Gioconda Belli

Nicaraguan poet-revolutionary blending erotic feminism with Sandinista politics

Gioconda Belli (b.1948) redefined revolutionary art through works like The Country Under My Skin, a memoir merging guerrilla warfare accounts with radical feminist theology. Her controversial acts:

• Wrote erotic poetry as FSLN covert operative (1970s)
• Designed the Sandinista literacy campaign's gender curriculum
• Founded Central America's first post-revolution queer literary journal (Carátula)

Belli's poem 'Blood' became anti-Somoza resistance anthem, while her novel The Inhabited Woman (1988) pioneered magical realism from female perspective. After criticizing Daniel Ortega's authoritarian turn, she now leads PEN Nicaragua protecting jailed writers.

Her latest innovation? The 'Poetry Pharmacy' project prescribing verse as mental health treatment in conflict zones. UNESCO recently added her archives to Memory of the World Register.