Karen
America; In Nicaragua 1978-79
“My Dad’s work took us to Nicaragua in the summer of 1978. He worked for CARE his whole career and I assume he was doing rural development projects. We were only there for nine, ten months, basically the school year. But it was a very impactful year. My father was progressive: He had a poster of Augusto Sandino in the study. It made my mother crazy. It made her very afraid. I mean, there were fire-bombings on our street and things like that. But I loved being there and was very, very upset when we were then posted to Guatemala. I didn't want to go. When I got back to the U.S., I was writing letters to Ronald Reagan about American foreign policy based on my experiences. So yeah, it was very much my political education. It was political baptism by fire.”