by Zac Clemens

How does the name of a man who, while his “army” at times consisted of little more than a few hundred machete-wielding peasants, a man who first proclaimed himself as Caesar, then as the reincarnation of Christ, then as God himself, live on? A man who further proclaimed end-of-the-world prophecies with himself at their core, but was often penniless? What captured the imagination and explains his longevity?

His legacy lived on because the goal of Sandino’s self-proclaimed mission was far greater than that of the usual revolutionary. While it is true that Sandino was engaged in a war of national liberation, it is also true that not every liberation movement has promised eternal, spiritual and earthly salvation, nor claimed to carry out the work of God. Nor has every revolutionary leader claimed to be God incarnate. Sandino’s goal was not simply to rid his country of foreign intervention and reduce social injustices, but a wider-ranging one. This is precisely what sets the name Sandino apart from so many names with which he is often classified.