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Feminists Around the World: Dora Maria Tellez · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anie and Samantha and welcome to STEPHF
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  Speaker 1: I never told your production, but I hurry to you.
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  Speaker 2: And as we are in the prime of Hispanic Heritage Month,
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  Speaker 2: we are jumping in with a revolutionary who has been
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  Speaker 2: a soldier, a writer, an activist and advocate. We were
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  Speaker 2: talking about Dora Maria Tayas and Theayas has lived a life,
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  Speaker 2: a life full of persistence and activism. Theayas was born
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  Speaker 2: and lived in Nicaragua most of our life. She was
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  Speaker 2: a medical student in Lyon when she was recruited by
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  Speaker 2: the FSLN or the Satanistas National Liberation Front in the seventies,
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  Speaker 2: and not only would she be joining them, but she
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  Speaker 2: would soon become commander number two, making her the third
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  Speaker 2: in command. Here's a bit from covedencial dot Digital. In
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  Speaker 2: nineteen seventy eight eight, at the age of twenty two,
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  Speaker 2: Maria Taies was designated Commandante Dos and served as third
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  Speaker 2: in command during the FSLN's gorilla assault on Nicaragua's National Palace.
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  Speaker 2: She would later become the political military leader of the
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  Speaker 2: FSLNS Prihoberto Lopez Perez Western Command, the regional gorilla division
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  Speaker 2: that liberated the city of Lyon during the overthrow of
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  Speaker 2: the dictatorship of Anastasio Somosa in July of nineteen seventy nine.
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  Speaker 2: During the revolutionary government of the nineteen eighties, Tayas who
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  Speaker 2: quit medical school to join the armed struggle quote because
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  Speaker 2: it was the only option we had left for changing
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  Speaker 2: the conditions in Nicaragua.
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  Speaker 1: And from her Wikipedia page, here's some more details about
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  Speaker 1: her work during that time. Quote. An increase in government
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  Speaker 1: repression and rise of political prisoners being taken prompted Taes
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  Speaker 1: to go underground in nineteen seventy six. While underground, she
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  Speaker 1: did educational work in the mountains. As Commander two at
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  Speaker 1: age twenty two, she was third in command in Operation
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  Speaker 1: Chancerra on August twenty second, nineteen seventy eight, that occupied
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  Speaker 1: the Nicaraguan National Palace in Monagua, where the Nicaraguan National
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  Speaker 1: Assembly was in session. The revolutionaries captured one thousand, five
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  Speaker 1: hundred civilian hostages and threatened their lives unless their demands
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  Speaker 1: were met. The demands included a prisoner release and a
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  Speaker 1: monetary ransom. There was a subsequent release of key Sandinista
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  Speaker 1: political prisoners and a million dollar ransom payment, which Tayes
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  Speaker 1: played a role in negotiating This event revealed the potential
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  Speaker 1: vulnerability of the Samosa regime and helped the fsl N
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  Speaker 1: win support from Latin American governments and unite immobilized diverse
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  Speaker 1: factions of the opposition to the regime. Following the operation,
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  Speaker 1: thousands of use and women joined the Santinista movement. A
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  Speaker 1: popular insurrection grew along with the FSLN and contributed to
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  Speaker 1: the fall of the Samosa regime on July nineteenth, nineteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy nine.
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  Speaker 2: So her persistence in the revolution was inspiring. Not only
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  Speaker 2: did she go to train in Cuba and Pam, but
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  Speaker 2: she would lead platoons for months against the Nicaragua National
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  Speaker 2: Guard and was able to continually succeed in bringing down
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  Speaker 2: the opposing forces. Here's a more from the Wikipedia page
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  Speaker 2: about her capturing the city of Lyon. Finally, she led
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  Speaker 2: the Santinsas units fighting the enemy's elite forces blocked by
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  Speaker 2: block for six consecutive weeks until they captured the city
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  Speaker 2: of Lyon in June nineteen seventy nine, the first major
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  Speaker 2: city to fall to the Sandinistas in the revolution. This
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  Speaker 2: was followed by the fall of Monagua two weeks later
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  Speaker 2: and the installation of the Santinistas Provisional Government junta in
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  Speaker 2: this city. Soon after, after their overthrow of the then dictatorship,
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  Speaker 2: TAAs was appointed as the Minister of Health, and during
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  Speaker 2: her time as Minister, Nicaragua was awarded the UN Educational,
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  Speaker 2: Scientific and Cultural Organizations Prize for their work and health progress.
