This thesis explores and analyses the manifold relations between migration and health, what I call the migration-health nexus, in the contemporary Nicaraguan context. The study is based on fieldwork in León and Cuatro Santos and a mixed-methods approach combining qualitative in-depth interviews and quantitative survey data. In the thesis health is “traced” within the migration process; i.e. in places of origin, during travel, at the destination and after return, including the situation and consequences for both migrants and family members to migrants (“left-behinds”). The study shows that migration-health relations in Nicaragua are connected to broader economic, social and political factors and to the country’s historical experiences of colonization, neo-colonization and structural adjustments. Contemporary Nicaraguan migrations are primarily related to the strategies of making a living and the struggle for a better life (i.e. a practice of mobile livelihoods). In the study setting health concerns were both indirectly embedded in people’s mobile livelihoods, as well as directly influencing decisions to move or to stay, and migration involved both advantages and disadvantages for health. Through migration, women could see an end to physical violence and sexual abuse. Internal migrants could improve their access to health care and medicine. Vulnerabilities related to the unpredictable nature conditions could be avoided through moving. And, through the money made from migrant work people’s everyday lives and health could be improved, in terms of better nutrition, housing, and access to education, health care and medicine. However, remittances do not necessarily lead to development, as they are used to compensate for the lacking public sector in Nicaragua. Under these circumstances, I argue that the Nicaraguan population is not guaranteed their social rights of citizenship. I also argue that the negative aspects surrounding migration must be taken into account when discussing the development potentials of migration and remittances. Both internal and international migrants in this study experienced stress while moving to a new place. International migrants had difficulties accessing health care in the destination, particularly those lacking documentation. The separation within families due to migration often caused emotional pain. Family members left behind did not rate their physical health as good as often as non-migrant families. The vulnerability, stress experiences and sufferings of migrants and left-behinds varied, however. I therefore conclude that social differences (in terms of e.g. gender, class, skin colour, and legal immigration status) are key for the enactment of the migration-health nexus, and that an interplay of individual, social and structural factors influence the outcome.

Many new forms of tourism have emerged over the past two decades claiming to provide an alternative, responsible approach to international travel. Unlike ecotourism and volunteer tourism, travel centered on solidarity activism has not been thoroughly explored in the academic literature. Through narrative interviews conducted with organizational staff, former travelers, and members of a rural host community, this study profiles three organizations that organize solidarity travel experiences in Nicaragua. Qualitative analysis of the interviews and secondary materials including blog posts and videos reveals that staff, travelers and community members feel that they benefit from the exchanges that take place during solidarity travel. However, the study participants also articulated a number of concerns and issues with the practice of solidarity travel, including the limited nature of ongoing contact between travelers, coordinating organizations, and the communities that are visited while in Nicaragua. The experience of solidarity travel provided participants with a greater understanding of the connections between Nicaragua and North America, and a critical self-awareness for young travelers in particular, as many were experiencing the Global South for the first time. The successful translation of that exposure and awareness into activism is less certain and is identified as an area for future improvement of the overall solidarity travel experience. Overall, this study contributes to the emerging literature on solidarity travel by comparing three organizations with different missions and methods, and showing how solidarity can be enacted in a variety of ways through travel. Through the inclusion of three distinct groups of participants, this study also highlights similarities and differences related to the way solidarity travel is experienced by members of these groups.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 344-364). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2013-08-21Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:13:31Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 maciel_f_me_fran.pdf: 1127584 bytes, checksum: 7177dc4aeb97864063a17ae7da50517b (MD5) / Com este presente trabalho pretendemos analisar a atuação do Exército Popular Sandinista (EPS) na década de 1980 e sua transição de exército guerrilheiro para exército profissional e regular, marco da etapa de transformação pela qual passava a Nicarágua e inserida em uma cultura política de quase permanente uso da violência como amparo às forças políticas. Desse modo, buscaremos elucidar a subordinação do EPS à Frente Sandinista de Libertação Nacional (FSLN), efetivando a confusão Estado-Partido-Exército, eixo do regime sandinista. O entendimento da real participação, interferência e influência do EPS no governo e sua posterior profissionalização contribuem para a reflexão acerca de como o regime sandinista, enquanto sistema político, resolveu a institucionalização do exército e do campo político-militar. Ademais, a constante situação de guerra fomentada pela contrarrevolução (os chamados “Contras”) fez com que o EPS emergisse como um dos principais atores do cenário nacional nicaraguense; assim, buscaremos compreender a maneira como as forças armadas agiram no ambiente político-social, de maneira a transformar e/ou reorganizar esses campos. A consequente derrocada sandinista e a emergência de um novo governo após as eleições de 1990 reorganizou o EPS, transformando-o em uma força apolítica e nacional, um instrumento estabilizador na polarizada e conflitante sociedade nicaraguense. É inegável a relevância do EPS na Nicarágua sandinista da década de 1980 e visaremos elucidá-la nesta pesquisa, bem como a importância de sua transformação, reorganizando e inserindo novos parâmetros em um conturbado ambiente político-social / With this present work we intend to analyze the performance of the Sandinista Popular Army (EPS – spanish acronym) in the 1980s and his transition from guerrilla army to a professional and regular army, mark of the transformation step by which Nicaragua crossed and inserted in a political culture of almost permanent use of violence as a support to political forces. In this way, we’ll try to elucidate the subordination of the EPS to Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN – spanish acronym), making effective the confusion State-Party-Army, axis of the Sandinista regime. The understanding of the real participation, interference and influence of EPS in government and their subsequent professionalization contribute to reflection about how the Sandinista regime, as political system, resolved the institutionalization of the army and the military-political field. Moreover, the constant state of war fomented by counterrevolution (called “Contras”) make with which the EPS emerged as a major actor of the Nicaraguan national scene; so, we’ll seek to understand how the armed forces acted on political and social scene, in order to transform and/or rearrange these fields. The consequent Sandinista collapse and the emergence of a new government after the 1990s elections reorganized the EPS, turning it into a national and apolitical force, a stabilizer instrument in the polarized and conflicting Nicaraguan society. Is undeniable the EPS relevance in the Sandinista Nicaragua of the 1980s and we aim elucidate it in this research, as well as the importance of its transformation, reorganizing and adding new parameters in a turbulent political-social environment

