Alexis Arguello http://www.spanishclassesonline.biz/ I took this photo in October of 2009 at nearly the beginning of the homesteading rush in the yet unnamed Alexis Arguello barrio on the outskirts of Estelí, Nicaragua. This was once vacant scrub land that the owners were not using for farming or raising livestock. It was unproductive land waiting to be used.
After the successful conclusion of the revolutionary war in 1979 the new Sandinista government wrote into their new constitution a provision that gave unproductive land over to the landless peasants to build houses for their families. First dozens, then hundreds and eventually thousands of homesteaders flooded into the area to claim their government offered prize.
A village sprung up like spring flowers on a warm spring day. It was hard for the settlers because there was no water or sewers or electricity. In a matter of months the new inhabitants stripped the land bare of brush and trees as they burnt them to cook their meals over open camp fires.
Notice the line of rocks on the bare ground. They denote the property boundaries until the surveyors came in to parcel out the land legally and give them lot numbers.
This is a benevolent government at work helping the numberless poor get a better start in life.
http://www.spanishconversation.net/
After the successful conclusion of the revolutionary war in 1979 the new Sandinista government wrote into their new constitution a provision that gave unproductive land over to the landless peasants to build houses for their families. First dozens, then hundreds and eventually thousands of homesteaders flooded into the area to claim their government offered prize.
A village sprung up like spring flowers on a warm spring day. It was hard for the settlers because there was no water or sewers or electricity. In a matter of months the new inhabitants stripped the land bare of brush and trees as they burnt them to cook their meals over open camp fires.
Notice the line of rocks on the bare ground. They denote the property boundaries until the surveyors came in to parcel out the land legally and give them lot numbers.
This is a benevolent government at work helping the numberless poor get a better start in life.
http://www.spanishconversation.net/
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