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  Speaker 2: During her time, she was able to work alongside with
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  Speaker 2: other organizations to advocate for the gay and lesbian rights
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  Speaker 2: and reproductive rights for women in the country, and for
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  Speaker 2: a while it seemed Nicaragua was working as a democracy,
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  Speaker 2: but then things took a turn. In nineteen ninety five,
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  Speaker 2: Tays co founded the Satanistas Renovation Movement or MRS after
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  Speaker 2: leaving the FSLN. She less soon after seeing the corruption
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  Speaker 2: of the government that began to rise at the time.
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  Speaker 2: In two thousand and six, she and the party tried
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  Speaker 2: to oppose the past president, Daniel Ortega, who had been
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  Speaker 2: a combat of hers at one time, and in two
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  Speaker 2: thousand and eight, Tays started a hunger strike two protests
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  Speaker 2: Ortiga and his dictatorial policies.
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  Speaker 1: Here's what she told Confidencial about what happened during this time.
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  Speaker 1: Quote those of us who did develop a fairly deep
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  Speaker 1: critique are the same people who were early dissidents within
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  Speaker 1: the Sandinista Front and later left the party to create
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  Speaker 1: the MRS which is now called Unamos. And we were
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  Speaker 1: focused on two issues, developing a democratic society and a
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  Speaker 1: commitment to democracy within the party. But this is still
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  Speaker 1: a debate that we need to have on a broader
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  Speaker 1: scale in Nicaragua. Why have all ideological currents in Nicaragua
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  Speaker 1: produced dictatorships? The Conservatives General Tolomas Martinez, the Liberals Jose
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  Speaker 1: Santos Zelea, or the somosas Sandinismo with Daniel Ortega. Every
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  Speaker 1: major political current in Nicaragua has produced a dictatorship. Doctor
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  Speaker 1: Emilio Alvarez Montrvaan once said about our country's political culture,
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  Speaker 1: We Nicaraguans have an essential problem, which is our need
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  Speaker 1: to look to a strong man for the solutions to
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  Speaker 1: all of our problems and to arbitrate social conflicts. This
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  Speaker 1: has meant that we haven't developed democratic habits. We fail
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  Speaker 1: to understand that crises and debates are part of democracy,
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  Speaker 1: that solutions to social conflict depend on institutional processes of revolution. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: what we want is to watch a strong figure who
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  Speaker 1: immediately solves and arbitrates those problems. At the end of
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  Speaker 1: the day, this leads to dictatorship. But we also have
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  Speaker 1: a structural problem that has to do not only with
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  Speaker 1: the Sandinista Revolution, but with the entire twentieth century Nicaragua.
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  Speaker 2: And in that same interview, she talked about the legacy
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  Speaker 2: of her work and the work of the revolutionaries, and
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  Speaker 2: she says, I think the most enduring feature of the
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  Speaker 2: revolution is a progress that has been made in terms
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  Speaker 2: of citizen organization and participation. By this, I mean the
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  Speaker 2: capacities that various social sectors have developed to create the
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  Speaker 2: conditions necessary to improve their lives and to organize themselves
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  Speaker 2: to assert their rights, which is precisely with the dictatorship
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  Speaker 2: and the state of terror has turned against the Ortego
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  Speaker 2: Morio regime has set out to liquidate all non governmental organizations,
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  Speaker 2: social movements and media, the most important legacies of the
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  Speaker 2: Sandinista Revolution, and in twenty twenty one, Tayas was arrested
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  Speaker 2: by the Ortega government as well as several others, and
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  Speaker 2: she was sentenced in twenty twenty two for up to
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  Speaker 2: fifteen years for her opposition to the presidential elections. So
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  Speaker 2: here's some context of what happened. From phmovement dot com quote.
