A Reflection on Nicaraguan Humor

What are you laughing at and with whom are you laughing?
A Reflection on Nicaraguan Humor
As I conduct a study of political humor and social transformation in Latin America, I come to various conclusions about the kind of humor that each country produces, the way it is used and the social norms that Latin American humorists embrace or uphold in order to make you laugh. Nicaragua was my base for three months but I ventured over to other countries to interview cartoonists and comedians to compare and contrast different types of political humor in Central America. My study is not as simple as what is ‘funny’ or not because often times that is dependent on personal taste as well as social locations; rather my study is to find out to what extent can humor be an instrument of social change and a means of giving voice to the voiceless.
During my three months in Nicaragua I volunteered with a feminist NGO Puntos De Encuentro which produces a television and radio show entitled Sexto Sentido while I conducted interviews with comedians, cartoonists and popular theatre groups. Nicaragua has a long history of using humor as a tool of resistance starting with the dance/play “El Güegüence.” This play confronts colonization through humor with the main character as a dishonest man who deceives those in power. El Güegüence is celebrated and admired in Nicaragua and started a tradition of using humor as a form of protest against institutions of power that continues to appear in the humor produced today.
Daniel Paz, an Argentine cartoonist told me that humor is always a result of a historical, social and political context as well as the ideological norms of any given society. So in other words, Nicaraguan humor, like humor in any country is a product of the economic, political and social conditions of the society. Nicaragua has seen many conflicts of all sorts: from natural disasters (hurricanes, volcano eruptions, earthquakes etc) to dictatorships, to bloody revolutions, poverty (one of the poorest countries in Latin America) and corruption. All these difficult periods did not only make laughter necessary but has also caused Nicaraguan humor to become a kind of dark humor. I found that Nicaraguans are capable of laughing at almost anything and finding humor in the most difficult period. So for instance, while human rights activists around the world threw a fit when a dog fatally attacked a Nicaraguan immigrant in Costa Rica, the average Nicaraguan had several jokes about the fact that the victim’s name was Natividad. When I read the jokes about his name, I thought if this had been an American citizen, the U.S government probably would’ve been preparing an invasion of Costa Rica. But Nicaraguans laugh at the things or people they laugh at because laughter is a means of emotional ‘alivio.’
When I first moved t o Nicaragua, I found that undertaking my study would require me to divide my project into two parts: El Humor Político partidario and El Humor Político Social.
El Humor Político Partidario is humor directed against the ruling class and which typically makes fun of politicians or public figures themselves. I found that this kind of humor is probably the most dominant type of humor to be found in Nicaragua. It exists in what we can understand as mainstream political humor: cartoons in newspapers such as La Prensa and El Nuevo Diario, comedy shows on television such as Los Hulosos, radio shows such as El Tren de los Volteados by Valentín Castillo and the work of stand-up comedian Luis Enrique Calderón. I refer to this as mainstream humor because it is political humor sponsored by the press: newspapers, television and radio and is the most public, most visible type of humor. Stand-up comedian Luis Enrique Calderón is the only exception to this as he goes on tour and works with his own agents and managers but I have included him in this category because of the fact that his routines are imitations of politicians and people in the ruling class.
El Humor Político Partidario as it exists in the public space is usually against or for a certain political party. The vast majority of shows whether it be Los Hulosos- produced by cartoonist Manuel Guillén which predominantly makes fun of the Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega or the work of stand-up comedian Luis Enrique Calderón who imitates former and present political figures in his routines- the vast majority of the time, the humor is about ridiculing the politicians and not about generating strategies to change the system. For instance, I am yet to see an episode of Los Hulosos where there is no reference to ‘El Bachi Ortega’ Sandinista leader and his wife Chamuca Murillo portrayed as a witch. In one episode ‘El Bachi’ is represented singing with his wife “Jodida Nicaragua, Yo triunfo” or arguing with the late Herty former leader of MRS referred to as ‘Zorrillo Judillo’ in a fake television program hosted by Nano Banano. In another episode, ‘Zorrillo Judillo’ who refers to himself as the ‘former Zorro del Bachi’ comes back from the dead to argue with ‘El Bachi’ about the election and continuously uses profanity as reference to his “controversial” use of the word ‘mierda’ in his campaign. These episodes basically portray the leaders in a humorous way and doing humorous things but provide no real criticism of their proposed policies, campaigns or even their role in the famous pact.
Luis Enrique Calderón also makes fun of politicians by perfectly imitating their voices and their speeches and replacing campaign slogans with humorous things like “Soy la Bestia…vota por la Bestia” or ending each imitation with “En el nombre del pacto…y el espíritu santo.” He also typically ends his routines with the song ‘Nicaragua, Nicaragüita’ after having a question and answer session with the audience as part of the routine. What was useful about the question and answer session was that not only did the audience participate in producing humor but he also gave them the opportunity to question policies implemented by certain politicians always with humorous responses. In this way, he as a comedian becomes both creator and mediator of a space between the people and institutions of power where people can actually have a voice. However the downside to it is that Calderón can only imitate certain politicians or journalists, some of whom are no longer in public life. Also, in my interview with him he revealed that he supported a certain political party and does little to allow for criticism of that party in his routine. Personal persuasion towards a particular political party is an issue that appeared in my interviews with almost every cartoonist/comedian in Managua. It is natural for a humorist as an individual to support a certain party but it meant that their humor presented criticisms of some parties and not others.
I was able to find some exceptions to shows like Los Hulosos and the work of Calderón. There is an early morning radio show on Radio Tigre entitled El Tren de Los Volteados produced by Valentín Castillo who told me that at that moment, his show was directed towards getting people to go out and vote in the then upcoming presidential elections. He believed that getting people to vote is the only way to bring about change in Nicaragua. He also told me that he refuses to make fun of women in his radio show because of the oppression that they experience in Nicaragua. However, in conversations with some Nicaraguans about the show and my interview, they debunked what Castillo had to say and provided examples of sexism and homophobia they had listened to on the radio program in the past. I didn’t get that impression listening to the show and some of its early recordings but given the fact that I was in the country for a relatively short period, their criticism of the show may have been valid.
Several people recommended cartoonist Pedro Molina as an objective voice who openly criticizes institutions such as the church and the ways in which they oppress ordinary people. But given that I went to Nicaragua right before their presidential election, I found that his humor was also directed toward the political class and fell into similar traps like other cartoonists and comedians of poking fun at politicians and little else. What I saw of political humor in Nicaragua was essentially a reflection of the historical moment in which it was operating. So, we can explain the focus of the comedians and cartoonists on the politicians and members of the ruling class as part of the fact that I went two/three months before the elections. During a political campaign where every vote counts, humorists pick a party and take sides. The goal of political humor in that moment is not about opening the hearts and minds of people nor speaking for the voiceless. It is about getting people to vote for whomever you as a comedian believe they should vote for with little or no discussion about a politician’s positions on social issues.
My interviews and conversations with cartoonists and comedians themselves demonstrated that the vast majority of Nicaraguan humor as it exists in the public space has little to do with issues of social equality such as sexism, domestic abuse, HIV aids, gay rights etc—and when it does, it is often used to reinforce societal norms. The most common themes that do appear are poverty, unemployment and corruption. Frankly, I find these to be relatively easier to talk about than a controversial issue, say like abortion or even gay rights. When Nicaraguan leaders repealed the Penal Code allowing “el aborto terapeútico’ overnight in order to gain the support of religious citizens it brought about little or no visible outrage in the work of humorists in Nicaragua. It is not a coincidence that humorists choose to speak about some issues and not others. The themes that appear and that do not appear in political humor are impacted, but not always determined, by the humorist’s social location. It is important to bear in mind that humorists are not immune to the internalization of racist, sexist or homophobic views and this can also be reflected in their work. So here are some of the issues that do NOT get talked about among humorists in Nicaragua.

