Los Restos De La Revolución by Kevin Kunishi

Issue 30

In 1979, after over a decade of struggle, the socialist Sandinista movement in Nicaragua overthrew the famously corrupt dictator, Anastasio Somoza. The Sandinistas quickly began the work of applying their social and ideological values in the hopes of creating a better Nicaragua.

Unfortunately, the United States government had other plans. In the cold war environment of the 1980s, the prospect of a socialist/communist government gaining a foothold in Central America was deemed unacceptable. Under the Reagan Doctrine, the CIA began financing, arming and training a clandestine rebel insurgency to destabilize the government. These anti-Sandinista guerillas became known as the contras.

Between 1980 and 1990, Nicaragua would become the battleground of sharply conflicting political ideologies; the promise of a better future lost as the nation quickly descended into civil war. Los Restos de la Revolucion is an exploration of the aftermath of that conflict. The series of images shown here consist of portraits of former Sandinistas and their opposing Contra veterans, as well as artifacts and landscapes significant to that volatile era.

Although these two sides held extremely different political ideologies both in their foundation and practice, they are united by the burdens and costs of war that both sides continue to share. Twenty years later, as political ideologies evolve, dilute, or disappear, the remnants of war remain. Los Restos de la Revoluciòn will be published in 2012 by Daylight Books.

Kevin Kunishi is a San Francisco, CA based artist.
To view more of Kevin's work, please visit his website