Nicaragua FAMILY
New health clinic in Matagalpa
Courtesy Nina Serafino
Equestrian parade in Managua
Courtesy Nicaraguan Tourism Institute
In the 1990s, traditional Hispanic kinship patterns,
common
to most of Latin America, continued to shape family life
in
Nicaragua. The nuclear family forms the basis of family
structure, but relationships with the extended family and
godparents are strong and influence many aspects of
Nicaraguan
life. Because few other institutions in the society have
proved
as stable and enduring, family and kinship play a powerful
role
in the social, economic, and political relations of
Nicaraguans.
Social prestige, economic ties, and political alignments
frequently follow kinship lines. Through the
compadrazgo
(see Glossary)
system (the set of relationships between a
child's
parents and his or her godparents), persons unrelated by
blood or
marriage establish bonds of ritual kinship that are also
important for the individual in the society at large.
Nicaraguan institutions, from banks to political
parties,
have traditionally been weak and more reflective of family
loyalties and personal ties than broader institutional
goals and
values. For several decades prior to 1979, the Nicaraguan
state
was scarcely differentiated from the Somoza family. Family
ties
played a diminished but still critical role in the
politics of
the 1980s and early 1990s. The Roman Catholic Church,
which,
until recently, had little or no presence in the
countryside,
still does not touch the lives of most Nicaraguans. To
survive in
a country whose history is replete with war, political
conflict,
and economic upheaval, Nicaraguans turn to the one
institution
they feel they can trust--the family. As a result,
individuals
are judged on the basis of family reputations, careers are
advanced through family ties, and little stigma is
attached to
the use of institutional position to advance the interests
of
relatives. For both men and women, loyalty to blood kin is
frequently stronger than those of marriage.
Most Nicaraguan families are built around conjugal
units.
Outside of the upper and middle classes, however,
relatively few
couples formalize their marriages through the church or
state.
Legislation passed in the 1980s recognized this situation
by
giving common-law unions the same legal status as civil
marriages. Although stable monogamous unions and strong
patriarchal authority at home are deeply ingrained
cultural
ideals, at least a third of Nicaraguan families were
headed by
women in the 1980s. Among urban households, this
proportion is
even higher.
Because of high fertility and the presence of relatives
beyond the nuclear family, households are large--six to
eight
people are common. The Nicaraguan household is typically
augmented by the presence of a grandparent, an aunt or
uncle, an
orphaned relative, a poor godchild, or a daughter with
children
of her own. Newly married couples sometimes take up
residence in
the home of one of the parental families. In the
countryside,
peasants feel that a large number of children helps them
meet
their everyday labor needs and provides for their own
security in
old age. Families are smaller in the city, but housing
shortages
and low incomes encourage the urban poor to create
expanded
households that can share shelter and pool resources.
Both traditional values and practical considerations
support
the maintenance of strong ties with a large kinship
network
outside the household. Nicaraguans maintain ties with kin
of the
same generation, which may extend to fourth or fifth
cousins.
Peasant patriarchs build rural clans by accumulating small
parcels of land near their own land for the families of
sons and
daughters. City people of all classes look to relatives
for jobs
and other forms of economic assistance. In times of
economic
crisis, the survival strategies of the urban poor often
center on
mutual assistance among kin.
Like other Nicaraguans, members of the upper class
maintain
relations with extensive numbers of kin. In addition to
these
"horizontal" ties, however, they place special emphasis on
"vertical" descent. Upper-class Nicaraguans are much more
likely
than their compatriots to be aware of ancestors more than
two
generations removed from the present. This tendency is
supported
by shared family fortunes, which have been passed from
generation
to generation, and by the prominence of historical
surnames
rooted in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Through the institution of compadrazgo, the
attributes
of kinship are extended to those not related by blood or
marriage. When an infant is baptized, the parents choose a
godfather (padrino) and godmother (madrina)
for
their child. This practice is common to Roman Catholics
around
the world, but in Nicaragua and many other Latin American
countries, it assumes a broader social significance.
Compadrazgo establishes relationships similar to
those of
actual kinship not only between the child and the
godparents, but
also between the parents and the godparents. The latter
relationships are recognized through the use of
compadre
and comadre (literally, co-father and co-mother) as
reciprocal terms of address between the child's parents
and
godparents. The godparents are responsible for the baptism
ceremony and the festivities afterward. They are also
expected to
concern themselves with the welfare of the child and his
or her
family, and come to their aid in times of hardship.
Godparents are typically trusted friends of the
parents.
However, lower-class families (for whom the
compadrazgo
has the greatest significance) often chose godparents of
superior
economic, political, or social status, who are in a
position to
help the child in the future. Large landowners, affluent
businesspeople, government officials, and political
leaders may
become godfathers to the children of social inferiors in
order to
build up a system of personal loyalties. In such cases,
compadrazgo becomes the basis of a network of
patronclient relationships.
Data as of December 1993
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