Gender
The absence of female humorists in the mainstream political humor industry in Nicaragua is a reflection of the sexism of the society itself. There are no female cartoonists in Nicaragua and the only stand-up comedian in Managua is a guy. This was the case in most of Central America as throughout my time in Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama, I had never met nor heard of a single female cartoonist. This was somewhat puzzling to me when I considered other parts of Latin America especially South America, in countries such as Argentina with huge female cartoonists like Maitena and stand-up comedians such as Natalia Carulias and Dalia Gutmann. However, in Argentina, women still occupy a relatively small space in the political humor industry. But at least, there is a female presence doing humor about women’s issues. The absence of women in Central America does not mean that ‘women are not that funny’ as one cartoonist told me, it means that women do not have access to political humor in the public space, the way that men do.
Also, I noticed that in comedy shows on television, men are more likely to dress up and act as women rather than have women in the casts playing their own role; this is also linked to notions of gender and sexuality as a man dressed as a woman can garner a laugh since it insinuates homosexuality. Also, when there are female characters such as the Sandinista leaders wife in the show Los Hulosos, they are portrayed as a witch or a ‘weirdo’ as reference to what has been described as her ‘strange’ religious practices. In my conversation with a writer German Pomares Herrera, producer of the new comedy show NNN (Nicaragua News Network) he said that absence of women comedians is partially due to the envy of male coworkers that she will ‘steal their limelight’. He explained that in his own experience, many male actors do not want a woman on the show because they are afraid she will get more attention and become more famous than they will become. Rene Blanco, writer for the show Sexto Sentido in Puntos de Encuentro, explained that this is mainly because of ‘machismo’ in the society where women do not have equal access to the working world including jobs in the media. When I interviewed Honduras’ most famous cartoonist Miguel Angel Montoya, his explanation for the absence of female cartoonists and comedians in Central America was simple: “Porque somos unos machistas!”(Because we’re sexist!) All these explanations are true and undoubtedly, the person who has access to the media is the person who determines what you laugh at. Now I am not making an essentialist argument about women and men, nor am I suggesting that women do not internalize notions about race, gender etc the way that men do. What I am suggesting is that the lack of female representation demonstrates how the political humor industry perpetuates systemic exclusion of women by way of being a masculinist space. What you laugh at is never separate from the person who is making you laugh.