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  Speaker 2: Former socialist revolutionary Daniel Orteka is criticized by former comrades
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  Speaker 2: for gradually abandoning the idealistic, democratic and socialist values that
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  Speaker 2: had motivated the nineteen seventy nine revolution. Since assuming presidency
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  Speaker 2: in two thousand and seven, he is said to have
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  Speaker 2: implemented increasingly repressive and anti democratic measures. In twenty eighteen,
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  Speaker 2: over three hundred demonstrators protesting or Tega's policies were shot
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  Speaker 2: and killed. In the run up to the Nicaraguan national
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  Speaker 2: elections in November twenty twenty one, the government of President
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  Speaker 2: Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Morio, arrested
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  Speaker 2: virtually all opposition candidates and prominent critics of their regime.
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  Speaker 2: The UN Human Rights Commission denounced the imprisonments subsequent elections
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  Speaker 2: in accompanying police violence and other actions as fraudulent and abusive.
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  Speaker 2: Miss Tayas was arrested in June twenty twenty one along
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  Speaker 2: with other leaders of the main opposition party, Democratic Renewal
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  Speaker 2: Union known as UNAMOS. The sixty five year old former
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  Speaker 2: Minister of Health and parliamentarian and some two hundred others
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  Speaker 2: were detained and charged under a new vague sovereignty law
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  Speaker 2: for ill defined acts that quote menace sovereignty and independence
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  Speaker 2: in a sham trial where neither she nor her lawyer
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  Speaker 2: was permitted to speak. She was found guilty the following
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  Speaker 2: February and sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment. Since that June
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, she has been detained in El Chipote Prison,
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  Speaker 2: notorious for its appalling conditions. Basic rights under Nicaraguan law
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  Speaker 2: are denied, such as a visit from prisoner's children, communication
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  Speaker 2: with attorneys, and specifications of the charges of which persons
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  Speaker 2: are in prison. Multiple reports from range of sources have
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  Speaker 2: pointed out quote inhuman conditions lack of potable water, lack
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  Speaker 2: of food, solitary confinement without reading or writing materials, and
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  Speaker 2: in permanent darkness. She joined a hunger strike in September
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty two in protests against conditions of isolation and
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  Speaker 2: lack of reading and writing materials. Prison conditions have left
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  Speaker 2: her pell and emaciated. So this was during a time
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  Speaker 2: where people were advocating for her release and just her
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  Speaker 2: trial alone being a sham. So during that campaign. It
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  Speaker 2: was enlisting like all the things that was happening, including
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  Speaker 2: who was in prison, and then also what they're demanding
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  Speaker 2: from the UN and others. In order to get her released.
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  Speaker 1: There was an international campaign to have her and several
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  Speaker 1: others released from prison, and in twenty twenty three, she
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  Speaker 1: was released. Here's a bit from the Nation dot com.
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  Speaker 1: Nicaraguan political leader and historian Dora Maria Theyes is free
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  Speaker 1: after twenty months of imprisonment and Monagua's brutal al ChiPT prison. Theyes,
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  Speaker 1: a legendary figure in the Santinista Revolution, jailed since before
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  Speaker 1: the country's November twenty twenty one elections, was one of
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  Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty two political prisoners who were released
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  Speaker 1: by the Daniel Ortega and Rosario Mario government on February ninth,
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  Speaker 1: immediately sent to Washington, d C. On a charter flight
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  Speaker 1: after the United States agreed to provide asylum to the exiles.
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  Speaker 1: The Nation interviewed Teaz after her release, and here's what
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  Speaker 1: she told them about being in the US and being freed. Well,
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  Speaker 1: what happened was a huge surprise. We were exiled from
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  Speaker 1: one minute to the next, and then four hours later
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  Speaker 1: we were in Washington, a virtually instant transition for a prisoner.
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  Speaker 1: There was a feeling of surprise, also of great joy
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  Speaker 1: on the one hand. On the other hand, there was
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  Speaker 1: sorrow about being banished from my own land, of being deported,
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  Speaker 1: of being stripped of my nationality. But well, that is
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  Speaker 1: a bittersweet feeling losing the possibility of being free in Nicaragua,
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  Speaker 1: because in reality, we should have the right to be
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  Speaker 1: free in Nicaragua, right.