No autorizado por el autor para ser publicada a texto completo / Magíster en Estudios Internacionales / Este trabajo explica las razones por las que la sociedad civil costarricense logró movilizarse de una manera tan eficiente contra el Tratado de Libre Comercio EEUU–Centroamérica, mientras que la nicaragüense tomó una actitud de resignación frente al mismo. Las historias recientes de ambos países llevarían a pensar que la sociedad civil nicaragüense es más movilizada y mejor articulada que la costarricense dado que recientemente pasó por una Revolución que fomentó la participación popular en la política. Sin embargo, ésta resulta ser una conclusión errónea ya que en la realidad, Nicaragua no ha logrado generar los niveles necesarios de capital social que Costa Rica sí posee para forjar una sociedad civil participativa. Usando el marco teórico del capital social, se busca una explicación a las capacidades organizativas de la población de ambos países a través de tres variables: la autonomía y articulación de la sociedad civil y la confianza interpersonal. Se demuestra que en Nicaragua, la sociedad civil no ha alcanzado los niveles necesarios de autonomía, articulación y confianza como para lograr un desarrollo de capital social. En Costa Rica, por el contrario, la sociedad civil tiene posee niveles de capital social y es altamente autónoma y articulada. Por ende, este trabajo concluye que los niveles más altos de capital social en Costa Rica que en Nicaragua fueron el elemento que hizo la diferencia entre la respuesta organizada de la sociedad civil del primero y la relativa debilidad de respuesta del segundo.

This study examines the cultural production and political history of Nicaragua from the 1960s to the early 1990s and interprets Francisco Goldman’s The Ordinary Seaman alongside Central America’s literary boom period, the nation-building project of the revolutionary letrados, and race relations between Nicaragua’s Pacific region and its two autonomous sectors of the Atlantic coast. It is argued that Central American ways of seeing are colored by the interplay between a revolutionary past, the myth of the pure Indio or mestizo, and the erasure of national identity in the US contact zone. Rather than recuperating a Central American identity, it is maintained that exposing the construction of said identity uncovers the hidden blackness and the heterogeneity of the Central American isthmus. Ultimately, the thesis aims at giving visibility to forgotten and ignored Central American narratives, histories, and people, and stresses the significance of studying the region within a literary and black Atlantic perspective.

Health care played an important role in the revolutions of El Salvador and Nicaragua. Both the Sandinistas and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) prioritized popular health throughout the 1980s. Clinics and hospitals served as sites of revolution that drew healthcare solidarity activists from the United States. These health internationalists worked to build community-level networks that relied upon trained medical volunteers. In both El Salvador and Nicaragua, women comprised a bulk of the community health workers. These women chose to interact with revolution by building on radical promises of universal healthcare access. Healthcare solidarity activists trained community volunteers and encouraged women to pursue their own needs within the revolutionary frameworks. Health internationalists actively undermined United States’ policies toward Central America. In the 1980s, the United States implemented economic policies and supported military violence that targeted healthcare infrastructure. In training community health workers, treating civilians, sharing knowledge through international exchange, and sending funds and medical supplies, health activists mitigated some of the damage being done. This thesis posits that health care was an important site of revolution for Central Americans and internationalists alike. By choosing to mend bodies, medical activists stood in direct opposition to the violence of the decade. They also served as fundamental to the revolution because they helped carry out the will of the people. The revolutions rested on the hope of improving the lives of every day Nicaraguans and Salvadorans. As the violence of the 1980s forced the guerillas of El Salvador and the leaders of Nicaragua to focus on war, the people continued to implement revolutionary health goals at the community level. This thesis argues that understanding how health internationalists, women, and community activists engaged revolutionary ideas of medicine is vital to the study of 1980s Central America.

Rescate y análisis en conjunto de las primeras novelas históricas escritas por mujeres en los diferentes países centroamericanos hasta 1950.