40/CHRONICLESnLetter FromnManaguanby Wallace KauhnannA Devil’s Dictionary From NicaraguanRevolutions attempt to give newnmeaning to life. Sometimes changingnthe definition of words is part of thenattempt to change reality. At otherntimes,, reality changes first. Nowherendoes the traveler have more old wordsnwith new meanings than in revolutionarynNicaragua. To help thosenwhose first days in the country are asnconfused as mine, here is an abridgedndictionary of the revolution (with apologiesnto Ambrose Bierce):nAgricultural loan: a government loannto large or small farmer carrying thenpatriotic interest rates of 20 to 30npercent rather than the 10 percent ratenthat the government considers.”imperialisfic”nin international lending.nAir conditioners: machines that coolnpeople as they do in other countries,nbut here they are also political markersnfound mainly in the following places:npro-government radio and televisionnstations, offices of high governmentnofficials, and Marxist-Leninist bookstores.nIn this classless, workers’ statenwhere most people dress alike, seekingnout the air conditioners is a good waynto find the important communists.nAlfabeticizacion: the national literacyncampaign somewhat like the U.S. programn”Hooked on Books” but based onnthe theory that politics makes goodnreading if it is full of revolutionarynaction and party politics: C is fornCarlos (founder of the SandinistanParty); G is for Guerrillero; F is fornFusil (rifle); by Lesson 4 a student cannread “The FSLN (Sandinista party) isnthe organization of the vanguard of thenNicaraguan people.”nBlue jeans: one of the few permissiblenstatements of affection for U.S. capitalismnand its culture; the pants pre­nCORRESPONDENCEnferred by the younger government officialsnfrom middle-class backgroundsnwho still have some family money,nrelatives in the U.S., or who haventraveled abroad on government junkets.nSometimes available on the blacknmarket for about five months’ wages.nBrigadistas: members of the Americannand European middle class or bourgeoisienwho come to the workers’ statenwhere they work for nothing ($10 anmonth less than the native workers)nbuilding schools and clinics or pickingncoffee for two weeks or a month beforenreturning home to their bourgeois jobsnor to attend college on the moneynprovided by their bourgeois parents orntheir imperialistic government.nBurguesia: anyone who used to make anliing without a government license orneconomic aid; people who used tonhave air conditioners; in the Marxist-nLeninist literature of Nicaragua, bourgeoisienhas the same function as thenword devil in Christian writing, althoughnit appears more frequently.nBus: a relatively rare species of vehiclenin vi’hich crowds are often used tonimmobilize and numb travelers sonwealth can be redistributed manually.nRecently riders have complained thatndrivers have developed a Fagan-likenpatronage for pickpockets.nBOOKS IN BRIEFnCordoba: the official currency and thenbest bargain in Nicaragua since everynday an American dollar buys more andnmore. A one cordoba coin is used fornpay phones, the world’s greatest phonenbargain. But since it takes 100 of themnto equal a nickel, almost no one carriesnthem and you can never find onenwhen you need to make a call.nDemocracy (workers’): the processnwhereby workers and campesinos maynoffer constructive Marxist ideas to improvenproduction and the Sandinistansystem of government.nDemocracy (capitalist): distinguishednfrom workers’ democracy by its diversionarynemphasis .on elections to decidenwhat party and which persons willnrun the government. CommandantenBayardo Arce called the 1984 electionsn”a nuisance” necessary to placate foreignnobservers.nFree speech: “Thought that is correct,nthat is with the revolution” (PresidentnDaniel Ortega).nFSLN (Sandinista National LiberationnFront): the political party whosenred and black flag flies on governmentnbuildings more often than the nationalnflag; that political party which allowsnthe fewest number of official membersnbut which controls the greatest numbernof guns; the only political party innThomas De Quincey: Bicentenary Studies, edited by Robert Lance Snyder, Norman, OK:nUniversity of Oklahoma Press; $29.50. Sixteen critics look at a troubled Romantic whosenworks “bristle with the images of an imperial self.”nWilliam Shakespeare by Terry Eagleton, New York: Basil Blackwell; S14.95. Marxist,nfeminist, and semiotic theories combine to show us that the witches are “the heroines” ofnMacbeth and the center of “positive value”—even if a “conservative patriarch” likenShakespeare could not see it this way. “This wa’ madness lies. …”nThe Language of the Heart: The Body’s Response to Human Dialoguehy James L. Lynch,nNew York: Basic Books; $19.95. A leading psychophysiologist explains why we pay fornstressful speech w ith our heart’s blood—unless we’re schizophrenic.nHoIIynood: Legend and Reality, edited by Michael Webb, Boston: Little, Brown; $19.95.nAn engrossing collection of memorabilia, gathered for a Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition,ngives us a close-up on the world of stardom, from the days of Fatty Arbuckle and .MarynPickford to Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood.nnn