Manágua (Nicarágua), 1948

By Flávio Aguiar

Sobre la grama surprised both the Nicaraguan public and critics in the early 1970s by turning eroticism into a revolutionary movement for the liberation of the body and instincts, while pursuing the poetic renewal inspired by Ernesto Cardenal and Claribel Alegría. Aware of the condition of women, her poetry, and later her narrative work, revealed a deep concern for Latin American social and political issues, as seen in Línea de fuego (1978).

Alongside other intellectuals, Gioconda Belli joined the Sandinista movement from 1970 to 1994. When persecuted by the Somoza military dictatorship, she went into exile in Mexico and Costa Rica. She returned with the revolutionary triumph and held several public positions. In 1988, she published the political novel La mujer habitada, a critical and commercial success that brought her recognition alongside other important writers such as Ernesto Sábato. A mother of four, she recalls Nicaragua’s many social upheavals in El país bajo mi piel (2001). Another notable work is Sofía de los presagios (1990).