Race
The lack of discussion about race and racism in Nicaraguan political humor is all part of the general invisibility of Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast whose citizens are people of African, Miskito and Indigenous descent. Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast continues to be the poorest region in the country even though up to 60% of the country’s export are produced in that region. Also, several different languages are spoken on the Atlantic coast, apart from Spanish even though very rarely do you hear people speak about Nicaragua as a multi-lingual country. Unemployment and drug abuse are rampant on the Atlantic coast and it is the least developed part of Nicaragua. In my discussions with people from the Atlantic Coast-mainly Bluefields, they believe that the government’s neglect of the region is all part of the conflict that existed during Colonization between the Spanish and the British. The separation that the colonizers implanted continues to foment the division between the two sides of the country. In response to my question as to why their was no discussion about the Atlantic Coast in their work, cartoonist and comedians told me that people from the Pacific side could not really relate to the life of people on the Atlantic side or that the coast is so detached from the rest of the country that there is no real ‘demand’ for humor about them and their experiences. The centralization of power on the Pacific coast and the history of conflict between the two sides of the country make the invisibility of race and racism in political humor part of a discourse that defines the Nicaraguan identity as Pacific, Spanish-speaking and Mestizo. Also, if humorists are really to fight against poverty, to ignore the poorest part of the country is to have no real discussion about poverty itself. This was a problem I found in most of Central America which has several indigenous people and people of African descent living on the margins of society. The only country in Central America to have a comedy show directed towards experiences of people of indigenous and African descent was Panama and the show itself (entitled Chombo Visión) outlined the racism that people in the country consistently experienced in a comical way. If the Atlantic coast is constructed as separate or ‘too far away’ or different in political humor then the underdevelopment and neglect of the region will continue to be invisible.

Sexuality
The underlying representation of sexuality in political humor is riddled with hetero-normativity and when it isn’t, it is typically the hypersexual, effeminate gay male character-almost never a lesbian- acting in the show simply for comical relief. There are some cartoonists who absolutely refuse to touch on the topic like Guillén who told me that while “God has taught him to hate the sin but love the sinner” he does not make fun of them because it is “too complicated an issue” to talk about with children. Whatever the representation of sexuality in political humor, unless it is about a love affair among politicians as seen in the work of Honduran cartoonist Napoleon Ham, any non-heterosexual representation is personified by a generally non-threatening, silly, gay man.

The invisibility of these issues has to do with the lack of representation of women, openly queer and non-pacific humorists based in Managua. I do not suggest that voting and seeking for a change in government is not a means of securing some form of social change. However, when humorists maintain silences about the experiences of the most marginalized, oppressed people in society, they participate in the very injustice that they claim to fight against.