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  Speaker 2: And she continued in the interview talking about the significance
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  Speaker 2: of her release. I believe that releasing us, even though
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  Speaker 2: we have been banished, marks a turning point in the
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  Speaker 2: evolution of the Ortega Mario regime. Basically, it is a
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  Speaker 2: recognition that the policy of oppression could persecution, jail, banishment,
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  Speaker 2: death and confiscations has not worked for them. They have
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  Speaker 2: released us in order to be able to establish certain
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  Speaker 2: lines of communication at the international level, because nobody was
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  Speaker 2: willing to enter into dialogue with them if we, the
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  Speaker 2: political prisoners, were not released beforehand. So there's a very
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  Speaker 2: important difference between the moment before and the moment after
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  Speaker 2: our release. I believe that in the future we're going
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  Speaker 2: to see changes which will be gradual because the regime
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  Speaker 2: is also very afraid, isn't it. The regime fears that
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  Speaker 2: if they let up on the repression, there could be
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  Speaker 2: an even greater crisis, or they could be demonstrations like
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  Speaker 2: there were in April twenty eighteen. But well, we are
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  Speaker 2: at a turning point. And that is the remarkable thing
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  Speaker 2: about this moment.
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  Speaker 1: And as she talked about previously, her time here has
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  Speaker 1: been bittersweet. She has been able to reunite with her partner,
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  Speaker 1: who was also arrested and detained in that nation. Dot
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  Speaker 1: Com in review they asked her about the importance of solidarity,
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  Speaker 1: as well as what it is to be rebellious at
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  Speaker 1: a young age versus older, and here's what she said, quote,
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  Speaker 1: we have had a really gigantic outpouring of solidarity, right
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  Speaker 1: A lot of people have prayed for us and are
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  Speaker 1: praying now, are giving thanks that we are granted freedom.
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  Speaker 1: Many governments demanded our freedom and have also proceeded to
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  Speaker 1: offer as asylum and citizenship in the case of Spain
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  Speaker 1: and now Argentina. But we have also received other kinds
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  Speaker 1: of solidarity. People who came to Washington, who are housing
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  Speaker 1: prisoners and supporting prisoners, in different ways, who brought clothing
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  Speaker 1: because we arrived with practically nothing. That is solidarity, right.
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  Speaker 2: And about the age difference, I can only speak for
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  Speaker 2: my own experience, but let's say that an older person
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  Speaker 2: tends to become more accommodating, and basically, I'm happy to
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  Speaker 2: not become accommodating to maintain a confrontation with an illegitimate authority,
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  Speaker 2: with an authoritarian model. I like that rebelliousness because I'm
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  Speaker 2: happier not bowing at my head at any price and
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  Speaker 2: not kneeling in front of the dictatorship at any price.
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  Speaker 2: And that for me is very important for myself, not
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  Speaker 2: for anyone else but myself, which is what I decire,
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  Speaker 2: what I want to continue doing, and how much I'm
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  Speaker 2: willing to pay for it, because it always has a price.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, there's a lot that's been happening in Garagua.
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  Speaker 2: Is still dealing with the dictatorship under Ortega and Mario
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  Speaker 2: not really sure because I'm not gonna lie, y'all. I've
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  Speaker 2: found out that I didn't know how to spell Nicaragua
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  Speaker 2: until I started this specific episode. Realizing that we don't
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  Speaker 2: know what's going everywhere, it's hard to pay attention to
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  Speaker 2: everything because we are somewhat isolated and encompassing our own issues.
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  Speaker 2: That sounds similarly like a starting point, you know whatever.
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  Speaker 2: Whatnot just saying as we're watching things are happening around
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  Speaker 2: the world and in our own government as well. But
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  Speaker 2: it is an amazing tell the things that she has accomplished,
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  Speaker 2: the things that she has done, the things that she's
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  Speaker 2: willing to do is incredible and speaks a lot to
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  Speaker 2: her again persistence and her advocacy and her work in general.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, and that she's been there so long. Yeah, it's amazing.
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  Speaker 1: While listeners, if you have any more information about this
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  Speaker 1: or anything around the world that we should be talking about,
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  Speaker 1: please let us know. You can email us at Stepnia
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  Speaker 1: mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and
• 14:18
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• 14:20
  Speaker 1: YouTube page, we have a tea public store, and we
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  Speaker 1: have a book you can get wherever you get your books.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks as always to our super producer Christina, executive producer Maya,
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  Speaker 1: and archtutor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
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