Resumen de Can the Grass Roots Speak?: The Literacy Campaign in English on Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast

Jane Freeland

• This paper discusses the Literacy Campaign in English, one of three native language extensions of Nicaragua's famous National Literacy Crusade (Cruzada de Alfabetizacion) of 1979-81, as a particularly interesting case of how state policy and grassroots initiatives interact in indigenous/ethnic language maintenance in Latin America. Research on the conflictive relationship between the Sandinista government and the peoples of the Atlantic Coast (Costenos) tends to treat the question of language rights as a side issue. This paper argues that they were inseparable from the larger ideological conflict. It first outlines Sandinista constructions of national and ethnic identity, drawing on recent studies of Nicaraguan nationalist discourse, and contrasts them with those of Costenos, and in particular the Creoles. Close attention is paid to the conceptualisation of culture and language in these constructions, and how they affected both Costeno expectations and Sandinista policy. Within this framework, the adaptation of the National Literacy Crusade for the Atlantic Coast Creoles is analysed, and the translation/recoding ofits materials examined in post-colonialist perspective.