El Humor Político Social
Unlike some other Latin American countries where comedians or cartoonists suffered severe persecution when working under authoritarian regimes, the experiences of comedians, actors, playwrights and cartoonists were somewhat different given the fact that the Sandinistas supported Nicaraguan culture. El Humor Político Social is humor that seeks to address some of the social issues mentioned above and often exists through popular theatre movements in Nicaragua. Unlike other countries, Nicaraguan theatre exists on the streets and not necessarily in a traditional “salon” because it is the most accessible to poor people.
In my interview with Els Van Poppel, director of a theatre group MOVITEP-sin fronteras, she told me that during the late 80s, early 90s under Sandinista rule, there were up to 200 theatre groups in Nicaragua and that even the police force had there own popular theatre group. This is because it is under the most difficult circumstances that collective creativity is born. Although there are no longer as many theatre groups, Nicaragua has a very strong tradition of popular theatre. Humor has always been a central part of theatre productions because it would sustain the attention and presence of your audience on the street. Van Poppel described popular theatre as “el teatro que presenta los temas sociales, se trata de lo que vive la gente…con lo que se puede identificar, se hace reflexionar…” (Is theatre that deals with social issues that people live, that people can identify with and that calls for reflection…). Some of the themes that appear are: AIDS/HIV, gender equality, human rights, domestic violence and the sexual exploitation of children. It is within this space that taboo topics get talked about and silences about painful experiences can be broken and shared.
While popular theatre does not have the reach the political humor in the mass media can have, it is an alternative use of political humor that Nicaraguans continue to consume. In previous years, actors had to contend with censorship by the government during the Sandinista revolution as well as opposition from the church when dealing with HIV/AIDS and sex education. Nowadays, the major challenges for popular theatre groups are that they often do not know the impact their work has on the audience. Also, given that they are not doing commercial theatre work, popular theatre groups face economic challenges such as the cost of production and find themselves dependent on donations to fund their shows. This limits their creativity because donators often stipulate the theme of their productions as part of the conditions of funding. Also, while there is some female presence among theatre groups, female members often leave the group once they get married and become housewives. However, for the most part, the popular theatre movement breaks the silences that exist in the mainstream political humor industry and with a little more access and investment could have an even larger impact in the struggle for equality and social change in Nicaragua.

Political Humor and Sexto Sentido
I begun this reflection essay talking about volunteering with a feminist NGO Puntos de Encuentro and in their television program Sexto Sentido they deal with youth issues and talk about sexuality, drug abuse, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, gender and much more. I believe that Sexto Sentido could utilize humor to educate and reach people because it has the access to the media (television and radio) that popular theatre groups do not have.
Some of the strategies I propose to incorporating humor in the show are the following.
1. Understand humor as a project.
This means having specific goals as to why you are using humor in the show. Is it being used as a breather after dealing with a very intense or difficult issue or is it being used as a means of communicating a message? Are you using it just to make people laugh? You can decide as to whether or not you want a certain person to be funny, or if a scenario in and of itself is funny. Also, it is important to be clear as to whether or not a joke is about making an issue visible that is difficult for people to talk about or if it is about changing the audiences mind about an issue.

2. Humor as a form of ‘teatro del choque’
There is always the challenge as to how not to use humor to invert power dynamics and to exclude the ‘oppressor’ by making him the object of ridicule. One of the strategies to avoid this is to take stereotypes and throw it back in the face of the oppressor. Sometimes exaggerating a stereotype and acting it out can break the stereotype itself. Remember that stereotypes are based on some truth taken outside of a context. Try using the stereotype itself outside of context and see what happens.

3. Taboo topics
Sexto Sentido addresses a number of issues that people do not like to talk about and portraying the difficulty about talking about issues especially when it comes on to sex-ed can also be very humorous. Acting out or portraying the lack of vocabulary or discomfort a character may experience around a certain issue can be humorous if done the right way.

Tips as to how to be funny
Before you use humor you always want to be clear about your audience: especially age groups before using it. Once you figure your audience out, here are a couple tips as to how to use some humor in your show:
1. Humor is almost always based on an inherent contradiction. So if you look at a comedy duo, there is always a strange combination of two very different kinds of people that makes them funny. Contradictions in characters or scenarios are simple ways of being funny because contradictions are part of being human. Humor often operates with either a chaotic person living in a ‘normal’ world or a ‘normal’ person living in a chaotic world.
2. If you want to make a dialogue funny, use of language is crucial. Try using one line and repeat it adding something every time you repeat it or taking a word/phrase out of context when you would least expect it. Playing with double meanings on words are clever and subtle ways of being funny, especially when two people misunderstand each other because of the different meanings of a single word or phrase.
3. Going back to an earlier joke after a long period of time.

Remember that a joke works like a small play with a beginning, climax and end and given that you’re doing a television show you have enough time and space to work with a joke. Use that to your advantage.
Using humor in a show like Sexto Sentido means taking risks but it also means making issues of social change more visible and easier for people to talk about. Sexto Sentido bridges a gap between El Humor Político Partidario and El Humor Político Social because it has the access to the public that marginalized people don’t have and has a vision truly dedicated towards speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves. Let Humor be a part of that.