ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the extraordinarily harsh conditions indigenous women experienced in combat. It looks at the physical conditions in combat, gender equality issues, their attachments to and fears for their ethnic communities, and their youth, as many women who fought were children when they joined, or were forced to join, the resistance. In this chapter, we assess the images indigenous combatants from the Atlantic Coast had of the Sandinistas before, during, and after the Contra war; we look at their identity as children rather than adult female combatants and how these identities evolved into adulthood and into their roles as wives and mothers as the conflict extended. Additionally, we explore the roles of ideology, self-determination, and alliance to their core indigenous and ethnic rather than national identity in their decision to join the Resistance.
