978, Zamora's political cell executed a successful attack on the National Palace, disabling the National Guard's communications center. It later participated in a series of raids on state police stations, in which Zamora was in the lead attack vehicle. Her squadron fired on the Guards and burned their station. Although they faced armed resistance from the Guard, Zamora and her comrades escaped to the hills of Nicaragua.

After that Zamora and Marenco went into hiding. Her mother and brother were arrested and imprisoned briefly, but gave no information about Zamora's location. The couple managed to flee to Honduras and took refuge in the Honduran Embassy. From there they went on to Panama and to San José, Costa Rica, where they continued to organize for the socialist cause and set up an underground hospital. Zamora then became a programmer and announcer at the revolutionary Radio Sandino, where she created a program called "The Sandinist Women" to raise awareness about the important contributions of Nicaraguan women to the Sandinista Liberation Front.

When the civil war ended in July 1979, Zamora became vice-minister of culture in the new National Reconstruction government. She and Marenco adopted a daughter, Maria Denise, in the early 1980s. As vice-minister, she worked to revitalize Nicaraguan literature and visual arts and to improve literacy among the poor. She later served as director of the Institute of Economic and Social Research, and was Nicaragua's representative to UNESCO. She also founded and edited the economic and social science journal Pensamiento Propio. Around 1990 her first marriage ended, and Zamora married a sociologist and writer, Oscar-René Vargas; they divorced in 1997.

Throughout her revolutionary years and into the 1980s, Zamora wrote poetry reflecting her experiences and her dreams for a better future for her country. She is one of the group of Nicaraguan women poets active during the revolution known as Las Seis (The Six), with the others being Rosario Murillo, Michelle Najlis, Yolanda Blanco, Vidaluz Meneses , and Giaconda Belli . In 1981, Zamora published her first book, La violenta espuma, 1968–1978, followed by El limpio se escribe la vida. In 1992, her translated poems were published as Riverbed of Memory, and she edited a poetry anthology, La Mujer Nicaragüense en la Poesía (The Nicaraguan Woman in Poetry). In 1993, Clean Slate: New and Selected Poems, a bilingual edition, appeared. She published two more collections of her own work, A Cada Quien la Vida, 1989–1993 (1995) and Life for Each (1994). Zamora, who has taught literature at the University of Central American, lives in Managua and continues to write.

sources:

Randall, Margaret. Sandino's Daughters: Testimonies of Nicaraguan Women in Struggle. Vancouver, Canada: New Star Books, 1981.

Rood, Karen L., ed. Dictionary of Twentieth Century Culture: Hispanic Culture of Mexico, Central American, and the Caribbean. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1994.

Laura York , M.A. in History, University of California, Riverside, California