Loyola University • New Orleans • Volume 101 • Issue 08 • October 28, 2022
THE MAROON For a greater Loyola
FSLN flag displayed in professor’s office upsets Nicaraguan students By Macie Batson mmbats@my,loyno.edu
il S Abiga t /The chmid on Maro
Late last month, graduate student Alejandra Arguello Fletes sent a letter to Loyola in response to a video post from the university’s official Instagram page on Friday Sept. 23. The post showed Nathan Henne, in his office with a flag that Nicaraguan students described as representing “trauma, disgust, and fear.” The Instagram post was intended to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by exploring New Orleans’ Hispanic identity, and the marketing team asked a few faculty members from the Latin American Studies department to shoot a short video reflecting on the city’s Hispanic history, Henne said. Despite the fact that it had nothing to do with the video, Henne said that the angle of the film revealed a flag with the letters FSLN on it over his head, as well as other historical resistances against U.S. imperialism and dictatorships. The FSLN, or Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, is a Nicaraguan political party run by the Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega, and was established in the 1980s. Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistance against U.S. occupation in the 1930s, inspired the party’s name. “This wall in my office chronicles resistance over the last century in Central and Latin America,” Henne said. Upon seeing the video, Fletes said she and other Nicaraguan students felt insulted that Henne had this flag up in
his office. Fletes argued it was a symbol of the abuse Daniel Ortega is currently imposing on Nicaraguans as the country’s president. Henne defended the flag’s presence in his office, saying that to him, it represents Central American freedom. Acknowledging the history Henne, who was born and raised in Guatemala, said the FSLN led and won the Nicaraguan revolution against the Somoza government in 1979. “I remember the day … when they won that revolution, and a lot of Latin America remembers and celebrates it,” Henne said. Fletes said that the FSLN should not be used as a model for revolutionary history since Ortega has been in power since the November 2006 elections through use of fraudulent voting and other violations of constitutional rights and democracy. “They manipulated the common desire to be a free country to abolish a dictatorship just to implement another,” Fletes said. “That’s why it cannot be an example.” Furthermore, Fletes stated that the FSLN cannot serve as an example for the hemisphere because the same people who represented the FSLN political party in the 1980s are still present now. According to Fletes, the repression, corruption, and dictatorship did not begin “a few years ago,” but that Nicaraguans began to resist a few years ago.
A quick takedown Fletes stated that many comments on the post from Loyola students expressed disappointment that Loyola would allow a faculty member to display this flag in their office despite the hardship that the people of Nicaragua are experiencing as a result of the FSLN. “For me, Loyola is my safe place, and when I realized that there is a professor who has a flag that gives me nightmares, it was threatening,” Fletes said. Loyola’s marketing department removed the video 54 minutes after it was posted, according to Fletes. Fletes then composed a letter on behalf of Nicaraguan students at Loyola and sent it on Monday, Sept. 26 to the interim university president, the director of student affairs, the director of marketing, the director of ministry, and the vice president for equity and inclusion. Henne said that Vice President of Marketing and Communications Rachel Hoormann let him know the video was being taken down. Fletes said she hoped that the letter would encourage the university to become more aware and conscientious of the flag and its meaning. “Maybe the FSLN tried to do something good in the 80s, but 40 years later we can see that the whole purpose of what they did was not with a good end,” Fletes said. Henne said that he was unaware that Fletes sent the letter and that he learned about it from a fellow faculty member.
See FLAG, page 9
Remembering Professor Mack page 3
Some juveniles move to Angola page 9
Culture isn’t your costume page 11