"Viva!"  

     The Siege at the house of

     Chema Castillo

     the story of a revolution

     told in three parts by       

A young women pauses on the steps of an airliner.  She raises a machine gun and announces to the TV cameras, "We are not supermen, we are mothers of children, nurses, peasants, whose lives sum up all the exploitation of our people."

"Viva!" covers much more than a people's struggle for freedom.  It is the story of love and revolution within a family.

The Villanueva family:

The father, Rodrigues.  Wealthy, conservative, naturally supports the Somoza regime.

The mother, Olivia.  Once bohemian and artistic, rejected by her husband after the caesarean birth of her second son, Rafael, leaves her sterile. 

The brothers,

- Older brother, Miguel.  Right-hand man in his father's business.  Intuitively supports Somoza, loves the high life, jealous of Rafael's girlfriend.

- Younger brother, Rafael.  Poet and intellectual, university student, in love with Julia.

Book One opens

Sandinista guerrillas have stormed the house of President Somoza's chief minister, Chema Castillo.  Thirty-four people from Managua's richest families are taken hostage.  Among the assault team of teenagers is Rafael, now an experienced fighter, known only by his nom-de-guerre, the Poet.

1967, before Rafael became a Sandinista: His two best friends from university, Sergio and Anna have been killed, along with 600 other men and women, by Somoza's National Guard at an anti-government rally.  Witnessing this fundamentally changes him, his relationship with his parents and with Julia.  Marxist friend, Daniel, persuades him that the only way to oust the brutal dictator, Anastasio Somoza is by public insurrection.

The revolution will need money so Daniel proposes to rob a bank.  Rafael is against it but is implicated by association when Daniel is arrested.  He knows that, like Daniel, he will be imprisoned and tortured.  He must flee.  He takes Julia to his father's villa and tells her he will join the guerrillas in the north.  They make love for the first time and they swear fidelity.

So begins Rafael's life as an outlaw.  His father disowns him and makes his mother promise never to speak of him.  His brother,Miguel, sees his opportunity to move in on Julia. 

Rafael's guerrilla column is routed and Rafael is seriously wounded.  He would have died but for a peasant family who shelter him – even though the National Guard is ransacking farms and massacring thousands around them.  Recovered enough Rafael returns to an underground Sandinista group in Managua.  But each week another activist is arrested or killed. 

Olivia learns that her son is back and meets him, with Julia, at the villa.   They can't accept his dream of an armed insurrection that could leave him and thousands like him dead and Julia is torn between her love for the passionate Rafael and the security that Miguel can offer.

© 2004 Peter Edington

"Viva!" is a work of fiction.  With the exception of obvious historical characters, none of the characters in it should be identified with any person, living or dead.