Election Year: Bright Colors, Catchy Songs and Political Rallies

November 6, 2011- Election day here in Nicaragua. The politics here are so different than the politics at home. (By the way-I just want to emphasize the fact that this blog has been written and posted by me and can in no way be tied to the US government as an official statement. These are merely my observations of pre-election activity. I will try to be as neutral as possible.) Anyway, back at home, a politician will travel around from state to state making speechs, giving interviews and digging up dirt of her or his fellow candidates in order to make great but dirty TV ads. Here in Nicaragua, campaigns are built on bright fun colors (which make for great t-shirts and billboards); popular and extremely catchy songs being played over and over again until everyone knows every single word and even if you’re not Nicaraguan or not attached to that specific party-you find yourself singing along (otra otra…doo da da da…Nicaragua….) and as you can imagine from the previous two points, the focus is placed on getting the youth vote. This is made obvious through massive youth clubs who attend and lead rallies and marches, put on beauty pageants in honor of their political party and sport their political t-shirts whenever and wherever possible. TV commercials do point out the flaws of the other candidates, but more so are focused on blasted their song or slogan over and over again. Massive political rallies are held-it seems like for a while, once a week. These rallies are widely attended by babies, groups of children and teenagers, adults and senior citizens. In my community, the population seems pretty split. There are a large amount of Sandinistas who are extremely passionate and wear their red and black very proudly, but there are also a huge number of Liberals, who are also very committed to their party. I honestly am not sure what will happen tomorrow. I guess we will just have to wait and see who wins and how this affects the country (if it changes anything at all). All this being said, I am extremely excited and interested to see what happens and very glad to be able to experience what could be an extremely important moment in Nicaraguan history.