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This website is designed to be simple & easy to navigate & use. Please let me know if you find any part difficult or counter-intuitive, or if you find any broken links, errors, or anything else that needs fixing. The masthead (top part) of every page contains 28 links, as follows: A. DOCUMENT COLLECTIONS: 10 LINKS. In the far right-hand column are ten links to ten different document collections ("-DOCS"). Each DOCS collection is organized chronologically. These ten links constitute the core of the website. These are like ten big file cabinets, each devoted to a separate type of document, and each organized chronologically. The contents of each of these DOCS collections are described more fully below. B. THEMATIC COLLECTIONS: 10 LINKS. In the left-hand column (just to the left of the DOCS collections) are ten links to thematic document collections (from "Air War" to "Top 100"). Some of this material overlaps with the "DOCS" material, and some of it doesn't. For instance, the Thematic Collection "EAST COAST" contains some PC-Docs, some M-Docs, etc. So yes, it overlaps with the DOCS collection to a degree. But there's also a lot of material housed in the EAST COAST pages that appears nowhere else. Same with the HONDURAS pages. Lots of M-Docs deal with Honduras, for instance. PC-Docs too. I try to reference all this material on the HONDURAS pages. But there's also a lot of material in the HONDURAS pages that appears only there. You'll need to explore, experiment, and figure it out for yourself. The Google search engine should help. TIP: In order to read all the documents relating to any given period or date (say, August 1928), one needs to consult all ten DOCS-collections and most of the Thematic Collections. C. ADMINISTRATIVE (or OTHER): 7 LINKS. The horizontal navigation bar at the bottom of the masthead contains links that might be described as "administrative" or "other"-- like this User's Guide -- along with "Bib & Lit," "Curricula," etc. D. HOMEPAGE: 1 LINK. The masthead also includes a link to the site's homepage and a Google search engine to search throughout the site. That makes 28 links on every page, plus an internal Google search engine. Before looking at these collections and links in greater detail, let me summarize the citation conventions and abbreviations used here. Citation Conventions & Abbreviations Each individual document on this website can be identified by a unique alphanumeric code that follows a simple convention: [DOCUMENT TYPE][YEAR.MONTH.DAY]. For example, PC28.05.17 means "Patrol and Combat Report, 17 May 1928." M29.11.30 means "Miscellaneous Intelligence Report, 30 November 1929." In other words, simply take the "Docs" off the document type, put it in front of the date, and you've identified the document. When there are two or more documents of the same type with the same date, the documents are distinguished with lowercase letters tagged on at the end (for example, PC28.05.17a, PC28.05.17b, etc.) Altogether around two-thirds of this material comes from the Records of the United States Marine Corps, housed mainly in the US National Archives (Record Group 127, or RG127), comprising about 150 linear feet of files. The citation convention for this material is as follows: [US National Archives & Records Administration, Record Group Number] / [Entry Number] / [Box Number] / [File Number, if applicable]. So: a document whose source is cited as RG127/206/12 refers to the US National Archives, Record Group 127, Entry 206, Box 12. Other abbreviations used on this Website include: AB - Alejandro Bendaña, La mística de Sandino (1994) ANN - Archivos Nacionales de Nicaragua, Managua (Nicaraguan National Archives) ASG - Anastasio Somoza García's book, El verdadero Sandino (1936) HNRD - Hemeroteca Nacional Rubén Darío, Managua (National newspaper repository) GCSN - General Correspondence of the Secretary of the Navy, 1925-40, RG 80, US National Archives GN - Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua (Nicaraguan National Guard) LOC - Library of Congress, Washington D.C. MCRC - Marine Corps Research Center, Quantico VA NYT - The New York Times PV1 & PV2 - Sandino's collected writings, in Sergio Ramírez, ed., Augusto C. Sandino, el pensamiento vivo, 2 vols., Managua, 1984 REC - Robert E. Conrad's book, Sandino: Testimony of a Nicaraguan Patriot, Princeton Univ. Press, 1990 RG - "Record Group" in the US National Archives, Washington D.C. SELSER1 & 2 - Gregorio Selser, Sandino, general de hombres libres, 2 vols., Buenos Aires, 1958. USDS - United States Department of State. Usually cited using their decimal file system: e.g., USDS 817.00/6634; for a full list of relevant State Dept records see Bib & Lit. USMC - United States Marine Corps. USNA1 & USNA2 - The first (USNA1) is the United States National Archives in downtown Washington D.C. (where the original Constitution & Declaration of Independence are, a magnificent old building). The second (USNA2) is the overflow building they built a few years back -- Archives II in College Park, MD. WCS - Walter C. Sandino, El libro de Sandino: El Bandolerismo de Sandino en Nicaragua (Managua: INPASA, 2009). With these conventions and abbreviations in mind, let us look at each of these 28 links in a little more detail, starting with the core of the website: the DOCUMENT ("DOCS") collections. A. DOCUMENT (DOCS) COLLECTIONS 1. EDSN-DOCS "EDSN" stands for Ejército
Defensor de la Soberanía Nacional de Nicaragua, or
Defending Army of Nicaraguan National Sovereignty -- the
official name of Sandino's politico-military
organization. At present these pages list every
known extant document produced by (or sent to, or seized
from) members of the EDSN — around 1,340 individual
documents at last count. This includes everything
already published elsewhere, as well as more than 900
hitherto unpublished documents — letters, orders,
diaries, warnings, prayers, poems, songs, sketches,
lists — most seized from dead or captured rebels or
camps. Right now about 242 are published here for
the first time. This extraordinary cache of
material (comprising around 2,000 pages) is
probably the most historically significant collection of
documents on this Website. 2. IES-DOCS "IES" stands
for Instituto de Estudio del Sandinismo, or
Institute of Sandino-ism Studies. This collection
includes 82 oral testimonies of elderly Sandinistas,
most produced in the early 1980s by the IES (a branch of
the Sandinista Ministry of Culture based in Managua) as
part of a state-sponsored memory project. An
extraordinary collection, fraught with interpretive
issues, and probably the single most important primary
source on the Sandino rebellion produced since the 1930s
(around 1,000 pages of original documents). 3. IR-DOCS "IR" stands for
"Intelligence Reports" -- in this case, serial
intelligence reports that followed a standardized format
and were produced in the capitals of the military
"Areas" that the Marines & Guardia devised early in the
war: the Northern Area (most of Las
Segovias with its capital at Ocotal), the Central
Area (the Jinotega highlands, with its capital at
the city of Jinotega), the Eastern Area (the
Atlantic or East Coast region, with its capital at
Bluefields), and the Southern Area (most of the
rest of Western Nicaragua, with its capital in Managua).
These serial intelligence reports were produced on a
weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis and distributed to
intelligence officers across Nicaragua — variously
designated the Bn-2, B-2, R-2, and GN-2 Intelligence
Reports (around 1,600 pages). 4. M-DOCS "M" stands for
"Miscellaneous" and is a catch-all category for
Marine-Guardia reports of various kinds that don't
readily fall into any other category. Into the "M-DOCS"
category I've slotted everything having to do with
intelligence that is not from air patrols, not from
ground patrols, and not from serial intelligence
reports, the State Department, or elsewhere. There
is an enormous amount of valuable information here
(about 2,000 pages of original documents and could grow
by thousands). 5. NEWS-DOCS "NEWS" stands for "Newspapers" and is shorthand for various types of journalistic accounts on this topic -- mainly Nicaraguan and US newspapers, but also some Honduran, Mexican, Costa Rican, Argentine, Peruvian, Spanish, German, and others, as well as magazine articles and other types of publications intended for mass circulation (over 1,200 digital images & will grow by hundreds & perhaps thousands). 6. PC-DOCS "PC" stands for
"Patrol & Combat Reports." These 1,000-plus
reports tell an incredible story of the quotidian,
spontaneous interactions of Segovianos and Marines, and
paint an exceptionally fine-grained portrait of the
messiness, confusion, and complexity of the guerrilla
war, social revolution, and regional civil war that was
the Sandino Rebellion. There is some astonishing
information here (over 2,400 pages at last count).
