ABSTRACT
During the past ten years, five factors have been significant in re-shaping the ethnic identity 1 of the populations of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. They are: the development of a network, now worldwide, of indigenous and indigenist 2 advocacy groups; the success of the Sandinista revolution in July 1979; the decision by the United States to use Indian aspirations for self-determination as part of its effort to overthrow the Sandinistas; the experience of migration and exile for some coastal people; and the changes in Sandinista policy that led to the present autonomy law for the Atlantic Coast. Each of these, in its way, constituted a pressure, an obstacle, or a stimulus, as well as a context in which self-conscious reflections on identity took place. These reflections were partially conjunctural statements made in the face of specific political challenges. They were also responses to general curiosity as to the nature of coastal people’s participation in events that received wide publicity. As such, they are part of an ongoing process of emerging ethnic identity.
