by Linus Trouser

There exists a pervasive belief, a sort of blanket perception in many parts of the world, of Nicaragua and Central America as a whole as a vaguely sinister and dangerous place. In fact, for centuries, from the middle ages on, all things Iberian have been portrayed with an evil tinge.

The stereotype of the foppish but always cruel Spaniard of old carries on from Errol Flynn’s “Captain Blood” to “Zorro” to Johnny Depp’s nemesis in “Pirates of the Carribean.”  When was the last time you saw an English-language movie with a Spanish hero?

Historians trace this perception to two bipolar stories handed down from the past, accepted in the modern conscience but not exactly true- the Black Legend/White Legend. The Black Legend is the blood soaked story of Spanish conquest of Latin America, rife with slaughter and enslavement on a massive scale. The White Legend is the mirror image, the Spanish justification for their actions. It holds that not only did the conquerors introduce advanced culture and religion, but put an end to the human sacrifice and cannibalism central to native cultures in the Americas. The irony is that the cursory image created by the combination of the twin legends is that of sanguinary mayhem.