Character as Destiny: the Sandinista Novel by Salomón de la Selva

Abstract

La guerra de Sandino o Pueblo desnudo (1985), a novel by Salomón de la Selva (1893-1959), was published posthumously at a time when the author’s name was beginning to fade from the Latin American literary canon, a trend that has only intensified over the past decades. The digital reissue of the book, in 2023, inspires a renewed analysis of the literary value De la Selva, better known as a poet, invested in one of his few ventures into narrative prose. This article offers a reading of the ways in which La guerra de Sandino o Pueblo desnudo conceives of individual and collective character as a determining force of historical destiny, in dialogue with the course of the Sandinista insurgency and the Nicaraguan sociopolitical reality, while arguing that its nature as an unfinished social novel contradicts its frequent characterization as a short novel.