“Against words and photographs”. Sandinista Women trough the view of Margaret Randall. Oral History and Photography in Nicaragua

Abstract

The present text addresses a particular historical process: four year along the history of Nicaragua (1979-1984) framed in the context of Sandinista revolution through the analysis and review of the work of the poet, writer and photograph, Margaret Randall.

This approach is based upon two lines of interpretation emanated from three different sources. In a first moment, on the photographs taken by Randall between 1979-1980 during her investigation for the making of the book Todas estamos despiertas funded by the Nicaraguan Ministry of Culture. In a second moment it is based upon the interviews that Randall also performed to a number of Nicaraguan women at the same period and with the same purpose. At last it also employs the interviews performed to Margaret Randall in December 2018 in the context of this investigation. The last two sources are positioned in the stream of oral history and the construction of historical memory. Meanwhile the first one has its origin in the analysis of the photographic register made by the author. This text has the intention of relate Randall’s photographic practice with her practice as an oral historian whose main objective was to make women visible as a fundamental part of the struggle she witnessed.