I must admit I was quite impressed by the way the book started. In the first couple of pages you see how much the author is trying to convey this idea of it being hot and that there is no escape. He even states, “I want to convince whoever is reading this book, that León is hot. I’m not making this up, it’s really hot”. But even just with this phrase, what stands out is the tone of the author. It is very casual and local to say the least. By local I mean a type of language that would be spoken only in local towns as opposed to maybe in the city. He even in the first couple of pages mentions that there is the upper, middle, and lower class. What we get in the first couple of pages is therefore what a “true” local town is like in Nicaragua. He even characterizes the town by describing this bar or local space where people go to and play pool and drink beer. What impressed me the most from reading the first few pages is his choice of “bad” words with particular reference to religion. He first of all refers some people as whores, and secondly says that they don’t f**k around on Holy Week, “where else could you go but to Lezama’s?” If his language is not casual, it seems to be mocking something all the time. This casualness however is quickly eliminated when he then starts talking about his experience as a Sandinista fighter (interesting how he is serious when it comes to war and soldier related matters, but then everything else he can talk as casually as he pleases). He begins describing his experience as a Sandinista when he was a young boy. One of the first thing he mentions is that as a young boy he did not like seeing blood. Not only does this show innocence but it also shows the reality of a revolution.

I liked how halfway through the book the author mentioned how the soldiers ate with such a voracious appetite trying to imagine their food as something decadent, them drooling over the scent of food. And then, sadness over the fact that these soldiers were not going to spend Christmas the way they used to with family back home, and how whenever Christmas came, there was also this particular atmosphere, people were happy, there were lights and decorations. But, in the mountains the soldiers did not get any of that, they were even trying to find (if possible) whether and how the rural people in the mountains celebrated Christmas. I liked this part because it addresses what I mentioned in The Underdogs; that revolutions are not just about fighting and trying to win, but that at a personal level, it affects families as they are separated and risk losing each other. There is a lot of parallel between this book and that of the Bolivian Diary where both mention in detail the journey in the mountains and how difficult it was for these soldiers, how much planning and optimism they needed, and the possible dangers.

Finally, the end of the book talks about the legacies of a Sandinista. I liked how he emphasized the word history, in particular, he calls it Sandinista history, one of honor, dignity, and of the people fighting against Yankee imperialism (again). But if anything, by emphasizing so much on history and its relation to people and its legacies, the authors successfully seems to make it as part of Nicaraguan identity, that the people who live nowadays, this is where they (or their parents, grandparents, family relatives) came from, this is what it means to be Nicaraguan, and this is the unifying spirit of the country. Even on the last page he says, “I felt I was the son of history. I understood my own past. I knew where I stood. I had a country. I had a historical identity”. So the legacy of Sandinismo is that it goes on even after the revolution, and how it has shaped people’s identity, history, and national significance. It was in the end, a fight for liberty, truth, and peace for all Nicaraguans!