"It has been a tradition that each JV community has a house/casa name. The houses are typically named after a person from each local community who has been influential in the local culture(s) and/or who has raised awareness around the social justice issues relevant to shaping that locale... The hope is that the JV community names will be one way to draw JVs into an exploration of the local cultural context where they will be living, to learn how the name is significant from the perspective of their hosts, and to carry that meaning as a fire burning for justice wherever they go beyond their 2-3 years of service in that locale.
NICARAGUA - Ciudad Sandino
Name: Casa Cardenal
Casa Cardenal is named in honor of two modern-day saints of Nicaragua and champions of liberation theology: brothers Ernesto and Fernando Cardenal. Ernesto Cardenal, a diocesan priest who studied under Thomas Merton, is known as one of the preeminent poets in Nicaraguan history. He founded an art community in the Solentiname Islands, where he worked for twelve years. Soon after leaving the islands, he was named Minister of Culture for the new Sandinista Regime in the wake of the Nicaraguan Revolution. Here he served for eight years, during which he was infamously scolded by Pope John Paul II for not obeying the request that he resign from his role in the government. Currently, Ernesto Cardenal still lives in Nicaragua where he stays busy writing poetry and promoting Nicaragua culture.
Fernando Cardenal, SJ, became a Jesuit priest in 1969 and moved to Medellin, Colombia for his first apostolate. It was there, living surrounded by people in abject poverty, that he says he found direction and he vowed to dedicate his life to "the liberation of the poor and to the struggle for justice." In 1979, Cardenal was named Minister of Education for Nicaragua and led the country in its famed literacy campaign, which ultimately earned UNESCO's 1980 Literacy Award for raising literacy from 49 percent to 87 percent. Like his brother, Ernesto, Fernando was scolded - though not as publicly as Ernesto, and by the Society of Jesus rather than the Vatican - for his role as an ordained clergy member serving in the government. He was expelled from the Jesuits for his lack of obedience, but eventually readmitted to the Society. Today, Fernando Cardenal works as a Jesuit priest and as the Director of Fe y Alegria in Nicaragua, a Catholic, popular-education network that has schools around the country, including three in Ciudad Sandino which host JVs."
At the link below, please find a recent, moving talk by Fernando Cardenal, SJ, the founder and current director of the Fe y Alegria network of schools in Nicaragua aimed at popular-education, in which I will be working with JVC. He shares stories about his life and work relating to the Nicaraguan Revolution.
Although the lecture is lengthy, I would recommend watching even just 20 minutes of it. I was moved to tears, laughed, and encouraged to reflect on his and other Nicaraguans' dedication to "the liberation of the poor and to the struggle for justice." The name of our JV community house in Ciudad Sandino is Casa Cardenal.