Right now the first 125 patrol & combat reports are
published here, taking events to June 1928. 7. PHOTO-DOCS "PHOTO" stands for "Photographs" and is shorthand for all kinds of visual images -- not only photographs but engravings, etchings, sketches, maps, and others, from a wide variety of sources: the US National Archives, the Marine Corps Research Center, the Library of Congress, the Instituto de Historia de Nicaragua y Centroamérica in Managua, newspapers & magazines, and private collections. More than 1,000 visual images. 8. RAC-DOCS "RAC" stands for "Rockefeller Archive Center" in Sleepy Hollow, NY, the repository for the records of the Rockefeller Foundation," the New York-based philanthropic organization that carried out a series of public health campaigns in Nicaragua from the mid-1910s through the 1930s. I wish to thank the Rockefeller Archive Center for its generous Grant-in-Aid that allowed me to work in its archives in January 2006. I learned a great deal about the Foundation's public health initiatives in Nicaragua, and about social and public health conditions in various parts of the country, including Las Segovias. The Rockefeller Archive Center's "Rules Governing the Use of Manuscripts" stipulate that only the Archive Center can authorize the publication of materials from its archives. I'll ask soon. There is some fascinating information here, about 500 pages. 9. USDS-DOCS "USDS" stands for "United States Department of State," which is another catch-all category that includes a dazzling variety of materials -- not only consular reports, but letters from Nicaraguans, newspaper clippings, photographs, and all kinds of other things. At least 3,000 pages of original documents. (See Bib & Lit page for listing of the various State Department record collections relevant to this topic.) 10. USMC-DOCS "USMC" stands for "United States Marine Corps"; the USMC-Docs Homepage will offer links to a wide variety of material having to do with the Marines -- including materials from the Marine Corps Research Center (MCRC) in Quantico VA, the Library of Congress, and other repositories. At least 1,000 pages unpublished primary documents.
B. THEMATIC COLLECTIONS 11. AIR WAR A smaller collection on this specific aspect of the war; mostly completed, as a documentary annex to my article, "Social Memory and Tactical Doctrine" (International History Review, Sept. 2007) focusing on the air war (about 150 documents). 12. CONTACTS "Contacts" is Marine Corps-speak for military engagements, or battles. More specifically, a "contact" refers to an armed encounter between two opposing hostile ground forces in which shots were fired by both sides. A "contact" could thus last from several seconds to several hours. (The category thus excludes the hundreds of cases in which the Marines & Guardia shot at people running away from them, shot prisoners "attempting to escape," etc.; it also excludes "air war contacts" -- i.e., military encounters between air and ground forces; these are included under "Air War".) The "Official List of Contacts" (produced by the Marines & Guardia at the end of the war) lists 510 such contacts. My own list approaches 740. These pages map out in time & space as many of these 740 military encounters as possible, along with statistical data derived from the original combat & patrol reports. 13. EAST COAST "East Coast" is shorthand for the Atlantic Coast region of Nicaragua, which had (and has) a history and culture very different than the rest of Western or Spanish-speaking Nicaragua. The Sandino rebellion found its organic social base in the mountains of Las Segovias, the north-central region of Spanish-speaking Western Nicaragua bordering Honduras. But a significant amount of rebel activity and Marine-Guardia actions took place in the Atlantic Coast region. The pages provide a place to organize material having to do with the Sandino rebellion in the region of the Atlantic Coast. 14. EDSN "EDSN" as we've seen stands for Ejército Defensor de la Soberanía Nacional de Nicaragua, or Defending Army of Nicaraguan National Sovereignty. This is the homepage for a sprawling collection of documentary references to Sandinista activities, jefes (chieftains), internal squabbles, motivating ideology, and related topics having to do with the EDSN. 15. GANGS "Gangs" is shorthand for the non-Sandinista, non-Guardia, non-Marine violence-producing groups that abounded in Las Segovias in the wake of the 1926-27 Civil War -- outlaws, bandits, and especially political gangs acting in the service of powerful political patrons. "Gangs" is thus shorthand for local-regional caudillismo and the political culture of violence-making. This specialized collection focuses in particular on the gruesome actions of Chamorrista gang leader Anastasio Hernández and his Conservative patrons in Ocotal. It also examines cases in and around La Trinidad, Estelí, Sébaco, El Jicaral, and other places. Sources include newspaper accounts, State Department records, affidavits of surviving victims, and other documents dealing with the topic, but based mostly on RG127 (200 or so pages of primary documents). 16. GUARDIA "Guardia" is shorthand for "Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua," the ostensibly "non-partisan constabulary" created in the May 4, 1927 Espino Negro Accord (or Treaty of Tipitapa) that ended the Civil War or Constitutionalist War of 1926-27. These pages are envisioned as a repository for all kinds of information relating to the GNN. 17. HONDURAS "Honduras" is shorthand for not only Honduras but the borderlands region of Western Honduras and the Nicaraguan Segovias -- basically the borderlands zone stretching from Somotillo in the southwest to Cifuentes and Jalapa in the northeast. These pages are envisioned as a repository for all kinds of reports and documents relating to Honduran and borderlands society, culture, politics, and history. 18. PEDRÓN "Pedrón" is shorthand for (and the nickname of) EDSN General Pedro Altamirano -- a fascinating figure who definitely merits his own set of pages. Pedrón was unique. God-fearing and utterly ruthless. A simple man and one of the canniest, shrewdest, and successful of rebel chieftains in all of Latin American history. The Marines & Guardia considered him the most dangerous of all jefes after Sandino. He was also the only rebel chieftain to remain in rebellion after Sandino's assassination in February 1934. Remarkably, he and a handful of followers held out until 1937, when he was betrayed and killed. My next book (after The Sandino Rebellion) will be a political & military & cultural biography of Pedrón. These pages are devoted to puzzling out who he was, what he did, and how his legacy reverberated across space and time. 19. PEOPLE "People" is shorthand for, well, people -- individuals who merit special attention as key players in this social revolutionary drama. 20. TOP 100 "Top 100" is shorthand for the cream of the intelligence-crop: what struck me as among the most illuminating documents produced by non-Sandinistas that offer insight into the rebels' beliefs, moral codes, values, and practices, and the cultural, social, and political landscape of Las Segovias, Nicaragua, and Central America during this period. These Top 100 were culled from the records of the US Marines and Nicaraguan National Guard (RG127), but also from the Nicaraguan National Archives, newspapers, State Department reports, and elsewhere.
C. ADMINISTRATIVE (OR 'OTHER') LINKS 21. BIB & LIT "Bibliography & Literature" on the Sandino rebellion, and more broadly on the golden age of US imperialism in the circum-Caribbean. Envisioned as a comprehensive list of all substantial published & unpublished works on the topic, with many (soon) available via .pdf files and external links. 22. CURRICULA K-12 and College-Level Curricular Guides for teachers and professors who want to use the materials on this Website but would like a little help on what to use and interpreting what they see. 23. READERS' FORUM A space for questions, comments, insights, reflections, observations, interpretations, ruminations, informed speculations, educated guesses & mediated open dialogue among & between folks who have something they want to say or ask about this topic or website. 24. SITE MAP Every self-respecting website has a site map. When I learn how to build one, it'll be here. 25. USER'S GUIDE You are here. 26. CONTACT US My contact information and curriculum vitae, which includes links to my published (and some of my unpublished) material on this topic. 27. ENGLISH / ESPAÑOL Will eventually serve as a toggle between English and Spanish versions of the Website. The goal is to make the site fully accessible to non-English speakers & readers. In other words, 20,000 pages of documents -- times two.
D. HOMEPAGE LINK & A GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE Pretty self-explanatory. A great way to find stuff & also find your way back home.
And that, in a nutshell, is what's in this Website and how to use it. Please contact me if you run into any broken links or obvious errors or something that needs clarifying or anything else that's amiss. Aproveche.
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